Maurice Tani Releases Two New CDs and Performs at Freight & Salvage Today

San Francisco veteran singer-songwriter Maurice Tani and Freight & Salvage in Berkeley announce a double CD release show TONIGHT, AUGUST 18 at 8:00pm. This show celebrates the simultaneous release of Tani's fourth and fifth albums: a new studio album, "Blue Line", and "Two Stroke", an album of acoustic duos and trios with bassist Mike Anderson and a variety of others.

Sunday, August 18
Doors 7:00p Concert 8:00p
Freight & Salvage
2020 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA
510 644 2020
http://thefreight.org

FREIGHT & SALVAGE SHOW DETAILS:
Maurice's August 18th special performance at Freight & Salvage will be primarily acoustic, featuring material from the two new CDs as well as the previous three. The set will begin with bassist Mike Anderson but joining in at various points will be English songstress Pam Brandon, jazz pianist Randy Craig and Ken Owen on the drums.

SHORT ARTIST BIO:
Born and raised in San Francisco, Tani was just a bit too young for the Summer of Love, but was still profoundly influenced by the California culture that gave the world country rock from the Bakersfield variety to psychedelic to the singer songwriter types.

Barely into his twenties and hungry for experience, he moved to central Texas to work the hardcore country, blues and rock circuit between Austin and Dallas, playing five sets a night, seven nights a week for months at a time, eventually making connections that led to his moving to New York City just as the punk rock scene of CBGBs and Max's Kansas City was exploding in Lower Manhattan. By 1977 he was back in San Francisco as punk, power pop and new wave was taking hold in the Bay Area and began a stretch of five years and four critically acclaimed albums with ex-Flamin' Groovies front man Roy Loney's band, The Phantom Movers.

Through the rest of the '80s and '90s, Maurice was the lead guitarist and a featured vocalist for Zasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra and Big Bang Beat, two large, 12-18 piece dance bands that gained worldwide exposure from a 2 hour PBS New Years Eve tri-mulcast (2 television stations with different views and FM stereo radio audio all broadcasting simultaneously) that was broadcast annually for many years on public TV around the US and Europe. ZPMO won the Bammy Award for Best Independent Album of 1985. After 15+ years of touring, Tani was ready for a change and made the decision to return to his roots in original music.

Since making the shift back to songwriting in 1999, Maurice has spent the past 13 years as an active part of the California alt-country/Americana scene. Fronting his own bands, Calamity & Main, 77 El Deora, he has produced a series of albums for himself and others. In recent years, with singer Jenn Courtney as his muse, central character and sparring partner, Tani has constructed a repertoire of rye humor and romantic ruminations.

TWO NEW ALBUMS:
"BLUE LINE", a new 77 El Deora studio album jangles some familiar nerves and scuffs up some new ground off the band's beaten path. From their lightest to their darkest forms, the songs are examinations on the conflict of the human condition. Deception, obsession, delusion, denial, damnation, renewal, redemption, mysticism, snake oil saviors, bad debts, cheatin', lyin', drinkin', dyin', broken hearts, shattered dreams, twangy guitars and tattered hearts.

As on previous outings, Tani alternately goes it alone and spars with female counterparts -long-time muse and collaborator Jenn Courtney and bluegrass and swing chanteuse Pam Brandon. Supported by a large cast of other musicians, the arrangements utilize every implement in the 77 El Deora toolbox from the finest scalpel to the largest hammers. From dark and serious tales of broken hearts and tortured souls to the band's trademarked TPO's, (Tani's affectionate acronym for his "Trailer Park Operettas"), filled with bad break-up lines and smart mouth rejoinders.

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