Saturday, October 25th, 7:30 pm
July 11, 2008 at 4:30 am | In Home | No CommentsTags: Alicia Keys, and the Broadway orchestras for Phantom of the Opera, Bronx, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, cello, classical, Common Ground, David Gatay, David Sanborn, Dionne Warwick, Eddie Venegas, Hastings-on-Hudson, improvisation, jazz, Joe Zawinul, John Fadis, John Legend, k.d. lang, Kanye West, Latin, Little Jimmy Scott, Mannheim Steamroller, Marc Antony, Mariah Carey, Marvin Hamlisch, Orlano Wells, rap, Rihanna, Romulo Benavides, Sound Liberation, Spamalot, Sweet Plantain, the Dali Quartet, the Harrisburg Symphony, the Key West Symphony, the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, The Producers, the Radio City Christmas Show Orchestra, the Sphinx Symphony, the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra, Tito Puente, Tony Award, trombone, Venezuela, Victor Jones, violin, Westchester, Wicked
“Blending jazz, Latin and classical styles, this virtuoso quartet brings a freshness and inventiveness to every note they play.” - Stuart Malina, 2007 Tony Award winning conductor
Made possible through a grant from Meet the Composer and the MetLife Creative Connections program
Sweet Plantain is a string quartet that specializes in genre-blurring, contemporary works by Latin American composers as well as original compositions and arrangements. Its unique style fuses Latin, classical, jazz, and improvisational forms.
The group’s mission is to give voice to a contemporary, urban, Latino sound, and so much of the group’s repertoire is rooted in improvisation. The art of improvisation, once an integral part of western classical music, has all but been abandoned in the training and performance of classical artists, although it continues to occupy an important role in nearly every other musical genre. Sweet Plantain therefore works to weave the possibilities of improvisation into classical music by arranging existing pieces and writing original compositions that contain improvised sections. The group also makes use of extended percussive techniques, some of them original creations, to best achieve and showcase the rhythmic vitality characteristic of Latin music.
Much of the group’s musical aesthetic stems from the diversity of its members. Both violinist Romulo Benavides and violinist/trombonist Eddie Venegas are native-born Venezuelans now active in New York City’s Latin music scene. Violist Orlando Wells, born in Orange, NJ, hails from a family of Jazz musicians including distinguished drummer, Victor Jones. Cellist David Gotay was growing up in the Bronx, NY, when hip hop was first born and later exploded onto the scene, and he now doubles as a rapper in the New York City-based band, Sound Liberation. Between them, this diverse quartet has performed with such noted artists as John Fadis, Joe Zawinul, Tito Puente, Marc Antony, John Legend, Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Kanye West, Marvin Hamlisch, Dionne Warwick, Alicia Keys, k.d. lang, David Sanborn, Little Jimmy Scott, and Mannheim Steamroller, and with such reknowned ensembles as the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, the Harrisburg Symphony, the Key West Symphony, the Sphinx Symphony, the Dali Quartet, the Radio City Christmas Show Orchestra, and the Broadway orchestras for Phantom of the Opera, The Producers, Spamalot and Wicked.
All of Sweet Plantain’s members share a classically-trained background and studied at New York City’s most prestigious institutions (including the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music). Yet they all yearned for a more diverse means of musical expression than had been provided in their training, and so Sweet Plantain was born, enabling the four musicians to fuse their classical training with their broader array of diverse cultural influences.
Highlights of their 2006-2007 season include musical projects and collaborations with some of the world’s leading artists. Sweet Plantain recorded with renowned composer Ryuichi Sakamoto on his score for the film, Silk. Sweet Plantain also had the privilege of presenting a concert in collaboration with Composers Concordance, debuting nine world premieres from such notable composers as Margaret Brouwer, Daron Hagen, Andy Brick, and Gene Pritsker. Finally, Sweet Plantain collaborated with celebrated choreographer, Bill T. Jones, and the Afro beat vanguards, Antibalas, to present a workshop for the genesis of a Broadway musical about the life and music of Fela Kuti.
The group’s commitment to musical education, and its particular commitment to the musical education of New York’s urban youth, has additionally found Sweet Plantain designing and running a new string program at the St. Ignatius School located in the Hunts Point area of the South Bronx, one of the most underserved neighborhoods nationwide. They have designed the curricula to empower the students through musical forms representative of their community’s cultural heritage, while at the same time exposing them to classic western forms.
