Explore the treasury roster

On August 12, 1958, Charles and Dorothy Chase opened the Folk Music Center in Claremont, CA on Harvard Avenue in back of Boots Beer’s Real Estate Office. Boots told them they were “welcome to have the back room because no one will ever come to see you anyway.” The rent was $35 per month. They borrowed $2000 from Dorothy’s brother and bought some records, books, strings and a few instruments – just enough to get started. Very soon, Boots was complaining about all the traffic coming through the office. 

Two months later, Mike Fay showed up and loaned them a sitar, a pair of tablas, and a tamboura. That was the first international show. The Claremont Courier ran a story that got the store a lot of publicity. 

Shortly thereafter, the store moved around the corner to a small place of its own on 1st Street. Dorothy’s father, Albert Udin, known to the whole town as “Grandpa,” ran the store while Dorothy taught guitar and banjo lessons in the living room of their home and Charles repaired instruments in the basement. The store was soon bursting at the seams.  

In 1965, Dorothy and Charles opened the Golden Ring, a music cafe, on Harvard Ave with friends Peggy and Al Hulse and Jean and Will Marcotte. During its five-year existence, the Golden Ring was one of the earliest venues for folk music in the Southern California area, bringing such greats to Claremont as the revered Gary Davis, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Doc Watson, Hedy West, John Fahey, The New Lost City Ramblers, and Guy and Candy Carawan.  

On April 5, 1970, after a short stay at 221 Yale the store moved to an even bigger location across the street to its current location at 220 Yale Ave. 

Over the years Dorothy continued to teach guitar, banjo, dulcimer and autoharp to hundreds of local children and adults. She began the Claremont Folk Song Society and organized house concerts. While Dorothy continued to focus on the instruction and promotion of music, Charles provided opportunities for local young people to learn the art of instrument repair. The store’s reputation for skilled repair spread and people came from near and far to have instruments repaired or to stay and learn the art themselves.  

The Folk Music Center Museum was opened in 1976 as a non-profit educational, cultural corporation. The Museum now contains rare and antique musical instruments and artifacts of culture from around the world. 

Today, Dorothy and Charles’ daughter, Ellen Harper manages the store. Her son, Ben Harper purchased the store from his grandparents in order to keep the Folk Music Center in the family and alive for the generations to come. 

David Perry Lindley was born in San Marino, California, on March 21, 1944. When Lindley was growing up in Los Angeles, his father had an extensive collection of 78 rpm records that included Korean folk and Indian sitar music, as well as Spanish classical guitarists Andrés Segovia and Carlos Montoya. Lindley took up the violin at age three, and kept at it despite breaking the fragile bridge. He then moved on to the baritone ukulele in his early teens. Next, he learned the banjo. By his late teens, he had won the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest five times. He played banjo with the Dry City Scat Band which included multi-instrumentalist Chris Darrow, and Richard Greene on fiddle. 

Lindley began to frequent the Los Angeles–area folk music scene of the 1960s, primarily going to the Ash Grove club, but also the Troubador in West Hollywood, encountering an eclectic assortment of music. At the Ash Grove, Lindley shared ideas with local musicians such as Ry Cooder and Chris Hillman.  

From 1966 to 1970, Lindley was a founding member of the psychedelic band Kaleidoscope which released four albums on Epic Records during that period. After Kaleidoscope broke up, Lindley went to England and played in Terry Reid's band. In 1972, he teamed with Jackson Browne, playing in his band through 1980, and occasionally afterward. 

In 1981, Lindley formed his own band, El Rayo-X. Jackson Browne produced their first album. The band's final show was December 31, 1989. He mastered such a wide variety of instruments that Acoustic Guitar magazine referred to him not as a multi-instrumentalist but instead as a "maxi-instrumentalist." On stage, Lindley was known for wearing garishly colored polyester shirts with clashing pants, gaining the nickname the Prince of Polyester.  

Lindley was known for his work as a session musician. He contributed to years of recordings and live performances by Jackson Browne, and also supported Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Curtis Mayfield, James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Terry Reid, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan,  Bruce Springsteen, Toto, Rod Stewart, Joe Walsh and Dan Fogelberg. He collaborated with fellow guitarists Ry Cooder, Henry Kaiser and G. E. Smith. Artist Ben Harper credited Lindley's distinctive slide guitar style as a major influence on his own playing.  

Lindley married Joan Darrow, the sister of his musical colleague Chris Darrow from the band Kaleidoscope. In 1970, Joan and David Lindley had a daughter, Rosanne who became a folk singer with the Bright Mountain Choir in the 1990s, collaborating with the Mountain Goats. In 1995, Rosanne joined Lindley in a series of concerts with Ry and his son Joachim Cooder, billed as the Cooder–Lindley Family.  David Lindley died after a long illness on March 3, 2023, at the age of 78.  

Justin Andres grew up playing music in the Midwestern U.S. and is now an in-demand session and touring bassist, music director, synth bassist, guitarist, tour manager, arranger, vocalist, live show consultant, and liaison for all aspects of tour management. Justin has performed in over fifty countries with a variety of artists and on scores of television appearances, including the Latin Grammys and more. 

Since 2021, he has been the bassist and tour manager for world-renown, Australian guitar virtuoso Orianthi, performing internationally and at domestic theater shows and festivals. 

Beginning in 2016, Justin is the music director, band leader, tour manager and bassist for legendary Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame artist Eric Burdon & the Animals. From arranging the live set as music director, liaison to the artist in show prep, crafting nightly setlists, to tour manager, he has worn many hats for this legendary performer. Justin was the band leader at epic performances such as The Parthenon in Athens and The Olympia in Paris.

