Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective produce new CD/DVD in Big Sur

Al Jardine of the Beach Boys owns a recording studio located in a valley near the coastline near Big Sur. Known as Red Barn Studios, it’s the place where jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove recorded his 2000 album Moment to Moment and folk icon Ramblin’ Jack Elliott cut his 2006 comeback record I Stand Alone, for which he earned a Grammy nomination. It’s also the same spot where Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective recorded their new eclectic CD Songs For Feeling Strong.

The album begins with “Wide Open,” which features songwriter/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Derric Oliver singing, “the radio sound is wide open” over expansive country rock decorated with ribbons of violin. “Believe” is a superb song lifted up by sweeping violin. A cover of Western swing singer Tommy Duncan’s “Time Changes Everything” employs whistling and horns. One of the best quiet moments, “Start All Over Again,” is a piano ballad with an ominous cloud of guitar noise in the background.

Oliver and his Holiday bandmates – songwriter/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Louis Caverly and drummer Michael Taylor Hahn – recorded the majority of Feeling Strong in front of a crowd of Big Sur locals in an attempt to give the record a certain sound. “We are trying to capture the band live,” Oliver says. “Why not record it in front of an audience?”

One number on Feeling Strong that’s sure to attract attention is Holiday’s take on The Beach Boys’ anthemic “Surfer Girl.” Oliver grew up listening to the track on his parent’s boat; recording in Jardine’s studio, the band added throbbing tuba and invited the original Beach Boy to contribute his unmistakable vocals.

Jardine says that he was charmed by the group and impressed with the band’s use of unconventional instrumentation. (Holiday does not have a bass player, but frequently uses violin and tuba.) “Their sound is distinctly different,” he says. “It’s kind of refreshing.”

Oliver and Caverly have been collaborating since 1992, when they started performing at Stockton’s University of the Pacific as Phacehead.

“We shared a musical vision,” Caverly says. “We called our music ‘adventure pop’ from the beginning.”

Until recently, Holiday was based in San Diego, but after a 2005 show at Big Sur’s Fernwood, the band started to gravitate toward the area. The songwriting duo says that their band soon found a good rapport with local audiences. Now, Oliver has relocated to Big Sur.

This summer, in addition to recording, Holiday filmed a show at the Henry Miller Library, where they encouraged the crowd to come dressed as Greek gods. A CD/DVD package titled Greek Gods in the West will be released this winter.

Before the new material hits the streets, Holiday has a couple of high profile gigs, including a show in the poster room at San Francisco’s Fillmore and a slot at the Las Tortugas Dance of the Dead Festival in Groveland alongside jam bands ALO and Tea Leaf Green.

Oliver and Caverly admit that Holiday’s recent accomplishments were a big undertaking. “We have been literally working every day,” Caverly says, “to make this thing happen.”

Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective play 9pm Friday, Sept. 14, at Fernwood, 24 miles south of Carmel on Highway 1, Big Sur. No cover. 667-2422.