|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Book Signing at Florey's Pacifca musican Dave Crimmen puts pen to hand and writes up some local history Born in San Francisco, Dave Crimmen grew up in Broadmoor Village, a subdivision built by the Stoneson Developement Corporation just after World War II in an unincorporated part of Colma. Crimmen lived in Broadmoor for 30 years. Now a very well - known singer, guitarist and composer in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, Dave's book "Broadmoor Village" $21.95, Arcadia Publishing (Images of America Series), celebrating the history of his hometown, has just hit bookshlves. This Saturday Aug. 28, 2 to 4 p.m., Florey's Books welcomes the public to Dave's book release and signing party. Crimmen's book defines Broadmoor's location for the many San Mateo County and San Francisco natives who have no idea where it starts and stops. "Imagine a square. On the north or top end of a square is Westlake Shopping Center." the good natured Crimmen begins. "On the south side of that square, directly opposite, is Westmoor High School. On the east side of that square is Daly City's City Hall and on the west side is an elementary school known as the Majorie H. Tobias Elementary School (formerly Vista Mar). Right in the middle of all that is Broadmoor." Back in the 1950s when Bay Area developers and cities looked to annex unincorporated areas, Broadmoor came under the annex "microscope" but chose to stand alone and unincorporated. "Eventually Daly City grew up around it." the author said, "and many people mistakenly think of it as a neighborhood of Daly City. But in actuality, the approixmately 4,100 people living in its 2 1/2 to 3 square mile vicinity live in their own community." Crimmen notes that when studying areas of Northern San Mateo County, there is a lot of confusion about certain areas of Daly City, verses unincorporated or incorporated areas of Colma, verses Broadmoor. "The Broadmoor Shopping Center on 87th and Junipero Serra, where the IHOP is, was never in Broadmoor." Crimmen clarified "That was built by the Stoneson Brothers on land that was annexed by Daly City in 1931. The Broadmoor Towing Service is listed in Daly City but is actually in Colma. The Westlake Car-wash is not in Westlake or Daly City. It's in Broadmoor and the Broadmoor Police Department is in Daly City." If one really wants to know if they are in Broadmoor or not, Crimmen said about a block or two west of Daly City's City Hall, where the street signs turn from blue to green with white letters, and the curbs go from square to round - you're in Broadmoor. The youngest of five, Dave is the son of Chief Petty Officer Otis A. Crapse and his wife Susan. His mom, whom he refers to as the "fighting Irish" was a singer in a Speakeasy back in the '30s. She loved to do torch songs. He credits her with being a big influence on his career as a songwriter. (Dave has composed music for movies and television and he is a frequent tune on college radio.) She used to say to her son "When Bing Crosby sings 'White Christmas' Irving Berlin gets paid". His Navy dad played guitar and sang for fun. However it was because of Dave's dad, that Dave wrote his first song at age 9. "I'm Cherokee on my father's side and as soon as I learned about the 'Trail of tears' - I wrote a song." Dave remembers his first guitar. It was a 4-string Mickey Mouse guitar he got when he was 3 and he gave it a whole lot of use. He was in second grade when he started taking formal lessons. His dad, a big time fan of country music, then called "hillbilly music" used to tune into local television channel KTVU to watch "Black Jack Wayne" Saturday morning before the Giants came on. There were all these famous country singers on that show and Dave's dad told his son, "Never mind those guys, watch the guy who can really pick out the notes." Dave's first rock 'n' roll inspiration was Elvis Presley period."Apparently when I was in my crib, my sisters would play records and whe an Elvis record came on I would stand up and shake the crib." "My genre is rock 'n' roll." Crimmen said (www.davecrimmen.com) "And the concept behind my music is unplug your brain, jump up and dance. I like the sound of guitars, the voices and there is something about the purity and freedom of the music from the 1950's - though they came pretty close when the Beatles arrived - of absolute joy." For the past seven years Dave and his wife Sharon Caren, a massage and reposturing therapist (sharoncaren.com) have lived in Pacifica and Dave has made it his business