THE HURDY GURDY FOLK MUSIC CLUB at the FAIR LAWN COMMUNITY CENTER

2011-07-30T14:03:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2012

8:00pm

A HURDY GURDY NOTEWORTHY NIGHT CONCERT

TRIPPING LILY and RUNA
$15 ($12 members)

As part of our 30th anniversary celebration, Hurdy Gurdy Noteworthy Nights is a special series of four co-bill concerts that will celebrate our past and set the stage for the future. We are offering this series at a very special price to enable our patrons to experience great acoustic music!

Our third Noteworthy Night concert features exciting bands from Boston and Philadelphia who are sure to make new friends & fans in New Jersey!

You only have to hear them once to become fans of Tripping Lily. This young quartet might be described as a string band with pop music sensibilities, or perhaps a cutting edge vocal quartet with acoustic instruments. Tripping Lily went to number one for several weeks on Boston’s Folk Station WUMB.

With Demetrius Becrelis (guitar/vocals/ukulele), brother Alex Becrelis (mandolin/vocals), Monica Rizzio (fiddle/vocals/ukulele), and Laird Boles (stringed bass), Tripping Lily blends a unique sound of traditional and contemporary genres. A group of musicians who draw their inspiration from within, Tripping Lily has deeply explored songwriting with their personal and passionate work. Touted as fresh, energetic, and alive, Tripping Lily’s pop-rock groundwork is cross-fertilized with folk music and cutting edge vocal harmonies. The band’s unique ability to absorb traditional music while speaking to the here and now is proof of their versatility as contemporary musicians.

“Tripping Lily is a genre unto itself”

- The Boston Globe

RUNA burst onto the music scene during the summer of 2008 and has been taking audiences by storm ever since! Drawing on the diverse musical backgrounds of its band members, RUNA brings a contemporary and refreshing experience to traditional and more recently composed Celtic material. Through their repertoire of both highly energetic and graceful, acoustic melodies, along with their fusion of music from Ireland, Scotland, the Shetland Islands, Canada, and the United States, this vocal and instrumental ensemble gives its arrangements of traditional songs and tunes a fresh sound.

RUNA consists of vocalist, Shannon Lambert-Ryan of Philadelphia, Dublin-born guitarist, Fionán de Barra, and Cheryl Prashker of Canada on percussion. The band often performs with world-renowned, guest musicians.

Members of RUNA have played with Solas, Riverdance, Clannad, Fiddlers’ Bid, Moya Brennan, Eileen Ivers, Hazel O’Conner, Full Frontal Folk, Keith & Kristyn Getty, and the Guy Mendilow Band. Runa won several awards at the Montgomery Buck Music Awards, including Best Entertaining Band, Best Folk Artist, Best Female Vocalist, and Best Album – “Jealousy”.

“For contemporary Celtic music at its very best--do yourself a favor and check out RUNA. RUNA.... brilliant! “

- Gene Shay, co-founder of the Philadelphia Folk Festival; WXPN-FM, Philadelphia, PA

2011-07-30T14:02:00.001-04:00

SATURDAY MARCH 3, 2012

8:00pm
BROTHER SUN
With special guest
MARA LEVINE AND CAROLINE CUTRONEO

$25 ($22 members)
CLICK HERE TO ORDERTICKETS ONLINE

By popular demand, Brother Sun returns to the Hurdy Gurdy!

Pat Wictor, Greg Greenway, and Joe Jencks have formed a dynamic new male trio. Their harmonies, as much as their lyrics, tell what they are about: warm as a campfire, stirring as a gospel church, rousing as a call to arms. Calling upon contemporary songwriting, and informed by the deep roots of gospel, blues, and folk, the trio weaves a tapestry of harmony that is brilliantly fresh and yet familiar.

Pat Wictor took a convoluted path to folk music, winding his way through rock, heavy metal, and jazz. He started with guitar, shifted to bass, moved to saxophone, and then quit music entirely before a return in 1993, a time when he also began composing songs. By 2001, he left a teaching career to pursue music full time and does so in the broadest way possible. An adept improviser and accompanist, he is sought after as a collaborator, sideman and session musician, with numerous recording credits to date. His performances--part fireside chat, part meditation on matters earthly and transcendent--feature his originals. In addition to his own tunes, he is quick to offer up a newly-discovered lyric from another performer, or a fresh arrangement of a traditional song, delighting in introducing his audience to innovative material. With flowing red hair and zen-like calm, Pat embraces his audience with the sincerity of his music and the clarity of his voice, inviting them in.

Joe Jencks is an international touring performer, songwriter, entertainer, and educator. Joe applies his conservatory training to a contemporary genre, and offers the listener the best of both worlds. He has won numerous songwriting awards and is also highly regarded as a song interpreter. From venues like Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, to coffee houses, festivals, spiritual communities, and schools, Joe has spent the last nine years touring full time. His songs have traveled to every continent via radio, CDs, web casts, and other musicians. He is noted for his unique merging of musical beauty, social consciousness, and spiritual exploration. Jencks weaves a diverse web of stories with brilliant musical skill, ensnaring even the most rigid of hearts, inviting them to open. His songs invite us to live inside of our passions and our beliefs.

Originally from Richmond, VA, Greg Greenway moved to Boston for its rich Folk Music tradition and has become one of its most unique and superlative emissaries. Put simply, he is one of the finest entertainers you'll ever see. Musically, he draws inspiration from all over the map--gospel, rock, blues, Jazz, and world music. But his center is in the singer/songwriter tradition that traces it roots all the way back to the social awareness of Woody Guthrie. His central appeal is that it all comes through the singular lens of Greenway's humanity and his easy affinity for the audience. The Boston Globe wrote, "Confessional one moment, rambunctiously disarming the next, few modern folk singers can own a coffeehouse stage as completely as Greenway." His visit to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis yielded his own composition that rises powerfully into U2's Pride/In the Name of Love. It is a hair raising, riveting anthem that embodies Greenway's passion and his gift for framing social issues. It is a show stopping event, couched in a presentation of high spirited give and take of such good humor that audiences unfailingly walk away uplifted.

Nationally touring folk artists from three major points on the map - Boston, New York, and Chicago - Pat, Greg, and Joe celebrate the amazing power of singing together. Their combined musical skills should make for an unforgettable evening - three rich voices blending on a well-crafted foundation of guitar, slide guitar, and piano.

* * *

Opening the evening will be Mara Levine and Caroline Cutroneo. Both Mara and Caroline are members of the New Jersey folk community, both as solo artists and now as a duo. They have played venues including the Minstrel Coffeehouse, The Good Coffeehouse, WVBR Bound For Glory, The People's Voice Cafe, and The Borderline Folk Club.

2011-07-30T14:02:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY MARCH 24, 2012

8:00pm

A HURDY GURDY NOTEWORTHY NIGHT CONCERT

DANIELLE MIRAGLIA and TOBY WALKER

$15 ($12 members)

**SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER FOR SERIES PACKAGE 4 CONCERTS FOR ONLY $45 – CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS**

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

As part of our 30^th anniversary celebration, Hurdy Gurdy Noteworthy Nights is a special series of four co-bill concerts (11/19, 1/7, 2/4 & 3/24) that will celebrate our past and set the stage for the future. We are offering this series at a very special price to enable our patrons to experience . We are also offering a $45 package price for this series – buy 3 and get the 4^th free! This special package offer is available for advance purchase before November 18! Click here for info.

Our final Noteworthy Night concert features two old friends who are returning to the Hurdy Gurdy by popular demand!

A strong steady thumb on an old Gibson guitar is the driving force behind Danielle Miraglia's acoustic blues guitar style. Add a raw, powerful, whiskey tinged voice and one might be tempted to label her a blues artist. But while Miraglia's style pays homage to these blues traditions, her classic rock verve, catchy melodies and eclectic array of song subjects that range from deeply personal to socially relevant give it an original twist that is all her own. A fresh sound along with a sharp wit and a captivating stage presence is gaining her fans all over the map. "It won't be long before the rest of the country takes notice." - Performing Songwriter.

Raised just outside of Boston in Revere, MA, where its famous beach is better known for girls with big hair than its history as a popular tourist attraction, Miraglia was raised on a variety of popular music, from her parent's Motown records to the classic rock influences like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin that encouraged her to learn to play guitar at thirteen. A passion for the arts and an outstanding gift for writing lead her to Emerson College in Boston's downtown theater district. After graduating with a degree in Creative Writing, she put her writing skills, originally intended for novels, towards songwriting and began performing at open mike nights in the Boston area. This set in motion what would become a full-time career in music.

In 2001, she released her debut EP "Bad Poetry," followed by a second release "Just Wrong

Enough" in 2002. From there the songs poured out and the gigs flowed in. Since 2002 she has headlined some of the most renowned blues and folk music venues in Boston, toured major cities from north to south and beyond, while earning street cred vigorously busking the streets of Harvard Square. Her latest self-produced release, "Nothing Romantic" has received rave reviews.

"Inspirational!"

- John Hammond

* * *

Toby Walker is a unique, accomplished fingerstyle guitar virtuoso. Toby is adept at blues, rags, hot country picking, and coaxes more out of a guitar than anyone can imagine, but the originality doesn't end there. He is also a skilled singer and songwriter who draws inspiration from traditional and contemporary music. Toby takes that musical foundation and creates something uniquely his own and has been eagerly received in various venues including concert halls, festivals and coffeehouses throughout the U.S., England and Europe.

Toby’s passion for blues, rag, folk, and other traditional American music drove him to leave an apartment crammed full of recordings, books and instruments for the Mississippi Delta, Virginia and the Carolinas where he tracked down some of the more obscure -but immensely talented - music makers of an earlier era. He learned directly at the feet of Eugene Powell, James "Son"Thomas, Etta Baker, and R.L Burnside, among others.

