Music at Sonoma’s Tuesday Night Market back in full swing after July 4

The streets have been swept, the trash has been gathered, and the grass is slowly recovering. The Fourth of July 2023 is in the record books and it’s time for the Plaza to move back to its role as host of the regular, humdrum Farmers Market.

JK LOL! The Tuesday Night Farmers Market is the envy of all the other towns that attempt anything like it. It is wildly popular: small-towny, yet a tad sophisticated. We are lucky to have such a gathering, such a rich and lively show of community. And I do mean show.

This coming Tuesday, July 11 will feature another musical doubleheader at the Plaza. Chris Hanlin will perform on the horseshoe with a project he calls The Seasaws and Cynthia Tarr will entertain in the amphitheater.

Hanlin is simply a gifted musician. Primarily a guitarist, he plays a multitude of styles. He writes his own songs. He sings in a rich, lower tenor range. When he is not performing on the guitar, he spends his time as a talented luthier, maintaining the guitars of all the other guitarists in town.

Having spent many years playing in bands of different styles in the Los Angeles area, Hanlin is now firmly established as a Sonoma musician. He will be playing his acoustic songs, rock rooted but perhaps slightly pop-y and in nature and tone, with his longtime musical partners, Matthew Jacovides on vocals and bass and John Arvisu playing guitar and backing vocals. Hanlin himself will lead the singing play guitars and a tasty bit of lap steel guitar.

Eager attendees might want to tune into to KSVY (91.3) at 9:20 a.m. that same day as Hanlin will be on the air to give us all an aural preview.

Jacovides and Hanlin have played music together for many decades, and were even roommates, according to Hanlin.

“We do kind of an Everly Brothers/Beatles vocal harmony thing,” Hanlin said.

They have recently added Arvisu to the mix to “fill things out a bit for an acoustic gig,” according to Hanlin.

The trio recently opened an impressive musical gathering in Claremont, California, when Jackson Browne, Ben Harper, Terry Reid and many others joined in a stirring memorial for fallen musical hero David Lindley.

Their Tuesday evening show will be a solid reprise of that wonderful performance.

And, over at Grinstead (two concerts at once!), we will enjoy the jazzy tones of local musical treasure Cynthia Tarr and her band.

Tarr is the director of the music program at Sonoma Community Center. As such, she oversees concerts, classes and lessons. The recent, very fun “Fab Fifties Revue” was her brainchild. She is an on-air host on local radio station KSVY and a published author. Her book, “Ruby” is the first in a planned series of five.

Tarr was also honored as the 2019 Sonoma Treasure Artist. The woman is a dynamo.

Somehow, Tarr has found time to put together a band, a set list and an excellent show for us all to enjoy. The hand-picked band includes her husband, Cliff Hugo, on bass guitar, Sean Carscadden on guitar, Kendrick Freeman on drums, Ruben Valtierra playing keyboards and if the creek don’t rise, the very busy Doug Leibinger on trombone. These are some heavyweight cats; Tarr doesn’t mess around.

As the show is being sponsored by the good people at Sonoma Jazz Society, the music will be jazzy. But this superb band is bound to sneak in some pop-y stuff, a few covers and some originals songs.

As usual, the vendors at the market begin vending at 5:30 p.m. Both concerts by these talented locals get underway at 6 p.m.