By Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com

Claremont’s long-running music series Friday Nights Live returns May 1 with a great lineup: Claremont Voodoo Society at the new Depot stage, Arrow Highway at Shelton Park, and Pride of Cucamonga at Village plaza.

And while the general idea remains the same — free live music in the Village from 6 to 9 p.m. every Friday through October 16 — this year’s series will take on a different vibe, as Robin Young is back at the helm after stepping away for 15 years.

Full disclosure: Robin and I have been close friends since we met as teenage punk rockers in 1981. Back then she called herself “Robin Banks,” as it was the fashion of the time to change one’s given name to something cool. She certainly succeeded.

Most Claremonters know Robin as that platinum blond girl who has been at the center of the city’s music scene since the 1980s as a fan and supporter, band manager, talent buyer, producer, and perhaps most of all as the booker at the late, lamented Press Restaurant (now Finney’s Crafthouse) from 2000 to 2013. Prior to that she brought music to the similarly mourned Nick’s Caffe Trevi (now Ck Tea House). “I had bands there as part of Village Venture — unofficially,” Young said. “Ben Harper played once.”

Her impact on Claremont’s music scene over the past 40 years is immeasurable. Yes, she booked upstart Ben Harper early on and brought legends like John Doe of X to town, but a few rungs below those guys lies a vast pool of locals and lesser knowns forever indebted to her for giving them a slot at The Press or one of her many other stages, including at Claremont’s Friday Nights Live series, which she booked from its inception in 2008 through 2009, and much to our delight, has now returned.

And in typical fashion, she’s looking to up the ante.

“Historically, as you know, public facing live music can be a little … standard,” Young said. “So I try to bring in something that’s a little bit different, a little less run of the mill. And because of Claremont’s deep and rich history of music and art, it’s important to get the vibe right. You can go to any of these foothill cities that are doing the same kind of thing, and it’s the same sort of top 40 cover band. So I want to bring in musicians that have some cache.”

This year’s kickoff on May 1 has something for everyone, including Deadheads (Pride of Cucamonga), eclectic rock, blues, and country with a dash of old-timey jazz (Claremont Voodoo Society) and blues rock (Arrow Highway), all featuring veteran local musicians and songwriters of note. Check out the schedule for the rest of May at FNL’s Facebook page, facebook.com/fridaynighstlive.

While Young’s return to Friday Nights Live is but her latest job bringing good music to the region, the truth is she’s been at this a lot longer than anyone might guess. When she was 5, her dad’s work took the family from Claremont to Palm Springs, then Las Vegas, Hawaii, and when she was 11, back to California. Along the way she worked out her place in the showbiz hierarchy.

“I’ve been putting on shows since I was 8 years old,” she explained last week over lunch at Los Jarritos. “It was me and my next door neighbors, the DiMaggio sisters, and I choreographed a dance that we did to ‘Yo-Yo,’ by the Osmonds, and we made all our parents come over into their recreation room and we performed it for them.”

She was a member of the Las Vegas Boys and Girls City Choir around this time too, “Which is just being told where to go and when to go there,” she said. “And I kind of actually liked better being the one saying when to go and where to go. I’ve had my taste of front of house and on stage, and I much prefer back of house and backstage.”

When she was 11 her family returned to the area, landing this time in Upland. She attended St. Lucy’s all-girls Catholic school in Glendora, graduating in 1981. “My senior year in high school, for the senior dance, I booked the Stepmothers,” a popular local punk band and one of the first from this area to be signed to a record deal. “We had just had a new gym built way, way up on the hill, and this was the first event we were having in the gym and we were all excited,” Young said. “We had our miniskirts, and we all looked like the Go-Gos. We had our high heels and everything. And the thing I remember most was when we got there they made us take off our shoes … It was a success.”

It was the first of many to come.

Along with The Press and Nick’s, she’s worked with the House of Blues, programmed live music at the former Borders Books in Montclair, was a talent buyer and producer for the Claremont Folk Festival, a local talent buyer for the former Key Club at Morongo Casino, and for the past three years has helped produce Claremont Heritage’s Treasure of Claremont Music concerts at the Garner House.

Now 62, most of her contemporaries are attending fewer shows, if any, and similarly vintage musicians are playing fewer gigs, again, if any. It would seem the singularly exhilarating experience of putting on a show has its claws in her for good. And for that, we’re all thankful.

“I wouldn’t call myself maternal, but I’ve always been a Wendy,” Young said, referencing Peter Pan’s nurturing mother figure. “Maybe it’s because I’m an only child, and I didn’t have any brothers, but I’ve always felt very comfortable around musicians. It’s kind of like when I was doing theater in high school; for that six to eight weeks you’re one big happy family. You form relationships and you have experiences together that don’t really happen in a normal workplace. Bonds are created. And fortunately for me, as a kid who moved around an awful lot when I was young, I have friends of 40-plus years because of those bonds formed through music.”

I’ve relished writing this column about my friend Robin’s near lifetime commitment to raising up music and musicians, but I see how it may appear to some as biased. But the honest truth is I would have written this if she was a stranger to me, because she’s a big deal, period, with nothing left to prove.

And I’m clearly not alone on this.

On August 1, along with Emily, Melissa, and Carly Moultrie, Elizabeth Hangan, Ellen Harper, and Cindy Edwards, Robin will be inducted into Claremont Heritage’s Treasury of Claremont Music in a ceremony replete with — you guessed it, live music — at the Garner House in Memorial Park. Expect to hear more from me on this event in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, if you’re a young musician with a handful of songs, a point of view, and looking for a gig, I recommend you do what I did 45 years ago and you get in touch with Robin Young; she may have a spot for you. But be sure to be respectful, earnest, and above all, good, because her standards are high. Inquire via the Friday Nights Live Facebook page at facebook.com/fridaynighstlive.

Friday Nights Live, with stages at Shelton Park, the Claremont Depot, and Village plaza, runs from May 1 through October 16. The schedule is at facebook.com/fridaynighstlive. Sponsorship info is at claremontchamber.org/friday-nights-live.