Musical Brothers Moshe and Boaz Vilozny return to The Ugly Mug for a special reunion show on March 27th.
Boaz was one of the founding members of The Devil Makes Three and penned the DM3 tunes, Working Man’s Blues, and Holding On. Moshe started a popular world music group called Universal Language while he was a student at UC Santa Cruz.
“I was the singer-songwriter for Universal Language. We headlined the Catalyst main stage. We played Reggae on the River and Sierra Nevada Brewery. We were a well-known group,” says Moshe from his home in Santa Cruz.
“I was born in Portland Oregon, and raised in Santa Cruz California. I come from a musical household and I first fell in love with music as a child singing songs in Hebrew with my family. I studied piano and saxophone at an early age, switching to guitar in middle school when I got my hands on my dad’s old guitar. That’s when I started writing, singing, and recording my own songs,” says Moshe.
Universal Language began as a fun project amidst studies, grew wings, and it soared. Other notable members of the band, the Staiano brothers, Gianni and Randall went on to become the funk gods known as 7Come11. Moshe was finally playing the songs that he had written in high school with a full band. Life was good.
“I released my first full-length studio album “Revolución” as part of my capstone project as a Language Studies major at UCSC. The album features my original songs in English, Spanish and Hebrew,” Moshe says.
Moshe could also be seen running rooms all over town, from the legendary Palookaville, to the historic Catalyst and finally for over a decade at the beloved Moe’s Alley.
“I did my CD release party with Universal Language at Moe’s in 2000,” Moshe begins. “That show sold out, and the owner, Bill Welch, hired me to help book more diverse music than just blues. I started doing all the world music stuff and then Latin stuff. And then that ended up being a full-time thing. I thought I was just going to do it like while I was in college, but I ended up doing it for over 15 years,” says Moshe.
“When my brother had his first kid, he left Devil Makes Three,” says Moshe. “But he always kept writing. He has a new EP out called Lay Awake, and that’s on all of the platforms.
“As time marches on, people grow and get families of their own, and don’t necessarily want to be on tour all the time.”
At this rare show the brothers will do some solo work and then perform a set together. What makes it doubly auspicious is that they both have a deep connection to the Ugly Mug. “This year marks 30 years since Ugly Mug opened in 1996. And my first gig was in 1996 at The Ugly Mug. My brother, Boaz, worked as a barista at the Ugly Mug in 1998. And that’s where he met his now wife, who was also a barista there,” says Moshe.
When COVID happened, like most people, Moshe began to reconsider what a career as a musician looked like, and that’s when he began to work on his teaching credential. “I had two young kids at that point. And I’m like, I’m not just going to wait around and see what happens. I’m going to go ahead and just be ready. I got my teaching credential and that’s how I ended up moving into working as the music educator at Gault & Monarch schools in Santa Cruz.”
Moshe considers this new phase as a teacher his second act.
“I did 20 years of booking. And now I’m teaching music and I’m also still performing. The first couple of years I really didn’t feel like I had time to do my own music, but now I’m feeling inspired. I got asked by Jackie Green to open for him and I’m talking with Redwood Mountain Fair and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass again. That was the last big event I did before COVID.”
Moshe has a new 7-inch vinyl that he’s really proud of, and it will be available at the show. Pressed by Atomic out of Oregon, it has all the trimmings. With cover jacket art and four songs.
“It’s 10 bucks for the 7-inch,” the says. “And I’m heading to Portland this summer and they’re easier to deal with not melting than full albums.”
Some of the tracks have been released from the EP including, Sand in My Pocket, and Old Shoes, and are also available on all the platforms. And at this show, many of both brothers’ songs will be performed live. Boaz is visiting from Portland, Maine and this is his first Santa Cruz appearance in several years.
Moshe and Boaz Vilozny perform on Friday, March 27 at 7pm at the Ugly Mug CoffeeHouse, 4640 Soquel Dr, Soquel. Tickets are $20 and available at cafeugly.com