Eliza Gilkynson at The Freight and Salvage

Eliza Gilkyson
Freight and Salvage
Berkeley, California
August 24, 2025

First to take the stage on this Sunday evening at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, California was a pooch: Nina Gerber's dog Maggie, an adopted rescue dog from Mexico. Gerber, leash in hand, followed to her rear. Gerber, a Sebastapol, California-based guitarist, first came to attention as singer-songwriter Kate Wolf 's accompanist. Maria Muldaur once called Gerber, who plays a mean slide guitar, "the epitome of a perfect musician." Accomplished guitarist, singer and songwriter Eliza Gilkyson seated herself next to her. Bassist Cary Black stood to Gilkyson's stage left. Black has played and sung with the Kathy Kallick Band since 2012, as well as with a large list of luminaries ranging from Dan Hicks to Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson.

Gilkyson has had a long and storied career over the decades. Well known in folk and Americana music circles, her songs have been covered by the likes of Bob Geldof and Rosanne Cash. Her father was the legendary songwriter Terry Gilkyson, and her brother is guitarist Tony Gilkyson. She is particularly well known for her political songs such as "Hiway 9," a sardonic tune about the Iraq invasion. and "Man of God," a scathing indictment of American president George Bush.

Commenting that "I have not been at The Freight for seven years and have released five albums since then," she commenced with the lovely "Sunflowers" from Dark Ages (Realiza Records, 2025), her 26th album. Originally commissioned by choirmaster Craig Hella Johnson for his Conspirare Choir, the song relates that "All we ever wanted was...the peace that comes from knowing all our loved ones will be fine." (A superb animated version can be found on Gilkyson's YouTube! channel.)

The colorful and evocative "Buffalo Gal Redux," Gilkyson's reworking of an old song in the public domain from Songs From the River Wind (Howlin' Dog Records, 2022), followed. Explaining the origins of the song "At the Foot of the Mountain," which she penned with John Gorka, Gilkyson related her appreciation for the Taos' "irrigation culture" of her neighbors. "The mountain has become a source of affection for me."

Her next song was "How Deep." Gilkyson related the process of involving Robert Earl Keene in a duet for this poignant song about life, love, and a meditative questioning of one's life choices. She had originally written it in 1981 and had put it aside, but her more experienced songwriting self saw how to improve it.

Next was "The Stranger," a song from Dark Ages about suddenly finding that a loved one has taken on mysterious aspects: "Sometimes I stare across the room at you / And you're a stranger to me."

"Keep on Singing, a song about solidarity during Covid, followed "It was awful," she opined about Austin. Things were so bad there ("we were all locked in our homes") that she moved to Taos, New Mexico where she found fresh landscapes and inspiring environments which stirred her creative juices. "Holy," another lyrical paean to finding hope amidst devastation—be that be from forest fires ("ashes block the sun"), floods, or never ending wars—followed.

The first set ended with a hard charging, gravelly version of "Dark Ages." Gilkyson scowled as she sang, and both she and Gerber went to town on their guitars: "All the sycophants rally 'round their golden idol Jonesin' for a fix at the hate revival / Vance, Thiel, Bannon and the X boy clown / Step onto the stage to burn the whole thing down / Sending us back, all the way back to the dark ages / Dark ages."

Gilkyson had asked for suggestions from the audience to form part of the second set's material. Two pages swiftly filled up before the list was pulled from the merch table. "Happy Birthday," someone shouted out, as she took the stage once more. "There's nothing I would rather be doing than playing on my birthday," she told us before launching into the lovely "I Think About You."

"I find it challenging to write a love song about a long term love," Gilkyson related as she began to strum "Roses at the End of Time." This popular classic was followed by "a song my brother wrote": "Death in Arkansas." "Hard Times in Babylon"—another of her classics penned after the suicide of a close friend—followed. "All my best songs are sad," she told us before beginning the poignantly religious "Rose of Sharon," a tune of hers, which has been recorded by Joan Baez.

Next up was "Slouching Towards Bethlehem," another tune which may be her most enigmatic. The title is from a line from W. B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming," which Joni Mitchell has also used as a song title and author Joan Didion to name one of her best known books. The hard driving, yet haunting tune featured Gerber on slide guitar along with an audience sing along: "What kind of beast comes slouching? / Slouching towards Bethlehem? / He's comin in the name of hunger / Draggin' all the poor folks under." "Beauty Way," a song about playing music on the road, followed.

Bassist Black then returned to the stage to accompany the probing "Ten Thousand Things," a song which highlights the contradictions between consumer capitalism with its addictive consumptive habit. with the reality that the future "sends the bill.," "I am addicted to the stuff. I'm utterly committed to the illusion," Gilkyson commiserated.

"Don't Stop Loving Me," a tribute to both her partner (retired professor Robert Jensen; her spouse for the past decade) and the magical and magnificent landscapes of the West, was followed by "Peace in Our Hearts." The evening came to a close with a spirited rendition of "Dark Night of the Soul," the first single from Dark Ages: "Keep your light on / Vow to fight on / Through the dark night of your soul."

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