Smooth Toad, a local music/performance/poetry group, explore twisted roots, cast-iron croonin', and raucous song.

The Smooth Toad Line-Up

G. P. Skratz:  poet/performance-artist.  Skratz is the author of Fun, recent poems (Philos Press, Lacey, WA), the prose-poem collection, The Gates of Disappearance (Konglomerati, Gulfport, FL), & ghost-writer of the 3 Stooges bio, Larry, The Stooge In The Middle (Last Gasp, San Francisco).  He taught poetry at Naropa Institute at the invitation of Allen Ginsberg; he's been video artist-in-residence at Toronto's A-Space & performance artist-in-residence at San Francisco's La Mamelle.  In 1990, he won the Bisbee Poetry Festival's grand prize for performance poetry.

Bob Ernst:  actor/playwright.  He is the founder of the legendary theatrical company, The Blake Street Hawkeyes (out of which emerged George Coates & Whoopi Goldberg, among others).  In 1987, he beat the Guinness World Record for solo theatrical performance in an over 24 hour-long tour-de-force:  the last half-hour was the most moving experience in theater I'll ever witness.  Recently, he replaced Nick Nolte in the world premiere run of Sam Shepard's The Late Henry Moss & won several local awards for his own The John (2001) & Catherine's Care (2006).

Hal Hughes:  musician/writer.  Hal was a founding member of the Blue Dolphin, a collectively run venue for improvised music in San Francisco, & has worked in music, dance, & theater with Tumbleweed, Overtone Theater, Subterranean Shakespeare, & Nightletter Theater, which produced his play, “The Fisherman's Three Sons” at Intersection in 2002. He currently writes for, & is Senior Associate Editor of, California Coast & Ocean magazine, published by the California State Coastal Conservancy.