Tickets: Adults, $20; Students (Age 12+), $15; Kids under 12, free
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Saturday, November 22nd, 7:30 pm
July 11, 2008 at 4:27 am | In Home | No CommentsTags: acoustic, Blonde on Blonde, blues, Bonnie Raitt, Chris Smither, coffeehouse, Diana Krall, Dylan, Falcon Ridge, folk, Hastings-on-Hudson, Leave the Light On, Lighnin' Hopkins, microcredit, New Orleans, Ollabelle, Peter Case, Unitarian, UU
CHRIS SMITHER IN CONCERT
Chris Smither delivers one of the most riveting live shows you’re ever likely to see.”
- Rolling Stone
Smither is an American original, a product of the musical melting pot, and one of the absolute best singer-songwriters in the world - Associated Press
Some artists continually reinvent themselves; others identify their muse early on and spend their careers single-mindedly pursuing it, remaining recognizably themselves through a career-long process of refinement, growth and discovery. Chris Smither belongs to the latter group. Leave the Light On, Smither’s masterful twelfth album—the first he’s released on his own Mighty Albert label—stands as the quintessence of his life’s work while throwing in some new wrinkles that reflect where he’s been and what he’s encountered since the last time around. But Smither’s central theme as he enters his 60s is clearer than ever.
“The last three or four records I’ve done are mostly talking about the big questions—life, death, love and… not love—and where the whole thing’s going,” he says. This new “fistful of tunes,” as he calls it, finds Smither once again in a contemplative mood, examining his thought processes on “Open Up,” struggling to distinguish between self-deception and truth on “Seems So Real” and seeking the most fundamental kind of closure on “Father’s Day.” No, Leave the Light On is not a party record.
“Since I started recording again around 20 years ago [22, actually], I’ve been writing about the same sorts of things; it’s just about my own growing perception of it, and how clear can I make it?” Smither explains. “I guess I’m making it clearer, because people don’t often ask me what the songs are about anymore. It’s a process of engagement. When you write a song, you’ve got three or four minutes to get a-hold of somebody, and if they can remember one phrase or line when they walk away from it, you’ve won. And I think I’ve accomplished that.”
What is immediately recognizable to anyone who has encountered Smither on record or in live performance during the course of the last four decades are his been-there, done-that voice and the crystalline, wordlessly eloquent sounds of his fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Familiar, too, are the writer/artists whose songs Smither has selected to intermingle with his own. These include Lightnin’ Hopkins, whose “Blues in the Bottle”—a striking showcase for Smither’s approach to the acoustic guitar—is drawn from Blues in My Bottle, the album that inspired the New Orleans-born, Boston-based artist to begin performing in the 1960s; and his contemporary Bob Dylan, from whose vast oeuvre the artist this time has chosen the Blonde on Blonde linchpin “Visions of Johanna.”
The new elements introduced on Leave the Light On—the second album produced by Smither’s cohort, David “Goody” Goodrich, after 2003’s Train Home—provides the new recording with its particular flavor. On hand is young neo-gospel group Ollabelle, who bring a complementary loveliness to Smither’s “Seems So Real” and additional resonance to the traditional “John Hardy.” The renowned roots musician Tim O’Brien plays mandolin and fiddle all over the record, as well as harmonizing with Smither, Sean Staples and Anita Suhanin on the lilting title track for a billowing blend that evokes Southern California circa 1972. Atypically, he tackles topical themes on “Origin of Species,” which he says is “making fun of dummies,” and the edgily political “Diplomacy,” harkening back to his roots in the ’60s folk scene. Also different is Smither’s bold and surprising decision to arrange “Visions of Johanna” in 6/8 time (he credits his friend Steve Tilston, an English artist, for the suggestion) that results in a track of otherworldly beauty.
Smither considers himself a performer first and foremost, and the fashioning of new material for each album brings added interest to both his fans and himself. “New tunes not only have a freshness of their own, but they also freshen up all the old material as well—they cast a new light on it,” he points out. In this sense, each album results in an act of recontextualization of his entire body of work. “It’s an interesting process,” he confirms. “Not for a minute do I believe the songs come from anyplace but inside of me, but at the same time there’s an otherness to them that continually surprises me. Why does it take so long for them to become part of my conscious self? It’s an interesting problem, but I’ve talked to enough writers to realize I’m far from unique in that respect.”
