Dylan Black

Dylan Black Project

Also appearing in the July 20 edition of the Sonoma Index Tribune.

The Dylan Black Project plays the Funky Fridays event at Hood Mansion Friday, June 20, with a 7pm showtime.  They have played this event several times, and Terry Sanders says, “Bill and Linda are why we love playing Funky Fridays!”  

Bill Myers and Linda Pavlak are the people who created and produce the Funky Fridays event, and run it with their enthusiastic and personable style.  Terry Sanders is the leader of the Dylan Black Project. 

Sanders and his band had been successfully playing the in the Bay Area for many years when a real sour chord hit them hard.  Sanders lost all his musical equipment in the Fires.

Sanders, ironically enough, is an Oakland Fire Fighter / Paramedic. While driving home that fateful Sunday back in October, he saw local counterparts doing something he considered to be foolhardy.  “I made fun of the fire fighters outside the house because they were blowing the leaves on a super windy day.”

Little did anybody know that those winds would lead to a series of major fires in the area.

Sanders woke up during the night and moved his sleeping family into the front of their house, fearing that the wind might topple a nearby tree.  By 1 am, his wife Debra was grabbing their important papers, and he was grabbing their son.  They bolted, as the orange sky was just too close by.

They moved from parking lot to parking lot, trying to stay ahead of the flames. They ended up in a stranger’s home in the SRJC neighborhood, watching TV and seeing their own neighborhood burn down.

Sanders also sent hours helping others to safety.  He and a friend went up the hill to Varenna at Fountaingrove and assisted with their evacuation efforts. He and his friend Lou Ratto delivered a water tanker to Calistoga to protect five rural homes. He also looked for stray cats.

Months later, his band is back at it, using a bunch of new gear.  His favorite guitars lost, they have been replaced by donated models. Loud and Clear Music in Cotati gave him a guitar.  “A retired cop in LA made a guitar, and gave it to me,” says Sanders.  Two Rock Amplifiers of Rohnert Park gave him a new amp.

The Funky Friday show by the DBP will showcase some excellent band work.  Not one to exaggerate, Sanders did say, “Our musicianship in incredible.” The band features Sanders on guitars and vocals, Greg Saunders on drums, bass player Elmar Kurgpold, and Steve Seydler on keys.

The band plays mostly original songs, and Sanders will sing a new composition called “Sonoma
Shine”, written after the fires.  They play some familiar covers, as well. He teases with the promise of them performing a “…Deep Purple to Beatles mashup.”

Of the band, Sanders says, “We are a big stage band, that’s where we shine. But we also like to maintain intimacy with the crowd, communicate with the crowd, and entertain.”

The name of the band comes from Jimi Hendrix and his early days in the “Jimmy James and the Blue Flames” band.  While touring in England, witnesses to Hendrix’s fiery playing style referred to him as “the black Dylan” because of their shared unkempt hair style..

Sanders and his Dylan Black Project will undoubtedly tear up the Funky Friday stage. Just don’t count of any Hendrix inspired on-stage guitar burning.  Sanders has had enough of that.

Funky Fridays at Hood Mansion, funkyfridays.info 389 Casa Manana Road, Santa Rosa.  Doors open at 5:30, tickets are $10, kids under 18 free.