Cary Sheldon is a singer, songwriter, and beloved Berkeley voice teacher with 30 years’ worth of grateful students. She has been playing and teaching in the Bay Area for the last 40 years. Her love for R & B music led her to be part of Zazu Pitts Memorial Orchestra in the 1980’s.  Other affiliations include The Henry Kaiser Band, The Henriettas (a recreation of DeZurick sisters, a popular country music duo from the 1940’s), who appeared on Prairie Home Companion, and most recently her band DanceChant, a joyful community-inspired R&B band that encourages audience participation. She continues to be inspired by her love of singing in community. “Singing together with others is one of the greatest joys in my life.” Now in her 60’s, she returns to influences from her early life. Her grade school music teachers included John Langstaff, creator of the Christmas Revels, and the repertoire was based on the American folk tradition, including old English ballads, spirituals, freedom songs, and the popular folk and protest songs of the 1960’s. She hopes to inspire others to explore the depth of this material and rediscover the joy of community singing.
Photos by Jeanette Yu

April Guest Artist David Gans delivers literate, improvisational folk-rock with looping in a “solo electric” setting. A solo Gans show is likely to consist of several elements: country-blues-style fingerpicking; loop-based improvisations created live in the moment; sweetly-sung ballads, original or borrowed; Grateful Dead songs reinterpreted to suit his voice and guitar; wry observations of the music-festival subculture and the larger world; soulful and passionate political commentary; favorites from the folk-rock canon of the last 50 years. Mix and match – it’s never the same show twice, but it’s always worth a listen.