Riffs, Roams and Raves uncovers the creative, noteworthy and accomplished in the Wimberley Valley and beyond with tips on who to hear, where to go and what to see from managing editor Teresa Kendrick.
Riffs: The Jazz Messenger Boys
It didn’t take long for this trio to excite the audience at the Hill Country Home Companion performance on December 30. Even though they call themselves The Jazz Messenger Boys, there is a woman in the mix by the name of Kira Arrillaga. For a vocalist who studied opera at Cal State Fullerton, Kira’s voice is supremely suited for the style of jazz she performs with her percussionist husband Casey Arrillaga and keyboardist Steve Schoen. It has the kind of conversational nuance and flexible tone that makes you sit up and take notice.
The Arrillagas began playing together thirty five years ago in California. They were part of a six-person band that featured a Chapman stick, an instrument that looks like the fretboard of an electric guitar that is used to play bass and melody lines, chords and textures. They toured Europe, released music and lived the dream until practical matters took precedence.
In 2013 they made Wimberley home and shortly thereafter met Steve. It didn’t take long for these hard-wired musicians to join forces. Casey performed with Steve and his wife, vocalist Marian Small, but when work responsibilities took Marian out of the picture, Kira stepped in.
Steve has always played jazz but with a counseling career that focused on people with disabilities, he was never sure that he’d realize his dream of becoming a professional musician although he always found time to perform with what he calls “Tuxedo” bands, at piano bars, and then solely with jazz ensembles. He says that performing is not at all like work, and jokes that by playing with two other performers, he knows that at least two people are listening.
Schoen and the Arrillagas enjoy a rare harmony and friendship due, in part, to their careers apart from music. Casey and Kira are both addiction and mental health professionals.
The band members credit Don Minnick for advocating for them to fill the slot on the Hill Country Home Companion production. It was an inspired choice.
Their next performance is January 13 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Art on 12 gallery. They also play at Longleaf Craft Kitchen + Bar. They are scheduled to play February 1 from 7 to 10 p.m. in the garden, weather permitting.
Roams: Wimberley Scavenger Hunt?
In the quiet week after New Years day I noticed a fair number of visitors in Wimberley looking for something to do. I stumbled across an Eventbrite offering of a Wimberley Scavenger Hunt that promised to be tons of fun. I gamely plunked down $25 for the phonebased activity. After following a link sent to my phone, I connected by text to an organizer. It wasn’t the stylish young lady in a cool hat that I saw in the Eventbrite ad. Instead, the photo of a seasoned, well-marbled person, much like myself, popped up with instructions to meet at a designated coffee shop near the Square. I was asked to take a selfie of my team but since I came alone, I took a picture of a cactus, and sent it to “Scott” saying I was the only person on my team.
“Scott” instructed me to perform as many “missions” as I could in a twohour timeslot. I would earn 300,000 points, he said, for each mission I completed. I was allowed to use GPS, Google searches and local citizens to help me succeed. For my part, I was to send texts, photos, and short videos of my journey to him as I moved from one mission to the next.
Here were the missions I received. Find all the boots in town and count them. Ask a local person how high the water rose in the 2015 flood. Find something obscure at the EmilyAnn Gardens. Conduct a seance. Visit the Wimberley Glassworks. Shop at Wall Street Western. Discover Wimberley’s unofficial motto. Visit the Wildflower Art Gallery. Climb Old Baldy. Shop at My Happy Place. Photobomb a stranger. Tip a local musician. Find someone who has traveled over 1,000 miles to get to Wimberley. By this time, I was certain the organizers in this outfit never stepped foot in Wimberley.
To rack up an additional 100,000 points, I was instructed to bring a dog with me on the hunt or if that wasn’t possible, encounter one along the way. I could also get caught in tricky weather or get snarled in traffic for the extra points.
Then I was instructed to visit the Bent Tree Gallery, Inoz and “Treasures on Twelfth.” I sent a helpful text to Scott telling him that the Bent Tree Gallery was no longer open, Inoz was called something else, and Treasures on Twelve was the correct name for WAG’s second-hand retail shop. It took a while to hear back and when I did, I heard from someone called Lisa who told me the company was at that minute conducting scavenger hunts in 1400 cities across the U.S.
“I’m looking at a giant leaderboard as we speak,” she said. She wasn’t interested in my helpful updates and it was then that I formally bailed, leaving my missions untendered.
You’ve probably guessed by now that I am not going to recommend the Wimberley Scavenger Hunt. If you’re tempted to try it after reading this, be sure to send your $25 to the Wimberley View where it can do a lot more good.
Raves: 50th Anniversary of A Prairie Home Companion
In what might be synchronicity, the 50th Anniversary Tour of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor will come to Austin on Sunday, February 25. The performance is one of the Austin City Limits Live events at the Moody Theatre, which is home to the ACL television show.
Garrison Keillor hosted the first broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion on July 6, 1974, with its music, comedy sketches and accounts of life in tiny Lake Wobegon (where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the children are all above average).
At its peak, “A Prairie Home Companion” reached more than four million listeners on more than 700 National Public Radio stations. It was a long-running favorite on NPR until Keillor retired in 2016.
According to the show’s publicity, the performance is “packed with stories, music, the one-of-akind audience singalong intermission, Keillor’s musings on the topic of CHEERFULNESS, and the fan-favorite ‘News from Lake Wobegon.’” Joining Garrison are singer-actor Christine DiGiallonardo, vocalist Heather Masse, the Royal Academy of Actors (Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and sound-effects wizard Fred Newman) and music director and keyboardist Richard Dworsky.
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. performance are $86 to a staggering $624 — and going fast.
