David Denton Borough started his career as a professional musician and joined the AFM in 1979 while also working as a land surveyor (and a member of the Operating Engineers Union). He plays the guitar and the “old time fiddle” and is proud that music has been a major feature of his entire adult life.
He’s played in numerous bands over the years including several that are still active. He helped form Radio Rail in 1998 after a gig at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento that included famed labor organizer and folk artist Utah Phillips and the Black Irish Band. The museum was also the site of his “most interesting gig”, performing on an open gondola car as it moved down the tracks.
David currently performs with the Son Patricio Band, a tribute group to the Saint Patrick’s Battalion that fought on the side of Mexico in the Mexican American war. It features both Son Jarocho music from Vera Cruz and Irish tunes. He also works with Grateful Dead tribute band Cassidy’s Hammer, named in honor of Jack Kerouac novel Maggie Cassidy, and Kelly O’Dabey, a project in which he partners with long-time local labor activist and performer Jimmy Kelly. Gigs generally take place at farmers markets, bars, parties and other small venues. His Son Patricio Band performed at the Labor Council’s annual Labor Day Weekend BBQ last year.
In his younger days, David played with a “Celtic Pirate-themed punk rock band” called O’Craven. They once performed at a Willow Glen backyard party on a plywood stage full of nails for a club known as the “San Jose Drunks”, he recalls fondly.
In addition to his musical endeavors, David hosts a weekly Grateful Dead show and a monthly Irish music show on KKUP FM radio. In a recent successful project, he advocated to convince the San Jose City Council to adopt a resolution and authorize a plaque at the City Hall Rotunda commemorating the first performance of the original Grateful Dead band which took place at an LSD-inspired “Acid Test” party in a home at the same location in 1965.
David has been active in his union during his long career and was an officer of San Jose-based AFM Local 153 until it merged with San Francisco Local 6 in 2013. He is a long-time delegate to the South Bay Labor Council, a role that he views as critical to his union and to the labor movement.
“The labor council is the vital center and focus for the labor movement and a powerful community of strength and resources to meet the needs of working people, especially in our current political environment,” David says.
David’s future goals include “more gigs” he says, as work for local musicians has failed to return to pre-pandemic levels. “I can handle a lot more”, he says. “Musicians never retire; we just get old.”
If you would like to book one of David’s bands, contact AFM Local 6 at 415-575-0777.