Vince Gill, Sweethearts of Rodeo back up Sweetwater Cafe reunion in Hermosa
Photos by Pete Henze (PeteHenze@gmail.com) [scrollGallery id = 473] What was billed as a casual 30th reunion of country musicians and friends from the former Sweetwater Café, blossomed Saturday night into a four-and-a-half hour long, time-warping concert that invited comparisons to the legendary Sweetwater shows of the mid-1970s. On any given night, the stage of the Redondo Triangle Center club might have Willie Nelson singing back up for Rodney Crowell, and Vince Gill performing with the Sweethearts of the Rodeo and Bonnie Rait and Rosanne Cash. One night Bob Dylan got turned away at the door because he refused to pay the cover charge (until Sweetwater co-owner Richard Stacey recognized him). The club in the old Redondo Triangle Center across from King Harbor opened in January 1976 and fell to the redevelopment wrecking ball in 1983. Headlining Saturday’s sold out evening at the Hermosa Beach Community Theater was 20-time Grammy winner Vince Gill, who got his start at Sweetwater when he was 18 years old. Gill also met his first wife Janis Oliver at the club. Oliver and her sister Kristine were Mira Costa high school students when they began performing at the Straw Hat Pizza in…
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