to bring Pacificans as much music as he can. Recently he played at the Pacifica Historical Society's 100th birthday party soiree for the Little Brown Church. He also shook out the bop at a recent Spindrift benefit with the cast of "Bye Bye Birdie." He played the Pacifica Chamber of Commerce "Hearts on Fire" event held at Pacifca's Park Mall in June. You can hear him amoung 11 artists (soloist and bands) on the recently released "The Best of Pacifca Volume 1" (local artists offer works to benefit PCT 26 and Pacifca Performances). He's played at Nick's, the Coastside Farmer's Market, Old Princeton Landing and the list goes on. His first vocal coach (Skyline College 1974) was the late Mildred Owen. Dave's latest record "Full Circle" is due in September. In writing his book on Broadmoor, Dave said there are so many people to thank but he would be remiss if he did not publicly thank, Edie Epps of the Visitation Valley Historical Project, Chief Greg Love Broadmoor Police Department and Ray Mogel at the San Mateo County Department of Public Works. "It's really another story how I came to write this story," Crimmen laughed "But I have to say that I really wrote it for the people who live in Broadmoor and don't even know they live in Broadmoor." Saturday, Aug.28, 2 to 4 p.m., Dave Crimmen will be at Florey's Book Co., 2120 Palmetto Ave. (www.floreysbooks.blogspot.com) to sign copies of "Images of America: Broadmoor Village." Also available through www.arcadiapublishing.com. -Jean Bartlett
My 3-year-old
daughter now yells "I want rock 'n roll" whenever
we go out in the car. That's because I listened to
Dave Crimmen's new song, "If You Said Yes," while
doing some errands with her. It's a snappy tune
with Crimmen sounding a lot like Elvis Presley and
my daughter loves it. (She hasn't heard a lot
of Elvis, so it was a new sound to her.) Dave
Crimmen will be a special guest on Channel 8's The
Bruce Latimer Show tonight. He'll be performing "If
You Said Yes," along with some other "rockabilly"
style songs. "Rockabilly is so old, it's new
again," says Crimmen, a Belmont resident who has
performed extensively in the Bay Area with the
group X-Tender (which has evolved into his own
back-up band). "I think people are tired of being
depressed by music. We've come around to the
time when people just want to dance and have a good
time." -Chris Hunter
Rock and roll is never as easy as it looks. Just ask the guys who make up the band called Xtender. "This incarnation has been together since December of last year," said Harry Mello, keyboard player and vocalist for the band. "But we've all been playing in this area for 15 years." With his shaved and shining head sitting behind opaque sunglasses, Mello is a vision of rock and roll caricature. He likes it that way, proudly listing the various pop looks he has cultivated over the years, from the gold chains of the 70's to the long hair of the 60's. Now, he's hoping that Xtender will make his look a familiar sight to rock fans. "I was in The Visitors in the 80's," Mello said. That band brought out an LP loaded with his original material and came close to snagging a record deal. Tony Ramos, bass player, guitarist and vocalist for the band, has also paid his dues on the circuit. With the group Dr. T-Bone, the Pacifica resident played up and down the Peninsula, developing a solid reputation and appearing at such local spots as the late Mark Savage's Vallemar Station. Xtender recently recorded an album-length collection of original songs on the Vergone label. Mello and Ramos hope the production will help them move from the bar-band level to the higher reaches of rock stardom. "We have five entities in the band representing five decades of rock and roll," said Mello. "We cover a wide spectrum of rock and roll styles with strong roots in 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's." Leif Carlson and Dave Crimmen both play guitar and sing for Xtender. They have a broad range of experience performing in the Bay area. Crimmen is a prolific songwriter whose work is being considered by the likes of Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. Sal D'Amato rounds out the band with his drums, bringing an equal amount of musical experience to Xtender. All of the members are locally based along the Peninsula. "We're a PG band," said Ramos, "and most of our songs are love songs with a few political ones, but we really put on a show. We jump around a lot." "We're all just regular people," said Ramos. "Three of us are technicians and Harry works at Candlestick Park." -Chris Hunter |
