Due to popular demand, a second screening of a documentary about local singer-songwriter Craig Nuttycombe will be screened at 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 25, at the Cambria Center for the Arts. The original screening, scheduled for Saturday, August 24, is already sold out.
It’s Just a Lifetime, sponsored by the Cambria Film Festival, tracks the ups and downs of a music career that began in the late 1960s and survived drug addiction, suicide, and missed opportunities.
The documentary, financed on a $40,000 grant from the Canadian government, was produced and directed by the husband-and-wife team of Carmen Cookson-Hills and Tim Ursuliak. They came down from The Great White North to spend three weeks with Nuttycombe.
According to Nuttycombe, the two Canadians are fans of folk music of the late 1960s and reached out to the San Luis Obispo musician through social media. But Nuttycombe, a self-described “Facebook neophyte,” didn’t see the original message for more than seven years.
Fortunately, Cookson-Hills and Ursuliak were still interested in connecting. They soon came down to visit, shot some video, and decided a larger project was possible.
It’s Just a Lifetime, a title taken from one of Nuttycombe’s many songs, traces his Hollywood upbringing, the influence of his musical parents (his father played in the LA Philharmonic), and his eventual meeting with future collaborator Denis Lambert.
The year was 1967. Nuttycombe was a mere 20 years old. Herb Alpert sat in his living room, offering a record deal. Lambert & Nuttycombe, as they called themselves, were expected to be the West Coast Simon & Garfunkel. They eventually recorded an album, At Home, and later toured Europe, opening for Canned Heat.
Then Lambert, apparently raised in a Twilight Zone of a childhood, turned to drugs and the musical dreams came crashing down. They released a second album, As You Will, but the drugs took their toll. The duo dissolved and went their separate ways. Lambert later committed suicide.
Nuttycombe pursued a solo career with only mixed results. Seeking a change of pace brought him to the Central Coast, an entirely different music community, and—eventually—inner peace.
He continued to write songs, went on to tour Japan, and found quite a local following, especially after joining the popular group Café Musique.
Following the Sunday screening, Nuttycombe plans to perform a six-song set with ex-Café Musique mates Duane Inglish and Brynn Albanese, along with “Cello Bob” Liepman.
Tickets for the second screening of It’s Just a Lifetime go on sale Wednesday, August 24. No other screenings of the documentary are planned at this time.