Ocean Beach has an incredible number of options when it comes to listening to live music, with such respected venues as Winston\u2019s Beach Club and Java Joe\u2019s among the local favorites. That said, one of the most popular spots to catch a set from area musicians is outdoors at the Ocean Beach Farmers Market. It\u2019s literally a spot in the street at the intersection of Newport Avenue and Bacon Street, with a small public address system for sound. Yet week after week, hundreds of San Diegans stop by and take in music from some of San Diego\u2019s best-loved musicians, courtesy of local producer, promoter and musician Michael Head. Guitarist in the Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels and owner of Head Trapp Studios, Head has been behind the farmers market music for the last three years. He will be performing with his band on Wednesday, Dec. 19, which also happens to be the final chance to donate canned food or unwrapped toys to the annual Ocean Beach Town Council\u2019s annual Holiday Food & Toy Drive before the Christmas holiday. “We will take donations right through the end of year,” Head said. “The bulk of the giving, however, will be before Dec. 25 with this the final big push before Christmas. But there is always ongoing generosity here in OB. Donations started a little slow but they are picking up overall. Every little bit helps.” After three years of coordinating the farmers market music, Head said he has things down to a science. “The hardest part about the FM shows is all the coordination and getting bands on same page,” he said. “It\u2019s all in the bands\u2019 best interest. I book 45-60 days in advance just so I never have to worry the week of, or really the month of shows. I get plenty of performers, more bands than spots available. But I eventually get to pretty much everyone who wants to perform.” Though the gig is relatively low key, it\u2019s begun to pick up notice nationwide. “We welcome bands from all over \u2014 not just OB or San Diego. Trevor Green is a regular and is from Huntington Beach. Other out-of-towners will hit me up when they are coming through. I try to accommodate a band that I think will do well.” Head points out that for this performance, the Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels will be ramping things up a bit. “We always have something special planned at a Rebel show; CD and T-shirt giveaways, artists sitting in, new covers to throw in,” he said. “Certainly with Christmas around the corner we will be in a giving mood.” Fans of the Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels can expect a handful of crowd-pleasing classics in the set. “We throw in a mix of covers and originals, depending on the crowd, and like to say we rip through the history of music,” he said. “We try to find less-worn covers that are still crowd pleasers. \u2018Money\u2019 by Pink Floyd is a good example lately \u2014 not many bands cover it and the crowd loves it. \u2018Rusty Cage\u2019 Johnny Cash-style is always big; we mash it with \u2018Voodoo Chile\u2019 by Hendrix to give it our own flavor. Other lesser-worn artists we like to cover are Link Wray and Freddie King.” He notes the band is in the midst of recording its third album. “We\u2019ve begun recording a new CD, “Ride Rebel Ride,” due out next summer,” Head said. “It is the third in a CD cycle concept singer Tristan Luhrs and I came up with over five years ago (the first two being \u2018Sketches of San Diego\u2019 and \u2018Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels).\u2019” While many bands struggle with plans for recording, Head and his bandmates are already looking ahead. “We have at least two more CDs mapped out \u2014 we are just trying to keep up with ourselves. We\u2019ve recorded a song called \u2018Too Rock for Country (and too country for rock),\u2019 which is sort of our band motto. We really like it and think it may have appeal.” Though the band has made an impact countywide, Head said he considers his Ocean Beach gigs special. “OB is like an idyllic artist community by the beach,” he said. “The people there just really appreciate and good song, a dynamic artists a great performance. I stage shows right on the streets of OB and it\u2019s one of the most gratifying crowds you could ever imagine. They just appreciate it because Obeceans \u2018get it.\u2019” Head concedes coordinating all his musical doings can get hectic, but he said it\u2019s a life he loves. “I do enjoy working at the market,” he said. “I often liken it to working with the circus. It ain\u2019t for everybody, but for some of us, it\u2019s the only place we belong.” \u2022 The Country Rockin\u2019 Rebels perform at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 19 at the Ocean Beach Farmers Market. All ages. www.oceanbeachsandiego.com\/events\/farmers-market-wednesdays<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ocean Beach has an incredible number of options when it comes to listening to live music, with such respected venues as Winston\u2019s Beach Club and Java Joe\u2019s among the local favorites. That said, one of the most popular spots to catch a set from area musicians is outdoors at the Ocean Beach Farmers Market. It\u2019s […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":282351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"OB Farmers Market musical madness to tout holiday food, toy drive","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}