Dave Hughes
Local Music Advocate

Originally from Orcutt, CA, Dave Hughes has situated himself as a lead advocate for the East Bay music scene since moving to Concord in 2011.

Dave has worked with City of Concord officials and staff to ensure that the much-loved Music and Market series offers a reasonable amount of stage time to local musicians to help showcase some of their original work. Additionally, he launched a separate downtown community concert series showcasing original local music called Singer-Songwriter Saturdays, executed and hosted by the Concord Couch Concerts team.

Having worked several years locally at the grassroots level with advocates for social justice, Dave honed in his community organizing skills, which he applied to coalesce local musicians and launch a number of platforms that benefit them.

Concord Couch Concerts was the first of several frontiers that Dave helped to pioneer. It's both a show and a collective of independent musicians. The team of 7 local musicians went on to make over 30 virtual productions during the pandemic (2020-2021), and raised thousands for local charities in the process. CCC continued to produce original music showcases in downtown Concord from August 2021 through July 2022.

While currently on hiatus, the Couch team isn't entirely inactive. Follow them on Instagram to see what they're up to.

Dave hosts a radio show on KVHS 90.5 FM and also writes a freelance music column, both of which share the title "The Beat of Diablo".

Through both platforms, he continues to spotlight the treasure trove of music coming out of this portion of the Bay Area.

Follow The Beat of Diablo on Instagram.

Design by Tom Davis and used with permission.

Dave manages the website ConcordRockCity.com where new releases from local artists of all genres can be found.

He wishes to make clear that while he does own the website, the phrase "Concord Rock City" was established decades ago, and isn't owned by any person or groups.

In 2021, a group of local musicians created a Facebook page of the same name that can be found here. The hope was to bury a similarly named page ran by someone unaffiliated with the scene, made up of divisive meme content, to save #ConcordRockCity from being associated with hateful ideology.

Dave is available for freelance writing and consulting. He can be reached at (415) 308-8405, although he is more responsive via email (link below).