Saturday May 31st - The Back Burner Blues Band

In the year 2000, Four Bay Area Chefs, with the help of a few ringers, formed a blues band to liven up a charity event.  Today, they are a legitimate working band recording and playing gigs on a regular basis.

The Back Burner Blues Band is a group of talented Bay Area musicians, that haven’t “quit their day jobs” yet…They are mostly chefs in hot local restaurants. Some years ago, Joey Altman, Chef and Host of Bay Café, the James Beard Award winning cooking show on Bay Area television station KRON channel 4, and an avid blues guitarist, discovered that many of his guest chefs were fellow musicians eager to find colleagues to jame with and began to put the group together.

Joey Altman will be signing copies of his new book No Reservations at The 3rd Annual Carneros Heritage Fest. 10% of all sales will be donated to the Carneros Land Stewardship Foundation.

The Back Burner Blues Band first official gig was a benefit for Meals on Wheels in June in 2000.  They played a four-song set during the cocktail hour, on the Spear street stage for a black-tie crowd of 1,000, to roaring approval and the rest was history.

In addition to Joey Altman on Rhythm and Lead guitars, the band is comprised of: Scott Warner, Executive Chef at Bistro Don Giovanni in Napa, on guitar and dobo; Gordon Drysdale, Chef-Partner of Pizza Antica restaurant group in San Jose, Lafayette and Marin on guitar and mandolin; special guest appearance by Marc Baum of the Bud E. Luv Band and former Blintz professor at the Cheeseboard Collective in Berkeley on Bass; Jon Otis on Drums; David Margen on Bass; and Vocalist Anna Kristina round out the sound.

The Back Burner Blues Band continues to play many benefits throughout the year for Meals on Wheels and Project Open Hand, two of the San Francisco charities that prepare and deliver meals to the homebound and the needy.  For these musicians, music is another way to explore creativity, blow off steam from the demands of a busy kitchen, and give back to the communities that support them.

Also, on the second Monday of each month, they host a “Gumbo Blues Jam” at San Francisco’s premier blues club Biscuits and Blues.  At these shows other restaurant workers with musical talents are invited to sit in with the band.  At these “jam sessions” that band had a simmering pot of spicy gumbo at the foot of the stage that each guest musician adds another ingredient to the pot before taking the stage.  At the end of the second set the gumbo is served to the audience, showcasing their philosophy that food and music is a collaborative creative process.