After coming on the radar in 1970 with the well-received debut album I’m a Stranger Too! and the similarly lauded 1972 follow-up, Don’t It Drag On, Smither didn’t release another record for more than a decade. “Everybody has good patches and bad patches,” he says. “I was basically drunk for 12 years, and somehow I managed to climb out of it; I don’t know why. Why did I get well when so many other people don’t? It had nothing to do with any virtue on my part; if I were Christian, I’d call it grace. I just got lucky. Mostly you just get tired of it. So when you get sufficiently tired of it, you either descend into utter obliteration or you get out, and so I got out.”
Smither says he recognizes the young artist on the front end of his long struggle from his present perspective. “He got sidetracked, and he learned a lot, but it’s definitely the same guy,” he says. “The other interesting thing is that I had to go through all the horrible stuff to get where I am now. It’s part and parcel of the animal that’s walking around today. It’s unfortunate that I stayed so unproductive for so long, but at the same time, I couldn’t write the kind of stuff that I write now if I hadn’t gone through it. I wouldn’t realize what it is to be a human—not really. I might think I did, but it wouldn’t be the same.”
When asked about his career-long predilection for mixing in outside songs with his own material, Smither says, “This may sound a little self-important, maybe, but I like to hold these things up and say, ‘These are the people I consider my peers, and my stuff stands up to this. This is what I do, and this is where I come from.’”
The four non-originals on Leave the Light On—also including Peter Case’s “Cold Trail Blues”—indicate where Chris Smither comes from; the eight new songs he’s fashioned show where this deeply soulful artist is now, and what lies ahead. The particular opening into the universal, delivered by a knowing voice and filigreed by tasty licks—you can’t ask for more than that from an album.
Tickets: Adults $25, Seniors, Students (12+), $20
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Saturday, December 27th, 7:00 pm
July 11, 2008 at 4:26 am | In Home | No CommentsTags: Ani DiFranco, Anthony Da Costa, Ben Kweller, Dave End, Dobbs Ferry, Dresden Dolls, Falcon Ridge, Griffin and the True Believers, Hastings-on-Hudson, Hop Along, Juno, Kerrville Folk Festival, Kimya Dawson, Langehorne Slim, Midnight Run, Moldy Peaches, Pete Seeger, Queen Ansleis, Rock and Run, South Presbyterian Church, The Decemberists, The Gossip, The Hold Steady, The Magnetic Fields, The Mountain Goats, The World/Inferno Friendship Society, They Might Be Giants, Third Eye Blind, Unitarian
ROCK & RUN FOR JUSTICE
A BENEFIT CONCERT FOR MIDNIGHT RUN featuring KIMYA DAWSON
with Anthony da Costa and Emilyn Brodsky, Griffin & the True Believers, Hop Along, Queen Ansleis, Dave End and BB Sunshine
Each year in December, Common Ground hosts a holiday season benefit concert for Midnight Run, the Dobbs Ferry, NY-based volunteer organization dedicated to finding common ground between the housed and the homeless. In over 900 relief missions per year, Midnight Run volunteers from churches, synagogues, schools and other civic groups distribute food, clothing, blankets and personal care items to the homeless poor on the streets of New York City. The late-night relief efforts create a forum for trust, sharing, understanding and affection. That human exchange, rather than the exchange of goods, is the essence of the Midnight Run mission. And it’s in that spirit that we present this concert, featuring the luminous human beings listed below:
KIMYA DAWSON is your friend. She is one of those rare birds that make you feel like she needs you as much as you need her. Her songs make you feel needed and important. And her fans/friends have been doing the same for her. Since the release of early Moldy Peaches recordings she has been hearing people say “thanks for making me realize that I am not the only one out there who feels like this” and to this she replies “thanks for making me realize that I am not the only one out there who feels like this”.
In her little bit of off time Kimya has sang on tracks by Ben Kweller, Third Eye Blind, The Mountain Goats, They Might Be Giants, and her brother Akida Junglefoot Dawson. In December 2007, a number of Dawson’s songs were included on the soundtrack to the Academy Award winning film Juno, a record that reached #1 on the Billboard 200.
