San Diego's Top Weekend Events: Films, Violins And LSD

I'm Maureen Cavanagh from country to classical. There's great music to hear in San Diego this weekend. We'll be talking about this strangely named country tour LSD and the Summerfest concerts begin in La Jolla. We'll also talk about an eccentric Film Festival in Oceanside. Joining me for the weekend preview is Nina Guerin Cape PBS arts calendar editor. And Nina welcome back. Hello. Now there's a tour headed to San Diego called LSD. What's this about. Yeah it's not that controversial. The L stands for Lucinda Williams the S.S for Steve Earle and the D is for Dwight Yoakam. These are kind of considered musical outliers they're not really easily classified and it's the first time these musicians have actually toured and performed together. Can you tell us a bit more about these musicians. Let's break it down. All Grammy winners I understand start with Lucinda Lucinda Williams is like an intimate country folk artist. People have described her as a female Bob Dylan. She is such a perfectionist that it takes her years to put out a record. And she has like really a warm voice and imperfectly perfect. Well here's a clip of Lucinda Williams Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. So that's Lucinda Williams. Next we have Steve Earle. Yes he began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and then has evolved into a record producer author actor. He kind of rides the line between rock and country and like Lucinda Williams he never broke into the mainstream really but has a devoted cult following. OK well here's a bit of Steve Earle's Guitar Town. The. Gas rig. Bass. Guitar. OK Steve Earle and that leaves Dwight Yoakam Dwight Yoakam is one of these other artists with a cult following and he's Mark alt country I'd say because he plays around with the different sounds of traditional country. He takes it to these different places and never got accepted by that mainstream country community. But the fun fact he's the most frequent guest on The Tonight Show and he's done a lot of acting most notably in Sling Blade and currently in Amazon's Goliath. Here's Dwight Yoakam as Guitars Cadillacs. I love that song. OK so what can people expect other concert like this. So each of the performers will have their own set about an hour long and they're going to play fan favorites and hits and then they'll perform together. And if you want to get a taste of it there's a great video on the Rolling Stone website that has them all rehearsing and playing together. The LSD tour happens tonight at SJS use open air theater. There is another major music event going on this weekend quite different. It's the La Jolla music society's Summer Fest. Tell us more about that Nina. This is a chamber music festival that brings renowned musicians from all over the world and throughout the month of August. There are concerts people can go and watch them rehearse for these concerts. They can go to lectures they can meet the musician. It's just it's just a whole month of chamber music goodness. Now this year is particularly star studded can you tell us why their longtime artistic director Jimmy Lin is stepping down. He's an accomplished violinist and he's credited for the festivals reputation and so many of these high profile musicians are his friends and they're going to come to his farewell. Tell us a bit about the lineup. What can people expect. So there's pianist Feme Bronfman the Emerson String Quartet which has already sold out. There's going to be a night of Leonard Bernstein music hosted by his daughter Nina Bernstein Simmons and that is just the first few days. You can't go on their website and see the whole month. But it continues like this with just like great event after great event. You brought a clip from a Summerfest performance from last summer that features Jimmy Lin on violin. So let's listen. Where's Jimmy Lin going. Who's taking over. So he Jimmy Lin is launching a non-profit Taipei festival M Academy in his native Taiwan. And so Summerfest new music director will be Enan Bonneton and he's going to take that over for next year. La Jolla music society's Summer Fest begins this weekend and continues throughout August and finally you wanted to mention the oceanside International Film Festival. What's happening there. So there are some new organizers putting that together and they have a connection to the indie film and music scene. So they're shaking things up a little bit and bringing in some great talent and unique experiences experiences what kind of experiences a cool thing is that there's a new York band called Morricone youth and they liked to play soundtrack music. And so they have rescored the music for Night of the Living Dead and Mad Max. So they're going to take out the music that you hear in the movie and then they're going to be there and perform their version of it. The oceanside international film festival runs through Sunday at Brooks theatre and I've been speaking with Kate PBS arts calendar editor Nina Garron. You can see all the events she's been working on at Cape PBS dot org slash arts. Thank you. Thanks.