Award-winning Western singer Dave Stamey will perform at a benefit concert this Saturday at Nipomo’s historical Dana Adobe.
Stamey has lived in the area for decades, and attended junior high and high school in Arroyo Grande in the ’70s. He’s known about the Dana Adobe since then, but it wasn’t the same Adobe as it is today, he said.
“It was common knowledge that the place was there, but it was falling into disrepair, since it had been built in the 1850s, or earlier than that,” he said “I’m a history nut, I like that kind of thing.”
Approximately 15 years ago, a group started a restoration project led by one of Stamey’s good friends. Since then, he had been involved in the adobe for years, including serving on its board of advisors.
“Their whole journey in restoring that incredible piece of San Luis Obispo County history — California history — is something I’ve tried to help with from the get go,” he said. “We came to an agreement several years ago that I would like to help and this is not the first concert that we’ve done; the last one was two years ago.”
He said country music is a “Southeastern dysfunctional of songs” and doesn’t like to be confused with a country singer. He’s a Western singer, and he said there’s a difference.
“What I sing about is the West, the more positive and outdoorsy,” Stamey said. “My job is to travel around and show people the West in all the different ways that there is a West.”
His performances include just him and a guitar, singing and telling stories, he said.
“It’s a lot more intimate than say, a country performance would be,” Stamey said. “If you want to call whatever they are doing these days country, which I don’t. But that’s alright, that’s a whole other issue.”
Marina Washburn, executive director of the Dana Adobe, said the performance will be quite interesting.
“It’s an open-air concert out at the Dana Adobe, so it’s in a wonderful setting, a beautiful vista of the foothills and this area of Nipomo,” she said. “(Stamey) will be performing on a flatbed truck with hay bales and that’ll be his stage.”
The gates open at 2:30 p.m., but the concert won’t start until 4 p.m., she said. The concert isn’t the only thing the Adobe will showcase that evening, either.
“We’re also going to be opening the doors to the Adobe, conducting tours, and also showcasing the plans for the development of the park, before the performance,” Washburn said. “So if folks get here a little early, and they want to get a tour and get to see the progress that we’ve made on the restoration of the Adobe or see the future plans, we’ll be doing that in the house as well.”
Not only do the Dana Amigos plan to restore the Adobe on funds accumulated from benefit events and several grants, but they also plan to develop a 129-acre visitor park. The park is on land leased from the county for the next 99 years.
“It’s a living historical park, and part of this park is going to include a nature education facility, a Chumash village and interpretive trails throughout the property,” she said.
The nature park will be a California destination, one of only 44 in the state funded by Prop 84.
One hundred percent of the proceeds will go toward the Dana Adobe, and not just for the new development.
While it received grant money from the state, it’s still not enough, said Alan Daurio, co-president of the Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos.
“It’s approximately a 170-year-old Adobe, so these funds are very welcome, but those funds, as is typical for most grants, do not provide the financial support for ongoing operations: paying utility bills, paying our staff, having our school programs where we have the school children come out and they tour the Adobe,” he said. “All of these funds that we collect from these special events, such as Stamey’s concert, go into the general fund, so we can spend on these programs that these other grants don’t support.”
Daurio said it’s important for historical sites to be preserved so people know their roots and where they are going. Places like the Dana Adobe create an “anchor” for people to understand who they are and what they are here for, he said.
“We’re all a nation of immigrants, but we need to realize that there are, especially in California, so many different kinds of cultures interacting today, and we have the same thing going on back in the time,” he said. “We’re here trying to understand how we all fit together, and I think knowing about this past history helps gives us a better perspective on where we’ve come from and maybe answer some questions on how we can all work together to make a better future for everybody.”
Tickets are $20 and can be purchased on the Dana Adobe website. Food, wine, beer and other beverages will be provided on site for purchase. Meals, including a barbecue sandwich, chips and a drink, will be sold for $8. The concert starts at 4 p.m. Doors open at 12:30 p.m.