From 2012-2015, Justin was the music director and band leader for Billy Ray Cyrus. He was the music director for many live performances and television dates, including The Tonight Show and Good Morning America. His duties included new song arrangements for live sets.

Since 2008, Justin has been the bassist for the legendary punk/soul band, The Bellrays, holding down the low end on countless US and international tours, with live concerts, festivals and television performances in over fifty countries.

From 2014 to 2017, he was the music director, tour manager, and utility musician for SomeKindaWonderful. Justin conducted many creative and administrative duties for this breakout band on Downtown Records over several US tours and headline and festival dates in Europe.

From 2016 to the present, Justin has been the music director, composer and utility musician for Little Monarch, a band with breakout Spotify success. He was the music director and played guitar, bass, and synth bass for several US tours and headline shows.

In addition to his career in live concert touring, Justin has been a prolific session musician, adding guitar, bass, and additional production to countless major label and independent releases, as well as film scores and TV commercial cues.

He lives in Claremont, CA with his wife and son, and enjoys boating, cooking, and backpacking the Eastern Sierra.

Roy Durnal has been a rhythm section mainstay on the Claremont music scene for more than five decades. Roy moved to Claremont in 1969 and shortly thereafter began playing drums with a band that included John Harrelson and John Neiuber and which gave him his first paying gig. 

Local drum credits over the years include the band Homefront (with Cindy Edwards, Randy Holland, Tony Schexnyder, Dennis Fetchet, and Stan West), Occurrence at Owl Creek (with Jim Cope, David Brock, and Gil Frazee), Chris Darrow (Los Guys, Badlands), Dave Millard (Hot Pecans, Squeakin’ Wheels), the Strutters (Earl Shackelford), and numerous other roots, blues, and folk musicians. 

Currently (2023), Roy plays drums with the Squeakin’ Wheels, the bodhran (Irish drum) with the Old Grey Cats, and is the occasional drummer for the Claremont Community School of Music Youth Jazz program. 

Roy picked up the electric bass in the mid 70’s and the upright bass in 2007. Past bass credits include the band Downwind (with Jim Cope, Randy Holland, and Dave Millard), Duck and Cover (Lynn Savitzky and Missy Schmidt), and the Desert Croquet Band (Jim Cope, Steve Cahill, Lynn Savitzky, and Curtiss Bradford). 

Roy’s current bass activities include the Claremont Voodoo Society (Jerry O’Sullivan, Bill Barrett, Lazy Brad Lewis, and Cougar Estrada), the Happy Neighbor Club, and the Swingin’ Doors. Roy can frequently be found on Sundays at the Claremont Farmers Market playing the upright and buying fruit.

Mick Rhodes has been a mainstay in the Claremont music scene since the early 1980s, when his first band, Human Therapy, performed regularly at the Claremont Colleges. He continues to appear regularly today with his current outfit, Mick Rhodes and the Hard Eight. 

Born in 1963 and raised in nearby Glendora, Mick cut his musical teeth in the burgeoning punk rock movement of the late 1970s. Emboldened by the new music’s urgency and lack of pretension, he formed Human Therapy in 1980, intent on muscling into Los Angeles’ by then splintering punk rock scene. 

Since forming Human Therapy, Mick has shared stages or played alongside just about every modern era member of the Claremont Treasury of Music, as well as a wide variety of legendary acts ranging from Guns ‘n’ Roses to the Cramps, and from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Rick Springfield. 

Equally at home with his full electric band Mick Rhodes and the Hard Eight, his acoustic trio, or solo, Mick’s writing has always been personal. A father of four, his records for the past two decades have been imbued with the joys and heartbreaks of parenthood, love, and marriage, themes that continue to resonate in his latest work. 

As a solo artist, with Human Therapy, and now with Mick Rhodes and the Hard Eight, Mick has released seven acclaimed records. His first, Human Therapy’s 1983 “American Dream” EP, received nationwide critical acclaim and heavy airplay at Claremont Colleges’ radio station KSPC. Thirty-three years later, “Married Girls,” the first single off Mick Rhodes and the Hard Eight’s 2016 release, “Paradise City,” landed on many independent critics’ year-end best of lists. 

The band’s 2022 record features several collaborations with MR8 keyboardist Wyman Reese, Mick’s songwriting partner and a longtime Claremont musician. Reese is a founding member of and co-songwriter with the much-loved Chris Gaffney and the Cold Hard Facts. The band also features several other veteran Claremont-area musicians, including bassist John Sleeger (Farmer Tan, and many others), drummer Brain Wells (Rex Holmes, many others), and a host of contributing lead guitarists, including Danny Ott (Dave Alvin, Cold Hard Facts), Brian Hall (Farmer Tan), and most recently, Stanley T. Sichel (Beach Boys). 

With Mick Rhodes and the Hard Eight, Human Therapy, and as a solo artist, Mick has toured the U.S., playing everywhere from the tiniest, grimiest roadhouses on up to arena shows for thousands. 

A songwriter all his life, Mick has penned hundreds of tunes that span genres from hardcore punk to pop, from straight ahead country to barroom rock, and everything in between. Raised on his grandparents’ country records (Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Ferlin Husky, etc.) and his mother’s 1970s AM car radio, it’s no wonder some of Mick’s most memorable songs feature both a slight California country twang and a catchy pop chorus.