In mid-June, the reunited Crawdaddys and Nashville Ramblers were the latest of our San Diego crowd to enjoy the hospitality of Spain. Both bands played the Go Sinner Go! festival in Toledo June 10 and 11, and the Crawdaddys followed up the next day with a surprise appearance at the renowned El Sol club in Madrid.
I’m grateful to Silvia Zadarnowski (spouse of Crawdaddys bassist Mark) for these photos of all three events and to musician and show organizer Eduardo Arriero Hernandez for answering my questions about the show and Spanish fondness for this San Diego scene.
Buy your tickets now for the Crawdaddys and the Unknowns at San Diego’s Casbah, Sept. 2-3!
What is your own involvement with the Spanish music scene? You have a band, and you’re an organizer of the Go Sinner Go! Festival. Can you tell me briefly about those and how long you’ve been part of the music scene over there?
I’ve played in bands since I was 17, and I’m 32… so half of my life!! I’ve played guitar and sung with Hollywood Sinners for 11 years and keyboard with Fumestones for one year. I started organizing concerts in Toledo, my home town, of national bands I liked, and I continued it in Madrid. I can try get my favorite bands from all around the world, spend some days with them and have fun!!
Mark Z. told me Go Sinner Go! is held on university property on the site of a former church that was central to the Inquisition. Can you tell me a little more about the history of the festival?
Yeah!! That’s true! This year, main room of the festival was a very old church in the historic center of Toledo.
Go Sinner Go started six years ago in Madrid. For five years, the festival stayed in Madrid, but this year we moved the festival to Toledo! Madrid have a lot of concerts and doesn’t need a festival.
We always try to get bands we really love and are difficult to see in Spain. We really want to make special nights, for us, for the bands and for the audience!
The Crawdaddys in Toledo, Spain:
Big in Spain: The San Diego/Spain connection!
Mark said you’ve been talking to Ron Silva (of the Crawdaddys and Nashville Ramblers) for at least three years about bringing the Crawdaddys to Toledo. How did all this finally come together, and when did the Nashville Ramblers become part of the show?
I don’t know why they didn’t before and I didn’t talk too much with Ron about that. I still remember when Ron told me, “I’m interested to do Go Sinner Go!” It was one of the best days for me!
I’m happy because they were fantastic on the stage and off stage too!!! Really nice people, every one of them!! Of course, Nashville Ramblers is one of my favorite bands, and if I got Ron Silva in Spain, I had to ask about them … Only two more plane tickets (Carl Rusk and Tom Ward) to see one of the best shows in my life!
The Nashville Ramblers in Toledo, Spain:
Were you involved with the bonus Madrid show by the Crawdaddys?
Yes!! I thought about Crawdaddys in Madrid from the first day, but I told nobody!! It had to be a surprise party, so I asked them about the surprise concert some minutes before the concert in Toledo, and they said YES!!!!
The Crawdaddys in Madrid:
Those of us who grew up in San Diego with the Crawdaddys, Nashville Ramblers and other beat groups are fascinated with European interest in our friends — especially the warm welcome they get when they tour Spain. Can you tell us your impression of the importance of that era of San Diego music … Crawdaddys, Nashville Ramblers, Tell-Tale Hearts, Morlocks, Manual Scan, Shambles and the rest? What excites Spanish audiences about these bands?
I can’t tell you so much … I love the West American bands. Their music is going directly to my heart, and I think lot of people feel the same here!
The Crawdaddys were the first band making what they did, Gravedigger V and Morlocks are the best garage records of the ’80s, obscure and raw garage!!!
I always think about San Diego in the ’80s like a paradise … and this is the reason I try to book all these bands in Spain, to see something of that period.
Editor’s note: Don’t forget! In their first San Diego appearances in 30 years, the Crawdaddys and Unknowns will appear at the Casbah, September 2-3, supported by an all-star cast of veteran San Diego talent. Tickets are available now from the Casbah site!
For years, I received email requests from kids in Spain, who wanted to know about the Crawdaddys and the Hedgehogs…
This was in the late nineties. Somehow I’d been tracked down by enthusiasts who knew of me being at these San Diego shows and involved in some way.
Sadly, I didn’t answer all of these. I hope I’m forgiven. I’m truly amazed at the dedication and interest that has continued to come out of Spain, for this corner of our obscure, if intense, musical moment.
The longevity of this interest is even more notable! There are fans abroad, who’ve pursued their interest in the Crawdaddys for longer a time than we had to look back towards the Pretty Things or Otis Redding, back in the day!
Here’s to Ron, Keith, Peter, Mark and Gordon, for sure. And here’s to kids in Madrid and Toledo, keeping to the best spirit of “atavism” -- a word for which I can still clearly remember Mr. Silva enthusiastically providing a definition, 29 years later.
Now, I GOTTA post this pic, somewhere…
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>>Now, I GOTTA post this pic, somewhere…
Jeremiah: Carl is amazingly spry!