In 1769 a Spanish soldier named Portola got lost between Monterey and Half Moon Bay. He noted a tall tree, “El Palo Alto”. A year later, he and his men, or people like him, came back. They cut down the tree, to cross the creek. A hundred or so years later, Leland Stanford, one of the wealthiest men in the world, to escape protests in front of his Pacific Heights San Francisco mansion, bought —from Spanish people, not indigenous ones, but not Portola either—bought 8,000 acres, including a tree, near the creek. He said his purchase included “El Palo Alto” —that same big tree.
Then—skipping some detail— they built a church, and a university.
Dan Bern was born in the 1960s and started writing songs in the late 1980s.
Earthwise was founded by Mark Weiss of Palo Alto in 1994.
Dan Bern played in the rain at Lytton plaza March, 2023.
On October 8, Dan Bern will perform at Mitchell Park Community Center, built in 2014. Jerry Hannan (not to be confused with Ramona Rinconada Alma Con Leche Hannan) opens the show.
Note: this show will feature two songs that were recently written by Dan Bern on commission for Earthwise Productions: “As Cool As Them” which is about class and is based on a short story by Wallace Stegner; “Camaro Song” which is about race in the sense of speed and class in the sense of going to school, and takes place in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2015 and 2023; the performance of those songs will include a string section comprising Mads Tolling violin, Charith on viola and Ben Davis on cello, arrangements by the first two. They will also play on a Dan Bern chestnut, “Albuquerque” which is thematic to the Camaro song in at least two ways: there are cars in both song; they exist in an Enchanted State.
