Last Friday, singer-songwriter JonEmery Dodds stood in the back of Armadillo Music in Davis, waiting to see if his latest promotional experiment would equate to the perfect needle drop.
Dodds, who co-hosts โThat California Soundโ on 95.7 KDRT FM, has been trying to think outside the box when it comes to bolstering the Sacramento areaโs entertainment scene.
On this February night, heโd recruited Damon Wyckoff and Josh Lacey of the band Forever Goldrush to perform a duet in Armadilloโs pinched labyrinth of vinyl records. The show was presented under the banner of Doddsโ Left of the Dial Promotions. Wyckoff and Lacey were hauling guitars onto a small riser between Armadilloโs beer taps and poster-plastered walls.
As customers wandered in, the pair hit the opening notes to their song โThe Road,โ an acoustically-spurred mustang charge over scorched memories of youth. Even without bass and drums, Wyckoff and Lacey kept up their relentless guitar work to pursue something elusive in the room, which quickly started capturing peoplesโ attention. The sales floor filled up, and Left of the Dial had a full crowd on its hands, one whose members watched and listened while sipping ale, glancing at portraits and thumbing through records from the 1930s to the 1990s.
โMan, Iโve listened to that one a hundred times,โ Wycoff said through his microphone to a college student examining the Smithsโ self-titled album. โYou should get that for sure.โ
With each song Forever Goldrush finished, the applause got increasingly louder.
Dodds only had a week to organize this event. He wasnโt sure how many music-lovers could fit into a downtown Davis record store, or would even stay for a full show. By the time Wyckoff and Lacey got to playing โUnknown Territory,โ he had his answer โ 35 patrons and one lounging dog.
Testing concepts around performance spaces is part of Doddsโ plan to create a regional tour route for local musicians, one stretching from Nevada City and Placerville in the east to Concord and Pleasanton in the west. Between being a 20-year musician himself and constantly interviewing other bands on โThat California Sound,โ Dodds knows that itโs pretty tough out in the six-string trenches these days.
Sacramento-area musicians generally want to grow their audiences through shows, and while many are good enough to land gigs in different parts of the country, embarking on those kinds of odysseys is easier said than done. Some artists have day jobs they canโt get away from. Others have to contend with raising kids. There is also a risk of monetary loss intrinsic to indie touring, especially when things go off the rails at distant venues the performer knows little about.
For Dodds, the answer โ on some level โ is establishing a wide regional network of venues that are more practical for area musicians to hit; In essence, a mini-tour route from the Sierra foothills to the East Bay. He acknowledges itโs a work in progress, but he is determined to keep identifying connections that could make this constellation of venues a reality.
โI love the concept he has,โ Lacey said after his night at Armadillo. โA lot of people come up with good ideas, but usually they donโt do anything with them. Jon is one of those people who does more than just sit around dreaming things up, he actually goes out and makes things happen. Thatโs pretty rare.โ
Wyckoff and Lacey have been playing together since high school. This was far from their first time performing in the city of Davis. Nevertheless, Armadillo Music was a unique enough doorway to the community that new faces got to see them that evening. For Dodds, thatโs a win.
โThis is a town that has a lot of opportunity for everyone,โ Dodds reflected. โThe end game is building a corridor through here out to Contra Costa County. There are so many different kinds of live music acts that can bridge that gap. The truth is, a lot of musicians canโt even tour up and down the West Coast. But if we can give them a small, three-day corridor of venues to book every once and awhile, then that would be creating something that this area really hasnโt had before. โฆ Itโs a matter of making it viable and mutually beneficial to everyone.โ
Dodds is partly mapping this corridor by driving out to any small town โthat wants live musicโ and meeting with its business owners.
.โI love his grass-roots approach, and I love his support of the region and his enthusiasm,โ Wyckoff said of Dodds, excited to see how Left of the Dial Promotions develops. โAs far as tonight, what better place to have a show than a record store that serves beer? For me, being able to geek-out on records while Iโm playing is a blessing and a curse for me. And when youโre doing a duet, a place like this also gives you those special kind of moments when the space gets silent and everyoneโs kind of in the moment together. Itโs a little more poignant.โ
Left of the Dialsโ next show is in Davis on Feb. 27, this time with songstress Jessica Malone taking the stage at Watermelon Music. That is another unique venue for fans โ a musical instrument store, rehearsal space and concert hall all rolled into one.
โWeโre excited to be working with Left of the Dial because it gives us an ongoing concert series and a way to highlight our performance space here, which we think is the best sounding space in all of Davis,โ said Brian Aguilar, a longtime employee at Watermelon.
Aguilar also noted that Doddsโ efforts are helping correct a certain narrative about Watermelon,
which has been a fixture in the city since the 1970s. The issue started after the music bastion was battered by the financial chaos of the pandemic. In May of 2024, Watermelon sent shockwaves through the area by announcing it was going to have to close its doors. But Aguilar says that it eventually reconfigured its business structure and managed to avoid closing. However, almost two years later, not everyone in Yolo County has gotten the memo.
โDoing these shows with Left of the Dial is also going to be way of getting the word out that weโre still here and still serving the community,โ he stressed.
Tickets to LDPโs Jessica Malone show at Watermelon Music are $20 and can be purchased here. The performance starts at 7 p.m. Dodds says he hopes to announce several other venues in his developing regional tour route soon. Whichever town theyโre in, he says the mission will remain the same.
โItโs similar to our radio show on KDRT, where we only play local and regional music,โ he observed. โThat aspect of the show has driven a lot of performers to come to us, because weโre doing live, in-studio performances. Youโre really not getting that anywhere else. All of this is about trying to build something from the bottom up.โ
This story was funded by the City of Sacramentoโs Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, CapRadio, Capitol Weekly, Hmong Daily News, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review and Sacramento Observer. Sign up for our โSac Art Pulseโ newsletter here.
By Scott Thomas Anderson
