- Jim Bottorff's Banjo Page
- Remembering the
Marin Banjo Club
- And Cal's Steak
House
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- Return to Home Page & Songs
- Go to the bottom of this page
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- Overview &
Video:
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- The Marin Banjo Club performed
at Cal's Steak House in San Rafael, CA once a week from the late
1960's to the late 1970's.
- Some of the band members
and guest banjo players went on to become very well known in
the four-string banjo world.
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- Click here to play the Video (youtube)
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- Quotes From
Customers:
- From local and
Internet news sources.
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- "Cal's had guns and
wagon wheels on the walls and sawdust on the floor. One of my
favorite places as a kid!"
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- "Remember the big western
picture hanging in the dining area. It's now in the San Rafael
post office on D Street."
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- "We were 19 and 20
year olds (1974 or so) who could go there on Wed night, Banjo
Night, and get pitchers of beer - served at family-style tables.
- Banjo band was a big whoever-wants-to-play
band with kids, farmer types, grandmas, everyone..." (Michele
Boudinot)
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- Photos:
- Click on an image to enlarge.
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- Sing-Along
Songbook
Cal's Street View The
Ceiling Stuff
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- The
Late 1960's The
Early 1970's Stage
& Sketches - 1974
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- Cal's
second owner with Jim & Barbara A
Small Playout Jim
& Barbara
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- Banjo Club
Members:
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- Typical night
at Cal's Steak House in 1974.
- The hanging bucket
was for tips.
- See the text below
for names and information on the banjo players.
- First row left to right:
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- Scotty Plummer - About 14 years old. Became a"Banjo
Hall of Fame" inductee and movie star, appeared on Lucille
Ball show, and traveled with Liberace. Taught by Frank Vodich
and Larry Kennedy.
Dan Gomez - Excellent tenor player with strong melody.
Played with many bands.
Jim Raney - Band leader and lead plectrum player.
Pete Deetken - Excellent melody and rhythm lead plectrum
player. Became the first banjo player for the "Natural Gas"
jazz band.
Barbara Faustine - Strong single string, chord and melody player,
and singer. Winner of the "Death Valley Banjo Picking Contest"
10 years in a row.
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- Second row left to
right:
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- Keith Presting - Son of Russ Presting. Excellent plectrum
solo player.
Jim Bottorff - Plectrum & 5-string player. Later
became leader of the band in the late 1970's. Jim and Barbara
Faustine often performed together.
Dave Frey - "Banjo Hall of Fame" inductee.
Excellent plectrum player and teacher. Wrote the
"Ultimate Plectrum Banjo Player's Guide." Played
with many bands and Dixieland groups.
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- Top row left to right:
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- Wally Lewis - Comic relief for the band. Good banjo player,
always joking and clowning around. Popular with the audience.
Russ Presting - Excellent plectrum player and very well known
in the banjo community for buying and selling banjos with his
"Presting and Son" company.
Dave Hudnut - Played the plectrum banjo and musical saw.
Featured on the saw with the Marin band and became a regular
with the "Three Plectrums" banjo group.
- Unknown Player - A regular member of the band, I can't remember
his name.
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- Not Shown on the right:
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- John Faustine - Barabara's son, excellent electric bass player
and singer. Often played melody breaks on his bass and featured
on "Ring of Fire."
Lee Faustine - Barbara's son, excellent country style electric
guitar player. Often featured on "Wipe Out" and "Proud
Mary."
Howard Hoeflein - The first owners son and played the drums.
Howard was a California drum competition winner.
Dave Dell'era - Often substituted on bass for John Faustine.
- Clara Lamers - Great piano player, always there to help the
band.
- Tuba player - Don't remember his name.
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- "Banjo Night"
in 1974.
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- First row: Dan Gomez, Unknown player, Larry Kennedy,
Jim Bottorff standing, Jim Raney and Clara Lamers piano player.
- Top rows: Keith & Russ Presting, Unknown banjo
player, Dave Dell'era bass player standing at wall.
- The silver tip bucket was on a long chain. Bells,
whistles, drums and a siren would sound when tips were given.
- Parents would lift small kids up to put tips in
the bucket and then swing the bucket, lots of noise.
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- Guest Banjo
Players:
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- Many guest banjo players
would come and sit-in with the band. Some were from the
San Francisco Bay Area, others just passing through on travel.
- Following are a few of the
regular guests: Scotty Plummer, Dave Marty, Ralph Martin,
Charlie Tagawa, Brad Roth, Frank Vodich, Jack Convery, Steve
Peterson,
- Bill Carlson, Bo Bryant,
Claude Causley, Mark Rogers, Jimmie Min, Ed Rossman, Carl Lunsford,
Garry Kerr, Ed Turner.
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- Sound Clips:
- Click on a song name to
listen.
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- Avalon (Larry Kennedy)
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- Back On The
Texas Plains (Barbara
Faustine)
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- Cabaret (Scotty Plummer)
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- Cocktails
For Two (Tom Mason)
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- Four Leaf
Clover (Sing-Along)
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- Darktown
Strutters Ball (Sing-Along)
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- Limehouse
Blues / China Town (Larry
Kennedy)
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- Old Gray
Bonnet (Dan Gomez)
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- San Francisco
Bay Blues (Vocal)
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- Sweet
Sue (Scotty Plummer)
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- The above recordings were made on my portable
cassette tape recorder around 1975.
- These are the only known recordings of the Marin
Banjo Club.
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- Files:
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- Sing-Along
Songbook (pdf file)
- Includes words to 50 songs.
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- Menu
with photos of band and second owner (pdf file)
- Look at the prices on the menu!
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- The First Owner of
Cal's:
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- In the early 1970's, Dick Hoeflein
and his wife Gladys, formerly from Texas, owned and operated
Cal's Steak House in San Rafael.
- Later they operated "The Biggest
Little Flower Shop in The World" at the entrance of Spenger's
Fish Grotto in Berkeley.
- Their son Howard played the drums
in the band.
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- The Second Owner of
Cal's:
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- Cal's changed owners around 1975.
The second owner kept some of the steak house menu items and
added some Cantonese dishes.
- The band continued to play at the
restaurant until it was demolished as part of a San Rafael downtown
renovation project.
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- I started playing with the
Marin Banjo Club in 1973 and stayed until it ended in 1976 with
the demolition of the building.
- The sketch below is of me,
from the wall behind the stage. A customer did sketches
of each band member.
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- Happy Picking and Strumming,
- Jim Bottorff
- Return to top of this page