HOT MAMAS: “Something good is percolating” in the blazing hot Cuyama Valley, said Jan Smith, leader of Cuyama Mama & The Hot Flashes, and I suspect music is one of the ingredients. Tucked away in the folds of the juniper desert, Smith and her band of permaculture farmers and educators are stirring up some of the liveliest musical merrymaking in the whole county — and helping to foster a more sustainable existence on the side.
A sometimes four-piece, sometimes five-piece band of farmers, the group formed on Quail Springs Permaculture in the Cuyama Badlands. Like many farm goings-on, their origin was spontaneous. One day, bassist Andrew Clinard went to neighboring bar The Place with a mind to form a resident house band. His bid was accepted, and a gig was booked — before the band even existed. “I came back and said we have a show. Who’s with me?!” he recalled.
“The egg definitely came before the chicken,” said drummer Ryan Spaulding. Their first show was a hit, and quickly the hypothetical band became a reality, performing at Cuyama Valley’s Fourth of July celebration and in Taft town bars. All musicians in their own right, Smith (vocals, guitar, kazoo), Willow Brehmer (keys), Lindsay Allen (vocals), Clinard (bass, vocals), and Spaulding (drums, vocals) were drawn to Quail Springs by a passion for permaculture, but gelled even further when the opportunity for music arose. “We’ve all been in bands before, but this is the first where people dance,” Spaulding said.