Julia Sage
Monette Marino
Jesus Gonzalez
Fridays, May 16, 23 & 30; June 6, 2025
7:30 PM
The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library is pleased to present the 2025 spring season of the Acoustic Evenings concert series, beginning May 16. The Acoustic Evenings series at the Athenaeum showcases some of the finest acoustic musicians in San Diego. Multiple acts fill each program, and attentive audiences delight in the intimacy of the unplugged storytelling format. San Diego Music Hall of Fame founder Jefferson Jay organizes and hosts the series. The project advances the Athenaeum’s commitment to support diverse San Diego talent. Acoustic Evenings is an unforgettable and personal experience for San Diego music lovers. The series, continuing through June 6, is set in the Athenaeum’s Joan & Irwin Jacobs Music Room.
Friday, May 16, 7: 30 PM
This concert is underwritten by the Sleet Music Performance Fund in memory of San Diegans Don Sleet (jazz trumpeter), Marshall Sleet (band leader and composer), Anna Mae Sleet (vocalist), and Jeffery Sleet (concert cellist).
The series opens on Friday, May 16, with Wax, Cindy Lee Berryhill, and Gayle Skidmore. Gold-record recipient Wax is mostly known as a rapper with millions of views on YouTube to show for it. He is also a producer, songwriter, singer, and comedian. A founding member of the New York City Anti-folk movement, Cindy Lee Berryhill emerged as a distinctive voice in alternative music in the late 1980s. With a legacy of critically acclaimed albums, she continues to inspire with her signature mix of folk, rock, and social commentary. Seven-time San Diego Music Award nominee Gayle Skidmore has written over 2,500 songs since she began composing at age 8. A multi-instrumentalist trained in classical piano, Skidmore has mastered over 20 instruments and blends folk, pop, and classical influences into her award-winning songwriting.
Wax
Wax is primarily known as a rapper but is also a producer, songwriter, singer, comedian, and all-around creative force. He has been making music for many years now and has a gold record and millions of views on YouTube to show for it. His songs have a wide range of styles and cater to many different types of audiences. Some are advanced technical displays of rap wordplay, some are heartfelt tales of struggle, and some are inspirational numbers containing optimistic advice and/or guidance. His new album, Lifetime Achievement Award, is a groovy, introspective, and eclectic masterpiece guaranteed to knock your socks clean off.
Cindy Lee Berryhill
San Diego Music Hall of Fame member Cindy Lee Berryhill emerged as a distinctive voice in alternative music during the late 1980s. Her 1987 debut album, Who’s Gonna Save the World? (Rhino Records), featuring the popular track “Damn, I Wish I Was a Man,” was praised for its straightforward and humorous approach. Her career has been characterized by provocative lyrics, compelling melodies, and extensive touring alongside prominent acts like Peter Buck (REM), David Lindley, and The Smithereens. She was a founding member of the New York City Anti-folk movement, which inspired Beck, Michelle Shocked, and others. Her influence grew through her involvement in diverse musical ventures and collaborations such as those with Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), who produced her second record.
Berryhill’s third album, Garage Orchestra (Cargo Records), released in 1994, marked a departure into Tin Pan Alley meets Beach Boys meets Patti Smith–inspired compositions, highlighting her musical versatility. Her politically charged song “When Did Jesus Become a Republican?” gained considerable attention in 2006 after being prominently featured on Neil Young’s Living with War Today website. Her music has served as a means to navigate personal challenges and connect with audiences, particularly evident in her albums Beloved Stranger (2008) and The Adventurist (2017), which reflect on her late husband’s legacy and her own life moving forward.
Gayle Skidmore
A born songwriter, seven-time San Diego Music Award nominee Gayle Skidmore has written over 2,500 songs since she began songwriting at the age of 8. Her natural ability and innate passion for music made her career inevitable, and her tumultuous life has given her plenty of inspiration. Translating her experiences into song has been more than just personally fulfilling. She won Best Pop in the 2015 San Diego Music Awards, Best Pop Album for Sleeping Bear in 2014, and Best Singer-Songwriter in 2013. Classically trained on the piano from the age of 4, she plays over 20 instruments, including the mountain dulcimer, banjo, folk harp, and balalaika.
Friday, May 23, 7: 30 PM
This concert is underwritten by the Sleet Music Performance Fund in memory of San Diegans Don Sleet (jazz trumpeter), Marshall Sleet (band leader and composer), Anna Mae Sleet (vocalist), and Jeffery Sleet (concert cellist).
