Oroville Mayor Chuck Reynolds continues to trail behind David Pittman.

Throughout the initial released results on election night, McDaniel had maintained a small lead over Bennett.

According to Elections Official Candace Grubbs, the next update will be released Friday, Nov. 18, 2022.

Chico City Council

Bennett, who has thus far been closely following McDaniel, has taken the lead at 2525-2505, a mere 20 vote difference in District 3.

Meanwhile, in District 4, Addison Winslow’s gap over Nichole Nava continues to grow, now at 2,027 over 1,434.

For District 2, Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds has held onto her lead over challenger Morgan Kennedy with the vote tally at 2,055-1,630.

Lastly, Tom Van Overbeek has expanded his lead to 2,839 over challenger Jesica Giannola who is at 2,076.

Chico Unified School District

Rebecca Konkin now has a lead of 3,244 over Scott Thompson who currently has 2,298.

Tom Lando in the fourth district has widened the gap against Matt Tennis, now at 3981-2857.

Eileen Robinson is still leading over Logan Wilson with the tally now at 4,290-3,855.

Oroville

In Oroville, the mayoral race remains close, though Pittman remains ahead of Reynolds. The vote count for the mayor race sits at 2,078-1,995.

Tracy Johnstone has 317 votes over Art Hatley’s 256 and Shawn Webber is up to 301 votes against Natalie Sheard’s 275.

Measures

Both Measure H and Measure L continue to see Chico voters’ approval.

Measure H is sitting at a lead of 14,529-12,834, a still relatively close call for the 1% sales tax.

“While it was a difficult decision to bring the tax measure forward, I am pleased to see that the people of Chico supported it and understood what it will do for our roads, parks and public safety,” said Mayor Andrew Coolidge.

Measure L expanded its lead, now at 15,729-10,557.

It should be noted that 27,363 votes have been counted in total for Measure H and 26,286 for Measure L.

CHICO — California vintage rock band Barrel Aged began with Aaron Mathrole (rhythm guitar) and Mark Walker (drums). “Mark and I used to play in his gym basically every Wednesday,” Mathrole said. “We would just practice and invite folks in to play, and some people stuck and some people came and went.”

Mathrole’s brother, Rob Mathrole is the lead singer and guitarist. Rob Mathrole explained that their song for E-R Sessions has “kind of an ironic title called ‘AM Radio’ ’cause obviously the song doesn’t sound like AM radio hits.” He explained that the song is about the way AM radio sounds today and the way it sounded in the ’70s when it played rock music.

Walker added that, though they were able to accommodate E-R Sessions with a mainly acoustic version of their song, they are not an acoustic band.

Barrel Aged eventually acquired long-time musician Chris Pollok on bass. The band played several shows in the Chico area ever since.

On May 2, the band will headline for a first responders recognition event at Secret Trail Brewing Company. Also playing the event will be Yurkovic.

Barrel Aged can be found on Facebook and on Instagram at @barrelagedchico.

All E-R Session videos

“We thought, like a lot of people, we were escaping flames behind us not knowing that the worst was ahead of us,” McKinnon said.

The song he wrote about the experience was inspired by the bravery of his wife, Wendy, who he encouraged to drive out of the flames separately in her vehicle, telling her that he would be right there with her the whole way.

“She disappeared into the fire and smoke and I thought, ‘oh my God, what have I done,’ and then suddenly, I was engulfed in flames and I couldn’t even tell where the road was, let alone where Wendy was,” he said.

During their escape, Wendy called and told Mark that she wasn’t sure if they would make it out and wanted to tell him one more time that she loves him.

“I told her ‘I love you too. Keep your eyes on the road. Try to stay out of the fire and just breathe.'”

“Just Breathe” is the name of the song McKinnon was finally able to write weeks later after a musical dry spell caused by the deep emotion and trauma the musician went through.

Watch a raw version of Mark McKinnon’s song “Just Breathe” at E-R Sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=bZiWCuHGL5E.

“There were literally ashes falling down and we thought it was raining,” Sawyer said. When he and his wife realized it was ashes, they started packing.

A few weeks later, after he was able to process some of what he was feeling, Sawyer wrote a song about his experience fleeing the fire. The song, “Sifting Through Ashes,” was written as a timeline of he and his wife’s escape and what was going through their minds during the experience.

“The message is to keep your chin up and keep on going ’cause we’re going to make it through this,” Sawyer said. This is a message he held onto as they were stuck in gridlock with things exploding around them. He said they saw deer walking through the stopped cars, not knowing where to go.

Although most of his band mates from Stoning Giants live in the Portland area, they still meet for practice at the bassist’s house in Grants Pass, Oregon, and the band plays together all along the west coast. Catch Sawyer live at La Salles Jan. 18 from 10 p.m.-midnight. There is no cover.

For more on Stoning Giants: http://stoninggiants.com/.

“The first part of the song is really about the people who experienced the fire, and then the second part of the song is really kind of the ripple effect about the community,” Thompson said.

He explained how he was inspired by the camp at Walmart and the way people like Traci Haynes turned their homes into zones for charities and donations.

“People were just coming together and rolling up their sleeves and working hard, and at the same time dealing with secondhand trauma,” he said.

Thompson really wanted the chorus of the song to be uplifting. He felt like the word “strong” was the anthem of the community and wanted it to be the anthem of his song. One of the most dramatic parts of his original track was during the bridge. He put in voice-overs of first responders talking about emergency situations and the trouble with traffic during the evacuation.

