Tonight the Freight is proud to host a truly impressive historic event: Faith Petric's 95th birthday celebration! Come join in the fun at this vaudeville/folk extravaganza, and help us honor the amazing Faith—and be inspired and invigorated by the great music, bracing wit, and boundless energy of this oldful sparkplug and grande dame of the West Coast folk scene. A folk singer with a staggering repertoire, Faith has been an invaluable resource and inspiration for several generations of musicians, often through the San Francisco Folk Club jam sessions she has hosted at her home in the Haight for over four decades.

Tonight's far-ranging entertainment offers an outstanding medley of folk and vaudeville performers, with a little bit of something for just about anyone. Faith performs songs with guitar and harmonies provided by singer and multi-instrumentalist, Peter Kessler. Other guests from Faith's long and illustrious career include "America's Bubble Guy" Tom Noddy; wild comedian Frank Olivier; famed songstress Ronnie Gilbert (of Weavers' fame); Estelle Freedman with Don Burnham (of Lost Weekend fame) and Marisa Malvino; Vaudeville-style rope trick artist Karen Quest; country blues fingerpicker Alan Smithline; and yodeling cowgirl comedienne Cici Dawn. And who knows who else may show up?

Born in a log cabin on a homestead in Idaho in 1915, Faith first learned music from her father, an itinerant Methodist preacher. She discovered cowboy and country songs in the mid-'20s, and protest songs during the Spanish Civil War. She marched for civil rights in Selma, took the helm of the San Francisco Folk Club in 1962, and helped found the Portable Folk Festival a decade later. These days, Faith continues to host the Friday night San Francisco Folk Club jam sessions, as well as writing a column in Sing Out! magazine and enlivening festivals, clubs, and protests with her songs of peace and justice.

Visit Faith's website