Live in ’85

The Bay Ramblers were a San Fransisco Bay Area bluegrass band that performed for a couple of years in the mid-1980s at venues like Paul’s Saloon and the Grass Valley Bluegrass Festival.  Some of the shows at those two venues were recorded live, and Sandy Rothman, who was the banjo player in the band, has recently released a two-CD set of the band’s live performances featuring a total of 34 songs.  Sandy has now released this material, forty years after the performances, in memory of the band’s guitar player and singer, Alan Senauke, who passed away in December of 2024.

Senauke was unique in the world of bluegrass.  He was born in 1947 to a secular Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York.  In 1968, he moved to San Francisco, California, and began practicing Zen Buddhism at the Berkeley Zen Center.  He stayed with the Zen Center for the rest of his life and was installed as the Center’s Abbot in January of 2021.  He may be the only ever Zen Abbot who played and sang bluegrass music.  In the album’s liner notes, Senauke is quoted as saying, “I’ve been playing Southern music for 45 years, but I’ll never be a Southerner.  I’m a New York Jewish boy.  But this is my music, it resonates in my heart, and I play it as authentically as I can.”

The Bay Ramblers included some of the best of California’s bluegrass musicians.  In addition to Senauke and Rothman, the band featured Paul Shelasky on fiddle, Tom Bekeny on mandolin, and Markie Sanders on bass.  All of the musicians, with the exception of Shelasky, sang both lead and harmony vocals.

Due to space limitations, I’m not able to go into a lot of detail about these two CDs, but what I will say is that all of these talented musicians were at the top of their game, and the song selection is wonderful.  This is a very good bluegrass band.  There is a great mix of well-known and some not-so-well-known traditional bluegrass here.   I thoroughly enjoyed the band’s performances of these great bluegrass songs.  The songs included came from three of the band’s shows, two at Paul’s Saloon (May 9 and June 13, 1985) and two at the Grass Valley Festival (on June 14-15, 1985).

I would have loved to have been at Paul’s Saloon or at the Grass Valley Festival to have heard this band perform live.  Since I wasn’t there, this two-CD set lets me feel as if I was there, and it is an engaging listening experience.  I highly recommend that you check it out.  To order this CD, contact Sandy Rothman—[email protected]