If Ricky Vasques, Jordan Catalano and Brian Krakau had a baby…. his name would be DAVE END. Dave writes honesty pop about hypothetical situations and focuses on the details that rhyme. Dave End loves cupcakes, The Golden Girls and Having Fun Random Adventures. If he were a dessert he would be a root beer float because it has a visible chemical reaction. His first album, “How to Hold Your Own Hand” was recorded and released in 2005. In November ‘06 , Dave moved to Brooklyn to record his second album, “Fruits Commonly Mistaken For Vegetables.”
ANTHONY DA COSTA is a 17-year old performing songwriter from Pleasantville, NY. In the first two months of 2008 he released his sixth record, “Typical American Tragedy”, opened for Livingston Taylor and Susan Werner, and was nominated as Folk Alliance Emerging Artist of the Year. In 2007, he became the youngest winner of the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk and the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival’s Emerging Artist showcases. A prolific songwriter and self-taught instrumentalist, he is a strict adherent to Zimmerman’s Theory of the Never-Ending Tour, playing perpetually at festivals, theaters, clubs, and coffeehouses throughout the Northeast and beyond.
EMILYN BRODSKY is 22 year old singer-songwriter who couldn’t bring herself to learn how to play the guitar, so instead she plays the ukulele. She writes simple songs about complex feelings and is a big fan of tight harmonies and aggressive charm. Emilyn grew up in Westchester, New York home to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Jay-Z and Beyonce, and Xavier’s Institute for Higher Learning. She has had the good fortune to play with some seriously amazing people like The Dresden Dolls, The Gossip, The Magnetic Fields, The Decemberists, The Hold Steady, The World/Inferno Friendship Society, Langhorne Slim, Kimya Dawson, Ani Difranco, and Pete Seeger. She recently released her first full-length studio album, Emilyn Brodsky’s Greatest Tits. She lives in New York City on the great island of Manhattan in a lovely and strange house. Sometimes she considers moving out of New York but she couldn’t live without good bagels. Check out Emilyn performing Phil Och’s “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” with Anthony da Costa:
GRIFFIN & THE TRUE BELIEVERS are Griffin Epstein (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano), Andrew Epstein: vocals, drums, tambourine, general percussion, toys; and Aaron Burns: (vocals, glockenspiel, keyboards). They come from Burnt Oak Records, a collective and community resource based in Guelph (Squamp), Ontario. They talk and talk and talk and talk and make music together and make art with their hands. They live in New York City, Binghamton and Toronto/Guelph. To listen to Griffin & the True Believers, click here.
HOP ALONG, QUEEN ANSLEIS, is, for the most part, Frances Quinlan. Quinlan hails from Pennsylvania and is currently in school in Maryland, is a complete original. Her voice has a wide octave range that rises and falls with complete abandon. In 2005, she released her CD Freshman Year, and is currently working on a follow-up. Frances is joined by all-around right-hand man Dominic Angelella on electric and slide guitar. Click here to listen to “Bruno is Orange” and watch Frances perform Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel #2″ below:
BB SUNSHINE is an 18-year-old mermaid attending the tender liberal arts school, Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts. In high school back in Jersey, she was the three-time winner of the poetry slam, which some believe she rigged since she was also the MC. BB Sunshine’s performance art is cutting edge due to its optimism, and her first slam inspirations were Saul Williams and Ani DiFranco. BB Sunshine loves photography, face paint and sleeping on other people’s floors. Get ready - she is dangerously enthusiastic - full of jail and juice. Contact her if you’d like to join her circus one day!
Tickets: All seats: $10.
IMPORTANT: Due to the unprecendented awesomeness of this show, tickets will NOT be available on the day of the event. All tickets MUST be purchased in advance, either through this website, or by mailing $10 cash or a check made out to “FUSW” to:
Common Ground Coffeehouse
c/o First Unitarian Society of Westchester
25 Old Jackson Avenue
Hastings-on-Hudson NY 10706
This website will be updated frequently prior to the concert once tickets go on sale, and in the event that the concert sells out, that information will also be posted here.
Please also note: This concert will take place at South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, NY - not at the First Unitarian Society in Hastings.
