Victor of the Vortex

If Bruce Victor did nothing more than go to work and come home to Larkspur again, he’d still have a more active social life than most of us. A psychiatrist with a practice in San Francisco, Victor is the central axis of Acoustic Vortex, the impresario of the house concert I wrote about last time, when I got to see in Victor’s living room.

“As a psychiatrist,” he says, “I’m interested in removing that which would impair connection. And I’ve always appreciated community and connection. Listening to music is healing on an individual and a collective level.”

Victor, a former clinical professor of psychiatry at UCSF, can certainly discuss the effects of music on the nervous system. More important for our purposes, he demonstrates every few weeks just how much fun a good, collegial concert can be.

His first house concert was with nationally-known fingerstyle guitarist Michael Gulezian. Victor met Gulezian through another fingerstylist, Stevie Coyle, who had given Victor’s then 16-year-old son, Severin, guitar lessons. Coyle, a founding member of the “newgrass” band the Waybacks, is a Vortex stalwart and, in fact, came up with the name.

“Afterward,” says Victor, “I thought, ‘That was a lot of work, but what happened here — in terms of people connecting with music and connecting with each other through the music’ — well, it became clear this was something I was supposed to do.”

So Victor began presenting house concerts every couple of months. Friends told friends, and musicians told musicians. Five years later, Acoustic Vortex has 10 core musicians and about 800 people on the Evite list. (Since his home is not an event venue, Victor can’t advertise or charge for tickets. He asks for a $25 donation, which includes abundant food and drink, and says he gives 90 percent to the performer).

And not just anyone can perform. “People have to get it,” he says. “Especially with acoustic music, you have to connect. If I get a sense anyone is thinking, ‘Do I have chops, or what?’ they don’t get in.”

That’s not just because, in Victor’s long, narrow living room, audiences are close enough to the “stage” to interact with the performers, who mingle during intermissions and after a show. Victor considers benefit concerts a natural part of the mix. The first Vortex benefit concert, which featured Coyle, Severin Victor, and Celtic guitarist John McCormick, raised money for the Muir Beach Volunteer Fire Department.

Proceeds from tonight’s concert, with pianist and guitar player Ruth Gerson, will go to the Family Violence Prevention Fund (now Futures Without Violence) and Shalom Bayit, which also works to prevent domestic violence.

Mentoring younger players is important, too, so each concert features a “youth opener.” Victor told me about a memorable evening when Oakland’s Michael Manring, a Downbeat bass guitar player of the year, performed with two students from Tam High. Not only did Manring let Nate Parton (guitar) and Chris Jefferies (double bass) sit in on his set; he performed during theirs — “and they didn’t rehearse!” Check them out on “All Blues.”

When I asked Victor to look back and give me a few other highlights, he said, “Want to be here for two days?” Ramblin’ Jack, of course, would have to be way up on the list. Other local and not so local acoustic musicians who have fallen into the Vortex include Blame Sally, an all-women folk-rock group; guitarists Alex de Grassi and Corrine West, Vicki Genfan, Guitar Player magazine's Guitar Superstar of 2008; and Houston Jones, a high-energy five-man band.

West will perform with guitarist Kelly Jo Phelps in November. Andy Irvine, “one of Ireland’s most influential and beloved mandolinists,” according to Victor, will fly into the Vortex in February. Stevie Coyle, who also plays with Warren Hellman’s bluegrass group, The Wronglers, will most definitely be back.

Oh, and sometimes Bruce Victor performs. Is he having fun, or what? Says Victor simply, “I’m one of the luckiest people alive.”

For more information or to get on the Evite list, email bruce@acousticvortex.com