The talent, passion, and soul of a Toby Walker performance reflects these travels. Whether it is telling the humorous and heartwarming tales of other masters, talking about his inspirations, or astounding you with his mastery, his performances are a feast for the senses. You can catch a taste of these Toby Walker www.littletobywalker.com stories on his Web site in the "Blues Travels" section. But make no mistake about it - he is to be experienced live. Those fortunate enough to attend one of his shows will vouch for that.

The love Toby has for his craft pushes him to share his history and experience where he has performed in libraries and schools allowing others to share the sounds, sights, and emotions of his unique abilities. His teaching credits include, among others, Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch in Ohio. In 2006, Carnegie Hall acknowledged his rare talents and hired him to augment and teach in their "American Roots" program aimed at honor level middle school students. This one-of-a-kind series demonstrates the history of blues music and traditions, while teaching the history of African Americans as they migrated from the south into the north. His mastery of the blues was recognized in Memphis when he won the International Blues Challenge Award.There is no doubt that Toby Walker has found his life's calling, and as a result everyone keeps calling for more Toby Walker.

"Flat out... you have to hear this great musician... I'm blown away"

- Jorma Kaukonen - Hot Tuna, Jefferson Airplane, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee

2011-07-30T14:00:00.001-04:00

SATURDAY APRIL 14, 2012

8:00pm

RANI ARBO

& DAISY MAYHEM

With special guest

BRAD YODER

$25 ($22 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDERTICKETS ONLINE

So, what's a daisy mayhem? Wicked grooves, sublime lead singing, great harmonies, sparkling original songs, and a deep repertoire that spans 200 years of American music. Four people who share an irresistible chemistry on stage. An unusually gleeful string band that celebrates both tradition and improvisation and that stumps the categorizers. (Are they an agnostic gospel band? A homeopathic bluegrass band? Are they crazy?). Worth seeing...

What does it sound like? Start with a fiddle, a guitar, and a standup bass. Add a cardboard box with a suitcase bass drum and tin can cymbals, played by an ex-rock and zydeco drummer. Over that fine groove, hang Rani Arbo's expressive alto, seamless four-part harmonies, and a splash of banjo and ukulele, and you have it.

What do they play? The Boston Globe described it as "neo old-timey with cosmopolitan splashes of contemporary pop and jazz." It's an exuberant mix of musical idioms, held together by superb musicianship, impeccable taste, and the band's charismatic vocals. A stage show dips into country blues, vintage swing, modern songwriter fare, and Appalachian fiddle tunes and songs. It's a bracing fusion: listen to Arbo deliver Bessie Jones' version of "O Death" accompanied by fat, bluesy guitar solos and a groove that owes allegiance to the Meters, and you'll see. This is a band that picks up what's lying around "from tin cans to traditional music" and creates something new.

Rani Arbo is the fiddler, lead singer, and founder of daisy mayhem. With a bewitching, expressive alto that is equal parts choir girl, flirty teenager, and world-weary woman, she navigates swing tunes, funky call-and-response songs, and ballads with unusual honesty and ease. Steeped in thirty years of choral singing, Arbo also spent years with a honkytonk band, a Balkan rock band, and folk-bluegrass band Salamander Crossing. A cellist by training, her swampy, self-taught fiddling draws from swing, blues, and old-time music. On stage, Arbo brings a rich life - as a 15-year veteran performer, breast cancer survivor, mother, and songwriter - into humble and compelling performances. Arbo also has toured and recorded with Joan Baez, John McCutcheon and many others.

"Playful and profound."

-The Boston Globe

* * *

Opening the evening will be Brad Yoder. Acknowledged by Pittsburgh Magazine as “ruling the Pittsburgh coffeehouse scene,” Brad logs over 150 performances annually, playing colleges, cafés, churches, festivals, First Nights, and even the zoo. Brad has opened for a diverse range of artists, including Erin McKeown, the Cowboy Junkies, Lucy Kaplansky, Carrie Newcomer, and Emmylou Harris among others. Brad has five self-released CDs, and songs from these recordings have been featured on CBS’s “NUMB3RS,” NPR’s “Car Talk,” the ABC Family Network’s “Beautiful People,” “Dawson’s Creek” 5th season DVD, and as part of the Pittsburgh Regional History Center’s 9-11 Memorial Exhibit.

It’s Brad’s unique mix of humorous, poetic, political, funky and edgy original songs, covering a musical range from folk to indie rock (with unexpected musical and lyrical twists), that has earned him a loyal following ranging from kids in single digits through retirees.

“Brad Yoder is my favorite new ‘discovery’ of the year. His CD stopped me in my tracks, especially the song Leave Like This—I was weeping sweet tears by the end of it.”

-Kathy Mattea

2011-07-30T13:59:00.001-04:00

SATURDAY MAY 5, 2012

8:00pm

AN EVENING WITH

ROBIN & LINDA WILLIAMS & THEIR FINE GROUP

$30 ($27 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETSONLINE

As part of our 30^th anniversary season, the Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club is proud to welcome back Robin & Linda Williams and Their Fine Group.

The Virginia-based duo known for their rich harmonies and original songwriting have thrilled folk, bluegrass, and country audiences throughout America for more than thirty years. Renowned for their tours and many appearances with Garrison Keillor on “A Prairie Home Companion” — the radio show and movie, they’ve also toured with Mary Chapin Carpenter, and performed with Emmylou Harris and The Seldom Scene.

Robin and Linda have delighted audiences large and small with a blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time and acoustic country that truly merits the title of “American music.” Just released on Red House Records and produced by Tim O’Brien, Robin and Linda’s new CD, “Buena Vista,” is an exploration of life’s hard times and unexpected joys featuring the duo’s high lonesome harmonies and their fiery guitar and banjo picking. “Radio Songs”, “The First Christmas Gift”, and “Deeper Waters” are additional gems released since 2004. Produced by Garrison Keillor, “Visions of Love,” stayed on the Americana Charts soon after its release January 2002 and was rated in the top five of both the Folk and Bluegrass charts on Roots Music Report.

Robin and Linda Williams have gained recognition from a variety of sources, winning a nomination from their colleagues at the International Bluegrass Music Association for “Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year” (1995’s Good News). In 1998 they received a Crossroads’ Music “Gold Star” Award for the best Contemporary Folk CD of 1998, and listed in the top 10 “Album Of The Year.” (Devil of a Dream)

They have appeared on The Grand Ole Opry, “Austin City Limits,” American “Mountain Stage,” “Music City Tonight,” and have enjoyed the rejuvenation of The Hopeful Gospel Quartet on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”

They have performed in venues ranging from Philadelphia and Kerrville folk Festivals, to bluegrass-oriented festivals such as Winterhawk, Wings & Strings and the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, to arts centers and concert halls in dozens of states and countless clubs and coffeehouses – not only across the US, but in Canada and Europe as well.

“Their voices can melt cheese.”

-Garrison Keillor

2011-07-30T13:59:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY JUNE 2, 2012

8:00pm

DIANA JONES

With special guest

MEG BRAUN

$20 ($17 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

When Diana Jones flew on a plane from New York to Eastern Tennessee and took her grandfather’s hand for the first time, her life was changed. Growing up as an adopted child in New York, Jones had an affinity for songs by mountain music artists not popular with her contemporaries. After searching out her birth family at 15, she connected with her Tennessee roots, and discovered that her birth grandfather (Robert Lee Maranville) had been a professional picker touring with Chet Atkins. Jones’s journey took her to Austin, where she worked on the craft of songwriting, and back to the Northeast, where, after her grandfather’s death, she locked herself away in a cabin to write.

Her music is in the best of folk/country/roots music traditions, focusing on the richness of story combined with strong melody. In 2006, she won the prestigious New Folk Contest at Kerrville. That year she also released My Remembrance of You which earned glowing reviews in British magazines like Uncut and Q, as well as the chance to tour with Richard Thompson. More validation came when Joan Baez recorded Diana’s “Henry Russell’s Last Words” on her 2008 album Day After Tomorrow. Jones recorded the song, as well, on Better Times Will Come, which the Chicago Tribune hailed as Best Country Recording of 2006.

Just as authoritative as Diana Jones’s pen, however, is her singing voice, a clarion alto whose rich timbres and elongated phrasing sometimes suggest a cello or viola. “I try to be very present to my material, to mean each word I sing,” she says. “That to me is the bottom line. It’s like telling a story. You want people to understand what you’re singing, but you also want to believe it yourself, to really get into it. And that’s really the joy of it. It feels like flying.”

“There’s some kind of channeling from some other lifetime going on. I don’t know the answer to these things, but all I can think of is that it must come from some mysterious part of her soul.”

— Joan Baez

* * *

Opening the evening will be singer-songwriter Meg Braun. The Toledo, Ohio native arrived in New York with only a diploma (for her degree in Philosophy) and hopes of building a career in non-profit advocacy, but she soon found far more in the city than she had imagined.

While living in Manhattan’s East Village, Meg filled in for a friend one Tuesday evening as host of the open mic at the neighborhood’s legendary C-Note. Immediately, she knew she had stumbled into something special. When the host position became available shortly thereafter, Meg gladly took the helm and guided for years what became a weekly salon of sorts, welcoming songwriters of all stripes. As host, Meg encouraged writers to share new songs each week, and gradually built a community that inspired its members toward sharper skills and wider success.

Immersed in this creative cauldron, Meg herself began writing in earnest. Soon, many of her songs – bubbling with love, loss, transformation, and joy – became audience favorites at the C-Note and paved the way for success beyond the neighborhood. In 2009, Meg released her debut CD, Tomboy Princess, which features some of the songs she polished back in the East Village. Even as she begins to play out-of-town shows with greater regularity, Meg continues to nurture the acoustic music scene in New York City in her work as co-founder of the Christopher Street Coffeehouse.

"Definitely someone to watch."

- Richard Cuccaro, Acoustic Live!

