As the crisp autumn air settles along the San Mateo coast, the streets of downtown Half Moon Bay will morph into the Bay Area’s entertainment hotspot with a sensational lineup of bands taking center stage at the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, October 17-18. Enjoy a smashing lineup of the best the Bay Area’s music scene has to offer … pop reggae, Latin rock, salsa, blues, classic and Celtic rock with headliners Shana Morrison, Dub FX, Daniel Castro, and Manicato on the IDES Main Stage and local faves Catie Chase and the Getaways and The Robin Campbell Band on the new Southbound Stage at the Gazebo. See complete schedule below.

Main Stage on the IDES Grounds
Singer-songwriter Shana Morrison got her start singing duets and making recordings with her famous father, Van, in the mid-‘90s. Since then she has performed around the world and earned critical acclaim. Rolling Stone said she has a “smooth, elastic voice and a style that lands between jazz chanteuse and rock chick.”

The San Jose Mercury News said “not only is Dub FX a great band, they also released a CD that transcends musical genres.” Having sprung from the ashes of the popular local reggae bands Inka Inka and Dub Nation, Dub FX continues to carry the torch of local reggae music while breaking down barriers and adopting a fresh style. Their powerful, high-energy sound has energized air waves and dance club scenes throughout the Bay Area.

Manicato is an eight-piece band founded in San Francisco’s Mission District, with one of the only father-son vocal teams in the city — Cris ‘Papi’ and Israel Matos. The word manicato, derived from the native language of Puerto Rico, means a valiant person with a good heart. The band lives up to its name with socially conscious lyrics, while their sound keeps the dance floor packed with a melding of salsa, timba, reggae, hip hop and rock.

One of the biggest names in Bay Area blues, Daniel Castro plays music that ranges from raw Chicago blues to down-home boogie. Castro began performing at age 15 in South Central Los Angeles, where he backed up great artists like Little Ester Phillips and Delmar Evans on the Johnny Otis Show. A force on guitar, Castro has lead his energetic band on tours of the U.S. and Japan. He delivers blues that will wrench your soul … or give you an uncontrollable urge to dance.

Mama Pacho brings back all of the best tunes from the last 50 years. Whether it’s James Brown or Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin  or ZZ Top, vocalist Jo Ann Pacho belts out a sound so close to the original you could swear you’ve gone back in time.

The Megatones Nigel and Clive Jim Stevens Stan Erhart The South City Blues Band Catie Chase and the Getaways Robin Campbell

The Megatones, one of the premier cover bands in the Bay Area, has performed at innumerable local clubs as well as at elite venues such as San Francisco’s Mark Hopkins Hotel and the Hearst Castle. For nearly 20 years they’ve been putting together nonstop dance medleys including rock, blues, reggae, modern, house and R&B. The all-male group is guaranteed to crank up the crowd’s energy and bring out everyone’s best dance moves.

Nigel and Clive and the British Invasion operate under the delusion that it was they who wrote some of the most famous Beatles songs. Their tongue-in-cheek website and YouTube videos detail the unfortunate events that led to the Fabulous Four absconding with Nigel and Clive’s original tunes and rocketing to fame. After emerging once again from the obscurity cast over them by the Beatles, they have an uncanny resemblance to John et al, with bowl haircuts and streamlined ‘60s suits. These four fellows put on “a rully good show,” as Ed Sullivan would have said … if they hadn’t missed the plane to the states due to embarrassing circumstances and been replaced on his show by those thieving Beatles.

This will be Jim Stevens’ 27^th year at the Pumpkin Festival. His repertoire includes 10 original songs about pumpkins and Half Moon Bay, performed along with an entertaining mix of acoustic folk, country, blues and standards. His quartet turns out harmonies with roots from American musical styles dating back more than a century, with vocals by Debra Harville, rhythm guitar by Mark Harville and Lee Kopp on harmonica.

Ritz-Carlton Southside Stage:
Saturday “Blues Blowout”
Stan Erhart is a blues-rock hybrid in the style of John Hiatt and Warren Zevon. With a weary, gravelly voice, he delivers an American style that reflects his youth on a farm in Kansas, where the drone of John Deere tractors blended with the twangs of country music. After performing on the circuit of Chicago blues clubs, he came to San Francisco to form his own band. Their soulful mix of blues, R&B, rock and jazz keeps the energy high with their signature grooves and dynamics, which have lead them to numerous headline appearances as well as opening gigs for luminaries like Elvin Bishop.

The South City Blues Band is a group of four Bay Area music veterans who specialize in traditional and jump blues. These silver-haired cool cats in fedoras and wingtip shoes deliver fine-tuned, hard-driving, get-up-and-dance music.

Ritz-Carlton Southside Stage:
Sunday “Women of Rock”
Catie Chase and the Getaways promise to “rock your blues away” with their toe-tapping blend of blues, rock and soulful R&B. The five-piece band of seasoned professionals led by the dynamic Catie Chase is a mainstay of Coastside festivals and music venues. With Catie’s crystal-clear vocals, a danceable downbeat and smooth guitar stylings, the band hits on the classics of a broad range of artists, from Bonnie Raitt and Aretha Franklin to Fleetwood Mac and The Talking Heads.

Half Moon Bay’s own Robin Campbell, with her signature flaming red hair and gutsy voice, is famous on the coastside for belting out sultry blues, dirty funk and high-energy rock favorites. Her all-locals band includes Montara resident Jeremy Foster on bass, and El Granadans Pete Amour on drums and Chris Cotruvo on guitar and vocals. Get ready for rockin’ interpretations of Janis Joplin, Cold Blood, and Jamiroquai, along with plenty of funky originals.

Emerson Marty Atkinson

Street Performers
Emerson is a self-taught musician who combines influences of Caribbean, European and American soul music into a style all his own. His keyboards and vocals are rounded out by a saxophone and bass for an R&B sound with a splash of soft jazz and the occasional ripple of country.

From the opening line of his bio— “Born completely naked 40 some odd years ago”— you know right away that Marty Atkinson has a way with words. This clever songwriter gained valuable fodder for his lyrics during his childhood on a tobacco farm in Canada where he played in his father’s country band; his late teens on the road in California, and seven years in the music capital of Nashville. He describes his latest CD as “a collection of musical stories about the New and the Old West, a few other tales that I wish were true, and a couple that I'm glad are not.”

HeartStrings Music Bob Culbertson

The gentlemen behind HeartStrings Music are “your passport to romantic world music.” On mandolin, Al Fabrizio brings back memories of growing up in an Italian New York neighborhood. He plays his Neapolitan instrument tremolo style, just the way his ancestors did. Argentine-born Hugo Wainzinger had a music-filled childhood as well, with a mother who was a passionate bolero singer. His guitar reflects that same old-world quality, which he expresses in the hundreds of songs he has composed and arranged.