This year’s concert promises to be a truly special evening. Special thanks and deep gratitute to all the musicians and other artists, Will Floyd from Electrique Wave Studio for running sound, and the rest of volunteer staff, who have given their time and talents so graciously to the cause. Most of all, thanks to Rev. Joe Gilmore and the whole South Presbyterian Church community for the use of their facility. Reverend Gilmore is one of the founding and leading spirits of Midnight Run. His passionate fire for justice, equity, and human connection in our world not only make the change of venue for this concert appropriate, but serves as a model for us all.
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Saturday, January 24, 7:30 PM
July 11, 2008 at 4:25 am | In Home | No CommentsTags: coffeehouse, Common Ground, Falcon Ridge Folk, Hastings-on-Hudson, katyrna, nerissa, nields, sister hollar, Westchester
Clear-eyed, literary lyrics and… gloriously eccentric vocal delivery. Ideal for harmony addicts and dreamers alike - Billboard Magazine
To the songwriter/musician who has neither burned, bailed nor sold out, there comes a time when he or she turns from writing about who they are in the current moment to writing about who they have always been. Sister Hollar, the 2007 release from Nerissa and Katryna Nields, is a “roots album,” but with a difference. Rather than simply reinterpret or re-record the music what brung ‘em, the sisters from have to retooled, assimilated and flat out burgled the music they grew up with to create something new. The result is a delightful oxymoron of songs simultaneously familiar and surprising.
On Sister Holler, “Abington Sea Fair” is “Scarborough Fair” from a woman’s point of view, with genders swapped. “This Train” is a populist anthem for today and kind of a commentary on polarization between Republicans and Democrats. On the song “Endless Day”, Nerissa uses the progression from Johann Pachabel’s “Canon in D”. Indeed, part of the fun of Sister Holler is listening for the references.
Nerissa and Katryna Nields have been the darlings of the coffeehouse/festival scene since 1991, with tunes ranging from off-the-hook idiosyncratic to kicking to heartbreaking. “Our parents were total folkies,” says Nerissa. “Their first date was a Pete Seeger concert and their second was a Harry Bellefonte concert. We used to go to a family camp in the Adirondacks every summer where people sat around a fire. That’s where I learned how to finger pick.”
Katryna recalls, One of my top five musical memories in my entire life was one night at camp when it was cold and the fire was blazing and everybody sang ‘When the Saints Go Marching In.’ Just a couple guitars or maybe a banjo and people swapping songs with everybody singing along. Woody Guthrie and Weavers songs, Odetta. ‘Charlie on the MTA,’ ‘The Frozen Logger,’ ‘Goodnight Irene,’ ‘This Land is Your Land,’ ‘Wabash Cannonball.’ Maybe a little Bob Dylan. I know people think those old songs are quaint, but when everybody is singing them, it becomes such powerful music. Music you eventually can’t even remember where you learned it, but it becomes part of your vocabulary – I love that.”
Nerissa and Katryna have also become mothers in recent years, the presence of children in the house bringing with it a desire for greater musical directness. “Having children has brought us back to our roots in a powerful way. I’m much more drawn to the honesty of folk music, the simplicity of it. Writing songs for this record was like falling off a log. They were all so easy to write; like coming home,” says Nerissa. With Katryna adding, ” When we sing these ‘Nerissa’ songs in concerts, everybody sings along, even though it’s the first time they’ve heard them. They’re songs that really invite the listener into the music making process.” And when the listener is thus invited and engaged, something happens, and for a moment, the coffeehouse, the church basement, the folk festival is turned into an Adirondack summer camp campfire sing, and we are all reminded of who we’ve always been. That’s no small thing.
Tickets: Adults, $18; Seniors/Youth (12-18), $15; Kids Under 12, free.
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Saturday, February 28th, 7:30 PM
July 11, 2008 at 4:20 am | In Home | No Comments
“…a masterful amalgam of folk, rock, jazz, blues and an occasional tincture of funk, discovering her music is like finding a treasure… ” — The Boston Globe
“Her lyrics are not tough stances on a woman’s experience, but rather sensitive explorations of childhood and the poetry of life.” —The New York Times
“Her songs, like her voice cast a lasting spell, at times drawing the listener into a world of unquestionably heartfelt emotion.” —The Washington Post
WITH SPECIAL GUEST SAM McTAVEY
Sloan Wainwright has been a pioneer all her life. A forerunner in the independent music scene long before it became hip to walk the road less traveled, Sloan is an artist whose passionate work and extraordinary life have fused to burn a new definition for women in music. Grown-up girl style.