2011-06-30T14:21:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

8:00pm

APRIL VERCH BAND

With special guest

ARLON BENNETT

$25 ($22 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

April Verch, doesn’t just perform music, she exudes it. The internationally renowned Canadian fiddler, singer, songwriter and stepdancer has a passion for performing and her goal is to touch the lives of those who are listening at any given moment. “The world is this amazing puzzle that we can’t fully understand and music is the joy that pulls it all together

and helps us make sense of it,” says Verch, with a dynamic excitement and confidence that makes you believe her in a heartbeat.

Verch was born to traditional music, in Canada’s hard-working, hard-dancing Ottawa Valley. She was a local star at four, step dancing with her sister and winning awards at contests. The fact that they were for “Youngest Competitor” didn’t dampen her child-eyed enthusiasm. She became the first woman in history to win both of Canada’s most prestigious

fiddle championships, the Grand Masters and Canadian Open; and when Canada hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, she was asked to represent her country’s music at the opening ceremonies.

Ottawa Valley music is a foot-stomping, open-minded fusion of Irish, Scottish, French, German, and Polish influences, sprinkled with tangy spices of American country music. The twang of the banjo and the driving Franco-Celtic pulse of the fiddle are as ingrained in April as snowbound winters and Saturday dances.

“What makes the Ottawa Valley unique,” she says, “is that it’s melting-pot music. People there work hard, and when it was time to let loose, you went out and had fun together; you danced and played music. Growing up around that, being able to perform and see how happy it made people feel, I’m sure that’s what drew me into music.”

That desire to share music is why she’s among the most in-demand performers in roots music today, both with her own crack three-piece band and Bowfire, with whom she occasionally tours. The April Verch Band consists of April at the helm and world-class musicians Clay Ross on guitar and Cody Walters on upright-electric bass and banjo. They have toured across Canada, the United States, the U.K., Europe, Australia and China. Together they have established a reputation as consummate performers with boundless energy on stage that inevitably brings audiences to their feet.

“A marvel to behold.”

— Sing Out! Magazine

Opening the evening will be singer-songwriter Arlon Bennett. Arlon’s emergence in the Folk/Americana scene has grown steadily. While accumulating songwriting awards throughout North America, he has opened for such acts as Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze), Jill Sobule, Michael Smith, Lesley Gore, and has sung with Livingston Taylor. Arlon also was twice selected by Noel ‘Paul’ Stookey to perform in his Music2Life showcase featuring America's best songs of social consciousness. Arlon is equally proud that his lyrics to “The Ace in Grace” (from his 1999 debut, Fountain of Dreams) were used in the official statue dedication of late tennis champion, humanitarian and personal hero, Arthur Ashe.

Arlon’s music also reached another playing field when the New York Mets chose the title track of 'Summer’s Voice' to be featured in a tribute video to Hall of Fame sportscaster Bob Murphy before a packed house at Shea Stadium.

"Arlon's songs ring true, whether he's writing about the personal or the political. And when he brings those worlds together in "Be the Change," the result is inspiring."

— John Platt, WFUV

2011-06-30T14:19:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY OCTOBER 1, 2011

8:00pm

BEARFOOT

With special guest

LORETTA HAGEN

$20 ($17 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDERTICKETS ONLINE

Call it “new-timey,” call it “post-bluegrass,” call it “string band music for the 21st century”—whatever the name, there’s a revolution under way where string band traditions meet youthful creativity; look to its center, and that’s where you’ll find Bearfoot.

Look right to its center and that’s where you’ll find Bearfoot. The quintet, originally formed in Alaska, have become festival favorites with 4 strong releases, including their 2009 Compass Records debut, "Doors And Windows" which instantly hit the top of Billboard Magazine’s Bluegrass Album chart. Now, in the next phase of their career, this Nashville-based five-some has taken its place among the best and brightest of a new generation of musicians reshaping American roots music.

On their brand new CD "AMERICAN STORY" (released September 27 and it will be available at the Hurdy Gurdy), the band¹s sound is solidified with the addition of lead vocalist and songwriter Nora Jane Struthers and new members Todd Grebe (guitar) and PJ George (bass). Struther’s gorgeous vocals and clear eyed songwriting sensibilities give the band’s new sound a neo-traditional edge recalling artists like Gillian Welch and Tim O’Brien. Coupled with the instrumental prowess and vocal harmonies of longtime members Angela Oudean (fiddle) and Jason Norris (mandolin), the new Bearfoot is reminiscent of Nickel Creek one moment and early Dixie Chicks the next (both groups with whom they share the title of former Telluride Bluegrass Band Champions)

A mere two years after their initial meeting teaching at their namesake’s bluegrass camp for kids, Bearfoot earned one of roots music’s most prestigious awards –Telluride Bluegrass Band Champions– an honor they share with artists Dixie Chicks and Nickel Creek. Soon, they were touring extensively during summer breaks and became regular crowd favorites at prestigious festivals including Wintergrass, Grey Fox, Strawberry Festival, and seven consecutive years at RockyGrass. The original band members (Jaso Norris and Angela Oudean) had known each other and played together in various combinations in Alaska’s small but vibrant music scene and the community of musicians, fans, parents, and friends rallied around the fledgling band.

The original band name was “Bearfoot Bluegrass” but as the band evolved, they dropped “bluegrass” from the name. Bearfoot has adopted the Americana moniker to describe their music but haven’t left their bluegrass roots behind. “Even if it’s not a bluegrass song, it’s not too hard to see where it all came from,” Norris points out. “You can definitely tell that we play bluegrass by how we structure our phrasing, our instruments, and how our harmonies are set up.”

With ten years, major festivals, and four albums under their belt, Bearfoot has managed to make quite a name for themselves whilst growing and changing continuously as a band. Bearfoot has welcomed singer/songwriter Nora Jane Struthers as their newest addition. Her recent self titled solo album sparked the interest of Bearfoot members Oudean and Norris, as well as the press. Bluegrass Unlimited says, “You’ll probably hear the name Nora Jane Struthers in conjunction with bluegrass awards for top female vocalist…and she writes with a clear-eyed traditional sensibility typically seen only in writers like Gillian Welch and Tim O’Brien, her songs sound immediately like pre-modern classics.” Oudean and Norris had recently been spending a lot of time playing music with Nora Jane in Nashville, and thought it only natural to join forces with such a good friend.

Collaborative, uplifting, energetic, haunting, beautiful, inspired: all words that anyone should feel comfortable with while describing the sound of Bearfoot. Bearfoot finds themselves atop a cultural mountain where they overlook the past, present, and future of bluegrass music.

“Old time, roots, Americana, folk, bluegrass – whatever...it’s just plain old pleasure.”

- The Boston Globe

* * *

Opening the evening will be Loretta Hagen. Known for her rich alto voice and heart tugging songs, Loretta Hagen is a singer songwriter whose musical career spans over two decades. Weaving folk, country, rock and blues, Loretta writes songs that possess strong, catchy melodies and passionate, poignant lyrics. The NJ based performer has an uncanny ability to make an audience feel right at home, leaving them smiling, laughing, crying, and singing along, as she reflects about love, loss, courage, hope and perseverance.

"She writes songs that sound like they can come from the Heartland, but they also really come from the heart."

-John Platt WFUV

2011-06-30T14:08:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 5, 2011
8:00pm

THE CLANCY LEGACY –

AOIFE CLANCY & ROBBIE O’CONNELL

With special guests

CEÓL MILIS

$25 ($22 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

Very few families have impacted Irish music as much as the Clancys. From that wonderful group of Irish sweater clad troubadours has sprung a generation of musicians who are keeping the music alive. When you read the member lists of the top Irish groups playing out today there is a Clancy or has been a Clancy in the lineup. From Cherish the Ladies to Danu to the Eileen Ivers Band to Green Fields of America there is a Clancy cousin or two. Now we have two of them coming together to play as the Clancy Legacy.

Aoife Clancy, the daughter of Bobby Clancy, and her cousin Robbie O’Connell, who was part of the last tours of the legendary Clancy Brothers, represent the next generation of the Clancy family. Both are carrying on the music in their own careers but come together as the Clancy Legacy for special concerts, limited tours and Festivals to sing old and new songs as their family always has whether at home in Ireland or at Carnegie Hgroup Cherish the Ladies which is one of the most sought after Irish American groups in history. For over four years Aoife has toured extensively doing no less than two hundred dates a year throughout the US and Europe. She has been a featured soloist with orchestras such as the Boston Pops and the Cincinnati Pops. While performing as the vocalist with Cherish the Ladies she collaborated with the Boston Pops on their Grammy nominated “Celtic Album”.

"she has a breadth of styles that make her concerts fascinating. Her singing would melt packed ice with it's warmth and richness"

- Mike Jackson, Canberra Times.

Robbie O’Connell, was born in Waterford, Ireland and grew up in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, where his parents had a small hotel. He began to play guitar and sing at age thirteen and soon became a regular performer at the hotel’s weekly folk concerts. In 1977, he joined the Clancy Brothers with whom he recorded 3 albums, and two years later he moved to Franklin, Massachusetts.

With the release, in 1982, of his first solo album, “Close to the Bone”, Robbie emerged as an artist of major stature. Soon after, he began touring extensively with Mick Moloney and Jimmy Keane, and also with Eileen Ivers and Seamus Egan in the Green Fields of America.

In 1992 he performed at Carnegie Hall with the Clancy Brothers and was also seen by an estimated 500 million people worldwide on the telecast of a live tribute to Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden, a performance which Rolling Stone magazine described as "breathtaking.”

“Older But No Wiser,” his last CD with the Clancy Brothers was released on Vanguard in 1995, followed in 1997 by "Clancy, O’Connell & Clancy CD and in 1998 by “The Wild and Wasteful Ocean” CD with Liam and Dónal Clancy. “Recollections,” a twenty-year retrospective collection album was released in 2001. He is currently working on a new CD of original material.

“a writer of timeless-sounding, emotionally powerful and often hilarious songs” and places him “among the most respected guitarists, singer and songwriters in Celtic music.”

