Friends of musician Fred Drake meet at the Joshua Tree Saloon on Friday (9/11) to celebrate 25 years of his album ‘Twice Shy’
Fred Drake was an American musician who moved from L.A. to the hi-desert in 1992, where he became co-founder of the legendary Joshua Tree recording studio Rancho De La Luna and member of the group Earthlings?, both with Dave Catching.
“I got a call from Fred asking if I wanted to start a studio with him and I said yes, even though I just started a restaurant in New Orleans. I knew that doing something with Fred would be amazing, so we started the studio together and then eventually I moved back, and we started doing a lot of work in the studio. We started a band called Earthlings? and we were writing a lot of music together,” said Catching.
During his nine years at Rancho, Drake recorded with a ton of local and international luminaries, including Victoria Williams, Ted Quinn, Joe Garcia, producer Daniel Lanois, and Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme who produced the coveted Desert Sessions series.
Drake is often credited for helping create “the desert sound”: a reverb-drenched surrealist take on American roots music found on Drake’s solo masterwork Twice Shy, released in 2001. Upon the album’s completion, Drake had planned its record release at the Joshua Tree Saloon on September 11 that same year, but the tragic events in New York City dampened the celebration.
“I do remember that day because I was in Los Angeles rehearsing with Mark Lanegan for a tour. I remember that I woke up and saw everything going down on TV and I remember calling Fred just to say hi because I was just getting ready to leave for Europe with Mark, and he was in disbelief about his album coming out at the same time that everything happened that morning,” said Catching.
Catching encourages everyone to join him and other friends of the legendary Fred Drake to listen to this seminal desert record as it was intended outside under the California stars.
“I just want to say how much I miss Fred. I live at Rancho de la Luna so I’m with Fred every day. Everywhere I look is a reminder of how amazing and wonderful he was as a person, and we still have the music that we recorded together so I just miss him every day but he’s also here. We all disappear at some point and go to another place so I think it’s just gonna be great that everybody can get together at the Saloon; that was a place that we used to love to go. Hopefully a lot of people will show up and celebrate,” said Catching.
The event is free and open to the public in the Joshua Tree Saloon patio from 7:00-8:00 p.m. Fred Drake’s Twice Shy CD’s will be available on a sliding scale donation while supplies last with all proceeds going to American Wild Horse Conservation. The album will also be available for the first time on all major streaming platforms.
