Strangers With Candy - San Francisco Bay Area band, taken approximately 1993. Left To Right: Mike Robles, guitar and vocals; Mona Leigh, bass guitar and vocals; Quenston Staten, drums and vocals; John Gaar, guitar and vocals.

The Story of
One Night in the City

In 1987 Mona Leigh arrived in the SF Bay Area at the invitation of the late, legendary audio engineer Richie (Dr. Mono) Moore, who had agreed to record some of Mona's original music with her at Gate 5 Studio in Sausalito. Moore's list of credits includes working with the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Huey Lewis & The News, Country Joe McDonald, Tom Waits, Cold Blood, the Neville Brothers, Pablo Cruise, Heart, Bruce Hornsby and many others. Within a couple of weeks, Mona was the 'house band' bass player for JJ's Blues in San Jose with The Boulevard Blues Band featuring Tommy Castro, where she met Don Gaynor, also in the house band. She was also in the opening act for blues legend John Lee Hooker. Mona and Don were working on forming an original band, when Don's brother, Gene, a studio musician / keyboard player from New York, showed up in San Francisco for just a 24 hour stop over. Rather than spending time and money on a night out in the City by the Bay, Don, Gene, Mona and drummer Scott LaMantia decided to put their money and time into a jam session in a recording studio instead, and have something fun to remember. This album, "One Night In The City" is the result of that jam.
Recorded at Pyramind Studio in San Francisco in 1988, this was a gathering of friends who had never played together before as a group...a one time session, recorded live in studio with no overdubs of any kind. This CD features two Mona Leigh originals, "The Dream" - Live, and "Don't Turn Your Back On Love", along with some fun covers of Born Under A Bad Sign, Shaky Ground, Running On Faith and Old Love. It has turned out to be a favorite of Mona Leigh fans everywhere.

Since releasing this album, Mona Leigh and her half brothers, movie editor Peter McCrea, and actor Jody McCrea, were able to locate each other (via the internet) after being separated for most of their lives, and have had a 'family reunion' of sorts, after a lifetime of not being able to know each other. Their famous father was the legendary movie star Joel McCrea…but, that's a story for another time. It is, however, why Mona's name credits sometimes appear as Mona Leigh McCrea…in her movies, on her albums and on her poetry / writing.