-The Boston Globe

* * *

Opening the evening will be Ceól Milis, an exciting group of Traditional Irish musicians who are members of the Martin Mulvihill Branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in Pearl River, New York. This group, consisting of high school musicians, won second place in the Ceili Band competition at the Irish Music World Competition known as the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann that was held in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Ireland in 2009.

In the summer of 2010, Ceól Milis was crowned the Champions of the “Battle of the Irish Bands” held at Paddy Reilly’s Music Bar in Manhattan. The battle raged for two months with bands from all over the greater NY Metropolitan area competing at various venues. As the winner, Ceól Milis performed on Irish Heritage Night, August 14th, 2010 in front of 30,000 fans at Citi Field for the N.Y. Mets while Irish Step Dancers danced across the outfield.

Ceól Milis when translated means “sweet music” in Irish. Because of their lively style, Ceól Milis has been requested to play at benefits, festivals and Irish events. Ceól Milis is a talented and dedicated group of teenagers who have a bright future in the world of Irish music.

Ceol Milis: MyFoxNY.com

2011-06-30T14:04:00.001-04:00

SATURDAY DECEMBER 3, 2011

8:00pm

THE HURDY GURDY FOLK MUSIC CLUB’S

30^TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

KIM & REGGIE HARRIS and MAGPIE present:

SEASON OF LIGHT

With special guests: The Hurdy Gurdy All-Stars

$25 ($22 members)

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The Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club celebrates the 30^th anniversary of the club’s first concert with a special evening of music and surprises. To help us celebrate our anniversary and this special time of year, Kim & Reggie Harris and Magpie will join together to present a program called “Season of Light”.

From Solstice to Chanukah to Christmas to Kwanzaa, many cultures and peoples celebrate as the days grow short in the Northern Hemisphere. These gatherings are a reminder of the changing season, of hope and freedom, of new life and new beginnings and of the basic principles for living together. Combining their many talents, Kim and Reggie Harris and Magpie will perform music and tell stories from traditions that mark "The Season of Light", celebrating the many common themes of these festivals: the changing seasons, respect for nature, the quest for freedom, kindness to others, unity, cooperation, purpose and creativity.

Kim and Reggie Harris have developed a national reputation touring since the seventies. From adult-contemporary music to traditional and classic folk songs, they are an experience in versatility. Songs of romance, freedom and life's precious moments come alive in the hands of these gifted performers.

“Kim and Reggie inspire a sense of joy and exhilaration that lifts the soul… makes you want to sing and celebrate your neighbor!! Music that makes you come alive!”

-Philadelphia Daily News

Magpie (Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner) have also developed a national reputation since they began touring during the folk revival of the seventies. They combine their powerful voices with strong instrumentals--guitars, mandolin, harmonica, dulcimer, concertina, drum, and Native American flute--in a repertoire that includes blues, folk, swing, country, contemporary and original songs. Magpie's music is a rainbow of styles and themes.

"Greg and Terry can show us all what a wonderful thing it can be for two voices to harmonize together. How lucky I am to have lived to see and hear more links in the chain."

-- Pete Seeger

These two exciting duos combine their unique styles to create a performances that is a rare musical experience: moving, thought provoking, uplifting, life-affirming and highly entertaining. Hearing these renowned folk/contemporary duos together is like listening to the vocal dynamics of a choir combined with the beauty and passion of a ballad. They are a new experience in four part harmony that must be heard to be believed.

In honor of the 30^th anniversary of the first concert presented by the Hurdy Gurdy, the evening will be kicked off by a celebratory performance featuring “all-star” lineup of local musicians and artists who have been connected with the Hurdy Gurdy through our first 3 decades. Join us for the fun & surprises, plus a slice of birthday cake and a toast to the next 30 years!

2011-06-30T14:04:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 19, 2011

8:00pm

A HURDY GURDY NOTEWORTHY NIGHT CONCERT

RANDALL WILLIAMS and KEVIN SO

$15 ($12 members)

**SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER FOR SERIES PACKAGE 4 CONCERTS FOR ONLY $45 – CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS**

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Our first Hurdy Gurdy Noteworthy Night features two exceptional singer-songwriters, each having built a reputation for their passionate performances.

“Randall Williams explodes onto the scene like a bolt of lightening” was how Rich Warren described Randall’s most recent CD in Sing Out! Magazine. Randall graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Mons, Belgium with a degree in classical vocal performance , at the head of his class. However, Randall was already fed up with classical music as he saw a division between performer and audience. He returned to the world of traveling, writing songs in train stations and sleeping on couches, then singing and playing on street corners, cafés, and pubs.

For a time he lived aboard a 20′ sailboat that he bought for $800, teaching himself how to sail by single-handing through the Baltic and North Seas with his guitar sleeping in the berth beside him at night. He wrote a book about the trip, which begins with the story of almost getting squashed by a tanker before dawn one morning in the North Sea.

In January of 2008, he produced his latest CD, “Praying For Land”, the same year he was voted “Most Wanted to Return” at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. His newest musical adventure is a song cycle based on “Einstein’s Dreams,” after the national bestseller by MIT physicist and poet Alan Lightman. His book contained thirty sketches of what Einstein might have dreamed in the months leading up to his discovery of the theory of relativity, and Randall has now turned those sketches into song.

“In ‘Praying for Land’ we can feel Randall’s bold heart calling us all to follow our dreams.”

-David Wilcox

* * * * * *

In over a decade of performing his music around the country, Kevin So has earned the respect of fellow musicians (Keb' Mo', Amos Lee), won over members of press and radio, and has built a loyal fan base across the United States.

Born and raised in Boston, So channeled his early passion for singing into the start of a career in music with his appearance on the nationally broadcast Fox TV show "Big Break" hosted by Natalie Cole. In 1994, So toured the country in a cover band that would later see some of its members moving on to Britney Spears' band. It was during that period when Kevin spent a considerable amount of time listening to the early recordings of Bob Dylan.

By 1995, So quit the cover band and was a regular on the open-mic folk scene in Cambridge. So moved to Chicago in 1999, booked his own gigs, performing shows in the Midwest and elsewhere. Busking in Austin the following year, Kevin

was "discovered" by The Agency Group. Subsequently, he opened for Joe Cocker, Billy Bragg, Randy Newman and Robben Ford. Following the sudden passing of his father, So moved back to Boston in 2001. Soon thereafter, he released the controversial “That Oriental Guy” in the midst of a hectic tour schedule.

The day after September 11, 2001, Kevin connected with Grammy award winning bluesman Keb' Mo' and co-wrote "Talk," which Keb' would eventually record. So continued touring in 2002, becoming a favorite amongst dozens of Asian American organizations across the US. The double-disc Leaving “The Lights On” appeared to an avalanche of praise in

2003. With 2 other full length CDs under his belt So continues to tour the country at a vigorous clip. In 2007 Kevin was proud recipient of the New York Fringe Festival Award (Best Music & Lyrics) for his current work-in-progress “Great Wall” – a musical production based on his life and times.

“An original talent and tremendous performer”

–Billy Bragg

2011-06-26T14:03:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY JANUARY 7, 2012
8:00pm

A HURDY GURDY NOTEWORTHY NIGHT CONCERT

SPUYTEN DUYVIL and HUNGRYTOWN

$15 ($12 members)

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As part of our 30th anniversary celebration, Hurdy Gurdy Noteworthy Nights is a special series of four co-bill concerts (11/19, 1/7, 2/4 & 3/24) that will celebrate our past and set the stage for the future.
We are offering this series at a very special price to enable our patrons
an opportunity to experience these amazing artists!

We kick off the new year with our second Noteworthy Night concert, and we feature a duo and a group known for exploring their roots and entertaining audiences!

Spuyten Duyvil has a story to share.
In the beginning, there is a gift… A wife gives her husband a Bouzouki to cure the sadness in his soul. Having spent his youth making music on computers for video games, he is confused by all of the strings. He does not know what to do.

He finds a copy of Rise Up Singing and learns. She sings. They sing together. The old songs make them happy. Friends stop by their covered stone porch to listen and play. There is bbq. There is a guitar and a fiddle and a bass. And there is Spuyten Duyvil.

Local history is mined for tales of the peculiar individuals and accidents of history that make New York 'the island at the center of the world'.

Songs are written. It sounds good. It is lyrical, it is mystical, it is strangely familiar and it grooves. There are gigs. There's an EP: 'In Spite of The Devil'. People hear it on the radio. And so it gets pretty interesting for the husband, the wife, their small tribe of friends and the Bouzouki.

The band grows; it adds a Chicago-style harmonica, a drummer, a wicked lap steel.. Now it rocks. It play s unapologetically amped-up Americana. It mashes up the blues, the Olde Timey, gospel, bluegrass, jug band, Appalachian, punk rock and second line music. It plays festivals, listening rooms, coffee houses, museums, Irish pubs, and live radio shows.

Now, they will appear at the Hurdy Gurdy. Spuyten Duyvil’s alternate roots sound wanders the last 100 years of American music conjuring embittered civil war veterans, recalcitrant small town bawds, suicidal bureaucrats, star crossed lovers and brave hearted fools navigating the mysteries of daily life. Spuyten Duyvil brings the energy and the excitement to every show.

"Spuyten Duyvil's songs draw on the roots of American music and history, but in the hands of eight superb performers they crackle with energy that's both contemporary and downright irresistible."

—John Platt, WFUV

* * *

Hungrytown is the folk music duo of Rebecca Hall & Ken Anderson. They met and started dating in New York City in 1993 while Rebecca was singing torch songs in Soho bars and Ken was a rock drummer. Three months later, they took a road trip together--a foreshadowing of trips to come--and got married a year later. Rebecca and Ken have been performing full-time since 2003, when they made the decision to quit their day jobs, move into a tiny house up in Vermont and head out into the vast unknown from there.

