Beefy Red


Beefy Red was an American, San Francisco Bay Area music band based in Marin County, California, United States, which played at various Bay Area venues, including Bill Graham's Fillmore West from October 22–25 in 1970. Beefy Red performed frequently at San Anselmo's 'The Lion's Share', a club often cited as one of the most historic in the history of the Marin County music scene. The group was most noted for playing "swinging R&B" but played other syles like blues and jazz.
In 2008 Beefy Red was included by Paul Liberatore, of the Marin Independent Journal, on a list of potential nominees for a proposed 'Marin Music Museum'.

Notable members

Members included later solo recording artist and film composer Mark Isham on trumpet and soprano saxophone, and Barry Finnerty on electric guitar and some lead vocals, who was later a performing/recording artist with Miles Davis, the Crusaders and the Brecker Brothers among many others. Finnerty, as the group's arranger, also wrote horn charts for the band.

Other members

Other members included the late John Whitelaw on electric bass and some lead vocals, the late Irwin Goldfeld on tenor saxophone, the late Ned Appleby on trumpet, Jim Checkley on electric guitar, Kirk Willat on Hammond Organ and some lead vocals, the late James Preston on drums and some lead vocals, Bruce Saxton on tenor saxophone, L.B. 'Kyle' Keilman on harmonica, Phil Wood on flugelhorn, and Jim Carraway on percussion.

Break up

Failure to obtain a recording contract put pressure on individual members to find more profitable enterprises, and the group played its final concert in Davis, California on Friday, January 14, 1972.