On Friday, May 23, the series continues with Jimmy and Enrique, Sue Palmer and Liz Ajuzie, and Walt Richards. Guitarist Jimmy Patton and percussionist Enrique Platas blend flamenco, Middle Eastern, salsa, calypso, Brazilian, and other world rhythms into their fiery, virtuosic performances. Their unique world-music style captivates audiences with intricate guitar passages and exotic percussive rhythms. Known as the Queen of Boogie Woogie, Sue Palmer has been a force in the San Diego music scene for over 30 years. Inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame, Palmer teams up with powerhouse vocalist Liz Ajuzie, whose dynamic voice perfectly complements Palmer’s electrifying piano playing. An expert in guitar and banjo, Walt Richards has been performing and teaching music for over 50 years. He has worked with numerous musical groups, participated in live theater productions, and even won an Emmy for his television work.
Jimmy and Enrique
Guitarist Jimmy Patton and percussionist Enrique Platas have combined their talents to form this award-winning duo. Their music can be described as having an international flair as they incorporate flamenco, Middle Eastern, salsa, calypso, Brazilian, and other world rhythms into their compositions and arrangements. Their musical collaboration has created a unique, fiery world-music style that has captivated audiences from all over. Listeners will experience virtuosic guitar passages accompanied by exotic percussive rhythms, which together produce a sound that will grab your soul.
Sue Palmer and Liz Ajuzie
Known worldwide as the Queen of Boogie Woogie, Sultana of Swing, and Lady Who Skates on the 88s, Sue Palmer has been a presence on the live music scene in San Diego and the world for over 30 years. She was inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame in 2018, had a day named after her by the city in 2008, and won numerous San Diego Music Awards for her bands and albums. Liz Ajuzie is a captivating, powerhouse vocalist who has blended masterfully with Sue Palmer in their collaborations in recent years
Walt Richards
Walt Richards began performing on guitar while still in high school. Within a year he had added banjo, soon becoming one of Southern California's best-known players, with multiple wins at Topanga in the 1960s and 70s. He also toured nationally with the Eddystone Singers and the Appalachians in the 60s. Although offered other opportunities related to his degree, music kept drawing him back and he started teaching guitar and banjo at a San Diego music store in 1963.
Walt is celebrating over 50 years of playing and teaching music in the San Diego area. As a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, he has worked with many diverse musical groups, including doing studio work and live theater (The Old Globe and Starlight theaters in San Diego), besides being a solo and group performer. Earlier work for television earned an Emmy for Walt and partner Vickie Cottle. His most recent television credits include train songs sung for a documentary originally commissioned by Disney.
Friday, May 30, 7: 30 PM
The series continues Friday, May 30, with Tim Flannery, Lisa Sanders and Brown Sugar, and Ashley Norton. A celebrated singer-songwriter with 14 albums to his name, Tim Flannery blends bluegrass, country, and rock into heartfelt narratives about love, travel, and life on the road. A three-time World Series champion coach with the San Francisco Giants, he and his wife also founded the Love Harder Project, a nonprofit with an anti-bullying focus. Lisa Sanders, an acclaimed singer-songwriter with influences spanning folk, pop, gospel, rock, and jazz, has collaborated with music legends like Bonnie Raitt and BB King. Performing with longtime duo partner Karen "Brown Sugar" Hayes, the two bring soulful harmonies and masterful storytelling to the stage. Singer-songwriter-guitarist Ashley Norton is the leader of the all-female Americana band Lady Psychiatrist’s Booth and creator of the popular all-female songwriter showcase Songbirds. Her performances feature original compositions and unique renditions of beloved classics.
Tim Flannery
It’s easy to think of Tim Flannery as a baseball man turned musician turned philanthropist. But in all honesty, all of these aspects of his life overlap, making it hard to discern where one ends and another begins. Regardless which role he’s in, Tim “Flan” Flannery is a storyteller and one of the last of the old dogs.
Flan has released 14 albums. His 2019 release, The Light , presents 11 tracks of original music drenched in real life experiences that have led Flan through darkness, pain, and disappointment to find peace and hope in today’s sometimes confusing human climate. The Last of the Old Dogs, released in 2017, gave life to new stories about the characters he’s met over the years on the road, while also delivering important messages about love, work, being an outlaw, and knowing when to fight for what you believe in.
