Celebrate the roots of our nation’s art and culture this year at the Lincoln Theater in Yountville
By Matt Larson
Napa Valley’s Lincoln Theater has brought in a few Americana-style musical acts here and there, and they’ve always been very well received. Now, they’re presenting “Pure Americana,” a year-round series, celebrating the finest aspects of America via art and cultural offerings. The series features: live performances, screenings, spoken word events, and even a permanent exhibit at the Napa Valley Museum that was co-curated by the residents at the Veterans Home of California, Yountville. Americana will be thriving this year in Napa Valley.
“It all started when we brought out the Punch Brothers a couple years back,” said Director of Education and Outreach for the Napa Valley Performing Arts Center at Lincoln Theater Laila Aghaie. “It was such a hit! We’ve had so any requests since then for more music like that, so we started bringing out some other artists and people loved them.” These have always been just one-night-only style events; however, with such positive feedback, they’ve created this Pure Americana series.
One of the most American aspects of this series is the veterans. Founded in 1884, the Veterans Home in Yountville is the largest of its kind in the whole United States housing more than 1,000 retired veterans, and the Lincoln Theater exists on their grounds. “We have this really wonderful and large veteran community right at our doorstep, and they come to events all the time,” Aghaie said. “One of our goals was to create something that would be especially enjoyable for our veterans, who are just such incredible neighbors to us, so we’re partnering with the Napa Valley Museum (which is also right next door); they’re creating this permanent exhibit with all this cool memorabilia, historical documents, and things like that from all the veterans that live here.”
If you’re trying to find a simple explanation as to what Americana music is like, there really isn’t one. “It’s not any one thing,” Aghaie explained. “It’s music that celebrates America’s finest elements, through art and culture. It provides different offerings that relate to, that speak to, and that celebrate all of the many things that we consider to be uniquely American.” When it comes to music, Americana tends to focus on any combination of folk, bluegrass, jazz, country, rhythm & blues, and rock & roll. When it comes to art, you could find everything from traditional folk art and quilting to modern art. “There is no specific definition, and it’s actually not very limited,” Aghaie added. “It’s fairly open, and it embraces a lot of different things.”
The first musical act to kick off the series will be Jayme Stone (pictured below), a banjoist, composer, and “instigator” whose album Jayme Stone’s Folklife was recently nominated for a Juno Award for Traditional Roots Album of the Year. On June 29th, Stone will be performing his folk, jazz, and stomp-down Appalachian dance tunes for the Lincoln Theater’s guests. He’ll also be offering a free workshop for both student and veteran musicians.
Up next, on July 6th, will be Billy Bob Thornton. Yes, you read that correctly. Known for such films as Bad Santa, Sling Blade, Monster’s Ball and so much more, Academy Award Winner Billy Bob Thornton will be performing with his band The Boxmasters. What some may perceive as American country rock/rockabilly, they play “psychobilly” music, which is their combination of ’60s hillbilly music and British invasion rock. Thornton is also a dedicated supporter of our veterans. He narrated the documentary Iron Will: Veterans’ Battle with PTSD, which will be screened the same day as their performance on July 6th.
Also part of the Pure Americana series is Reds, Whites and Bluegrass on August 18th—yet it is a special event all its own. It brings together emerging bluegrass bands from all around the Bay Area, and one can also sample Napa Valley’s best red and white wines. To top it off, rather than the event being held in the Lincoln Theater, this one takes place at the beautiful outdoor amphitheater on the grounds of The CIA at COPIA.
Napa Valley Cowboy Music and Poetry Gathering is a nationally renowned group comprised of actual ranchers. “These are people who actually work the land, but they’re also writers and musicians and just incredibly talented storytellers,” Aghaie said. “They come out, and they regale the audiences with their experiences of working the land—the heartbreak, the joy, and the love that they have for what they do.” The Gathering has become one the theater’s most enjoyable events over the past few years. And on September 8th, you can see them all, led by Grammy Winner Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, who just so happens to be a former mentor for Johnny Cash.
While the music series has select dates, year-round you can come and visit the permanent veterans Home Exhibition at the Napa Valley Museum. The entire exhibition celebrates the history of the Veterans Home, providing a showcase for their treasures, which includes mementos, uniforms, medals, letters from home, and more.
The Lincoln Theater presents concerts and events like these all the time. Pure Americana is different in that these attractions are all according to a general theme that is tailored for their local veterans. “We don’t have enough programs in the Valley that are so well targeted, and so well placed, for that community here, and we have a large community of veterans among us,” Aghaie said. We are all still in the grieving stages of the shooting at the Veterans Home in March that took the lives of three women who worked for the PTSD counseling program Pathway Home. “Three beloved staff members, who many had worked with, lost their lives. It’s been a tough few months for the residents here,” she laments. “It feels like maybe now might be a good time to find ways to remember what’s beautiful and what’s wonderful about life here in the Valley and in America as a whole.”
You can always find some way to celebrate the greatness of living in the Bay Area here at the Lincoln Theater, as they have all sorts of events held throughout the year. “We do a little bit of everything,” Aghaie said. “We are a community theater, first and foremost. We have all kinds of events where people come in for multiple days and do all kinds of performances.” They do jazz, rock, blues, bluegrass, and folk music. They do the Napa Valley Jazz Getaway (June 6-10th, if you can make it in time!), Festival Napa Valley, film festivals, the whole gamut. Plus, they’re very supportive of the local community.
“We’re doing everything we can to reach beyond the arts and support the community as a whole,” Aghaie said. They have a very robust education program, which is one of the most extensive in the Valley when it comes to music. “We go into preschool classrooms every week, and we work with over 400 preschool children from the most underserved families in the Valley,” she said. “For many of those children, this is their first exposure to classical music.” They bring in about eleven different artists and residents from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to teach and perform. “We do community concerts with these artists and residents, including a Lollipop Concert for preschool kids where kids literally are crawling around, dancing, and playing with their friends and families to the music.”=
They also provide many other shows that they take into the schools, exposing children to mariachi music, classical guitars, and even the Napa Valley Cowboy Music and Poetry Gathering. They give free tickets to students for all of their symphony productions, and for a lot of their other shows as well. Overall, they help more than two dozen nonprofits every year, including schools and social organizations. “We help them not only raise visibility, but we also work with them to raise money to do the work they need to do,” Aghaie added. “This is something that is a big part of our mission.”
If you’ve yet to attend an event at the Lincoln Theater, this may be the time to visit, especially with the draw of their Pure Americana series. The theater itself resides in a beautiful setting in the midst of gorgeous vineyards in the heart of Napa Valley. So head to lincolntheater.com and start marking your calendar now. You can call their box office Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at (707) 944-9900, and their address is 100 California Drive, Yountville.
To save you some time, upcoming Pure Americana event dates will be June 29th, July 6th, and August 18th. “I think that anyone who wanted to join us for any one of these concerts would absolutely love it and remember it for a long, long time,” Aghaie said. “The spirit of the event ends up inspiring everybody, and we all have a wonderful time.”
Larson is an actor/comedian/director from Vallejo who lives a double life between the Bay and LA. When he’s not writing for Local Happenings Magazine he could be editing a short film or working on his next rap album—who knows!
Keep up with all things Larson at www.MarsLegstrong.com.”
