A veritable who’s who of Tucson music legends will share the Club Congress stage on Saturday, Nov. 18, to celebrate the release of a CD that will benefit Casa Maria.
“Glimmers of Hope: Songs for Casa Maria,” produced by Rich Hopkins, features contributions from some of Tucson’s most celebrated musicians, including Howe Gelb, Billy Sedlmayr, Hopkins and his band Luminarios, Lisa Morales, River Roses, Tom Walbank, Mark Insley and Joe Peña. The album also includes a song from Tucson-born, Tempe-based indie rocker Roger Clyne.
“It just all turned out so magical because all the songs just fell together in some cosmic kind of way,” Hopkins said. “The songs sound tailored for Casa Maria, dealing with issues of homelessness, struggles, forgiveness, loss and glimmers of hope.”
The album features a dozen songs that the artists have previously recorded, including Pakulis’s “All’s Forgiven,” Morales’s “Hermana,” “Dark End of the Street” from Sedlmayr and Gabriel Sullivan, Insley’s “Ten Cent Redemption,” “Runnin’ Down a Train” from Peter Dalton Ronstadt and Liz Cerepanya, and Walbank’s “Tamp it Down.”
Hopkins said Howe Gelb’s “Turn Down the Day” was the only new song on the album, which also features “Comin’ Down Again” from Hopkins and Luminarios, “Running Around the Sun” from Joe Peña, “Peach” by River Roses, “Look My Way” by Stephen Edward Lee and “Maria” by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers.
“Glimmers of Hope” is a follow-up to “The Whole Enchilada: The History of Desert Rock, Tucson, Arizona, 1978-1994,” which Hopkins curated and released in summer 2022. That album, which also benefitted Casa Maria, is an anthology of Tucson desert rock, featuring profiles and photos of 28 Tucson bands and 31 songs that provided the soundtrack for Hopkins and the generation coming out of that era.
Hopkins said he didn’t have time to do anything on the scale of “The Whole Enchilada” for the annual Casa Maria Thanksgiving Benefit Concert, which Hopkins launched around 25 years ago.
“This was really easy and fun,” Hopkins said of the new album. “It just sounds like it was all kind of meant to be. It wasn’t 12 people sending me strangely random songs and it sounds kind of odd. It sounds like it was meant to be.”
Tucson native Morales, who has lived in Austin, Texas, for years, will headline Saturday’s concert at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the show starts at 5:30 with artists performing short sets. Admission is a suggested $10 donation and donations of canned food and clothing also will be accepted.
Also on the lineup: Peter Ronstadt and Liz Cerepanya, Walbank, River Roses, Rich Hopkins and Luminarios, Sedlmayr, Pakulis, Lee and Insley.
Longtime Casa Maria worker and activist Brian Flagg will be the master of ceremonies.
Copies of the CD will be available for sale at the show or at Hurricane Records, 636 N. Fourth Ave. Proceeds from the sale will benefit Casa Maria.
Tucson Landmarks: Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St., opened in 1919 as a luxurious mainstay for visitors arriving in the Old Pueblo.
The downtown landmark has kept much of its history alive in the past century, while also bringing modern amenities to Tucson natives and tourists.
Video by Riley Brown / For the Arizona Daily Star
