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Girls Night Out:The Musical Escape Valve of Leslie Hubbert, Frannie Leopold and Judy StavelyInterview by Antonia LambPhotographer unknown, alasListening to the outgoing yet intimate, beautifully playedmusic of Girls Night Out is so easy. And just what is that musicthey're playing? It's kind of string-bandy. Kind of klezmer. Kindof old-timey, Cajun, Latin, bluesy. You can dance to it, and listen.Meanwhile, the musicians are having a good time. The band is atrio. Three beautiful women: blonde, brunette and redhead. No,it's a semi-quartet. Sometimes there's this guy in a straw cowboyhat playing a funny-looking bass with them.I am sitting behind a well-picked-over chicken at JudyStavely's house. Leslie Hubbert and Frannie Leopold, the otherfounding members of Girls Night Out, are there, telling me theirsecrets. Occasionally they burst into angelic, crisp three-part harmony.Judy (fiddle, accordion), a long-time elementary schoolteacher in Comptche, has just bought a Martin guitar and has afive-string banjo she's "kind of messing with."Leslie (mandolin, guitar) is also a teacher; she teaches musicat Anderson Valley School. She plays the accordion "for the kidsat school." Leslie's married to musician Michael Hubbert.Frannie (guitar, mandolin) works as a physician's assistantwhen she's not working musically. She's been part of the DeltaSisters, the Todalo Shakers and many other musical combos. She'smarried to Dr. Peter Barg, who plays bass at GNO gigs. All threesing and are the mothers of daughters. They have known eachother for over 20 years, first as musicians at Lark Camp and otherevents and parties, then as friends. Each has decades of playingand performing experience. Recently they made a small CD ofseven songs.Here's some of our conversation.Judy: Sometime in the fall of 1999 we decided to get togetherand just have some fun playing music.Leslie: We'd known each other in different groups. Judy andI were The Golly Sisters. The three of us and some of our spouseswere in a group we called Casmendoche... We did a lot of gigs.Frannie: The whole point was to enjoy ourselves, get awayfrom ordinary life and family. Leslie called it our musical escapevalve. Kitchen music. It's amazing we stayed together. Judy's intofiddle music: cross-tuned pieces and strange little tunes. I'm intosinging and harmony...Latin music.Judy: You and Leslie brought us black string band music,too. Leslie knows all this other stuff, like Italian music. Andbecause it wasn't for any reason—it was for fun—we would alltry each other's music. And support each other.Antonia: So when did it shift from "we're sitting in thekitchen" to doing gigs as a group?Frannie: At a certain point there was a buzz. We startedplaying at parties and weddings.Judy: We got hired to play at the dance at Wild Iris threetimes. We played the main stage, too. We've done all kinds ofthings. Right now we're rehearsing for the Berkeley old-timemusic contest in September. Peter started playing with us someafter Frannie got breast cancer in 2001. He started wanting to behere, too. Somebody said well, could he just play bass? And I saidwell, sure, if he doesn't start acting like a guy and telling us whatto do... And you know what? He's been totally cool.Frannie: He's playing tololoche, which is a Mexican bassthat's tuned up AGDC not EADG. It's kind of like a cello sound...We are successful at things other than music. So that helps us notto feel anxious about music. The reality is that we love to play andsing. What comes first is finding those harmonies, making up littlemedleys, just playing...after that came the desire to share ourmusic. Making the CD was a big step in that direction.Judy: It was fun making the CD. We made it as a promo. Welike to play at weddings and parties—events where we just getsomewhere and play our hearts out and everyone is happy.Frannie: And we also just wanted to make a record of whatwe do. Because you never know what tomorrow will bring.For booking information or CDs, contact Frannie Leopold at 964-0017, Judy Stavely at 937-0029 or Leslie Hubbert at895-2155.Antonia Lamb is a local musician, astrologer, writer.21
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