Inside Sweetwater Saloon in Mill Valley 2004

Sweetwater Saloon was a bar and music venue located at 153 Throckmorton Avenue

Mill Valley, California Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mill Valley is lo ...

, with a 30-year history of live musical performances by the likes of

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In 1971, Raitt released her Bonnie Raitt (album), self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed Americana (mu ...

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence during the counterculture of the 196 ...

The String Cheese Incident The String Cheese Incident (SCI) is an American jam band from Crested Butte and Telluride, Colorado, formed in 1993. The band is composed of Michael Kang (acoustic/electric mandolin, electric guitar, and violin), Michael Travis (drums and percu ...

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...

and

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...

. There were typically at least 4 to 5 musical acts booked per week making it a popular local hangout. Sweetwater Saloon also featured an

open mike An open mic or open mike (shortened from "open microphone") is a live show at a venue such as a coffeehouse, nightclub, comedy club, strip club, or pub, often taking place at night (an open mic night), in which audience members may perform on ...

night on Mondays that occasionally featured surprise performances by well-known artists such as

Gregg Allman Gregory LeNoir Allman (December 8, 1947 – May 27, 2017) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was known for performing in the Allman Brothers Band. Allman grew up with an interest in rhythm and blues music, and the Allman B ...

Train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

and others.

Village Music Village Music was a record store in Mill Valley, California owned by John Goddard. It was nationally recognized for its extensive collection of old, rare and specialty records. Village Music was also known for its in-store performances and annive ...

, a nationally recognized independent record store also in Mill Valley held twice-yearly parties at Sweetwater by well-known musicians who were also Village Music store customers. A documentary film about Village Music, Sweetwater and the music community in Mill Valley,''

: Last of the Great Record Stores'' was released in 2012. After closing in 2007 it was reopened as Sweetwater Music Hall in 2012 by

Bob Weir Robert Hall Weir ( ; né Parber, born October 16, 1947) is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the group disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with the Other Ones, later known as the Dead ...

and his partners a few blocks away from its original location

History

Jeanie Patterson and her then-husband, Jay took over the Sweetwater Saloon in 1979. Jeanie Patterson retired as the owner on December 31, 1998, by selling it to Becky and Thomas J. Steere, an Autodesk project director. This original Sweetwater closed in 2007. In January, 2012 it was relocated to the Masonic Lodge across from Mill Valley’s City Hall. “For years, Sweetwater was the place many of us local and visiting musicians headed to when we were looking to play for fun, Well, our clubhouse is back — and it belongs to all of us. Woo-hoo — Mill Valley finally has its playpen back!”” said former Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, one of the investors in the new state-of-the-art venue at 19 Corte Madera Ave.

Documentary

'' Village Music: Last of the Great Record Stores'', a documentary film by Gillian Grisman and

Monroe Grisman Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

(daughter and son of

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

musician

David Grisman David Jay Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acousti ...

) debuted at the

Mill Valley Film Festival The Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) is an annual film festival organized by the California Film Institute. It takes place each October in Mill Valley, California, and welcomes more than 200 filmmakers, representing more than 50 countries, each ...

in October 2012. John Goddard, the owner of Village Music held twice-yearly parties at the nearby Sweetwater Saloon and invited his favorite blues and R&B performers to perform in front of packed invite-only guests. The concert film documents Village Music, Sweetwater, and the music community in Mill Valley in the late 60s through the closing of Village Music record store in 2007 and contains performances by

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and h ...

Nick Lowe Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in Pub rock (United Kingdom), pub rock, power pop and New wave music, new wave,John Sebastian John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter and musician who founded the rock band the Lovin' Spoonful in 1964 with Zal Yanovsky. During his time in the Lovin Spoonful, Sebastian wrote and sang some of the ban ...

, Dan Hicks,

Huey Lewis Hugh Anthony Cregg III (born July 5, 1950), known professionally as Huey Lewis, is an American actor and former singer-songwriter. Lewis sang lead and played harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News, until being forced into retirement due ...

, Pop Staples,

, and

with many performances at Sweetwater.

Recordings

The band

Hot Tuna Hot Tuna is an American blues rock band formed in 1969 by former Jefferson Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen (guitarist/vocals) and Jack Casady (bassist). Although it has always been a fluid aggregation, with musicians coming and going over the ...

recorded two live albums at Sweetwater in 1992 Live at Sweetwater, and Live at Sweetwater Two, featuring guest performances by local figures

and

Wavy Gravy Hugh Nanton Romney Jr. (born May 15, 1936), known as Wavy Gravy, is an American entertainer and peace activist best known for his role at Woodstock, as well as for his hippie persona and countercultural beliefs. Romney has founded or co-founde ...

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Television shot a documentary at the club on January 7, 1992 featuring John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt and

Eviction

In 2004, the establishment faced eviction by landlords who raised the rent to more than what the owners claimed they could pay. It was not disputed that the new rent was fair, and the owners of the Sweetwater entered into a month-to-month lease. In September 2007 Sweetwater closed because the landlord of the building found it necessary to renovate the somewhat run-down property and declined to offer the club terms for a new lease after the renovation's anticipated completion.Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle. ''Longtime club Sweetwater set to close Sept. 1''
August 9, 2007 The owners of the building were also the longtime owners of a very popular Italian restaurant next door that had been established in the 1960s. A spokesman for the family that owned the building and restaurant said at the time that the building would undergo long-overdue repairs and maintenance and that the new Sweetwater owners knew about renovation plans since their lease had expired two years previously. "We've been in this community for 45 years," he said. "If we wanted to throw the Sweetwater out, we would have done it a long time ago.".

Relocated

Becky and Thom Steere, the owners of Sweetwater in Mill Valley began operating the 100-seat cabaret-dinner theater Larkspur Cafe Theatre on July 1, 2007. On Saturday, January 21, 2012, four years and four months after the original Sweetwater ceased operations, it reopened as Sweetwater Music Hall, owned and operated by a new management and investor group and located in the recently renovated lower floor of Mill Valley's Masonic Temple (opposite Mill Valley's City Hall), held its inaugural music event, a "trade only" party featuring local musician Austin De Lone's band with guest performers including

Jerry Harrison Jeremiah Griffin Harrison (born February 21, 1949) is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and entrepreneur. He began his professional music career as a member of the band the Modern Lovers, before becoming keyboardist and guitarist for ...

(local resident and former lead guitarist for

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads

). The new Sweetwater Music Hall includes a full-service restaurant and on-site catering service.

References

External links

SweetWater Saloon .com NEWS
2007-07-13 archive.org
Larkspur Café Theater (aka) American Legion Post 313 500 Magnolia Avenue Larkspur, CA 94939

Sweetwater Station 500 Magnolia Ave Larkspur, CA 94939

2009-05-10 archive.org
Sweet Water Café , Sweet Water Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Avenue, Mill Valley, CA
{{Coord, 37, 54, 20, N, 122, 32, 56, W, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title Nightclubs in California Buildings and structures in Marin County, California Mill Valley, California Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area Music venues in the San Francisco Bay Area Food and drink companies based in California