With a voice as smooth as Kentucky bourbon and a heart worn on both sleeves, Flan’s performances ebb and flow with brilliant melodies and soaring harmonies. As a talented and prolific singer/songwriter, his music enjoys radio support across the planet, from the shores of Ireland to beach towns up and down the California coast, and he has been joined onstage by the likes of Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby, Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Weir and many others.
Lisa Sanders and Brown Sugar
Singer-songwriter Lisa Sanders has a distinct country/bluesy/Americana sound; her genres include folk, pop, gospel, rock, and jazz. The San Diego Music Hall of Fame inductee has garnered an extensive list of accolades as a recipient of San Diego Music Awards’ Best Acoustic Artist (two times), the San Diego Readers’ poll for Best Acoustic Artist, third-place for new folk in the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, The National Women's Association Living Legacy award, and the National Association of Professional Women’s Legacy Award. These achievements have given her the opportunity to open and work with musical legends, including the Truckee Brothers, Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Raitt, Al Green, BB King, and Babyface. Sanders and Karen “Brown Sugar” Hayes are a dynamic soulful, heartful singing duo with a gift for crafting wonderful songs and masterful storytelling. They have been together touring and recording as a duo for two decades, with Sanders singing lead and playing guitar, and Brown Sugar, who is a nurse by, lending her gift of sweet harmonies to song by night.
Ashley Norton
In addition to her solo act, singer-songwriter-guitarist Ashley Norton leads the all-female Americana band Lady Psychiatrist’s Booth and produces Songbirds, a popular all-female songwriter showcase. Her live shows consist of songs from all of her albums plus unique versions of covers audiences know and love!
Friday, June 6, 7: 30 PM
A One-Night Only Evening of Everything Acoustic Evenings Has to Offer
The series concludes Friday, June 6, and we are expanding from our traditional three songwriters’ format for the first time ever for a special celebration of music and love. There are so many great talents in and around San Diego. For one night only, explore an array of excellent artists all assembled to deliver songs of love to you. Enjoy Acoustic Evenings exemplified, featuring Lee Coulter, Julia Sage, Dave Booda, Monette Marino, Santiago Orozco, Jesus Gonzalez, Jefferson Jay, Bri Schillings, and Michelle Lerach. One night only—and leave with a few new favorite artists.
This show is dedicated to our friend Jamie Shadowlight.
Lee Coulter
Lee Coulter is a multinational, multiracial singer-songwriter blending folk, soul, rock, reggae, blues, and jazz-pop to bridge cultural gaps and uplift audiences. Born in Australia to a Vietnam War–veteran father and a Thai-Indonesian mother who survived political violence, Coulter's music reflects his journey navigating generational trauma and personal growth.
After winning a statewide songwriting competition in college, he pursued music full-time, moving to San Diego in 2006. As an independent artist, he achieved a #1 single on iTunes Australia and New Zealand in 2018, won Best Acoustic/Folk Song at the 2021 San Diego Music Awards, and earned recognition from Sirius XM. He has also opened for major acts and performed at TEDx events.
Beyond his original work, Coulter supports his career through live gigs at resorts, weddings, and corporate events, bringing passion and connection to every performance. As a single father and creative force, he continues to inspire through music, collaborations, and children's books, spreading messages of unity, resilience, and shared humanity.
Julia Sage
Julia Sage is a self-taught Chilean musician and cantautora who has been writing, singing, and channeling songs for as long as she can remember. She started her professional career in her early teens and continues her musical journey to this day. Always trying to develop new skills and teaching herself new, unusual instruments, she fearlessly ventures into different melodic realms with an obsessive passion that, ironically, keeps her sane.
Dave Booda
Dave Booda is a writer, musician, and social entrepreneur. He has played over 1,000 shows as a singer-songwriter and has published over 250 essays for his blog, boodaism.com. He has led over 400 workshops on connection, touch, and relationships and has consulted for, facilitated experiences, and performed for companies, communities, retreats, festivals, conferences, birthday parties, weddings, funerals, and gatherings of all kinds—with the intention of inspiring authenticity, connection, and group cohesion. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and former naval officer and currently serves on the board of directors for the Foundation for Intentional Community while touring and living at different intentional communities in North America.