Rebecca learned to sing in church as a child, and was an experienced interpreter of jazz and blues standards by the time she was in her 20s. Her discovery of roots music coincided with the reissue of the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music in 1997, and inspired her to begin writing in earnest. She soon developed a reputation for simple, melodic and achingly beautiful songs, stirring modern themes into traditional song structures: "Hall's original compositions hark back to the earliest traditions of acoustic Americana, tracing a sepia-tinged line from the Carter Family to the contemporary lo-fi classicism of Gillian Welch," writes Steve Bennet of Acoustic Magazine.

Ken is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, who learned to play drums and organ as a young child, and has since moved on to bass, guitar, mandolin, banjo and harmonica. He is also a natural harmony singer, and his background in pop music is largely responsible for Hungrytown's unique vocal blend. Ken has produced all three of the duo's CDs, and his tasteful arrangements were soon singled out for praise, "Anderson has a knack for crafting rich arrangements that don't clutter things up," writes Casey Rea of Seven Days (VT) magazine, and shortly thereafter Ken began receiving requests from other performers looking for a caring and talented producer for their recording projects.

When Rebecca and Ken are not on the road, they spend their time at home recording their songs, producing CDs for other performers, or just sitting out on the porch.

"I love the sound of Rebecca Hall’s voice. There’s a sweetness and a worldly wisdom in perfect balance. Rebecca is one of the few singers I’ve heard that is able to create that reaction.”
- Roger McGuinn

2011-06-01T17:44:00.000-04:00

2010-07-13T19:09:00.006-04:00

SATURDAY JUNE 4, 2011
8:00pm
ELIZA GILKYSON
and
JOHN GORKA
With special guest
BEAUCOUP BLUE
$30 ($27 members)

2LICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

The Hurdy Gurdy is proud to close our 2010-2011 season with two icons of the contemporary folk scene - performing side by side for what will be an unforgettable evening of music.

Eliza Gilkyson is a politically minded, poetically gifted singer-songwriter, who has become one of the most respected musicians in roots, folk and Americana circles. The Grammy-nominated artist has appeared on NPR, Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, etown, XM, Air America Radio and has toured with Richard Thompson, Patty Griffin and Mary Chapin Carpenter. In February of 2003, she was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame. The induction placed Eliza alongside an exclusive list of Austin Music Hall of Fame greats, including Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Nanci Griffith, Billy Joe Shaver, Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and others. In 2006, she was recognized with 3 Austin Music Awards and 4 Folk Alliance Music Awards, one of which was for “Song of the Year” for her tune “Man of God.” Eliza’s meditative tune “Requiem,” written as a prayer for those who lost lives in the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia, was recorded by the nationally recognized choral group Conspirare and was nominated for a Grammy. It was also featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. Her most recent Red House release Beautiful World was hailed as masterpiece by All Music Guide and was called “one of the best folk albums of 2008” by the Utne Reader.

Eliza is the daughter of legendary songwriter Terry Gilkyson and grew up in Los Angeles knowing that her life would revolve around music. “I got into it for all the wrong reasons, more as a survival tool than anything else, but it proved to serve me more than I dared to imagine.” As a teenager, she recorded demos for her father, an accomplished songwriter whose songs have been covered by artists as diverse as Dean Martin, Johnny Cash (“Memories Are Made of This”) and the White Stripes (“Look Me Over Closely”), and whose credits include such standards as “Green Fields,” “Marianne” and “The Bare Necessities” (from the Disney film Jungle Book).

The concert will also celebrate Eliza's brand new CD - Roses at the End of Time. Once again pushing the boundaries of folk music, Eliza cleverly disguises her sly social commentaries within catchy acoustic ballads, edgy folk rockers and fresh electronic atmospheres that paint a vivid image of life's struggles and triumphs in a world that she feels is "poised on the edge of moral, economic and environmental bankruptcy." The ten songs of Roses at the End of Time run the full spectrum of emotions and issues. Whether it's in socio-political anthems like the soulful, slithering "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" or moody ballads like "Blue Moon Night" and "Belle of the Ball," a collection of fragmented memories of her mother, Eliza intermingles the political with the personal, with stinging edge and heart-aching elegance. Not straying too far from her folk roots, Eliza delivers a down-home banjo-driven Americana cover of her brother Tony Gilkyson's song "Death in Arkansas" which also features vocals by fellow Red House artists John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky. The driving rocker "Looking for a Place" and the reflective "Once I had a Home" proves she is a powerful songwriter whose rich, poetic lyrics reveal her as a songwriter at the height of her storytelling powers.

John Gorka is a world-renowned singer-songwriter who was raised in New Jersey and came out of New York City’s Greenwich Village folk scene that produced such songwriters as Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin. His award-winning songs have been recorded and performed by such notable artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith and Mary Black. John has recorded eleven solo albums, six on Red House Records.

His latest, So Dark You See, featured the song “Ignorance & Privilege,” which was highlighted as one of the top folk songs of 2009 by NPR Music. The album also includes unique musical takes on some of his favorite songs and poems, including Robert Burns’ “A Fond Kiss” and Utah Phillips’ “I Think of You.” It also includes “Where No Monuments Stand,” his musical version of the poem “At the Un-national Monument by the Canadian Border” by Oregon Poet Laureate William Stafford, which was written for the documentary on Stafford’s life called Every War Has Two Losers.

Opening the evening will be Beaucoup Blue, the Philadelphia based group of David and Adrian Mowry. Father and son have been performing their roots based music nationally and internationally as a duo, quartet and on occasion quintet. Bridging many gaps in American music, their soulful traditional and contemporary styles mesh into an innovative and authentic sound. Although blues is a staple in their repertoire, they base their love in music from Folk, Soul, R&B, Jazz, Country and Bluegrass. All these interests and influences come out in their original song-writing in a unique way.

2010-07-07T09:35:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY OCTOBER 9, 2010
8:00pm
THE REFUGEES
(CINDY BULLENS, DEBORAH HOLLAND, WENDY WALDMAN)
With special guest
CAROLANN SOLEBELLO
$25 ($22 members)

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The trio of women that is The Refugees emerged on the music scene as a verifiably unmatched force of talent, diversity, and experience. Each successful in her own right as a solo artist, Cindy Bullens, Deborah Holland and Wendy Waldman formed their unique and innovative group in 2007 and since that time have been wowing audiences, radio DJs, and music critics alike with their soaring harmonies, indelible musicianship, and unforgettably humorous stage presence.

Individually, The Refugees have logged more than three decades in the industry, with nineteen solo albums and multiple Grammy Award nominations to their credit, featuring musical styles that blend country, rock, folk, and Americana.

Cindy Bullens got her start as a back-up singer for Elton John, and accompanied John on multiple tours. She was nominated for two Grammy Award nominations, one for her work on the Grease movie soundtrack, and one or her first solo album Desire Wire. Since then she released six acclaimed solo albums, including the award winning Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth, has collaborated on a Broadway show, scored an award winning documentary, and continues to write and record in Nashville and beyond.

Deborah Holland began her career as a member of the critically acclaimed, Animal Logic. Comprised also of Stewart Copeland and Stanley Clarke, the band earned her recognition as both a singer and a songwriter during the 1980s and 90s. Since her Animal Logic days, Deborah has released multiple solo albums, scored and written dozens of songs for film and TV, and gone on to become a music professor at California State University of Los Angeles.

Wendy Waldman has been recognized as one of the leading recording artists and songwriters in music since the debut of her band Bryndle in the 1970s, followed by a successful solo career. Wendy is responsible for some of the best loved and most well known songs of the past several decades, including Vanessa Williams’ Save the Best for Last, and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s version of Fishin’ in the Dark, as well as her work as a producer, overseeing countless projects in multiple genres.

Carolann Solebello will open the evening. Although she is most familiar to folk audiences as a founding member of the female trio Red Molly, Carolann began her musical journey as a solo performer. In the late 1990s, she abandoned a comfortable theatrical career and leapt headlong into the teeming pool of singer-songwriters in her hometown of New York City.

This summer, Carolann stepped aside from Red Molly after six years of steady touring to better balance career and family responsibilities. She is currently planning her next record, due for release in 2011. Carolann lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and young son.

2010-06-14T09:49:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2010
8:00pm
JAY UNGAR & MOLLY MASON
With special guest
MATT BROWN
$25 ($22 members)

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The Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club is extremely proud to kickoff our 30th season with Jay Ungar & Molly Mason. Jan and Molly achieved international acclaim when their performance of Jay’s composition, Ashokan Farewell, became the musical hallmark of Ken Burns’ The Civil War on PBS. The soundtrack won a Grammy and Ashokan Farewell was nominated for an Emmy. The piece was originally inspired by Jay & Molly’s Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps in New York’s Catskill Mountains, which are still going strong today.

Jay and Molly are musicians of enormous talent who draw their repertoire and inspiration from a wide range of American musical styles—19th-century classics, lively Appalachian, Cajun, and Celtic fiddle tunes, and favorites from the golden age of country and swing—along with their own songs, fiddle tunes, and orchestral compositions.

In recent years, Jay and Molly have reached an ever widening audience through their appearances on Great Performances, A Prairie Home Companion, their own public radio specials, and through their work on film soundtracks such as Brother’s Keeper, Legends of the Fall, and a host of Ken Burns’ PBS documentaries. They’ve had the honor of performing at the White House for two sitting Presidents and continue to tour extensively delighting audiences across the country.

Opening the evening will be Matt Brown, an engaging performer of American roots music. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist and singer, he performs toe-tapping square dance tunes, haunting banjo pieces, and a variety of songs from the blues to ballads. Thanks to a banjo-playing father, Matt grew up with roots music; attending festivals and listening to recordings of the early string bands. He began violin lessons on his fourth birthday, and was soon playing fiddle tunes on the instrument. He added the guitar and banjo in his teens, and started singing soon thereafter. He has had a number of influential mentors, including David Holt, Dirk Powell, Ginny Hawker, Bruce Molsky, Paul Brown (no relation), Charles Williams, Tracy Schwarz, Dick Swain, and Bruce Greene.

