Long-time Freight favorite (and our own first board chair), Mayne Smith has been performing since the early years at the Freight, one of the venues where he made his name as a spine-tingling Anglo-American country-style singer and as a red-hot dobro and pedal steel guitarist. Tonight, Mayne is joined by a stellar lineup of musical cohorts to celebrate the release of his new CD, Places I've Been: a Songmaker's Retrospective. On the album, and on stage tonight, Mayne mixes it up with several different ensembles: sets with the famed Redwood Canyon Ramblers, a tight acoustic group featuring his long-time duet partner, Mitch Greenhill, and a larger electric group are all on the program—but almost entirely with songs that Mayne has written.

A passionate, soulful musician, Mayne is also a fine songwriter, whose tunes reveal deep roots in folk song, bluegrass, and traditional country music, but also at times ranges into other styles from Delta blues and R&B to jazz and Nortena music. Over decades of performing, Mayne has honed his style, described by the late great San Francisco Chronicle writer, Phil Elwood, as "Vernacular music, the real American popular music that comes out of the people, out of the performer, not off the printed score or dial spinning record producer."

In 1959, three Berkeley High graduates—Mayne, Scott Hambly on mandolin, and Neil Rosenberg on banjo—formed the Redwood Canyon Ramblers, the first local group to introduce the Bay Area to bluegrass music. A reunion of this band is a rare and exciting event indeed! Upping the ante still further, Ed Neff joins the Ramblers for the evening: a fixture in the Bay Area bluegrass scene for over 30 years, Ed is a premier bluegrass fiddler in the traditional vein.

Mitch Greenhill began his career in Boston's coffee houses, focusing on blues and other African American guitar styles. In the late 1960s, he drifted west and, with Mayne, formed the country-rock band Frontier. The pair have also played extensively as a duo, memorable for their tight vocal harmonies and hot licks.