Thompson has been playing music in Chico for several years. He has played solo and with other musicians, such as his project Big Crush with LeAnn Cooley and Ken Mackell. Thompson said his piano playing was greatly influenced by George Winston and he likes to let his playing “breathe.”

The band has been performing and is recording a Camp Fire-influenced song called “Ashes of the Dead.” Messerschmidt, who wrote the lyrics, is one of two Camp Fire survivors in the band.

“It’s like more of a heavy song, but I have some of the ways I saw that day and I wrote from my perspective about that,” Messerschmidt said.

He wrote the song a month after the fire while in piano class. He said it expresses how much life changed for everyone in the area.

Beeler explained how Kratom evolved from typical metal over time.

“We started to branch out and try to get more psychedelic and adding different scales and tones to sound more Egyptian,” Beeler said.

Messerschmidt described their sound as thrash metal and said they are trying to bring back “skater metal” with a twist.

Kratom has been recording an album called Zykodelyk. The album will drop at the band’s release show at 8 p.m. Jan. 25 in The Naked Lounge,118 W. Second St. The album will also be released on all streaming platforms and CDs.

Ohliger has been performing in and around the Chico area for 42 years and makes a living at it. He is also a Camp Fire survivor and discussed his experience, as well as the song he wrote expressing what he went through as a resident of Butte Creek Canyon during the fire.

“I was out there watering around the house, and it looked more and more intense. Then they cut the electricity off and then the phone and all of a sudden, we had nothing,” said Ohliger.

He explained that the firefighters were not hesitant in telling him and his wife to “run for it”. Ohliger grabbed as many instruments as he could and some other things but once he evacuated, he said he realized there were plenty of other things he should have grabbed.

Although he had to flee and was away from his home for several weeks Ohliger’s house was one of the few in the area that survived the most destructive fire in California’s history. He tried to go back to see if his house was still standing but was stopped several times by both sheriff’s deputies and military personnel.

“Can I just go up there and see if I still have a house?” Ohliger said.

He told the guards that he was a banjo player and said that the next time he tried to get home they had looked up his music online and were really impressed with his music. At that point, they let him up to check on his house.

The banjo player knew he wouldn’t get back in the burn area if he left.

“So I had to live up there for a couple of days just living on rice and beans and water from the creek,” he said.

Ohliger had a scheduled music gig and finally left, knowing that he wouldn’t be let back in afterwards.

“The fire didn’t last for a day or three it went on for weeks and weeks and weeks and we stayed in various people’s houses in Chico,” he said. Ohliger explain how his wife had a horrible time with the smoke as she has difficulties with asthma so they left the area and went up north for a while so she could breath. When they came back Ohliger found out that the fire had surround his house but somehow skipped his residence and burn all around it.

For more on Gordy Ohliger and his music go to: http://www.banjoman.info/

Also see him perform “Fire Wall”, the song he wrote about his experience as a Camp Fire survivor and listen to all E-R Sessions on our YouTube playlist.

The pair connected and learned of each other’s musical talents. Robinson is a singer, writer and guitarist. Castillo is a songwriter, producer and guitarist. The band also features Charlie Gott, on drums, Celia Jimenez, on bass, and Spencer King, on keys.

Though he currently lives in Las Vegas, Robinson had family in Paradise during the Camp Fire.

“We followed the news every day and watched so many people lose everything,” Robinson said. 

The tragedy inspired the band’s Nov. 7 release of its song “Fire and the Rain.” 

They recently came through the area to see, in person, the fallout of the Camp Fire, as well as the regrowth of the resilient community that inspired the band’s song.

“I hope that we can remember and assist the people that to this day are still struggling and healing from this tragedy,” he said.

The band’s release is in remembrance of the Camp Fire. The band hopes its song can continue to raise awareness and support for people affected by the fire.

Check out the acoustic version of “Fire and the Rain” in this week’s E-R Session: https://tinyurl.com/y29nw54a.

This is the chorus to singer-songwriter Skip Culton’s song “Another Prayer for Paradise,” which he wrote soon after losing everything in the Camp Fire.

The song has hundreds of thousands of views and is a candid expression of Culton’s love for Paradise and how he felt on the day of the fire.

Culton explained how quickly the song came out of his heart.

“It’s more rare for me to just channel a song that way and have it all together in about 10 minutes but, for some reason, this really just came right through me,” Culton said.

He said it felt like the song came from God through him.

It was recorded by Dave Elke at Butte College with the other members of The Skip Culton project (Justin Mora, on bass, Jose Lopez, on drums, and Webster Moore, on keys).

The Skip Culton Project recently did some recordings at various studios, including a trip to Nashville, and has a new album coming out soon.

You can find Skip Culton’s music on many streaming platforms. He will be performing a four-hour set at Feather Falls Casino on Nov. 15. He’ll also perform at the Chico Independent Film Festival on Nov. 16.

Brandon McKie started his project, thin air, which has stayed true to the genre of experimental music as far as creating an atmosphere of ethereal dream loops that are abstract and make room for interpretation.

Although McKie has worked with dozens of musicians, lately he is playing with guitarist Remi May (Eyes Like Lanterns) and drummer Max Engel (No Wave).

The trio will be releasing an album in November with a release show Nov. 8 at Argus, Bar and Patio, 212 W. Second St.

Listen to thin air on bandcamp: musicfromthethinair.bandcamp.com.

Keep up to date with shows on Facebook: facebook.com/musicfromthethinair.