Join Berkeley’s own Students Rock Foundation in a benefit concert featuring the Kevin Beadles Band and Steve Seskin. With proceeds going toward Bay Area performing arts scholarships, this is a great show for a great cause!
 
Kevin Beadles’ most recent album has a timely title – You Can’t Argue with Water – and the title song gives you a good idea of his way around a lyric. “You can’t argue with water / you can’t reason with rain / it just falls where it wants to / and love’s the same.” Scott Matthews, the multi-platinum record producer who has worked with Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, and Neil Young, says that Kevin “is an amazing artist who manages to go deep while maintaining a pop sensibility that is irresistible.” The band features Kevin on guitar and vocals, John Foster on guitar and vocals, Steve Gibson on bass and vocals, and Mark Bernfield on drums and vocals, as well as a few special guests. The band plays classic rock inflected with blues, country, and gospel – Kevin calls it roots music with plenty of branches. If you like catchy songs that tell good stories, this band’s for you.

A Freight favorite since the 1970s, Steve Seskin has enjoyed tremendous success in Nashville, with a boatload of songs recorded by Tim McGraw, Neal McCoy, John Michael Montgomery, Kenny Chesney, Collin Raye, Peter Frampton, Waylon Jennings, Alabama, Mark Wills, and Peter, Paul & Mary. His song “Don't Laugh At Me” was a finalist for the Country Music Awards Song of the Year in 1999 and has spurred an entire tolerance movement, launched by the Don't Laugh at Me Project. Steve grew up in New York and currently lives just up the road in Richmond. He “has the gift of song,” says the San Francisco Chronicle. “His voice has a natural lilt that can’t be learned. The combination of musicianship and repertoire make for a rich and satisfying musical experience.”

Sonoma County’s Under the Radar will be opening the evening and  features Kevin Russell on guitar, resonator guitar, banjo & vocals,  Layne Bowen on mandolin, guitar & vocals,  Kent Fossgreen on bass, Michael Capella on resonator guitar, guitar & vocals and Cori Wood on vocals. They play an eclectic blend of acoustic music rooted in traditional bluegrass but with a modern sensibility and are as likely to play an Irving Berlin swing song from the 40's, or an old Ray Charles R&B tune, as a hard driving Bill Monroe bluegrass song, or a classic Jimmie Rodgers country song."

Ian Franklin, a dynamic singer, songwriter and guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area will be performing as an acoustic solo artist and with his band, Infinite Frequency in the lobby when doors open at 7p.m.

The Students Rock Foundation is a Berkeley non-profit that provides performing arts enrichment scholarships to Bay Area students of all ages. In the recent past, the foundation has provided scholarships to children and adults attending programs at the Jazzschool, BandWorks, the Marsh Youth Theatre, and the Freight. Proceeds from tonight’s show will go directly into the scholarship fund.