With a de-rigueur reference to the battle over the redwood forests, which included the obligatory personification of the little woodland creatures, the Fillmore rang in 1997 with Hot Tuna and Alvin Youngblood Hart's Garage Band. Hart, a blues guitarist who was tapped for the Further Festival in 1996, broke onto the international scene with Big Mama's Door in 1996.
A Bill Graham Presents staff artist, Harry Rossit has more than lived up to the "... New artist to watch" reviews he received in his days as an emerging artist. Designing posters since at least 1991, his work is highly creative and can include a detailed cartoon image, a performer's portrait sketch, or require 3-D glasses for viewing. Rossit has been known to include his own face or those of friends in posters and always hides a yellow smiley-face in the composition, features of his sometimes quirky art that keeps the viewer scanning his posters for details far beyond the "who-when-where" facts.