The Freight

JUST ANNOUNCED - Linda Tillery & The East Bay Allstars
78th Birthday Celebration | THU, SEP 3

Linda Tillery is a Grammy-nominated vocalist, percussionist, producer, educator, and cultural historian whose career spans more than five decades. Emerging from the Bay Area music scene in the late 1960s as a member of the psychedelic soul band The Loading Zone, she performed during the Fillmore, Winterland, and Carousel Ballroom era alongside artists such as Cream, Santana, Taj Mahal, Chuck Berry, and Big Brother and the Holding Company.

The East Bay Allstars:

Tammy Hall - Piano, MD
Ray Obiedo - Guitar
Kevin Goldberg - Bass
Leon Joyce Jr - Drums
Javier Navarrette - Percussion
George Brooks - Saxophone
Marina Garza - Trumpet
Danny Armstrong - Trombone

❤️‍🔥 JULY / AUGUST calendars are dropping soon! ❤️‍🔥

Illustration of Jeff Parker by Allison Filice ⚡️

We’re always looking for Bay-Area based illustrators to grace our calendar covers - DM us if you know who should do our next cover!

🏳️‍🌈 June at The Freight 🏳️‍🌈

🍓FRI, JUN 5 | 𝘔𝘖𝘋𝘌𝘙𝘕 𝘈𝘊𝘖𝘜𝘚𝘛𝘐𝘊 Natalie & Brittany Haas at The Freight
🍓SAT, JUN 6 | 𝘚𝘖𝘜𝘓 Booker T. Jones Saturday Night at The Freight
SUN, JUN 7 | 𝘚𝘖𝘜𝘓 Booker T. Jones Sunday Night at The Freight
🍓THU, JUN 11 | 𝘙𝘌𝘎𝘎𝘈𝘌 Third World + Kumar Fyah - A Tribute To Cat Coore at The Freight
🍓FRI, JUN 12 | 𝘎𝘖𝘚𝘗𝘌𝘓 Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir Juneteenth Celebration at The Freight
🍓THU, JUN 18 | 𝘈𝘔𝘌𝘙𝘐𝘊𝘈𝘕𝘈 Trillian Welch at The Freight
🍓SAT, JUN 20 | 𝘚𝘐𝘕𝘎𝘌𝘙-𝘚𝘖𝘕𝘎𝘞𝘙𝘐𝘛𝘌𝘙 Teresa Trull and Barbara Higbie Reunion, Album Release, and Birthdays Celebration at The Freight
🍓FRI, JUN 26 | 𝘉𝘓𝘜𝘌𝘚 Ruthie Foster at The Freight
🍓SAT, JUN 27 | 𝘚𝘐𝘕𝘎𝘌𝘙-𝘚𝘖𝘕𝘎𝘞𝘙𝘐𝘛𝘌𝘙 Iris DeMent at The Freight
🍓SUN, JUN 28 | 𝘚𝘗𝘌𝘊𝘐𝘈𝘓 𝘌𝘝𝘌𝘕𝘛 Pride at the Freight Curated by Vicki Randle

THIS WEEK at The Freight
🎟️thefreight.org

➞ WED, JUN 3 The Moth
➞ FRI, JUN 5 Natalie & Brittany Haas at The Freight
➞ SAT, JUN 6 Booker T. Jones Saturday Night at The Freight
➞ SUN, JUN 7 Booker T. Jones Sunday Night at The Freight

It's that time of year again. Nominate us for East Bay Express' 2026 Best of the East Bay: https://eastbayexpress.com/best-of-ballot/ #//

JUST ANNOUNCED - Chris Smither | FRI, NOV 13

🎟️thefreight.org

Folk-blues stalwart Chris Smither has been contemplating mortality throughout his decades of songwriting; at 80, he’s more convincing than ever” - New York Times

Having distilled his own signature sound of blues and folk for over 50 years and twenty records, Chris Smither is truly an American original. A profound songwriter, Chris continues to draw deeply from the blues, American folk music, modern poets and philosophers. From his early days as the New Orleans transplant in the Boston folk scene, through his wilderness years, to his reemergence in the 1990s as one of America’s most distinctive acoustic performers, Chris Smither continues to hone his distinctive sound. He has always traveled his own road and stayed true to his musical vision. He has developed and maintained loyal friendships over the years with kindred-spirited musicians like Bonnie Raitt, Jorma Kaukonen, and Tim O’Brien, while at the same time throughout his career been inspired by and inspiring to today's next-generation of musicians like The Suitcase Junket and Peter Mulvey. He may be best known for writing "Love You Like A Man" which Bonnie Raitt and, more recently, jazz great Diana Krall have covered. His music has been covered by numerous artists and featured in soundtrack albums, independent films, television, and commercials. Reviewers continue to praise his dazzling guitar work, gravelly voice and songwriting.

Sonny Rollins, the great “Saxophone Colossus,” has transitioned at the age of 95.

Widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential jazz musicians who ever lived, Rollins’ impact on music over the last seven decades is truly immeasurable. He received a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

Born in New York City to parents from the Virgin Islands, his best known song “St. Thomas,” is a nod to those roots, purportedly based on the traditional English tune “The Lincolnshire Poacher.” Just “St. Thomas” alone (which pianist Randy Weston recorded under the name “Fire Down There”) is worth a deep dive - with inherent lessons related to world history, the psychology of nostalgia, colonialism, immigration, war, regional pride, hunting, and class-based struggle, as well as the technical and creative aspects of arranging and melodic/harmonic re-contextualization.

Check out the 1986 documentary “Saxophone Colossus” for what is considered to be one of the definitive films on this legend of jazz. It is currently streaming for free on Tubi.

-PC Muñoz, Director of Programming