Matt tours nationally as a solo artist and has performed at a variety of prestigious venues, including Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center, Club Passim, the Annenberg Center, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, The Wheatland Music Festival, The Appalachian String Band Music Festival ("Clifftop"), The New England Folk Festival, and on Jay Ungar & Molly Mason's radio program, Dancing on the Air.

2010-06-14T09:10:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 6, 2010
8:00pm
CHRISTINE LAVIN
My 25th Anniversary Concert:
What Was I (EVER!) Thinking?
With special guest
VICKIE RUSSELL
$25 ($22 members)

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Christine Lavin My 25th Anniversary Concert: What Was I (EVER!) Thinking? pulls out all stops as Christine reprises some of her early hits while introducing her latest. The concert is vintage Lavin combining signature songs with hilarious story as she recounts the people, events, near disasters and minor miracles that have defined her life and music.

Some of these great road stories find their way into her new book: Cold Pizza for Breakfast: A Mem-wha?? There were certain songs from the past that Lavin felt had to be in the concert
including “Summer Weddings”,“Happy Divorce Day,” “Roses From The Wrong Man,” “Bald Headed Men” and “The Kind Of Love You Never Recover From."

"I find it very interesting to revisit songs I wrote decades ago — when I sing ‘Summer Weddings,’ invariably someone in the audience will tell me, ‘I was one of those blushing 30-year-old brides, and we’re still together,’ or ‘I was one of those blushing 30-year-old brides and that was the biggest mistake of my life.’ I'm also finding ‘Happy Divorce Day,’ a song I recorded 15 years ago, is only now finding its audience.”

“ ‘The Kind Of Love You Never Recover From’" continues to be my most requested song, and I never tire of hearing love stories where that song has actually played a crucial part. My career might be an unusual one, but luckily so many of the songs I have written from my own experience resonates with a lot more people than just me!”

If Lavin dips back to the ’80s and ’90s for old times sake, it’s clear her latest songs nail American life and foible squarely on the head. Relationships are still in her sights but with a decidedly new edge as “Stop Sobbing /She’s an Idiot” looks at a doomed marriage from the sidelines. “One Hundred Million American” presses Nation’s hottest buttons. While “The Air Conditioner” and “The Gold Fish Whisperer” are Lavin at her most whimsical, “Attractive Stupid People” leaves no doubt this gimlet-eyed songwriter knows what makes the world go round even as she keeps her audiences doubled over with laughter.

Vickie Russell, a touring singer/songwriter based in New Paltz, NY, will open the evening. Vickie performs her stunningly original heartfelt songs on keyboard and guitar. With influences from Bach and Chopin to Carol King, Elton John and Sting, Russell will pull you into her world of love, laughter and hope.

Joined by husband David Michael Peters on guitar, bass and harmonies, this duo will keep you moved and mesmerized. This award winning versatile artist keeps audiences enthralled whether she's taking things slow on painfully honest pop ballads such as Walk Away and Welcome Home, wailing the blues on Manville, or sharing a funny true life story through a country tune like Next.

2010-06-13T23:51:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY DECEMBER 4, 2010

8:00pm
THE DAVE ROWE TRIO
With special guest
JENNIFER JOHNSON
$20 ($17 members)

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Hairy-chested nautical songs, rollicking bluegrass and Appalachian tunes, old-timey instrumental masterpieces, broad-shouldered Celtic classics, captivating originals, and Down east wit pepper every show by the Maine-based Dave Rowe Trio.

This group of seasoned musicians seamlessly blends traditional and contemporary music with themes of northern New England, its interesting culture and rich heritage, effectively transporting the listener to the great state of Maine—from mountains to foothills to coast, from factory worker to farmer to fisherman.

The trio’s inventive use of instrumentation on guitar, mandolin, electric bass, and tin whistles along with their strong three part vocal harmonies which hearken back to the great folk bands of the 1960s create an unique musical tapestry rarely heard in the contemporary folk landscape.

Dave Rowe has a strong heritage to draw on, having grown up immersed in music. His father was Tom Rowe, Schooner Fare's bass player, whose driving rhythms laid the foundation for that group's robust sound. Tom's abiding joy in the music infected his son. By 15, he was making money making music as the bass player with the Makem Brothers, Tommy Makem's sons. At 19, he picked up a guitar for the first time, and then moved on to learning banjo and mandolin.

In 1993, the Rowe men did the most natural thing in the world and formed Rowe by Rowe. When they added Denny Breau (younger brother of legendary guitarist, Lenny Breau) in 1998, they became Turkey Hollow. This configuration toured extensively until Dave lost his dad to cancer early in 2004.

Dave scoured Maine to find musicians to breathe new life into a different configuration. He first found Kevin O'Reilly, an electric bass player with a background in rock music. Kevin provides a strong underpinning to the DRT sound while hanging on to his rock sensibilities. In addition to trio work, he explores the boundaries of bass guitar with his solo music. FACE magazine says, "O'Reilly is to be commended for pushing the bass guitar beyond where whoever created it in the first place imagined it might go."

Zach Ovington, fiddle player extraordinaire, grew up in Tennessee and first hit the road alongside some of Nashville’s best and brightest. Settling in Maine over a decade ago, Zach recently has done stints as the fiddler for the Hot Club of Portland as well as in the Sean Mencher Combo. When not on the road with the Dave Rowe Trio, Zach can also be seen filling in frequently in some of Maine’s best bluegrass ensembles.

The all-new Dave Rowe Trio is race-ready and road-tested. They have been astonishing audiences for over five years with their boundless energy, enthusiasm, and obvious love for what they do.

Opening the evening will be Jennifer Johnson. Born in New York NY and raised here in New Jersey, it was the ballet studios, Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, and the piano bars of New York City that provided the initial backdrop and inspiration to studies spanning a broad spectrum of styles from opera and the jazz standards to Broadway-style singing, in both New York City and Los Angeles, before stumbling upon a traditional Irish music session in NYC in 2002, and... the Irish fiddle.

A trip to Ireland opened the door to a world of timeless music that would inspire the eclectic artist for years to follow. A rented violin, many large coffees, and some lessons with Patrick Ourceau in Brooklyn, led to regular yearly visits to Cape Breton Island with the fiddle and dance shoes, Irish step-dance with Niall O’Leary in NYC, then studies with Athena Tergis (Riverdance) and NY Sligo Fiddler Brian Conway.

Jennifer periodically teaches Cape Breton stepdance classes in New York City and has been performing regularly since 2005 as a Singer/Fiddler/Dancer for senior and student audiences locally in NJ. Her current repertoire spans from 1930s and 40s jazz classics to traditional Irish fiddle melodies and songs.

2010-06-13T23:39:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY JANUARY 8, 2011

8:00pm
THE MAKEM AND SPAIN BROTHERS
With special guest
RUNA
$25 ($22 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

Every generation has a few acts that define where a musical genre is going, performers so confident in their chosen field that they are able to completely embrace the genre and yet introduce something new to it. In Irish folk music today, that act is the Makem and Spain Brothers.

Not in the past 30 years has a group taken the international stage with such vocal power and stage presence, capturing the essence of their genre, while standing out as something truly unique. A host of various instruments and five male vocals, using precise three-part harmonies blend perfectly for what many have described as a wall of sound. The Makem and Spain Brothers are at their best onstage where their talent and enthusiasm draw in fans who have never experienced the joy of folk music.

The band of brothers who were once considered the new kids on the block, have honed their craft over nearly two decades of international performances and are now one of the truly stalwart, road-tested Irish vocal groups available. They have played before millions of people from Canada to Texas, from California to the Caribbean and over to Ireland, highlighting national PBS specials and popular Irish talk shows along the way.

The Makem Brothers, Shane, Conor and Rory, were born in Drogheda, County Louth, about an hour north of Dublin. They continue the lineage of one of Irish music's dynasties, begun by their grandmother Sarah Makem, who was sought after by song collectors for her store of traditional Irish songs. Their father was the late Tommy Makem, the modern day Bard of Armagh. Now considered an icon, he helped to bring Irish music out of the corner and into the international spotlight, where it has remained ever since.

The Spain Brothers, too, learned Irish songs at their father's knee. Mickey's rich, baritone voice and Liam's mastery of stringed instruments quickly found a home when the Makems met the Spains and the brothers realized the power of their combined talents. But folk songs are engrained in both families and their songwriting contains the timeless qualities of folk classics, songs of the worker, songs of the sea and Irish culture. They tell the tale of Ireland and its people - a culture that has undergone terrible strife, but remains strong.

Where is Irish music going? There are instrumental bands bringing it down uncharted roads, moving it forward and keeping it living. But there is only one band that is driving Irish folk songs into the 21st century internationally. That band is the Makem and Spain Brothers.

Opening the evening will be Runa, a Philadelphia-based contemporary Celtic trio with a distinctive sound. Drawing on the diverse musical backgrounds of its band members, Runa (Shannon Lambert-Ryan, Fionán de Barra and Cheryl Prashker) brings a contemporary and refreshing experience to traditional and more recently composed Celtic material.

Through their repertoire of both highly energetic and graceful acoustic melodies, along with their fusion of music from Ireland, Scotland, Shetland Islands, Canada, and the United States, this vocal and instrumental ensemble give their traditional songs and tunes a fresh sound

2010-06-13T23:25:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2011

8:00pm
BROTHER SUN
(Pat Wictor, Joe Jencks & Greg Greenway)
With special guest
DANIELLE MIRAGLIA
$20 ($17 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

Pat Wictor, Greg Greenway, and Joe Jencks have formed a dynamic new male trio called "Brother Sun." Their harmonies, as much as their lyrics, tell what they are about: warm as a campfire, stirring as a gospel church, rousing as a call to arms. Calling upon contemporary songwriting, and informed by the deep roots of gospel, blues, and folk, the trio weaves a tapestry of harmony that is brilliantly fresh and yet familiar.

