East Bay Delta folk singer Elliot Randle at UCSF Childs series

I caught Elliot Randall doing a nooner at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) med school library last week. He was appearing with Victoria George. I was quite impressed with both these acts, and hope to follow their ascent (you know, get high).

The room had a beautiful view of much of the north-west part of San Francisco. It was part of something called the Childs endowment which provides free music to students, patients, staff and the riff-raff like me.

I was surprised that Elliot did not play his KFOG single (included in their local music compilation) or at least did not announce it as such. (He might have said something like “Hey, you might have heard this next one on KFOG” which is more informative than bragging; and it’s not bragging if you can back it up; which Randall does more than, even in a solo acoustic med school library environ).

Here is a link to Elliot talking over his own songs while fielding questions from KFOG’s Renee Richardson (who is also known to some as Renee Rottenbucher; when she was at Live 105 she was known as Renee Rotten — she had a pierced tongue but had to remove it and the sexy lisp because a reaction was making her jawbone implode, speaking of med school library wonders).

http://vimeo.com/10341490

If I had more hours in the day I would check out more of the KFOG archive on vimeo, more than 100 little tapes (this one of Elliot lasts about five minutes). I would check out: Matt Nathanson, Jackie Green doing “Gone Wanderin”; Steve Earle “Poncho and Lefty”, Chuck Prophet “Summertime Thing,” Andrew Bird, Belinda Carlisle with my friend the drummer Allison Miller, Andrew Bird and then Matt N. again this time being interviewed by the lovely aforesaid Ms. Renee Richardson.

Good luck to artist manager Dianna Arnspiger who hipped me to said performer. Watching Oscars last night I thought DA looks a bit like Gwyneth Paltrow doing “Country Strong”. I also thought that James Franco (who they call Teddy Franco here in the 94304) and Anne Hathaway should be cast in the movie version of “Just Kids” about Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, but I really digress.

edit to add, May 18, 2011: Tonight at Hotel Cafe, Victoria George has a cd release show. When I met her I had a vague idea about producing a side project for her called “Limey Down” or “Limey Dawn” playing up the anglophile nature of her first and last names. Sort of a revenge of them sending us Wesley Stace; maybe she could learn sea chantey’s (as Tim Bluhm of Motherhips has) or hip versions of “Greensleeves.” Or a tribute to the Steven Soderbergh film. I think the “new weird America” scene does include people with fake British accents. And of course the Decemberists.

edit to add, a year later: Elliot Randall new video of Clapton cover: