Outdoor Art Festival headliner has played with Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs

By Jeff Shepherd
SPECIAL TO THE BEACON

posted Mar 24, 2009 - 10:50:28pm

"It's my life experience that comes out in my music," Bob Rafkin said.

That experience cuts a wide swath of places and times, collaborators and audiences, including a performance on one of the most famous of stages.

"Very prestigious," is how Rafkin recalls his appearance at New York's Carnegie Hall.

For him, though, it all boils down to his guitar and the music.

"Once you're up there and the lights are on, you can't see anything. It's kind of like, 'This is it, huh?'" Rafkin said during a phone interview. "It's the life that I've chosen."

If experience stirs his music, then his music is a rich brew. Born in New York City, Rafkin grew up in Washington D.C., Cleveland and Philadelphia, according to his Web site www.bobrafkin.com. It was mid-1960s Greenwich Village when he met folk singers Phil Ochs and Eric Andersen, and Eric Jacobsen. Jacobsen was the producer for the Lovin' Spoonful. Rafkin's Web site also says he played guitar on, and contributed musical arrangements to, Eric Andersen's 1968 album More Hits From Tin Can Alley on Vanguard Records.

Andersen and Ochs (who died in 1976) are internationally renowned artists, each contributing his own pages to the anthology of American music.

From the hotbed of underground folk/rock culture of Greenwich Village during the late 1960s, Rafkin moved along with some of his contemporaries to San Francisco. It was the center of the universe for the new music and culture of the day.

"I was at Haight-Ashbury during the hippie days," Rafkin said. "We used to go to the ballrooms and listen to Janis Joplin, Jimi [Hendrix], and Jefferson Airplane."

In the ensuing years, Rafkin plied his trade primarily as a session guitarist for the likes of Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman in Los Angeles. Then, in the 1990s, he moved to Central Florida to accommodate a step in his wife's career as a TV producer. She went to work for Nickelodeon in Orlando.

West Volusians will soon get a chance to experience the Rafkin experience! He will perform his original brand of finger-style guitar, blues-laced, Latin-flavored, rock and folk vocal music at the DeLand Outdoor Art Festival. Be there to see his show on the stage at Earl Brown Park at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 29.

"I am looking forward to it," Rafkin said.

More on Amelia Sage

I reported on Amelia Sage, a Stetson University-based quintet of musicians, in this column during the summer of 2008. Their popularity is undeniable. They have been performing regularly in venues all around Volusia County and beyond. The group just released a brand-new CD, Amelia Sage.

The artwork for the CD cover was done by Sarah Isley. As for significance of the cover art, it ties in with the song "Careful What You Wish For" and the old adage "If you pray for rain, you better bring an umbrella."

The CD is available, along with shirts and stickers, at any of the band's shows. It is also available through online retailers such as iTunes and Amazon.

"Keyboard player and vocalist Robbie Carelli joined the band in late October, recorded the album with us, and has been playing with us ever since," Turner Swann, the group's bass player, said.

Amelia Sage signed to a new independent music label called Caravan Records.

"We are stoked to have our first full-length album available and are thankful for the people who have come out to shows to support us. We encourage those who haven't to come out to hear us live and pick up an album," Swann said.

Amelia Sage is looking to book area shows for the coming months. They are scheduled to play some out-of-state shows the week of May 17, including shows in Greensboro, N.C., and Milwaukee.

Amelia Sage appearances:

Saturday, April 4, 7 p.m.

Coffee Bistro 101

101 N. Woodland Blvd., DeLand

Sunday, April 5, 4 p.m.

First United Methodist Church

115 E. Howry Ave., DeLand

Amelia Sage personnel:

Danny Infield - vocals/guitar/keyboard

Parker Chapman - guitar/vocals

Robbie Carelli - keyboard/vocals

Turner Swann - bass

Angelo Sanchez - drums

— Shepherd is a professional musician and music teacher. Send e-mail for him to shepz@mpinet.net.

— shepz@mpinet.net

Comment on this article

Commenting is closed for this article.

If you would like to contribute a letter to the editor, please click here.

Did you find this story interesting or informative? Subscribe to The DeLand-Deltona Beacon to read more stories by Jeff Shepherd, along with others from our award-winning writers. Subscribe now!