This from the Captain Beefheart Appreciation Society Facebook Page :Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
Allyson Baker from the San Francisco rock band Dirty Ghosts has very kindly written something for this page about last Friday's event at the Chapel in San Francisco, celebrating Captain Beefheart's debut album Safe As Milk. Allyson was the musical director of the show and also one of the musicians playing on stage on the night. To watch the full show click on the link at the bottom of this post.
Here is Allyson's report on the show:
The project kind of got started, when I played guitar on two Beefheart songs live with Robyn Hitchcock and my husband, who drums for Robyn, early in 2025 in San Francisco. We had a lot of fun playing those tunes (Electricity and Zig Zag Wanderer) and talked about the possibility of doing more. Coincidentally at the end of the night Britt Govea, the head of Folkyeah! Presents, the promoter of the show told me of an idea that had been floating around his head of having all of Safe as Milk performed live with Robyn and other guest singers. Britt asked if I would musical direct to which I eagerly replied YES!The next day Britt and I got to planning - I was given free reign to choose a band and make a setlist - Safe As Milk and second set of later material. I called all of the Beefheart diehard musicians and people who I imagined would be perfect for the show and assembled a great core band: Joe Gore on 2nd guitar, Warren Huegel on drums, Pete Straus on bass, Jamin Barton on theremin/harp/sax, Marc Capelle on trumpet and Meryl Theo Press and Lydia Walker on backup vocals. The band and I worked hard to get as close to sounding like the real thing as we could get.We got an amazing cast of singers on board alongside Robyn: Shannon Shaw, Chuck Prophet, Kelley Stoltz, Blag Dahlia, Lydia Walker, Nick Waterhouse and Cyril Jordan of the Flamin Groovies who jumped on stage with his guitar for Diddy Wah Diddy.It was an incredible night and I’m so thankful to everyone who came and those who were involved. There was so much love for Captain Beefheart in the room that night it was palpable. Wanted to share this with the other Beefheart fans out there who had heard about the show but proximity may have been an issue! You can find me on instagram @dirtyghosts and as more video/pix/audio surface I will post as it comes.- Allyson Baker
Thanks again to Allyson for writing that piece exclusively for this page. Here is the video for the full event:
Here is a link to the audio of the full event:
folkyeah presents Allyson Baker's Captain Beefheart tribute show at The Chapel in San Francisco on August 29 2025, performing all of Safe As Milk and more! Set 1: "Safe as Milk" 1 intro 2 The Dust Blows Forward ’n the Dust Blows Back 3 Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do 4 Zig Zag Wanderer 5 Call on Me 6 Dropout Boogie 7 I'm Glad 8 Electricity 9 Yellow Brick Road 10 Abba Zaba 11 Plastic Factory 12 banter/tuning 13 Grown So Ugly 14 Autumn's Child Set 2: 15 Big Eyed Beans From Venus 16 Clear Spot 17 band intro 18 Moonlight On Vermont 19 Too Much Time 20 Apes-Ma 21 Hot Head 22 Ashtray Heart 23 Bat Chain Puller 24 Diddy Wah Diddy 25 (band intro) 26 Tropical Hot Dog Night Robyn Hitchcock - lead vocals (3,4,8,11,12,13,15,16,17,18,25,26) Lydia Walker - lead vocals (5,9,14) Kelley Stoltz- lead vocals, saxophone (6,10,20,21) Shannon Shaw - lead vocals (7) Chuck Prophet - lead vocals, electric guitar (19) Blag Dahlia (of Dwarves)- lead vocals (1,2,22,23) Nick Waterhouse - lead vocals, percussion (24) Joe Gore (of Tom Waits and PJ Harvey bands) - electric guitar Allyson Baker (of Dirty Ghosts) - electric guitar, musical director Peter Straus (of Dwarves) - electric bass Warren Huegel - drums Marc Capelle - flugelhorn Jamin Barton - saxophone, harmonica, theremin, backing vocals Meryl Theo Press - backing vocals Lydia Walker - backing vocals Cyril Jordan (of Flamin' Groovies) - electric guitar (24) video and audio processing - Douglas Hilsinger set listing and band credits - Michael Zelner
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