Rock & roll bands | Mill Valley Public Library

A local rock group, the Kustom Keys, 1950s - Print, Photographic

MVN1408

Record Type: Photo

Oral History of Bill Champlin - Oral History

In this oral history, musician and raconteur Bill Champlin vividly recounts a life devoted to music, one fundamentally shaped by his experience growing up in Mill Valley. Born across the bay in Oakland in 1947, Bill moved with his mother and two sisters to Mill Valley when he was 12 years old. Rock n' roll and R&B were sweeping through Marin in the 1960s, and Bill describes his total immersion in the local music scene, even while still a student ...

Record Type: Archive

Oral History of Charlie Kelly - Oral History

In this oral history, Marin County polymath Charlie Kelly recounts a life coterminous with the "greatest bicycle adventure of the 20th century." Born in 1945, Charlie grew up in Mill Valley and attended Tamalpais High School. After graduating from Tam, Charlie briefly attended College of Marin before enlisting in the Army, where he served for two years in the mid-1960s. When he returned to Mill Valley in 1968 he began working as a roadie for the ...

Record Type: Archive

Oral History of Jimmy Dillon - Oral History

In this musically infused and engagingly narrated oral history, guitarist, songwriter, and musical educator Jimmy Dillon recounts his devotion to music since the age of 12 when he decided he wanted to be a guitarist. Born in 1951 in Los Angeles, "in the golden age of rock 'n' roll," Jimmy moved to Michigan with his family as a teenager, where he started gigging with his first band, The Fugitives. In 1969, after finishing high school, he moved bac...

Record Type: Archive

Oral History of John Goddard - Oral History

Born and raised in Marin, John Goddard had an active Mill Valley childhood, participating in numerous clubs and sports. His love for music also blossomed at this time. He began working at the local music store, Village Music, as a teenager. At the age of 24, John took over the store. Under his ownership, Village Music transformed into a hotspot for local and international celebrities, such as Grateful Dead band members and George Lucas, as well a...

Record Type: Archive

Oral History of Larry Cragg - Oral History

In this oral history, guitar repairman and multi-instrumentalist Larry Cragg recounts a life engaged in two of the most important cultural scenes that took shape in Mill Valley during the 1970s: music and mountain biking. Born in Chicago in 1948, Larry first came out to California in 1967 for the Monterey Pop Festival. He recalls experiencing a powerful sense of belonging on that visit, prompting him to make the permanent move west later that sam...

Record Type: Archive

Oral History of Marty Balin - Oral History

In this oral history, musician and songwriter Marty Balin shares stories from his life at the center of the rock music scene and hippie culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Born in 1942, Marty grew up in both San Francisco and Richmond. He describes himself as having been a very musical child, born with "a song in [his] heart." Marty began his musical career in the San Francisco folk scene. When the clubs he was playing at in the early 1960s did not s...

Record Type: Archive