6th Ever LAOTS::Velaslavasay Panorama Theater

Velaslavasay Panorama Marquee!
Velaslavasay Panorama Theater

Evie Ladin
Old Sledge

For the past 5 years, the Friday Night Concert has been held at The Velaslavasay Panorama Theater. The theater presents to the community art forms that have been all but lost due to the technological advancements of our time and tucked away upstairs is a beautiful 360º painting of cold icy mountains. There’s a gorgeous garden in back and bunnies and the small theater inside is a perfect setting for an old-fashioned sit-down concert.

This year we had the honour of seeing Gene Burdo with Tom Sauber. Gene is a fantastic guitar player and singer of songs and it was pretty special to hear his old Gibson with Tom’s F-hole Gibson. They sounded like brothers. They also switched up the duets by inviting Patty Wolfe (Swingin’ Patty) up to fiddle. Twin fiddles or fiddle and banjo with Gene’s accompaniment was just lovely.

Next was Evie Ladin down from Oakland. As a banjo player, singer and dancer she has been part of the Stairwell Sisters for 10 years and has recently released a solo album, “Float Downstream” of original material rooted in an old timey sound. Her performance was centered around her new album and it was fantastic! Great stories and songs and dancing that had everyone hootin and hollerin’. We were also treated to a couple of harmony duets with Sabra from Old Sledge.

Ending our Friday night concert was Old Sledge from West Virginia. It helps if you have an in in the form of a sister–that is Sabra Guzman, Ben’s sister, to get such a sizzlin’ hot group out to Los Angeles. You’ve got Sabra on guitar and vocals, Chance McCoy on fiddle and vocals, Ben Townsend from The Fox Hunt on banjo and Jake Hopping on bass. Their set was on fire!  They cooked us good! Got some folks to their feet cuz they just couldn’t sit still. In addition to the flaming fiddle tunes, Chance and Sabra sang us some beautiful songs and ballads. They just released a new album, “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down,” that you MUST get!