The Freight and Salvage is a nonprofit musical performance venue in Berkeley, California

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, that primarily hosts folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 and world music

World music

World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

 acts. It was founded in 1968 and derived its name from the used furniture store that previously occupied the same space on San Pablo Avenue. In 1983, it was formally incorporated as the Berkeley Society for the Preservation of Traditional Music. The club moved to a 220-seat space on Addison Street in 1988. On August 27, 2009, The Freight opened a 440-seat venue in Berkeley's Downtown

Downtown Berkeley, California

Downtown Berkeley is the central business district of the city of Berkeley, California, United States, around the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, and extending north to Hearst Avenue, south to Dwight Way, west to Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and east to Oxford Street...

 Arts District

Arts district

An arts district is a demarcated urban area, usually on the periphery of a city centre, intended to create a 'critical mass' of places of cultural consumption - such as art galleries, dance clubs, theatres, art cinemas, music venues, and public squares for performances. Such an area is usually...

. The $12 million project, built to LEED

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....

 standards, has a green roof and features reclaimed wood from the original building on the site throughout, as well as classrooms to fulfill the organization's educational mission. The building was designed by Berkeley-based architects Marcy Wong and Donn Logan and the sound system was provided by Meyer Sound Laboratories

Meyer Sound Laboratories

Meyer Sound Laboratories is an American company based in Berkeley, California that manufactures self-powered loudspeakers, multichannel audio show control systems, electroacoustic architecture, and audio analysis tools for the professional sound reinforcement, fixed installation, and sound...

.

Notable musicians who have performed at the Freight include Greg Brown, Dan Bern

Dan Bern

Dan Bern is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, novelist and painter. His music is often compared to that of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Ochs and Elvis Costello....

, Ry Cooder

Ry Cooder

Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...

, David Bromberg

David Bromberg

David Bromberg is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Bromberg has an eclectic style, playing bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock and roll equally well. He is known for his quirky, humorous lyrics, and the ability to play rhythm and lead guitar at the...

, David Grisman

David Grisman

David Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey...

, Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton

Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...

, Utah Phillips

Utah Phillips

Bruce Duncan "Utah" Phillips was a labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller, poet and the "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest". He described the struggles of labor unions and the power of direct action, self-identifying as an anarchist...

, Ricky Skaggs

Ricky Skaggs

Rickie Lee "Ricky" Skaggs is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo.-Early career:...

, Rosalie Sorrels

Rosalie Sorrels

Rosalie Sorrels is an American folk singer-songwriter who resides in the mountains near Boise, Idaho. She began her public career as a singer and collector of traditional folksongs in the late 1950s. During the early 1960s she left her husband and began traveling and performing at music festivals...

, Cheryl Wheeler

Cheryl Wheeler

Cheryl Wheeler is an American singer-songwriter of contemporary folk music, based in New England. To date, she has recorded several folk albums, and has toured extensively throughout the United States....

, Dar Williams

Dar Williams

Dar Williams is an American singer-songwriter specializing in pop folk.She is a frequent performer at folk festivals and has toured with such artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, The Nields, Shawn Colvin, Girlyman, Joan Baez, and Catie Curtis.-Biography:Williams was born...

, Cris Williamson

Cris Williamson

Cris Williamson is an American feminist singer-songwriter, who achieved fame as a recording artist, and who was a pioneer as a visible lesbian political activist, during a time when few who were not connected to the Lesbian community were aware of Gay and Lesbian issues...

 and Odetta

Odetta

Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...

, among many others. Several artists have released live recordings of Freight performances, including Nickel Creek

Nickel Creek

Nickel Creek was an American progressive acoustic music trio consisting of Chris Thile , Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins . The band was founded in 1989 and released 6 albums between 1993 and 2006...

, Hot Buttered Rum

Hot Buttered Rum (band)

Hot Buttered Rum is an American five-piece progressive bluegrass act based in the San Francisco Bay Area....

, John Wesley Harding

John Wesley Harding (singer)

Wesley Stace is a folk/pop singer-songwriter and author who goes by the stage name John Wesley Harding. He has called his style of music folk noir and gangsta folk...

, Suzy Thompson, Fishtank Ensemble

Fishtank Ensemble

Fishtank Ensemble is a Euro-American musical group that formed in Oakland, California in 2004. They perform a variety of traditional musical styles including klezmer, flamenco, Japanese folk and Roma music....

 and the Berkeley-based band Rebecca Riots

Rebecca Riots (band)

Rebecca Riots is a female “radical folk” trio founded in 1993 by its members, Andrea Prichett, Lisa Zeiler, and Eve Decker. From 1993-2001 they released four CDs, were signed to Appleseed Recordings, and toured the United States several times...

.

External links

• Freight and Salvage web site
• Photos: Freight & Salvage Grand Opening, Berkeley, CA - Aug. 27-30, 2009
• Freight and Salvage - A 1960s History

37.86835°N 122.29129°W