On the Air: Cy and Eli's Do List Picks for Dec. 1, 2017

Eli Wirtschafter joins me as the Do List co-host this week, feeling oppressed, as I often do, by the din of commercial carols piped in to every retail establishment (No, no, no! Not “The Little Drummer Boy” again!) So we went hunting for holiday shows and music that sounded fresh and offered an ecumenical spirit. Plus we have two dance events (Joe Landini and Sarah Bush) , Cuban drummer Yissy Garcia, and country rocker Lilly Hiatt, who has yet to record an album of Christmas favorites. Thank goodness.

Click the links below for more details on each show.

Dec. 7-21: Kitka brings its annual Wintersongs tour to the four corners of the Bay Area.

Dec. 7-16: Joe Landini finds his safe place in San Francisco’s Tenderloin.

Dec. 9-17: Sarah Bush asks what it means to be home for the holidays after deportations, fires and hurricanes.

Dec. 4 and 5: Lilly Hiatt sings songs about her hard-won sobriety and old lovers, with a rocking beat and a country twang.

Dec. 3 and 6: Yissy Garcia leads a jazz-rock-hip-hop-fusion band that challenges our ideas about Cuban music.

Dec. 1-9: A play about the promise of staying young forever.

Dec. 2-24: The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir holiday concerts are a tradition that never gets old.

The Shoutouts: 

Dec. 8-10: Camille A. Brown makes a dance based on schoolyard games with dazzling rhythm at Cal Performances.

Dec. 1: Karinda Dobbins and Dhaya Lakshminarayanan lead the comedy resistance in a show at the New Parkway in Oakland.