LOCALS ONLY

Fair pay?

Promoters Beach Music Mafia, aka Chuck and Joanna Schiele, made waves on Aug. 30 when they sent out an e-mail to local musicians accusing Adams Avenue Street Fair organizers of not paying performers a decent wage.

The Schieles claim they were hired by the Adams Avenue Business Association (AABA) to produce a stage promoted by Radio ASB (an online radio station that features the pair as show hosts). “[It was] with the condition that we had to find our own money to cover our costs to produce it, which means we had to find a sponsor,” the Schieles wrote in the e-mail. “We did that.”

In fact, they claimed to have found a sponsor willing to shoulder more than just the cost of their stage. With the extra money, they planned to offer artists between $300 and $500 to perform, a significant increase from the standard $50 to $150 paid to most local acts.

“We were told by AABA that they didn't want us to pay the bands beyond the $50 to $150 range, because they don't want the bands to think they have enough money to pay you what you are worth,” the Schieles wrote in the e-mail to musicians. The Schieles walked off the job when AABA said they could use only a small percentage of the sponsorship money to produce the stage.

“The underlying premise [of the e-mail]-that Joanna and Chuck were hired to produce the stage-that is incorrect,” contended James Schneider, executive director of the AABA. “Radio ASB wanted to sponsor a stage, and we really didn't get to the point of having an agreement hammered out with them-[though] we were working on a gentlemen's handshake for a while.”

Schneider noted that any dealings would have been between companies and not people, although he did speak to Joanna Schiele and Radio ASB's executive vice president, Richard Burell.

“Our agreement with Radio ASB that we were working towards didn't mention names. It was just that [we] were going to be working together,” said Schneider. While reluctant to divulge the exact pay scale for the performers at the Street Fair, Schneider claims to have offered “a wider range [of money] than is shown in this e-mail, or that we generally work with, for that stage.” Burell declined to comment for this story.

Reached by phone, Chuck Schiele stands his ground. “If we weren't working for them, why did, to cite just one example of the time invested, Joanna spend six weeks working on sponsorships for them? We pressed for something in writing, but they always declined.”

Joanna Schiele says Schneider simply replied with “You have my word.”

Schneider maintains that the work was done before any deal was made. However, he does admit that “Joanna was wonderful in getting sponsorships before we even had an agreement with them.”

“We stand by what was written in our e-mail,” Chuck Schiele said, acknowledging that the issue comes down to their word against AABA's, and that he should have gotten something in writing. “All we're trying to do is raise the bar on how music is handled in this town.”

Making change

Americana trio Nickel Creek surprised nearly everyone on Aug. 27 when they announced they're going on “indefinite” hiatus-which is bandspeak for “breaking up.” The band will continue to tour through 2007, but have already bejun solo projects.

Neither the group nor their record label were available to comment, but in a statement, the band said the break is needed to “preserve the environment we've sought so hard to create and to pursue other interests.”

The group has been together since 1989, but the three musicians-Chris Thiele and siblings Sean and Sara Watkins-have been increasingly involved with side projects. Thiele is now headquartered in New York, with the Watkins still residing in San Diego County.

Thiele will release a solo disc, How To Grow a Woman From the Ground, on Sept. 12. www.nickelcreek.com.

Who'll play ‘Stairway to Heaven'?

What may be the most eclectic collection of guitarists to take a San Diego stage will gather at the North Park Theatre on Sept. 7 through 10 for the DVD taping of a musical called Primal Twang: The Legacy of the Guitar.

“It's an overview of the past 3,000 years,” said director and writer Anthony Leigh Adams. “Basically, it's how the instrument went from obscurity to being the most popular way to make music in the world.” The show travels through various cultures, with artists coming forward to perform songs at key points in the timeline.