An outstanding and highly original singer, Sloan is a compelling performer best known for her rich contralto voice, intensely personal lyrics, and an innovative approach to song. Hard to categorize, her musical style melds the best of pop, folk, jazz, and blues to create a soulful hybrid. Her personal appearances are forceful and uplifting, her stage persona self-described as “we take our audience on a journey, we come in full tilt and do our show.”
Born into a highly acclaimed musical family (youngest sister to Loudon Wainwright, auntie to Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright) Sloan’s teenage years were largely influenced by a constant flow of diverse artists, writers and musicians. She learned to play the piano and watched her brother Loudon, 11 years older—and the father of Rufus and Martha—become successful. Writing and performing, throughout the Greenwich Village hipster scene, Sloan developed her own unique style. “There was an effortlessness about the flow of creativity at that stage of my life. I didn’t think – I was just fearlessly flowing.”
In the mid 90’s Sloan began to collaborate with guitarist Stephen Murphy. From their instant creative synergy, a band was put together and within no time, Sloan released a self-titled debut CD in 1996 — ‘Sloan Wainwright’. The CD was a critical success and introduced the music to a national audience. The Sloan Wainwright Band followed with a second release in 1998. A tribute in memory of her mother Martha entitled ‘From Where You Are’. Since then, several more CDs have followed: ‘The Song Inside’ (2001); ‘Cool Morning’ (2005); the live concert CD ‘On A Night Before Christmas,’ on which she was joined by The Kennedys, Cadence Carroll, Penny Nichols and Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus of Dreams; and her latest, Life Grows Back, which boasts an eclectic collection of 11 new, original tunes. Produced with longtime musical partner and guitarist Stephen Murphy and mixed by renowned music producer Stuart Lehrman (Dar Williams, Jules Shear), the album was recorded in the artist’s hometown of Katonah, New York. Guest musicians include nephew Rufus Wainwright (vocal duet) on the track ‘Tired of Wasting Time’. Fred Lieder (cello) on ‘Bad For Her’. David Mansfield (fiddle) on ‘Wild In This World’.
The new CD was recorded early 2006 during the heart of winter. As a songwriter, Sloan is able to pinpoint and articulate the inspiration for this latest collection: “The Reservoir Road in my hometown of Katonah is a beautiful, powerful and creative place. The songs on Life Grows Back grew from my time on that dirt road these past two years. I’ve been walking there since I was a little kid. My Mom used to walk it with me. I feel so much at ease and at peace as I venture onto the riding trail to be by the stream. I am at home there with the trees and the rocks and with the water. In the flow. I have so much history there. It is the place that has taught me about impermanence and how to be comfortable with change. Everything is the same and everything is different.”
Defying standard categorization, Life Grows Back sees Sloan demonstrate her easy command of a variety of American musical styles: pop, folk, jazz and blues. The end result is soulful hybrid unique to Sloan. What holds the entire work together is the extraordinary tone of her rich contralto. Sloan is an independent artist making grown-up girl music in the truest sense - a rare, one of a kind voice that speaks deeply to our humanity and leaves us forever changed.
Sloan will be joined at this concert by Cadence Carroll and Stephen Murphy, as well as by special guest Sam McTavey, her son. Sam brings a dark, rich and gravelly approach to his music. If you took Dr. Hook, then threw in a little John Prine, with a splash of Tom Waits and served it in a Wainwright/McTavey glass you would have a taste of what comes out when Sam sings. To read a recent feature piece on Sloan and Sam that appeared in the New York Times, click here.
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March 28, 2009, 7:30 PM
July 11, 2008 at 4:18 am | In Home | No CommentsTHE GRATEFUL DEAD REVIVAL SHOW
The Grateful Dead Revival Show is intended to provide the audience with a taste of the joy, the contemplation, the wonder and the journey that was experienced by fans of the Grateful Dead at one of their legendary live shows. The performance space will be decorated with Grateful Dead artwork to exhibit the visual creations that accompanied the band. Elements of the audience experience will be introduced including a spinning mosaic glass ball and large inflated balls to bounce around and have fun with. The band will consist of a core of top quality professionals to be joined by the producer, Robert Politzer on guitar and vocals, with other special guests.
