Candye Kane, Charles McPherson among honorees at second San Diego Music Hall of Fame inductions and concert

Charismatic vocal dynamo Candye Kane (above) will be honored by some of her former band mates at Friday's second annual San Diego Music Hall of Fame Induction & Concert.

The Friday event at Newbreak Church in Ocean Beach will also honor blues ace Robin Henkel, Americana vocal dynamo Eve Selis, Latin-jazz mainstay Bill Caballero and bluegrass fingerpicking wiz Walt Richards

San Diego Union-Tribune

Oct. 16, 2019 2:54 PM PT

The nonprofit San Diego Music Hall of Fame, which held its first induction ceremony and concert last fall at the Ocean Beach Playhouse, will move to the nearby Newbreak Church for its second edition on Friday.

This year’s honorees include jazz sax legend Charles McPherson, blues ace Robin Henkel, Americana vocal dynamo Eve Selis, Latin-jazz mainstay Bill Caballero and bluegrass fingerpicking wiz and music educator Walt Richards.

Also being inducted is charismatic blues, rockabilly and boogie-woogie vocal sensation Candye Kane, who died from cancer in 2016 at the age of 54 and had built an international following over the previous two decades.

Scheduled performers at Friday’s induction concert include Henkel, Selis, the Richards-led group Trails & Rails, Angelo Pizarro, Gato Papacitos, The David Sullivan Jazz Group and 2018 Hall of Fame inductees Mark Goffeney and Sue Palmer, who was Kane’s longtime musical partner. In addition, the Candye Kane Alumni Band — featuring Candye’s son, Evan, on drums and vocal powerhouse Casey Hensley — will reunite for the evening.

Friday’s event will also see the debut of the the Dawn Steel Award for Strength. It is named after Dawn Steel, the widow of John Ciccolella, a 2018 San Diego Music Hall of Fame inductee. The recipient of the award will be announced at Friday’s event.

The San Diego Music Hall of Fame Induction & Concert is the brainchild of local singer-songwriter Jefferson Jay. He is also the driving force behind the 11-year-old Athenaeum Acoustic Nights concert series in La Jolla.

“Last year’s (debut) induction and cocnert was a total success,” Jay said. “We sold out the show — 130 people — and everyone had a great time. It was an amazing experience that raised awareness for positive activities going on in our community. We set the bar pretty high with a great start and that is the standard which we are aiming to replicate on Friday.”

Jay hopes to use some of the proceeds from Friday’s event to help underwrite a pilot for “The Hunt for The Holiday Spirit,”an animated musical comedy series whose cast is comprised entirely of San Diego voice actors with special needs. “The Hunt” was originally performed theatrically at a day center in El Cajon each holiday season between 2014 and 2017. Jay directed four episodes and said he has has written 20 more.

Second Annual San Diego Music Hall of Fame Induction & Concert, featuring performances by the Candye Kane Alumni Band Eve Selis, Robin Henkel, Trails & Rails, Sue Palmer, Mark Goffeney, Angelo Pizarro, Gato Papacitos and The David Sullivan Jazz Group

When: 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18

Where: Newbreak Church, 4694 Cape May Ave., Ocean Beach

Tickets: $25-$50

Online: sdmhof.com or eventbrite

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George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”