On hand at all four performances (including a Sunday matinee) will be Grammy-winning guitarist Eric Johnson, famed session ace and Eric Clapton Band guitarist Albert Lee, jazz strummer Peter Sprague and Mason Williams, best known for the evergreen tune “Classical Gas.” Grammy-winning classical guitarist Andrew York will perform Friday and Saturday, replaced for the Sunday shows by folk and bluegrass pioneer Doc Watson.

Providing all the music for the show, as well as backing the headliners, will be Dan Crary and the Primal Twang Band. An impressive group in their own right, the crack band includes multi-instrumentalist Dennis Caplinger, drummer Duncan Moore, bassist Jon Walmsley and guitarists Fred Benedetti and George Svoboda.

Although the DVD won't be released until late 2007, Adams has big plans.

“We hope this will be the pilot for a series of shows,” he said. “We'd like to take it out on tour. The program is modular, so we could change artists in different cities.” www.

primaltwang.com.

Notables...

Voting for the 2006 San Diego Music Awards has been extended through midnight Sept. 7. Regarding an article in last week's Reader about rap artist Lil Uno not being nominated, SDMA board member (and CityBeat associate publisher) Kevin Hellman acknowledged it may have been an oversight by the SDMA committee-which consists of 40 or so members of the San Diego music community, including heads from rap radio station Z90. He did note, however, that the article's author, Ken Leighton, is sent a nomination ballot every year. And while Leighton is always quick to find artists overlooked by the SDMAs, he has yet to fill out his ballot. So while Leighton can be applauded for bringing attention to artists like Lil Uno after the fact, it seems he overlooks nominating them himself. www.sandiegomusicawards.com; www.myspace.com/liluno.

Jazz icons Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham-this year's “Lifetime Achievement Award” winners at the San Diego Music Awards-won't be performing at the Sept. 18 ceremony. But, on Sept. 10, they will make a rare local appearance at the second annual Ocean Beach Jazz Festival, held at the foot of Newport Avenue. Sponsored by KSDS Jazz88, the festival will include sets from Charles McPherson with Gilbert Castellanos, as well as Clark Terry and The Red Holloway Quartet. www.objazz.org.

“Action” Andy Rasmussen (ex-Loons, Bomboras) and his group The Haunted Honky-Tonkers will hold a record-release party for Haunted Honky-Tonk at the Tower Bar on Sept. 7. The album will be released only as a vinyl LP-ignoring the CD format much as locals South Psycho Cide and Genius of Soul recently have done. “Vinyl is the wave of the future,” Rasmussen optimistically remarked. “It sounds great, and the packaging is much better.” Adding to the recent spate of local-band reunions, Rasmussen's '90s rockabilly-swing group, The Sleepwalkers, will also perform a short opening set. www.myspace.com/sandiegoactionandy.

Indie-rock overachiever Rob Crow is working on his next solo album, tentatively titled Living Well. The disc will be released on the Temporary Residence label. www.temporary residence.com.

The next Acoustic Alliance event-set for Sept. 9 at Brick By Brick-will feature artists performing round-robin, including Dave Howard, John Katchur, Joe Rathburn, Shea Stratton, Julia Othmer, Hargo, Ephraim Sommers, Shea Stratton, Angela Patua, Brian Holwerda, Kellis David, Rachel Bellinski and Josh Damigo. But for this show, each set will begin with a reading by CityBeat “Sordid Tales” columnist, Edwin Decker, with music from funk band Siko closing out the night. www.listenlocalsd.com.

On Sept. 12, The Album Leaf drops their new disc, Into the Blue Again, via Sub Pop Records. Although the recording is solely the work of Jimmy LaValle, for the CD-release party on Sept. 15 at The Casbah, he'll be joined by his band that includes guitarist Drew Andrews (Via Satellite), violinist Matthew Resovich, drummer Timothy C. Reece and visual artist Andrew Pates. www.thealbumleaf.com.

Anya Marina's “Miss Halfway” is included on Grey's Anatomy: Volume 2, the second soundtrack issued for the hit TV show. Hollywood Records will release the album on Sept. 12. www.anyamarina.com.