Deborah Crooks

Hear our new EP Beyond the Safe and Sound out today. Six new songs reflecting on a year like no other:

1. What to Do When the Lights Go Out (3:21) 

2. 103 Degrees (4:43) 

3. Enough (3:48) 

4. Beyond the Safe and Sound (3:16) 

5. Masked Marauders (3:59) 

6. Everything Adds Up to Now (2:37) 

All songs Deborah Crooks & Kwame Copeland (ASCAP) except Masked Marauders by Deborah Crooks, Kwame Copeland and Karen Hildebrand. 

Kwame Copeland, vocals, acoustic and electric…

I grew up in a then-rural area with a party line and two-and-a-half channels on the TV (one rarely got decent reception). The lights went out every time there was a storm and the internet was a distant planet. Books —a librarian-staffed bookmobile visited the nearest intersection every couple weeks for us to peruse its small shelves — local radio, what was outside and what sprung up in my imagination provided most of my entertainment.  Though I couldn't wait to get out there at the time, lessons learned…

There's so much to say about the one year anniversaries that have been ticking by this past week. Today though, I'll keep it short and let you know about a string of upcoming performances I'm doing to round out the month. Tomorrow, Friday, Bay Station returns to playing a weekly porch concert (yes, a year to the day from our inaugural safe-social-distancing porch show in 2020). Next weekend, March 27, I'm part of another Quaranpalooza Fest, and I'll close out the month with a turn at Sisters in Song. More…

Check out this lineup and pick up your tickets HERE for the March edition of QuaranPalooza We're making music online to help get us through this pandemic. Get a ticket and join us to help us raise money for Bay Area Cancer Connections. 

Sat, March 27, 2021  4:00 PM – 9:00 PM PDT 

The show will feature : 

Sara Rodenburg 4-4:10 pm 

Mjoy 4:15-4:25 

The Eastern Highs 4:30-4:55 

Frances Ancheta Becker 5-5:10 

Amalgamation 5:15-5:30 

David Jesitus 5:35-5:45 

Dawn Ellerbeck 5:50-6 

Deborah Crooks 6:05-6:20 

…

Hot off the presses! Spring Issue of the Bay Station Eagle has landed. A hyper-local, pocket-guide size, print quarterly penned by local residents and reflective of the Bay Station corner of Alameda island past and present 

In this issue: 

• Like All of You by Chrissy Collins 
• Spring Favas by Vanessa Barrington 
• Jazz on Mozart by Bill Chapin 
• The Longest Year by Alice Lewis 
• Star Harbor Transforms Anew by Steve Gorman 
• The Benevolent Biome by Hugh Morgan 
• Small Gifts on Park St. by…

When I'm adrift in getting longer pieces done, I like writing "CNF Tweets", short, tweet-length flash fictions. Creative NonFiction ran a #CnfTweet challenge of sorts on the them of #TheHeart during the week before Valentine's Day. I submitted several, one of which — my entry from Feb 10 — I was pleased to see made it into the magazine's newsletter. 

Here's my "suite" of CNF Tweets on the the subject:

• Feb 8 The Indian scholar’s face beamed onscreen alongside 24 other animated squares holding eager…

Hello there, 
It feels like spring in these parts: magnolia blossoms are bursting from branches, birds are nesting, and it's warm enough to play music on the porch again. Last year's porch shows really carried us through much of 2020 and we're glad to get back to it this month. Plus, Bay Station has a new EP cued up for an April release. Dates and more information follow. Here's to a happier, healthier, new month! Take care there, Deborah

MUSIC 

New Bay Station EP Beyond the Safe and Sound 

Bay Station is…

FOLK UNLOCKED 

View Two Livestream Performances 

The last trip i took before sheltering in place was to New Orleans for the Folk Alliance Conference. We had an adventurous week of hosting a Love the Bay-inspired showcase room and taking in as much of NOLA as we could. Flash forward to 2021, and I'm pleased to share that I'll be performing twice as part of the Folk Unlocked Virtual Conference this coming week: Tues 2/23 and again as Bay Station on Thurs 2/25 6:30pm CT/8:30pm PT.  Usually, the in-person…

The first song I wrote was called “I Work in the Bakery.” I was five or six years old and I made it up because I thought I looked like a baker while getting out of the tub in my shower cap. My older sister transcribed it for me. It’s not particularly good, but I’ve never forgotten it: 
“I work in the bakery/I make cakes and pies/I work every day inside/I make bear claws and wreaths and pancakes for a feast/and on your birthday/when you can have anything you like/be sure to come here” 
As requested Kwame…