Reid onstage at the La Honda Fair
by craig eddy
When covering the local music scene there are times I get to interview someone who has had a hand in making the scene what it is for several decades. This months featured artist is Reid Dennis. Reid has been playing music in the area for close to thirty years. He has been a behind the scenes kind of music advocate with the La Honda Fair as well as The Pescadero Fair. I guess when your wife is a festival director you somehow end up helping out. Born in San Francisco, Reid moved to La Honda in 1970 when he found a great deal on a house. He grew up liking the banjo and the folk music scene. One of his first influences was Pete Seeger. He also listened to the jazz of Turk Murphy. His favorite bands of the era were the Kingston Trio, The Coasters and The Weavers. Reid became a rock fan after seeing Buffalo Springfield at a concert at UCSB. That pretty much retired the banjo. He got himself a Gretch electic guitar and an amp. When local icons The Rythm Method broke up he hooked up with Mark Binion and started the Mark Reid Band which still plays together today. Reid still says that Mark is his favorite musician to play with. When asked to tell of his favorite gig he talks about gigging at Alice's Restuarant when in came a huge group of people with one Richard Alpert aka Baba Ram Daas. He switched to playing very sweet quiet music and gives credit to Mark for not knowing what Reid was doing but going with it anyway. What's new for The Mark Reid Band? MRB has been spending time at Slipperworld studio getting the groundwork laid for their first professional recording project. Maybe late this year or sometime next we'll get the new CD. Hats off to Reid for the many years of helping with the local festivals.
Comments