The Lonesome Travelers Come to the Lobero Theatre, 5/27-28

Celebrate Memorial Day next Monday at the Lobero Theatre with an evening of great American folk music, beginning at 7:30 p.m., preceded by a buffet from Woody's Bodacious BBQ at 5:30 p.m. in the tent behind the Lobero. There's a second performance on Tuesday evening, May 28 at 7:30 p.m. "The Lonesome Travelers in Concert" is a musical event that takes audiences on a journey down the rivers and streams of American Folk -- from the hills of Appalachia to the nightclubs of San Francisco and New York; from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Written and directed by third-generation Santa Barbara native James O'Neil (an Ovation and NAACP Award-winner), with Musical Direction by Tony nominee Dan Wheetman and Trevor Wheetman, the concert is by nine artists who create musical portraits inspired by folk immortals such as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, The Carter Family, Cisco Houston, The Almanac Singers, The Weavers, The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul & Mary and others whose music and influence changed American music - and America itself - forever.

The company includes Jennifer Leigh Warren (Big River and Little Shop of Horrors on Broadway), L.A.-based singer/songwriters Justine Bennett and Brendan (B. Willing) James (both mainstays in the local music community and regular performers at Zoey's Café), Sylvie Davidson (a Seattle actress and singer whose credits include work at both ACT and Book-It), second-generation musicians James Webb and Trevor Wheetman, Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper (whose recent credits include South Coast Rep, North Coast Rep and Laguna Playhouse), and New York-based actor/musician Justin Flagg (who plays the title character). All of the artists play multiple instruments and sing.

A few of the well-known song titles include "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," "This Land is Your Land," "Deportee," "Talkin' Union," "Puff, the Magic Dragon," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "We Shall Overcome," "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" and "Maggie's Farm." New songs added for this engagement include "Turn, Turn, Turn," "The Wabash Cannonball" and others.

The concept for The Lonesome Travelers came from the imagination of James O'Neil, a Santa Barbara native. O'Neil is co-founder of Rubicon Theatre Company and accepted the L.A. Drama Critics' Circle Award in 2010 for "Sustained Excellence" on behalf of the company. He helmed Rubicon's Ovation Award-winning production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, received the NAACP Award for Directing for Rubicon's production of Driving Miss Daisy with Michael Learned which was presented during the 50th Anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, and has directed classics by Edward Albee and Tennessee Williams for the company, in addition to numerous new works.

For O'Neil, the development of "The Lonesome Travelers" was years - even decades - in the making.

"My relationship with this music goes back to when I was six or seven-years-old," O'Neil remarks. "My father was a child of the Great Depression. He grew up in Oklahoma and came to California during the Dust Bowl. He was a ranch hand in Goleta and later became the head of the local retail clerks' union and a union organizer. Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger were his heroes - my dad even played the guitar a little. As I was growing up in the late '50s and early '60s, our house was filled with the sounds of the folk revival.

"Even then I knew that the music was for me - and for all of us. Folk music is a declaration of a particular kind of humanity - one that perseveres through life's difficulties and respects and cares for others. The title comes from the idea that we all take a solitary journey through life - we come in and out of this world alone. But music is a great unifier - a great healer. It can help us feel a little less lost or alone."

O'Neil's thoughts are echoed by the original Musical Director Dan Wheetman: "This music was born out of hardscrabble living. However, it reflects the joy of life; no matter how many obstacles we face, the human spirit rises above and rejoices in being alive."

Wheetman was the first person O'Neil called once he began work on the concert. A member of the band Marley's Ghost, Wheetman was last at Rubicon as Musical Director for Back Home Again, for which he received an Ovation Award. He wrote the music for the stage version of The Cider House Rules, and has garnered several L.A. Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Musical Direction and a Tony nomination as a writer for It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues at Lincoln Center.

"The impetus to create "The Lonesome Travelers in Concert" has grown over the past few years," says O'Neil. "There has been a resurgence of interest in folk music, with a bumper crop of young musicians reinterpreting and re-popularizing some of the older songs. I suddenly realized I wanted to - needed to - help create a context for a new generation.

"Some of what we think of as American folk music came from other cultures as immigrants came to America: songs derived from traditional English or Scottish ballads, Irish reels, African spirituals or Bahamian lullabies, for example. These songs express universal feelings - love, regret, hunger, jealousy, humor, pain or pride. They were passed from generation to generation and then recorded in the South and Southeast in the mid-1920s by preservationists and opportunists.

"Other songs relate to the times in which they were written," says O'Neil. "Folk music is 'The People's Music' and these songs are the people's responses to societal ills - issues of oppression, religious persecution, unemployment, unsafe working conditions, poverty and war. These are often story songs.

"Still other American folk songs influence and change the times," continues O'Neil. "Many of these are songs of praise, solidarity and rebellion and include patriotic songs, union anthems, political commentary, etc. To me, "The Lonesome Travelers" are about 'the history that made the music, and the music that made history'."

"The Lonesome Travelers in Concert" is presented for two nights only, Monday, May 27 (Memorial Day) at 7:30 p.m. and Tuesday, May 28 at 7:30 p.m. On Monday evening, a backyard-style barbecue buffet is available beginning at 5:30 p.m. Regular ticket prices for the concert range from $29.50 to $49.50. Student tickets are $20. Preferred seats at $59.50, and premium tickets are $79.50 and include the pre-show meal. The buffet may also be purchased separately for $35 and is catered by Woody's Bodacious Barbecue. The menu includes oak-smoked chicken and tri-tip, tossed salad, potato salad, cowboy beans, garlic bread, Boston crème pie and non-alcoholic beverages.

Veterans save 50% on tickets, and groups of 12 or more save $10 per ticket. Performances and the dinner take place at the Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido (the corner of Anacapa and Canon Perdido) in Downtown Santa Barbara. For tickets, call (805) 963-0761 or purchase online at www.lobero.com.

Pictured: Justin Flagg as The Lonesome Traveler, Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper as The Preacher, Brendan Willing James as The Poet, Anthony Manough as The Man, Jennifer Leigh Warren as The Muse, Justine Bennett as The Activist, Sylvie Davidson as The Lady, James Webb, Musician, and Trevor Wheetman, Musician. Photo Credit: Jeanne Tanner.