Jimmy Chickenpants 

Anyone who thinks a transcendent music experience is the only thing to be found at California’s famed music festivals has sorely underestimated these events’ potential. “I actually met my husband (James Davies) at the High Sierra Music Festival,” says Joni Davies, lead singer and guitarist of local bluegrass outfit Jimmy Chickenpants. “We both were like ‘Oh, you’re from Santa Cruz?’ ” Serendipity sparked love, and back in SC, as Joni and James began dating, it was only a matter of time before Joni would meet James’ band, Jimmy Chickenpants (JCP). The band’s story, as Joni knows it, (“I’m not an original member,” she says, “but I did put the ‘chick’ in the ‘chicken’ ”), is that it formed casually on a beach here in town. “Once I started dating the bass player, they said ‘oh, you can sing, we need a singer.’ ” Joining Joni’s warm vocals and James’ jubilant upright bass are Hide Kawatsure’s plucky Mandolin, Ken Clarkson’s duel banjo and dobro talents and a host of guest fiddlers and banjo players. Coveted by the fine ears over at KPIG, JCP is known for its rootsy-revelry, its wholesome, downhome originals (“We’re non-broody,” Joni says) that tease the traditional bluegrass themes of “drinking, cheating, lying and traveling,” and most certainly for its sense of humor. “We can’t deny our chicken nature,” says Joni, who professes the immense privilege of playing with her “phenomenal, feathered friends.” This is the first time JCP will play SC’s Bluegrass Festival. They’ll strut their stuff along with Harmony Grits, Eddie duCommon, The Down Beets and Higher Ground. Good food and decadent raffle prizes are promised, as is what Joni defines as festival magic. “Mostly bluegrass festivals are about the jamming,” she says, “that wonderful, magical moment at a campfire when you’re playing with people you don’t normally play with.” And who knows, you might just come away with your own festival beau.

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