HAPPENINGS
HAPPENINGS
Are You Happening?
Get the message out!
“Featured Happening”
Scroll down to see Songwriter happenings!
..and to share your own!
Please join us for Menlo Park’s 7th Annual Mental Health Open Mic Night at Menlo Park Library on May 8th!
Musician and mental health advocate Frances Ancheta Becker will be our emcee for a special event in honor of Mental Health Month. Let’s bring our voices together—or feel free to come and share support as a listener--to increase awareness and inspire action to reduce stigma against those with mental health conditions.
May is Mental Health Month, and the 2025 theme is Mental Health as a Continuum. This theme challenges the binary idea of “healthy” versus “unhealthy” mental health, normalizing the wide range of mental health experiences and encouraging individuals to embrace and accept the full spectrum of their well-being.
Whether in sharing experience, music, storytelling, readings, or poetry, join us in a safe space where you can share your own words, or listen to those of others.
-
Frances Ancheta Becker is a singer/songwriter, and creative arts/recreation therapist. She grew up in San Mateo County and worked in county government service for 20 years, most of those as the Supervising Creative Arts Therapist at San Mateo Medical Center, overseeing creative arts and recreation therapy programs for rehabilitation and psychiatric patients. Frances established and coordinated the Music and Healing Hospital Concert Series at San Mateo Medical Center. As a postpartum depression survivor and a family member of relatives with mental health conditions, Frances also served as a board member of NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) San Mateo Chapter.
Adam Dietz release with Project Bonesyard, iSymbiot. Album Release Show: May 31st The Rite Spot in SF, CA
-
Adam Dietz is a singer/songwriter living in Oakland and still finding his way creatively following the COVID-19 pandemic. Adam has just finished recording a concept album entitled iSymbiot, is a snapshot of the symbiotic relationship between humankind and our Smartphones, AI, robot overlords. When not preparing for the Skynett apocalypse, Adam is helping launch the Bay Area chapter of Soldier Songs & Voices with plans to host a songwriting workshop.
Anna Troy has new music available May 16th. Catch The Rain! Please pre-save it!
-
After meeting in Palo Alto in 2023 and sharing their mutual love of American roots music, Kyle Bagwell and Anna Troy decided to get together to learn some Elmore James and Hank Williams tunes. This quickly led to the discovery of a powerful musical chemistry and passion for songwriting. Less than a year later, they are now completing a new CD, Out of the Blue, with 13 original compositions. Their music builds on a broad Americana foundation, with strong blues, country, folk and jazz influences. https://bagwelltroy.com/
“As I Grow Older" by AnotherMay, out May 16th. Check out their limited edition merch box set at the links below!
After 5 years, AnotherMay is releasing their new Album titled "As I Grow Older". The 10 song project features local artists such as Grad Nite, Carson Lewis, corduroy, Sadgasm, Motels At Midnight, B. Bizzy, and Ariana VS. The EP revolves around themes of getting older, embracing change, and building a new identity around a changing environment. You can expect indie pop sounds in English and Spanish, with a mixture of high energy tracks and intimate ballads.
Michael Lynn Bechler will be playing on May 16 and May 17 at the Folk and Soak festival at Franklin Hot Springs in Paso Robles California. A hot springs and music... what could be better than that? Folk n Soak – Music Festival in Paso Robles, CA
-
Michael Lynn Bechler has been playing music, writing songs, and performing both solo and with his partner Geri McGilvray for over 30 years. He’s flirted with electric rock, blues and country, but has finally come to realize what he knew all along, that a good song is a good song, no matter what genre it is written for or played in.
Michael’s primary instrument is guitar, but he plays a bit of mandolin as well. He’s been influenced by everything from gritty '60s rock to gospel, with a bit of country and blues thrown in for good measure. Sample his original material at http://mlbechler.com.