chris darrow is (in my circles) the emperor of the inland empire; an axis of the claremont folk music community and prolific member of one of it’s most renowned artistic families. no documentary about the late 60’s -70’s so-cal music scene (20 feet from stardom, pbs’ troubadour, bbc’s laurel canyon, and more) is complete with out some choice chris commentary. generous and inspiring, chris is a multi-hyphenate: multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, session musician, member of several seminal southern california bands (kaleidoscope, nitty gritty dirt band to name just 2) and photographer.

this weekend i went to a reception to celebrate his show, Vanishing West, a selection of his photographs of signage and facades, the kind we take for granted until we look out our car window and see less and less of them, of these days. there are tons more photos in his archive that he intends to compile into a book.

cd, looking forward to that!

(excuse the glare, enjoy the pix!)

los guys, jp plunier with chris darrow at the reception for his show: Vanishing West, now on view

Monday – Friday December 7th – 11th – 9am – 1pm or by appointment
Friday December 11th – 6 – 8 pm
Saturday & Sunday December 12th & 13th – 12noon – 3pm
Monday – Friday December 14th – 18th – 9am – 1pm or by appointment
Claremont Heritage
840 N. Indian Hill Blvd. (office)
Claremont, CA 91711
T (909) 621-0848
www.claremontheritage.org 

here are just a few my fav darrow tracks, a soundtrack, if you will, for your own vanishing west road trip.  check out and enjoy more here

( toots?)