From food to folk...

We kick off Soulfolk's blog with a brief tale about being open to change. 

Bara and I had been living in Southern California since 1991 and Laguna Beach since 1994.... We and our kids were deeply ensconced in the community, and from the outside looking in, we were alive and well and living in paradise. But, for us, there were subtle undercurrents we found unsettling...high cost of living, rapid cookie-cutter development encroaching, artists moving out of town—plus a long series of Kafka-esque personal events.  We were never able to relax enough for home to really feel like home.  In 2005, we made the difficult decision to sell our house of a dozen years (karmic timing, eh?).

Over the next 4 years, we rented our way around Laguna, and circumstances beyond our control caused us to move 3 times in just 4 years.  But when we learned that we'd be forced to move a fourth time, we took a moment to read the writing on the wall, and it said: MOVE ON. 

Northern California has been our long-term dream...the San Francisco Bay Area was our beacon of opportunity, cultural richness, and diversity, not to mention that my oldest son Dylan and his wife were already living there.

So last July, we pulled up roots and replanted "up north" on an island off the coast of Oakland called Alameda.  We found the perfect situation simply by measuring options against intuition, making decisions quickly, and keeping the faith. Just over 6 months later, we're already settled in and finding a kindred community here...personal, professional, political, spiritual and musical!  Our replanting process confirmed that change is good when you follow your gut.

The same adage about change goes for our acoustic quartet, newly called "Soulfolk."  All our SoCal friends and fans have known us as Soulfood.  And t named worked well for us because our goal was to make "music that feeds your soul."  But upon moving to the East Bay, where "soulfood" is prevalent, and generally means hominy and grits, we realized the old name required too much explanation and was a potential source of confusion for new fans.  Just by changing the last two letters of the name, we were able to give the band a new identity and capture a more descriptive sense of what we do.  You know...folk-rock with some soul! 

We've discovered that the Bay Area is a musical haven...hundreds of great venues and thousands of amazing musicians.  Soulfolk is a name that allows our lineup to grow and evolve...it lets us bring in whatever folks can or should be part of this music- and magic-making experience.  We hope you like the new name and we appreciate your ongoing connection to us and our music.

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