By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Vallejo-based blues musician Steve Freund, unfortunately, has experience with organizing relief concerts. He did it when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Now Freund is using that experience in planning another benefit show, for victims of the latest massive storm to batter American shores.

The Superstorm Sandy Blues Benefit will be held at the Empress Theater on Nov. 27.

When Katrina struck, Freund’s love for the music of the area, as well as the need of the people of New Orleans, inspired him to act.

“The musical roots of New Orleans is really where all of our modern music of America comes from,” he said Tuesday.

“It comes from there and the Mississippi Delta. American jazz comes from New Orleans.

“My connection is the music, and the end result was to help the people down there,” he said. “It’s good to do good deeds if you can, if you have a way to do something good for somebody, even an animal.”

Freund collaborated on the Katrina benefit with Benicia promoter Rhonda Lucile Hicks of Red Dragonfly Productions. “It was highly successful,” he said. “So when I saw (Sandy) happen I immediately thought about doing one.

“This is worse than Katrina — way worse, I think.”

This time, too, the disaster hits closer to home. Freund grew up in New York.

“It struck home immediately,” he said.

“Anywhere in the waterfront areas, they just got slammed,” he said. “To top it off, it was the full moon of October. Being an old fisherman, we call that the harvest moon, where the tides are extremely high, much higher for some reason. We used to go fishing on those nights because the fishing was much better.”

Freund said because the storm hit during the harvest moon, the tides were higher — leading to greater flooding and far more extensive damage.

“So they had the double extra high tides to go with the wind and rain, and that is what the flooding is the result of,” he said. “That’s why they call it the perfect storm.

“It’s a sad event, but it’s over. All we can do is move forward, and this is going to help people rebuild their homes and their lives,” he said.

Freund said to get the wheels in motion for the benefit, all he had to do was make a few calls. Area musicians jumped at the chance to help.

Those scheduled to perform are a mix of people from New York and the Bay Area. “First I wanted to get people from the area, for spiritual reasons,” Freund said. “Maria Muldaur is from New York City, so I tried her right away.”

Mitch Woods is from the same neighborhood in Brooklyn as Freund. “Mitch was amenable to it.”

“Then there’s a good friend of mine, Vince Caminiti, who is quite experienced in stage management, and he’s a performer — he’s from my old neighborhood, so he was in on it right away too,” Freund said.

Joining forces with Freund and Hicks in producing the show is Don Bassey, who will be handling the sound. “The three of us together made a good little team and we got it all together,” Freund said. `

With a widespread pool of talent, he is hoping to attract people from all over the Bay Area, and beyond, to the event.

“We’re trying to get people to come down from different areas, maybe as far as Sacramento, Marin County, hopefully Walnut Creek and Concord areas, Oakland areas, and possibly San Francisco — to come in and help support this cause,” he said.

Freund performed at the Empress in August, and it was his first choice of venue for the benefit. “It’s just a beautiful theater,” he said. “It’s got fabulous acoustic sound.”

One hundred percent of proceeds from the benefit concert will go to the Red Cross.

“If we sell 411 tickets, that’s going to be a very nice chunk of change,” Hicks said.

Donating all of the proceeds from the ticket sales is made possible thanks to a generous donation from Carlton Senior Living to cover the hard costs of putting the show together.

“They’re donating $2,000 to cover the Empress’s costs, and we’re able to feed the musicians in the green room. The balance of what we don’t use will go to the Red Cross,” Hicks said.

“We’re going to end up with more than the ticket sales going to the American Red Cross,” she said. Everybody else is donating their time.

Performing Tuesday are Alvon Johnson & Friends, The Daniel Castro Band, Maria Muldaur, Mitch Woods, The Hound Kings and and Steve Freund & Friends.

But Steve Freund isn’t stopping with the fundraising efforts at the Empress Theater show. He’s also putting together a benefit for Sunday, Dec. 9 at McGovern’s in San Mateo, from 2-6 p.m. “That’s going to have another roster of fabulous Bay Area talent,” he said.

“Vince Caminiti and I are producing it, just to get a different area, and hopefully raise some money for the Red Cross.”

If You Go
The benefit concert for victims of Superstorm Sandy begins at 7 p.m. Nov. 27 at the Empress Theatre, 330 Virginia St. Admission is $20. For tickets and information, visit empresstheatre.org or call 707-552-2400.</strong

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