Local Musician Instrumental In Benefit

Robben Ford and friends add second show on Sept. 21 to aid cancer victim

By Sondra Murphy
A benefit concert for an Ojai woman battling cancer is offering a day of entertainment and education to local residents.
Guitarist Robben Ford and his band will appear at Matilija Junior High School Auditorium, 703 El Paseo Road in Ojai, on Sept. 21 at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The benefit concerts are to raise funds for friend Tara Jeffery’s medical expenses due to breast cancer.
Jeffery is a member of the Ojai community who owns Ojai Pilates and Wellness Center and also performs as a singer.
Ford is to perform in his hometown between international tours and will be joined onstage by his bandmates, Toss Panos on drums and Travis Carlton on bass. Ford is a five-time Grammy nominee and was named one of the Top 100 Guitarists by Musician Magazine. The opening act will be local guitarist and singer Jonathan McEuen.
“I had met Tara through my wife, Anne,” said Ford. “Anne and she are good friends, so when this all happened, my wife asked me if I would be willing and interested in helping to raise benefit funds for Tara. I’m very happy to do it, but my wife is the one doing all the work. She’s the one making all this happen.”
“I take pilates from Tara and we became friends,” Anne Kerry Ford said. “The moment I met her, she was just one of those people who was always so generous and willing to go the extra mile. When she had to have her surgery, she mentioned how much it was really stretching their finances, so I mentioned it to Robben thinking he could be one of many performers and he said ‘I’ll just bring my band up.’ Then everything just happened one, two, three, like it was meant to be.”
The 7:30 concert on Sept. 21 is a newly added second show, as the earlier show sold out before it was publicized. Producers expect the second show to sell out quickly as well. “The first show sold out just by merit of people e-mailing each other,” said Anne Kerry Ford. “A little underground buzz was created which, as a producer, you hope will happen.”
“I will have my regular touring band,” said Robben Ford about playing the concerts. “I’m very excited about this group. We’re going to record a live album in San Francisco in January. The three of us have such a good musical connection, so the shows are fun, for us and the audience. It rocks, it’s soulful, very groove-oriented and, I think, will have a lot of great songs.”

Concertgoers will be able to become better educated about cancer. As an added attraction to the event, the Ventura County Medical Resource Foundation’s mobile mammography unit will be present to perform mammograms and distribute information on the day of the shows. The new mobile unit has been traveling the county for about a year in effort to make medical screenings more accessible to women of all cultures.
Self-paying women and men may receive a mammogram for $65, but the mobile facility also has a sliding scale based on income, accepts insurance and MediCal, and offers several sources of funding assistance to qualifying patients. In this way, some screenings are provided free of charge to some patients.
“What makes this program special and stand out form other programs is there are 23 organizations that came together and looked at developing accessible breast and cervical cancer screenings,” said VCMRF executive director Victoria Chandler. “They looked at how we were going to solve the need for the county to deliver screenings for our community members who have problems with transportation.” This includes disadvantaged and at-risk people lacking resources or insurance to get cancer screenings on their own.
“The mobile mammography unit encourages the sense of safety and privacy for women of all cultures and, for women who are completely outside the safety net, it provides access to breast cancer screening, as well as other medical care, for themselves and their families,” said Chandler, adding that the outreach program was created to increase the quality of life and prevent suffering while helping to reduce the cost of treating diseases.
“The mobile mammography unit tends to go to different county-run clinics around Ventura County,” said Sheila Murphy of VCMRF. “Dr. Connell Davis is the medical director for the Santa Paula clinic and an Ojai resident and friend of Tara Jeffrey. When she found out about the concert, she thought it might be a good idea to bring the mobile unit to it.”
The MMU had not yet come to Ojai, so the staff agreed that it was a good opportunity. “We’re very happy that the mobile mammography unit is going to make its way into Ojai and that women will be made aware of it,” said Murphy.
“Tara is doing great and teaching and looks incredibly beautiful,” said Anne Kerry Ford. “It’s really boosted her spirits to have the whole community involved.”
“All of the proceeds are going to Tara,” said Robben Ford. “Everyone is working complete gratis here. It’s a real group effort.” The event is being produced by Anne Kerry Ford and Rain Perry, both also singers. Co-producers are Pesticide Free Ojai and Theater 150. Jeffery has performed at the theater in the last few years.
Admission is $35. Tickets are available at Ojai Creates, 606 E. Ojai Ave., 640-6558; Cardinali Brothers Music Store, 139 W. El Roblar Drive, 646-2098, or by logging on to brownpapertickets.com. Anne Kerry Ford and Perry also plan to sell concert tickets this Sunday at the downtown Farmer’s Market behind the Arcade in Ojai.
For more information about Ventura County Medical Resource Foundation’s mobile mammography unit, visit vcmrf.org/programs/mobile-mammography.
we became friends,” Anne Kerry Ford said. “The moment I met her, she was just one of those people who was always so generous and willing to go the extra mile. When she had to have her surgery, she mentioned how much it was really stretching their finances, so I mentioned it to Robben thinking he could be one of many performers and he said, ‘I’ll just bring my band up.’ Then everything just happened one, two, three, like it was meant to be.”
The 7:30 concert on Sept. 21 is a newly added second show, as the earlier show sold out before it was publicized. Producers expect the second show to sell out quickly as well. “The first show sold out just by merit of people e-mailing each other,” said Anne Kerry Ford. “A little underground buzz was created which, as a producer, you hope will happen.”
“I will have my regular touring band,” said Robben Ford about playing the concerts. “I’m very excited about this group. We’re going to record a live album in San Francisco in January. The three of us have such a good musical connection, so the shows are fun, for us and the audience. It rocks, it’s soulful, very groove-oriented and, I think, will have a lot of great songs.”
Concertgoers will be able to become better educated about cancer. As an added attraction to the event, the Ventura County Medical Resource Foundation’s mobile mammography unit will be present to perform mammograms and distribute information on the day of the shows. The new mobile unit has been traveling the county for about a year in an effort to make medical screenings more accessible to women of all cultures.
“What makes this program special and stand out from other programs is there are 23 organizations that came together and looked at developing accessible breast and cervical cancer screenings,” said VCMRF executive director Victoria Chandler. “They looked at how we were going to solve the need for the county to deliver screenings for our community members who have problems with transportation.”
“The mobile mammography unit tends to go to different county-run clinics around Ventura County,” said Sheila Murphy of VCMRF. “Dr. Connell Davis is the medical director for the Santa Paula clinic and an Ojai resident and friend of Tara Jeffery. When she found out about the concert, she thought it might be a good idea to bring the mobile unit to it.”
“Tara is doing great and teaching and looks incredibly beautiful,” said Anne Kerry Ford. “It’s really boosted her spirits to have the whole community involved.” Robben Ford said, “All of the proceeds are going to Tara. Everyone is working completely gratis here. It’s a real group effort.”
Admission is $35. Tickets are available at Ojai Creates, 606 E. Ojai Ave., 640-6558; Cardinali Brothers Music Store, 139 W. El Roblar Drive, 646-2098, or by logging on to brownpapertickets.com. Anne Kerry Ford and Perry also plan to sell concert tickets this Sunday at the downtown Farmers’ Market behind the Arcade in Ojai.