Come feast your ears and kick up your heels as a great lineup of old musical friends graces our stage to help celebrate the Freight's 41st anniversary! Singer-songwriter Phil Marsh hosts this evening's event, which also features musical cohorts from the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band days. And just to put the icing on the cake, three additional acts are joining us for the evening: rootsy musical adventurers Eric & Suzy Thompson, multi-instrumental wizard and Celtic crooner Danny Carnahan, and rockin' rabble-rouser, Country Joe McDonald.

Phil sang and picked his guitar with the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band at the 1968 opening night of the Freight and Salvage. A well-rounded fellow, he also performed with the street theater ensemble, the East Bay Sharks, wrote songs for the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and helped create the infamous Masked Marauders superstar spoof album. Since those days, Phil has re-located to New York City where he works as a club and studio performer, but he's back in Berkeley tonight to head this reunion of Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band members, including bassist Richard Saunders, guitarist Gary Salzman, and harmonica ace Will Scarlett, plus special guest vocalist Nancy Colman.

Two of the Bay Area's most versatile American roots music virtuosos, Eric and Suzy have devoted their lives to the pursuit of old, hidden musical gems in dozens of bands, from Todalo Shakers to Bluegrass Intentions to California Cajun Orchestra. Eric's picking on guitar and mandolin is a model of tone and tastiness, and Suzy is known for her bluesy fiddling and her strong, soulful vocals.

Over more than three decades of playing Celtic music, Danny has provided great vocals, a quick wit, and multi-instrumental prowess in duos with Robin Petrie and with Chris Caswell, and in his current role as lead singer for the Celtic/Grateful Dead fusion band, Wake the Dead.

As a Vietnam-era sailor, anti-war activist, rock icon, and advocate for environmental and veterans' causes, Joe has been an impressive figure in American culture for four decades. In the 1960's his band, Country Joe and the Fish, performed Joe's anti-war anthem, "Fixin' To Die Rag," at many a demonstration against the war in Vietnam.

Be sure to join them all for the last anniversary show at the "Middle Freight"!