Click on http://www.wpkn.org/ to listen to GOTV!!!
I think Bobby & Ratdog go on at 10pm Pacific time tomorrow night?



YELPING on Sweetwater closing


Longtime club Sweetwater set to close Sept. 1
Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Longtime Mill Valley nightclub Sweetwater will close after this month, according to club owner Becky Steere. After many years of antagonistic relations with the building's landlords, the Aversa family, who operate the La Ginestra restaurant next door, the club will close Sept. 1 and the building will undergo major renovations.
"They wanted us out since Jeannie," said Steere, referring to previous Sweetwater owner Jeannie Patterson. "They wanted Jeannie out. But this time it's real. I asked about buying the building and they said it was very inappropriate for me to ask."
Fabio Aversa, spokesman for the family, said the building would undergo long-overdue repairs and maintenance and that Thom and Becky Steere knew about renovation plans since their lease expired two years ago. "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."
The tiny 90-seat bar at the end of the last downtown block on Throckmorton has been the home away from home for many Marin County rock musicians over the years. Bob Weir, Sammy Hagar, Maria Muldaur and others used to drop in frequently. Concert producer Bill Graham used to stop by the club for a drink on his way home.
There have been special performances at the club by neighbors such as Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana and Huey Lewis. John Goddard of Village Music, Mill Valley's long-standing record store, also closing this month, threw extraordinary parties at the club, including one memorable evening when Elvis Costello played with Jerry Garcia and James Burton, the famed guitarist who played for many years with the other Elvis.
The Steeres raised the alarm in 2004 when their lease expired and the Aversas raised the monthly rent to $10,000. At the time, the proprietors turned the club's 33rd anniversary celebration into an impromptu "Save the Sweetwater" rally, which ultimately resulted in the Aversas negotiating a new month-to-month lease.
"This time we've actually been served with papers by a lawyer," said Becky Steere. "And they think they're being nice by letting us stay to the end of the month."
Steere, who with her husband recently took over operation of the Larkspur Café Theatre, said Sweetwater was packed on Monday for open-mike night and that E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons dropped by to play. One local musician is circulating Save the Sweetwater petitions and has established a Web site ( http://www.savethesweetwater.com ).
E-mail Joel Selvin at mailto:jselvin@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle