Venice Beach, California's own Christopher Hawley -- and his Hawley Rollers band ( http://www.myspace.com/christopherhawleyrollers ) -- will make their Wood River Valley debut here, as part of their 10th "Winter Ski-Town Tour," this week, performing at both Whiskey's on Friday, Feb. 5th (10pm), and at Hailey's Sun Valley Brewery Restaurant & Bar on Saturday, Feb. 6th (7:30pm).

This band's very danceable and eclectic mix of vivid fretwork, thumping bass and soaring percussion -- whose soulful roots combine the slide guitar with thoughtful lyrics -- have made it a big favorite for a number of years now at a wide assortment of western ski towns, especially (Hawley and his band are coming here straight from a very successful five-day stopover in Park City, Utah, that featured gigs at the Wasatch Brew Pub, Spur and Molly Blooms).

Featuring for his two Wood River Valley gigs Marc Friedman (on bass) and Jimmy Bowers (on drums), the Hawley Rollers band consists of various friends of Hawley's -- several of whom are fellow Californians like himself -- who likewise love bouncing from one ski or college town, artist community, and beach bar after another, performing their pulsing and memorable music before one audience after another. (Other Hawley Rollers musicians who've been known to perform in the band include Scott McLain, Randy Wooten, Dante Jaccuzzi,  Ryan Adams, John Reese, Gary Davenport, Fishbone's John Steward, Darryl Blease, Ray Roosevelt and Jose Trevino.)

This percussion-rock/psychedelic folk band, whose lead singer's resonant souful voice evokes the likes of John Fogerty, Johnny Cash and Bob Weir, is currently finishing up their third album -- which features, among other notables, Bill Payne (of Little Feat) on keyboards. Copies of their first two albums -- 2006's "Red Light Green" and 2009's "The Roots of the Tree" -- will be for sale during both the Whiskey's and the Sun Valley Brewery shows.

In addition to the attached "Show Your Love" mp3 music clip in this SVO article, samples of both Christopher Hawley's mu sic and the band's as well can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christopher-Hawley17627321521
http://www.reverbnation.com/christopherhawley
http://www.sonicbids.com/christopherhawleyrollers
http://www.christopherhawley.com
http://www.myspace.com/christopherhawley

Besides their many commercial gigs around the country, Chris and his band make it a point now to perform one benefit concert a month; they currently have one slated for later this month, proceeds from which will go to http://www.SVRV.org which is currently involved, among other projects, with trying to build schools in various villages in Nicaragua (and also a community center that will double as a clean-water station for one village in particular there).

Other non-profit groups they've assisted in the past include Global Peace Central, Help Earth Foundation, Peace Not War, Project Ocean Zero, Surfrider Foundation West, The Great Sustainability Project, Ocean Defenders, and Sustainable Answers.

"My songs try to subtly raise awareness of crucial issues while putting out a fun and danceable groove," Chris Hawley explained to me recently. "We're not a 'social justice' band, per se, or about beating anyone over the head. But there are definitely causes we feel strongly and passionately about that we at least want people to be aware of, if they're not already."

Hawley, 35, says his lyrical stylings growing up back east were strongly influenced by Willie Nelson, J.J. Cale, and Grant Green, his lead guitar slide breaks from performers such as Duane Allman, Eric Clapton and Jerry Garcia, his vocals by Lowell George, and the fingerstyle techniques by Leo Kottke (among others).

A self-confessed avid skier, surfer and yogi, this Venice, CA-based musician who was born in Connecticut and got his first real taste of band life back in the 1990s in Boulder, Colorado (after he and some friends started a highly sought-after jam band there), has spent approximately six months out of each of the last five years on the road, playing countless shows in southern California and the other western states, as well as in the Rocky Mountain region, the northeast, midwest and even Europe (back in 1999, during a three-month tour there)..

"Audiences in Europe REALLY don't hold back AT ALL," Hawley said, laughing, obviously still relishing fond memories of the 1999 tour that took his girlfriend at the time and himself to Spain, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. "The people in those countries were sooo incredibly supportive of us during that time! It was pre-9/11, pre-Iraq War, and it just felt very, very right for us to be there then."

Hawley's new album, which is slated for release later this year, is the first album he's done that contains all studio tracks. "The studio is a whole 'nother instrument to get your fingers AND your mind around," Hawley told me last week, when he and his band were still regularly enjoying the snow of Park City. But Hawley added (after two albums already under his belt), that this latest one they're still busily mixing back home is proving so far to be "definitely the quicker and easier of the three."

Marveling at the band's "very nice sustainable slow growth" over the years, Hawley said that their music is geared toward people "who think for themselves."

"Boulder gave us A LOT of love with our jam band in the '90s" Hawley said, and it pretty much reaffirmed what each of us thought: That we really need to be true to our music and to ourselves, and not go desperately looking for what we THINK is something that's overtly 'commercial' in nature."

"Part of my duty as a musician is to spread peace and love through my music.... I love getting into the soul of a place and getting good vibes from an audience, which hopefully is something they sense about me and the rest of us when we're up onstage," Hawley said, adding that, "I've always been a band musician. There's much more of a dynamic and excitement to it."

When Hawley isn't touring with the Hawley Rollers, or just enjoying the "amazing sense of community and inspirational sense of tolerance" of Venice Beach, he sometimes works as a freelance guitarist back in L.A., and recently performed with a cousin of actress Kate Hudson, who's being groomed as the next Avril Lavigne. "Every time I play, I grow as a musician, which is one of the many reasons why performing  STILL IS so exciting and fresh for me."

Hawley says he and his fellow band members are anxiously awaiting the slopes of Baldy, whom friends have told them offers "absolutely fantastic" skiing.

The Christopher Hawley Rollers are slated to perform Friday, Feb. 5th at Whiskey's (10pm), and on Satuday, Feb. 6th at Hailey's Sun Valley Brewery Restaurant & Bar (7:30pm).

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Questions or comments regarding this recurring SVO (local music scene-oriented) "Harmonic Convergence" column can be sent to John directly at: WriteStuffIdaho@gmail.com And to read any of John's previous "HC" columns -- which include raves on local faves Cow Says Mooo, Bruce Innes, Leana Leach and Gayle Chapman -- simply type "John Pluntze" into the SVO search engine here.