Monette Marino
Inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame in 2023, Monette Marino is a world-class percussionist. She began drumming at age 8 and has spent over 20 years studying under expert drummer Mamady Keïta from Guinea. In 1999, she earned her teaching certificate from Keïta and opened a branch of Tam Tam Mandingue in San Diego. She later received her diploma from Mamady Keïta and Tam Tam Mandingue in 2011. From 2004 to 2012, she managed Keïta’s world tours, assisted in teaching master classes, and performed with his ensemble, Sewa Kan, traveling to over 20 countries across six continents.
As a solo artist, Monette released her debut album, Coup d’Eclat, and founded her own percussion school, MO’RHYTHM. She also developed the iPhone MoRhythm Africa Djembe/Dunun Play Along app.
Before focusing on West African percussion, Marino studied rhythms from Cuba, Brazil, and Korea. Her repertoire spans jazz, salsa, samba, reggae, funk, disco, R & B, rock, and country. Passionate about drumming traditions worldwide, she honors the cultural heritage passed down through rhythm.
Santiago Orozco
“It's about getting to know yourself, finding yourself,” says singer-songwriter Santiago Orozco, a Bogotá, Colombia, native who has spent the last decade discovering himself living in coastal Southern California and on the road. In 2015, Orozco relocated from San Diego to Los Angeles and, two years later, revived his award-winning outfit, Todo Mundo, which was voted Best World Music group at the 2011, 2014, and 2015 San Diego Music Awards; winner of NPR’s 2015 Tiny Desk Contest; and recognized by the City of San Diego's Commission for Human Relations in 2014 for spreading diversity through music—in an evolved and reinvigorated incarnation: WITHN.
Incorporating electronic elements into Orozco’s well-established acoustic guitar sound, WITHN draws inspiration from house rhythms, Caribbean moods, Spanish rumba, reggae, and Brazilian, Balkan, and Middle Eastern grooves while maintaining a solid foundation of relatable music meant to be experienced live and in person. Orozco, for the first time, sings entirely in English, a decision he made to better connect with his audience in person and through WITHN’s 2018 album, Colors + Moments.
Orozco has also performed at Lightning in a Bottle, Joshua Tree Music Festival, South Africa’s Smoking Dragon Festival, River Fest, and Kaaboo Del Mar and has supported international and national touring artists, such as The Roots, The Wailers, The San Diego Symphony, Fred Wesley, Mike Love, Los Amigos Invisibles, JJ Grey & Mofro, Lucinda Williams, Richard Thompson, Sister Nancy, Chris Isaak, Aterciopelados, Jarabe De Palo, Vokab Kompany, The Bunny Gang, and El Gran Silencio.
Jesus Gonzalez
Jesus Gonzalez is a visionary local San Diego musician who draws inspiration from nature, poetry, and the overall experience of being alive. Jesus creates original and improvised songs that invite you to be present with your heart and the magic of the moment we’re all living in. In a recent interview with NPR’s Top Shelf artists series, Jesus said, “At the core of it all, I think my music is simply shouting ‘Can you believe we’re all here?!’” Using a looper, Jesus creates layers of soulful vocal harmonies, different instrumentation, and percussion to create vast lush sounds that are sure to help you fall deeper into your sense of self.
Jefferson Jay
Jefferson Jay founded Acoustic Evenings at The Athenaeum in 2008 after completing his master’s thesis at San Diego State University on the library’s history. He has since founded the San Diego Music Hall of Fame and a nonprofit organization aimed at disability rights called Everybody One. He created a fully inclusive animated holiday musical series, called The Hunt for the Holiday Spirit, to advance authentic representation in the media and has just released his 15th album, Engagement. He would love to connect and discuss any or all of this with you!
Bri Schillings
Singer-songwriter Bri Schillings says, “I write, sing and play songs that are born from the heart.” She feels that music has the power to heal through what she calls “soul vitamins.” Her seductive and powerful voice will take you on a journey where the heart and the soul meet.
Michelle Lerach
Michelle Lerach is a lawyer and advocate who sang her way through college in a piano bar, but music has been a defining force in her life from early childhood. She formed her first band as a vocalist in sixth grade, then studied violin and viola before switching to guitar in junior high. She wrote and recorded her first original songs while in college and was initiated into the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha. Her life and career took her in a different direction, but she credits Jamie Shadowlight with bringing music—and the incredible musicians she is performing with tonight—back into her life.
The concerts will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for these events. Your name will be on an attendee list at the front door. Doors open at 7 p.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. Priority seating will be given to Donor level members and above.
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