The new web site I designed for Liz Anah.

Liz Anah escaped from New Jersey at a young age, never looking back. Her spare, smoky vocal style and simple but unforgettable songs grew out of a journey that included stops in Michigan for school, a pilgrimage to an Ashram in India, and serious hard time teaching in the Oakland public schools. Liz Anah’s music has a kind of gritty innocence. Her songs are direct, potent stories of real-life heartache and shattered love, powered by an indomitable optimism that demands attention. (Excerpt from her website bio).

Liz's new CD realease 'Fade to Black' Photography by K.Stokes

I met Liz Anah through other local coastside musicians, namely Montara locals and good buddies Mark and Mike (The Fourth Street Experience). One night at Cafe Lucca open mike, Liz and I got talking after her set, she knew that I designed Mike McCalls CD ‘The Lone Cypress’ and worked with him on several photo-shoots. She told me that she had a new CD nearly ready for release and that she needed a design for the cover. We took it from there and agreed that I would shoot her for some promo shots and her CD cover and re-design her website to fit in with her new look. I’m really pleased with the result (so is Liz)! Visit the website www.lizanah.com it features several shots from the photo session taken one very cold day around the HMB boat yards. Liz wanted a gritty urban look, but also wanted to retain a feminine feel, I think we achieved what she was looking for. The final CD cover image was taken toward the end of the session in the afternoon light. ‘Fade to Black’ is Liz’s first CD release and you can get hold of a copy on her web site by clicking this link.

A while back I started to bug my good friend guitarist Mike McCall to write an instrumental song with Montara Beach as a theme, the reason being that I wanted to shoot some video of the beach and set a soundtrack to it. He came up with a beautiful original Spanish flavored piece called simply ‘Montara Song’. So this weekend I finally got around to filming and editing, I hope you enjoy it.

Click this link Montara Song to view the original Music video. © Music & film – Mike McCall & Kevin Stokes 2009

©Wildlife Studios

This looks like a great place, I wish them good luck with the studio. Come on all you talented local musicians give these guys some support!

Check out the web site by clicking here.

New studio opens its doors to Coastside musicians : Half Moon Bay Review

Posted using ShareThis

Over the last couple of years I have been building custom made Cajón Drums for myself and local musicians. Each drum is unique with one-off hand painted designs, click the link below to browse an electronic brochure of some of my work.

The Fourth Street Experience at Montara Lighthouse

Montara has many talented and creative inhabitants. Among them are Mike McCall (right) and Mark Kostrzewa (left) individually talented musicians, collectively known as ‘The 4th Street Experience‘. You can catch these guys performing their live acoustic set all over the coastside. But right now they have 10 Montara Life questions to answer…

How did you guys meet and how long have you played together?

We first met at the local gym, Coastal Lifestyles, back around 2000. At that time, the term “12oz curls” meant something. We started jamming and playing music together about 3 years ago and have been “gigging” together since July of 2007.

What style of music do you guys play?

We classify it as “creative acoustic”, since there is really no other description for music that spans many different styles. How else do you describe a set list that includes latin music, brazilian music, blues, bluegrass and slide guitar? A lot of our songs are original compositions by one of us. We have a great a great classical style player (Mike) and a strong slide guitar player (Mark). It’s an unusual combination of music styles that works great in a live environment. [Read more →]

The floodlit entrance

We were lucky enough to get an invitation to the ’soft’ opening of the new Peruvian restaurant on Friday night. The official ‘Grand Opening’ for the general public is next Friday. We were warned that as this was the first live run of the new kitchen and staff so be prepared for some hiccups. Our party of six was welcomed at the door by two hostesses and we were seated in the middle of the floor in front of the open kitchen. As we looked around we recognized many Montara local faces, and waved and said hi. Shortly after we were seated, our server Luigi brought us a tray of Pisco sours to try, ‘it’s the Peruvian equivalent of a margarita’ he said, delicious. Our cocktail was swiftly followed by a dazzling array of appetizer plates delivered by more servers dressed head to toe in black. If this was a test run I can’t wait to try the food when they really have it dialed in! It was delicious, our group was truly blown away by the freshness and quality of the food. Seafood cooked to perfection and spicy hot ceviche so fresh that I expected it to jump off the plate and flap around on the table. [Read more →]

My good buddy Mike is a gigging fool. That guy plays so many local gigs it takes up all his spare time. I know he loves to play guitar, and he does it very well, particularly his Spanish style. If you get a chance to catch him play you will not be disappointed I promise you, but don’t say I didn’t warn you about his bad joke telling habit!

He has recently started his own blog at MontaraMusic.com make sure to check out his website as well. Mike also plays in a duo with our good friend Mark Kostrzewa as The Fourth Street Experience, check out the interview with them on Montarabeach.com