Pink is the New Black for Progressive-Bluegrass-Metal Band...
It's life imitating art imitating life. Pink Sabbath began after local singer, songwriter and guitarist Adrienne Pfeiffer and violinist and soprano Sharron Drake, now of the West Marin band El Radio Fantastique, met in the 1999 Marin Theatre Company production of Cowgirls, a short-lived musical that explored the culture clash between classical and country musicians in a small town.
The musical had a short run.
But it spun off a band—teaming the classically trained Drake with the self-taught Pfeiffer, who is passionate about all kinds of popular music—that has proved to have real legs.
"We had a great rapport," says Pfeiffer of her ex-bandmate. "We were both living in West Marin and vowed to get together to play music. She had a classical background and was unfamiliar with a lot of pop music, so we'd get together to play rock or pop. She brought a new ear to the proceedings. I would play songs [from] Ozzy Osbourne's heavy metal classic Blizzard of Ozz and she'd interpret them in a really great new way.
"Also, she has a great ear for harmony, so our flagship became our vocal harmonies."
The addition of Diana Lerwick, an alto singer and accordionist, rounded out the band's lineup.
"We'd all sit around my living room and play tunes while my son was sleeping," Pfeiffer recalls.
In 2005, Pink Sabbath (the name is a tongue-in-cheek homage to Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath) started playing around the Bay Area, including the kitschy Lucas-palooza in San Rafael. "Our shtick back then," Pfeiffer says, "was unexpected covers of hard-rock tunes: Billy Squire, Bad Company, AC/DC, Ted Nugent and, of course, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath."
That same year, the band released its eponymous debut, an album of mostly cover tunes.
Since then, the personnel has changed. Drake left to raise a family and violinist Marisa Martinez, of the alt-rock band Liar, joined the group. The focus shifted from cover tunes and pop parody to original songwriting grounded in alt-folk.
Those changes are reflected in the recent World Below, a CD that features seven originals by Pfeiffer and two more by Lerwick. Covers of Bob Dylan's "Valley Below" and the Grateful Dead staple "Morning Dew," along with a version of the traditional Celtic folk song "Blackwaterside," complete the playlist.
The album features Pfeiffer (vocals and guitar), Lerwick (vocals, accordion, flute), Martinez (violin, mandolin, sitar), Cindy Giuliani (bass) and Alexis Razon of Vinyl and Calmodee (drums and percussion).
"I'm really proud of this album and the way it turned out," says Pfeiffer, who recently left a position as development director and a morning DJ at KWMR-FM to help book acts at the Woods music venue in Mill Valley. "World Below is the culmination of a lot of years of songwriting and figuring it out and fleshing it out."
On stage, Pink Sabbath features a rotating cast, including Razon, Adam Berkowitz of Aram Danesh and the Super Human Crew and Dana Miller of Chrome Johnson. Tapping into the creativity of fellow musicians is one of the things that's kept Pink Sabbath fresh and vibrant.
"We've brought in a lot of special guests and made a lot of friends at gigs," Pfeiffer says. "Harmonica players, trumpet players, pedal steel players. My friend Danny Cao, who also plays in Vinyl, sits in a lot.
"Over the years," she adds, "people have had babies, gone away and come back. At this point, I'm probably the only constant, but it's really a pleasure to collaborate with all of these people who have come together to make up this band."
COMING SOON
Pink Sabbath performs Friday, June 18, from 5:30-8:30pm (with the Cosmic Shenanigans), at the Marin Country Mart at Larkspur Landing; and Sunday, June 20, from 5-8pm, at the Station House Cafe in Pt. Reyes Station. There is no cover charge for either show.
Whistle a few bars for Greg at gcahill51@gmail.com.
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