Nationally touring Folk artists from three major points on the map - Boston, New York, and Chicago - Pat, Greg, and Joe celebrate the amazing power of singing together. Their combined musical skills should make for an unforgettable evening - three rich voices blending on a well-crafted foundation of guitar, slide guitar, and piano.

Opening for Brother Sun will be Danielle Miraglia. Danielle is returning by popular demand - Hurdy Gurdy fans loved her performance last season and want more! A strong steady thumb on an old Gibson guitar is the driving force behind Danielle’s delta blues influenced guitar style. Add a raw, powerful, whiskey tinged voice and one might be tempted to label her a blues artist. But while Miraglia’s style pays homage to these blues traditions, her classic rock verve, catchy melodies and eclectic array of song subjects give it an original twist that is all her own. A fresh sound along with a sharp wit and a captivating stage presence is gaining her fans all over the map.

2010-06-13T22:40:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY MARCH 5, 2011
8:00pm
TONY TRISCHKA
TERRITORY
With special guests
PAUL FRIEDMAN & JODY KRUSKAL
$25 ($22 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

Tony Trischka is perhaps the most influential banjo player in the roots music world. For more than 35 years, his stylings have inspired a whole generation of bluegrass and acoustic musicians. He was not only considered among the very best pickers, he was also one of the instrument's top teachers, and created numerous instructional books, teaching video tapes and cassettes.

A native of Syracuse, New York, Trischka's interest in banjo was sparked by the Kingston Trio's "Charlie and the MTA" in 1963. Two years later, he joined the Down City Ramblers, where he remained through 1971. That year, Trischka made his recording debut on 15 Bluegrass Instrumentals with the band Country Cooking; at the same time, he was also a member of Country Granola.

In 1973, he began a two-year stint with Breakfast Special. Between 1974 and 1975, he recorded two solo albums, Bluegrass Light and Heartlands. After one more solo album in 1976, Banjoland, he went on to become musical leader for the Broadway show The Robber Bridegroom. Trischka toured with the show in 1978, the year he also played with the Monroe Doctrine. Beginning in 1978, he also played with artists such as Peter Rowan, Richard Greene, and Stacy Phillips.

In the early 1980s, he began recording with his new group Skyline, which recorded its first album in 1983. Subsequent albums included Robot Plane Flies over Arkansas (solo, 1983), Stranded in the Moonlight (with Skyline, 1984) and Hill Country (solo, 1985). In 1984, he performed in his first feature film, Foxfire. Three years later, he worked on the soundtrack for Driving Miss Daisy. Trischka produced the Belgian group Gold Rush's No More Angels in 1988. The following year, Skyline recorded its final album, Fire of Grace. He also recorded the theme song for Books on the Air, a popular National Public Radio Show, and continued his affiliation with the network by appearing on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, From Our Front Porch, and other radio shows.

Trischka's solo recordings include 1993's World Turning, 1995's Glory Shone Around: A Christmas Collection and 1999's Bend. New Deal followed in 2003. The new studio album was a bluesy adaptation of bluegrass standards that featured, among other things, a vocal cameo by Loudon Wainwright. Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular, featuring an appearance by comedian Steve Martin, Earl Scruggs and many other luminaries, came out four years later. For this recording he went back to Bluegrass and reinvigorated the double banjo tradition of that style along the way and brought along some fine companions.

In October 2007, Tony was given an IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) award for Banjo Player of the Year 2007. Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular received IBMA awards for Recorded Event of the Year, Instrumental Album of the Year and a Grammy Nomination.

With his fearless musical curiosity as the guiding force, Tony Trischka's latest critically acclaimed release, Territory roams widely through the banjo's creative terrain. Nine selections partner Tony with fellow banjoists Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger, Bill Evans, Bill Keith, Bruce Molsky, and twelve all-Trischka solo tracks explore a panorama of tunings, banjo sounds, and traditions; tapping the creative potential of America's signature musical instrument.

Opening the evening will be the duo of Paul FrIedman & Jody Kruskal. These two guys from Brooklyn have been playing traditional music for more than 30 years in New York City and beyond... songs and tunes, concerts and dances with an old time flavor and a repertoire that ranges from the US, to Canada, England, Sweden and the Shetland Islands.

2010-06-13T22:21:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY APRIL 2, 2011
8:00pm
JAMES KEELAGHAN
With special guest
CHRISTINE DELEON
$25 ($22 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

Called Canada’s finest singer-songwriter by one of the most respected music journalists of the last 50 years, James Keelaghan is an artist who has proven to be a man for all seasons.

His masterful story telling has, over the course of nine recordings, been part of the bedrock of his success, earning Keelaghan nominations and awards - including a Juno (Canada's Grammy) - and acclaim from Australia to Scandinavia.

Possessed of an insatiable appetite for finding the next unique story line, Keelaghan forges his pieces with brilliant craftsmanship and monogrammed artistic vision, making him one of the most distinctive and readily identifiable voices on both the Canadian and international singer-songwriter scenes. "I’ve always had the urge to write," says the Calgary native who has been calling Winnipeg home for the past few years. "Some things weren’t being said in the way I wanted to say them, some thing were not being written about at all. That's why i started to write the historical material. That led me to writing my own personal narratives as well.”

Not only does Keelaghan lay claim to a deep catalogue of timeless originals like Kiri's Piano, Fires of Calais, Cold Missouri Waters, Jenny Bryce, and Hillcrest Mine, he is also a possessive interpreter of outside material, a fine example being his gripping take on Gordon Lightfoot’s epic Canadian Railroad Trilogy from the Lighfoot tribute disc Beautiful. There are also a number of illustrations of his interpretive skills on his 2006 recording A Few Simple Verses, an homage to his roots in traditional music. The closing tune on that spellbinding set, My Blood, written with Jez Lowe, is one of many examples from Keelaghan’s career of his inviting collaboration into his creative process.

Admiration and respect for his work amongst his peers is reflected in the words of David Francey who recently stated that “James Keelaghan is a voice in contemporary Canadian songwriting that has helped us define who we are as a people. He writes with great humanity and honesty, with an eye to the past and a vision of the future. He has chronicled his times with powerful and abiding songs, with heart and eyes wide open.” It was Dave Marsh, the award-winning American music critic and historian who not so long ago stated that James Keelaghan is “Canada’s finest songwriter.” Those few but powerful words of praise say it all about an artist who continues to set the bar at a lofty height.

Opening the evening will be singer-songwriter Christine DeLeon. After a short listen to Christine, you might wonder how the voices of Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez and Judy Collins have been combined into one. Mike Agranoff, host of the Minstrel Concert Series in Morristown, NJ, said "With a strikingly clear and strong alto voice, she delivers her own well-written songs and those of her folk contemporaries with charm and conviction." Scott Sheldon of Sing Out! Magazine describes her voice as "reminiscent of that of a young Judy Collins: Powerful, crystalline and assured."

Raised in Northern New Jersey, she discovered the joys of singing as a member of the children’s choir at her family church at the age of 8 and followed that interest into her school chorus groups. Despite the cautious warnings of a mentor for excessive enthusiasm, Christine started off on her journey as a performer. She began her own songwriting at the age of 17 and, after more than twenty years exploring that creative path, she was chosen as a winner of the 2008 New Jersey Folk Festival Songwriting Competition.

2010-06-13T22:08:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY MAY 7, 2011
8:00pm
LUCY KAPLANSKY
With special guest
GREG KLYMA
$25 ($22 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

She started out singing in Chicago bars. Then, barely out of high school, Lucy Kaplansky took off for New York City. There she found a fertile community of songwriters and performers—Suzanne Vega, John Gorka, Bill Morrissey, Cliff Eberhardt, and others—where she fit right in.

With a beautiful flair for harmony, Lucy was everyone’s favorite singing partner, but most often she found herself singing as a duo with Shawn Colvin. People envisioned big things for them; in fact, The New York Times said it was “easy to predict stardom for her.”

Lucy temporarily left the musical fast track to pursue a doctorate in Psychology and open her own private practice, although she continued to sing. Lucy was often pulled back into the studio by her friends (who now had contracts with record labels), wanting her to sing on their albums. Now, after returning to recording and performing full-time, Kaplansky’s voice continues to remain in high demand by her peers. She harmonized on Colvin’s Grammy-winning Steady On, on Nanci Griffith’s Lone Star State of Mind and Little Love Affairs, and on four of John Gorka’s albums. She also landed soundtrack credits, singing with Suzanne Vega on Pretty in Pink and with Griffith on The Firm, and several commercial credits as well—including “The Heartbeat of America” for Chevrolet.

She teamed with Dar Williams and Richard Shindell to form the supergroup Cry Cry Cry, the three choosing to celebrate the amazing revitalization in contemporary songwriting. The resulting album, Cry Cry Cry (which The New Yorker dubbed “a collection of lovely harmonizing and pure emotion,” and to which Entertainment Weekly gave an “A” rating), has been an astonishing success in stores and on radio. A national tour of sold-out concerts by the trio served to introduce Lucy’s luminous voice to a new expanse of eager listeners.

Lucy’s The Red Thread followed the commercial and critical hit “Every Single Day” (released on 9/11/2001) and marked Lucy’s tenth year(and fifth album) on Red House Records. The Red Thread’s beautiful production was made evident with harmony vocals by Jonatha Brooke, Richard Shindell, Eliza Gilkyson and John Gorka, production and drums by Ben Wittman (The Story), guitarists Duke Levine (Mary Chapin Carpenter) and Jon Herington (Steely Dan), bass player Zev Katz (Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Rosanne Cash), and others. In 2005, Red House re-released her debut album The Tide, re-mastered and with two previously unreleased tracks—Jesse Winchester’s “Everybody Knows But Me” and The Beatles’ “I’ve Just Seen a Face.”

Released in 2007, Lucy’s album Over the Hills is a collection of songs that explore love and the dark, winding road that leads us there. Her new life as a mother has not hindered her musical life but has enhanced it, deepening the emotional depth of her songwriting. Lucy continues to tour extensively across North America, reminding audiences why she has been hailed as “a truly gifted performer…full of enchanting songs” (The New Yorker).