The first set will be acoustic and will draw from the earlier roots of the Dead. Some of the basic philosophical themes of the Grateful Dead’s music will be explored including: chance with the cards of life; the impermanence and fragility of life; love and compassion; and mystical connection. We will start the electric second set with U.S. Blues and move on through some of the favorite latter songs including: Franklin’s Tower and Scarlet Begonias, Fire on the Mountain, and other great songs.
All the money in the world will not buy Deadheads one more Grateful Dead show, but we can recreate some of that experience if we come together for an evening with the love and excitement that we brought to those concerts. Long live The Grateful Dead!
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Saturday, April 25th, at 7:30
July 11, 2008 at 4:16 am | In Home | No CommentsTHE WOES
The music of The Woes is a stew of Delta blues and early Country, of bluegrass and New Orleans marching band music, dished out by banjo, harmonica, accordion, French Horn and organ. The five piece hails from New York City.
At the center of their distinctive sound is frontman Osei Essed’s inimitable voice and expert songwriting. The songs are alternately chant-like, rhythmically driving, lyrical, haunting; his voice is sweetly controlled or as frightening as (the early blues preacher) Blind Willie Johnson.
Alongside Essed is his longtime musical collaborator, Cicero Jones, a French Horn player and gospel organist. The two formed The Woes in 2002, inspired by a love of traditional American music. Their idiosyncratic approach to those roots, however, is what defines The Woes sound, which Essed tellingly terms “Post-Apocalyptic traditional music.” The addition of Ronen Ben, an accordionist and blues harpist, completed the frontline, and also allowed Essed and Jones more drink tickets.
In 2004, The Woes and producer Dan Romer entered the studio and recorded four songs, included on the debut EP Coalmine. The Woes and Romer have recently completed their second collaboration, That Coke Oven March, on which they are joined by drummer Oscar Chabebe and bassist Jesse Newman. The album documents the evolution of their sound, with - remarkably for a band named The Woes - more raucous and uptempo songs. That Coke Oven March also features a few new instruments, namely Fender Rhodes keyboard, clarinet, melodica and banjo-mandolin.
Four years after forming, The Woes continue to hop genres and cross boundaries, quite literally, with monthly gigs in both East and West Village. The Woes often start out Friday or Saturday nights opening for blues and soul acts such as Michael Powers Frequency and The Holmes Brothers at the Bleecker Street blues haven, Terra Blues. They then quickly move east to rock the midnight show at Avenue A’s indie and “antifolk” hotspot, Sidewalk Cafe, where they rang in 2006 with a performance that had the audience defying Cabaret license laws by openly and drunkenly waltzing in the cramped, dusty, back room.
In addition to finishing That Coke Oven March, their first full length album, they are also at work on film music for Spirit of ‘79, a documentary about the American agricultural movement. The documentary is being made by Keith Maitland for Illegalfilms and features interviews with, and songs by Willie Nelson and Arlo Guthrie.
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May
July 11, 2008 at 4:13 am | In Home | No CommentsStay Tuned! Exact Date and Artist TBA
(No, unfortunately, it won’t be either of these guys…Dick played a mean piano, though.)
June 6, 2009, 7:30 pm
July 11, 2008 at 4:12 am | In Home | No CommentsFIRST U ROCK AND SOUL REVUE
Members of the First Unitarian Society of Westchester, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, created the Rock & Soul Revue to play at Common Ground Coffeehouse in the fall of 2005. The initial performance was a wild, joyous success, and since then, the group has taken on a life of its own, growing in size, and inspiring and attracting new members from the congregation.
Keyboardist-bandleader Ray Castoldi notes that `revue’ really captures the band’s capacity for change; different guest performers and new regulars keep the sound fresh and fluid. The band also offers a spiritual venue for creative self-expression, fun and community building, “though we don’t play traditional church songs”. Our sound reflects “the deep, religious fervor and emotion that is the driving force of soul”, Castoldi explains, but ” we play the songs of this world—not the next.” And to hear those songs, you can’t help but get up and dance!
Rock & Soul members come from all walks of life. High school students, filmmakers, graphic designers, scientists, Jungian analysts, speech pathologists, teachers, and computer programmers make up the band’s unique voice. The band is always ready to embrace original tunes and arrangements, and favorites such as Iko Iko and Shake a Tail Feather have inspired members to challenge themselves musically.
The First U Rock & Soul Revue is available for festivals, benefits and other fundraising events, and of course, coffeehouses.
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