David Nesmith – affectionately known as “Chicken” – has spent more than four decades working for peace and a healthy environment with such organizations as Healing Adventures, Inner City Outings, International Voluntary Services, the Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Environmental Water Caucus, and Friends of the River. David suffered a massive stroke in 2012 and requires around-the-clock care as he works to regain self-sufficiency. His intrepid spirit and tireless efforts to build community and protect California’s precious waters have inspired an array of talented friends to donate their time, music, and comedy to tonight’s benefit.
 
Laurie Lewis is a Grammy winner, a graduate of Berkeley High, and an extraordinary bluegrass musician. The International Bluegrass Music Association has twice named her Female Vocalist of the Year, and she’s recorded more than 20 outstanding albums with the Good Ol’ Persons, Grant Street, Kathy Kallick, and her current band Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands. Last year she released Hills to Hollers, recorded with Linda Tillery and Barbara Higbie, and she has a brand new album, One Evening in May, recorded with Tom Rozum and Nina Gerber right here at the Freight.
 
Wake the Dead, the world’s first Celtic all-star Grateful Dead jam band, has recently diversified, bringing their unique brand of musical alchemy to the Summer of Love, much to the delight of Deadheads, folkies, rockers, and lovers of Irish reels. “Every segue works,” says Cosmik Debris Magazine, “and every song is beautiful.” The band features Maureen Brennan on harp, Cindy Browne on bass, Danny Carnahan on vocals, fiddle, octave mandolin, and guitar, Kevin Carr on fiddle, whistles and uilleann (Irish bellows) pipes, Sylvia Herold on vocals, Paul Kotapish on mandolin, guitar, and jaw harp, and Brian Rice on percussion.
 
Coventry & Kaluza, which is to say clown school sweethearts Jamie Coventry and Natasha Kaluza, are graduates of both the first and second year programs of the Clown Conservatory at the San Francisco Circus Center. They have performed with the New Pickle Circus, Pickle Circus School Tour, Circus Bella, Flynn Creek Circus, Circus of Sound, Vegetable Circus, and Sweet Can Productions. They won Best Comedy/Clown Act at the American Circus Festival two years in a row, and Best Duo at the Picklewater Free Circus Festival. They’re celebrating a decade of hilarious collaboration!