Greg Kylma will open the evening. Born in Buffalo on his father's bowling night, songwriter/musician/entertainer Greg Klyma grew up in a blue-collar town with a blue-collar work ethic and an appreciation of blue-collar fun.

He has matured into man of homespun, timeless elegance, often clad in a vintage wear, and telling stories with a delightful precision of language. The stories blend seamlessly into songs, evoking a flavor of Mark Twain, Woody Guthrie, and David Sedaris.

2010-05-16T23:06:00.002-04:00

2009-07-07T11:13:00.010-04:00

SATURDAY JUNE 5, 2010
8:00pm
An Old-time Evening With
THE SHIVERS
&
THE SECOND FIDDLES
$20 ($17 members)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE

The Hurdy Gurdy wraps up the season with a “turn back the clock” night – an evening of old-time style music featuring two groups that will take you back to the days of the early country music stage shows!

One part early country music, one part Bluegrass and one part vaudeville, The Shivers are George Burns and Gracie Allen gone country. But not the country of today, rather they have gone back to a time when the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, the Delmore Brothers and Charlie Poole trod the boards with Will Rodgers and Uncle Dave Macon and comedy was a big part of the show.

The Shivers bring variety musical comedy back to the stage. Those folks who can remember Jack Benny and Fred Allen, The Bickersons and Abbott and Costello, and, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, will recognize it at once. But the genuine humanness of this old fashioned comedy has a broader appeal, and reaches younger audiences as well.

Chance Shiver is a veteran performer whose voice and guitar have traveled the many roads of roots music, beginning with and now returning to the Bluegrass and Old Time music of his family from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Susette Shiver brings her love of Carter-style singing, vocal harmonies from her church choir experience, and her autoharp and banjo styles to the Shivers' music, recreating an authentic old time sound.

Sharing the stage for this unique evening of music will be New York City’s own The Second Fiddles. Formed in 2005, The Second Fiddles are a trio in the tradition of the great stringbands that performed at the turn of the century (the last century!) The artists that traveled with the medicine shows were adept at all genre's of American roots music. The Fiddles pull from the song books of Country, Blues, Bluegrass, Gospel and Swing bands of the 20's, 30's and 40's.

The Second Fiddles are Jon Vesey, Guilaume Goussault and Trip Henderson. Multi-Instrumentalist and Vocalist, Jon Vesey comes from a large musical family. He began singing in the church choir at a young age and has a love of all types of American Roots Music from Tin Pan Alley to Chicago Blues. During a typical Fiddles performance he will spread his time between mandolin, Git-jo, flat top and resonator guitars. Vocalist and guitarist Guillaume Goussault hails from Paris, France. He began his musical journey as a violinist, dabbled with piano, and eventually settled on the guitar. In the late 90's Guillaume fronted the NYC-based rock outfit Beatitude which had two independent releases. Trip Henderson has been singing and playing American vernacular music in all its many forms since moving to West Virginia in the mid-70s. These days he is an active participant in the vibrant Old Time, Bluegrass, Country and Blues scene in the New York City and maintains a busy schedule teaching harmonica and producing events for PBS.

Don’t miss this opportunity to experience old-time music at its contemporary best!!

2009-06-30T23:55:00.000-04:00

Sunday August 30th -

The Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club

is heading back to Woodstock!

Join us for an afternoon of peace and music
at the site of the historic 1969 festival
- and also enjoy a Harvest and Wine Festival!!

WHO: Members and Friends of the Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club

WHAT: A celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock - a day trip to Bethel, NY to visit the Museum at Bethel Woods, located at the site of the original 1969 Woodstock festival. The Museum is an immersive and captivating multi-media experience that combines film and interactive displays, text panels and artifacts to tell the story and legacy of the Sixties and Woodstock. It explores the unique experience that was the Woodstock festival, its significance as a culminating event of a decade of radical cultural transformation.

Through personal stories and profiles, immersive multi-media exhibit displays and experiences, engaging programs, and educational events, The Museum encourages inter-generational dialogue about important ideas and issues relevant to today. It also helps to preserve the historic site on which the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair took place.
We will be visiting the site during Sullivan County’s Harvest Festival. The Harvest Festival includes a farmer’s market and craft event, with live music, special events, artist demonstrations, a children’s area and venders selling home-made foods. The day we will be visiting coincides with a special theme – a Wine Festival that features a tasting of regional wineries from the Finger Lakes and the Hudson Valley's Shawangunk Wine Trail, short seminars and other elements of interest to connoisseurs, collectors and wine lovers. (Wine is available for tasting and for sale; there is an additional $5 participation fee.)

WHEN: You can get on the bus Sunday August 30th when our private charter bus will leave Fair Lawn, New Jersey (we will meet at the Commuter Parking Lot by the Fair Lawn Recycling Center located at 20-05 Saddle River Road) at 9am and we will arrive at the Woodstock site at approximately 11am. You will be able to visit the museum, check out the Harvest and Wine Festival, and enjoy the site until 4:30pm when our bus leaves for the return trip home. (Music videos from the 1960’s will be shown on the bus!)

HOW MUCH: $40 for the general public, Hurdy Gurdy members pay only $35 per ticket – which includes the bus ride and entrance into the museum. (Members can bring a guest for the same low price! Single membership can order a total of two tickets @ $35 each, and dual memberships can order a total of 4 tickets @ $35 each.) Food will be available for purchase at the Museum and festival, or you can bring your own lunch!

Seating is limited!!! ONLY 55 SEATS AVAILABLE. Send a check or money order along with a self-addressed stamped envelope and a check made payable to the Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club. Mail it to Susan Olesko, 84 North Demarest Avenue, Bergenfield, NJ 07621. For more details visit www.hurdygurdyfolk.org or call the Hurdy Gurdy Hotline at (201) 384-1325.

NEW - CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE - after you link to the page, go to the bottom and click on "BUY NOW"

Not a member? Join today !!!

2009-06-30T23:17:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7, 2009
8:00pm
CHERYL WHEELER
With special guest MICHÉ FAMBRO
$25 ($22 members)

Click Here To Order Tickets Online

It has always seemed as if there were two Cheryl Wheelers, with fans of the New England songwriter relishing watching the two tussle for control of the mic. There is poet-Cheryl, writer of some of the prettiest, most alluring and intelligent ballads on the modern folk scene. And there is her evil twin, comic-Cheryl, a militant trend defier and savagely funny social critic. The result is a delightful contrast between poet and comic.

Poet-Cheryl writes achingly honest songs of love and loss. Contrasting the prosaic landscapes of her native small-town America with the hopelessly rootless life of the traveling performer, she touches the common chords with any who feel the tug between our busy, clamorous times and the timeless longing for simplicity and silence. Her deceptively plain-spun songs have been hits for such main- stream stars as Suzy Bogguss (Aces) and Dan Seals (Addicted), and have been recorded by everyone from Bette Midler, Maura O’Connell, and Peter Paul and Mary; to Juice Newton and Garth Brooks.

Comic-Cheryl comes on like Groucho-in-a-housecoat; a fiercely everyday woman with a barbed-wire tongue. Shredding the mores of our gossipy, greedy, trend-obsessed culture, Wheeler always aims enough darts at herself to never seem sanctimonious.

Wheeler was born in the small town of Timonium, Maryland. The wistful rural vistas she glimpses so poignantly through her fleeting windshield really do represent the deep pull of place she feels in her wandering life. With the possible exception of Greg Brown, no modern songwriter comes to mind who can write as convincingly about the sheer, simple-hearted joy of a nice day; whether a warm spring one spent driving down southern back roads, or a chilly gray one spent thinking properly dark thoughts at a bayside hotel.

Opening the evening will be singer/songwriter/guitarist Miché Fambro. While there are a number of "guitar greats" to choose from and plenty of vocalists filling the stages, it is a rare performer who combines both. Rolling Stone Magazine dubbed Miché, "...a quiet storm," and his shows combine that intensity with a playful spontaneity that engages both the senses and the hearts of those who listen. Miché fuses elements of flamenco, jazz, classical, pop and soul into a style all his own. A high energy, unforgettable performer.

2009-06-30T23:16:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY DECEMBER 5, 2009
8:00pm
BUSKIN AND BATTEAU
With special guest KELLEIGH McKENZIE
$20 ($17 members)

Click Here To Order Tickets Online

After a thirteen-year hiatus to 1) be dads, and 2) take a nap, Buskin and Batteau are back on the road again. The duo recently released their long-anticipated new CD, Red Shoes and Golden Hearts. In their new album and in their performances, they continue to offer their audiences, in the words of The Washington Post, "an irresistible amalgam of melodic, sensual pop, folkie grit and killer wit.”

Singer-songwriter-soloists David Buskin and Robin Batteau evoke a wide range of emotions in their audiences, ranging from light-hearted amusement at "ESPN", or the pun-filled "Death in Venice", to a gentle sense of loss expressed by their beautiful ballad for the late Kate Wolf, "Never Cry Wolf".

As professional jingle writers, Buskin & Batteau's voices and tunes have been heard in almost every American household. They've had us listening "to the heartbeat of America", living "in a Burger King Town" and climbing "all aboard Amtrak".

The popular duo also brings their unique style and sound to the stage and the audience has come to expect the unexpected whenever David and Robin perform. “Second Homeless,” a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the plight of stockbrokers no longer able to afford a second home, originally written in 1987, has a particular potency today.

Buskin & Batteau combine talent, humor and showmanship with the element of surprise to produce a crowd-pleasing performance.

Opening the evening will be Kelleigh McKenzie. Armed with a banjo, guitar and amplified stompbox, Oregonian-turned-New Yorker Kelleigh McKenzie (pronounced “Kelly”) has a way of mixing folk, blues, old-time and rock into a music all her own. With a whimsical voice and surprising grooves, she takes the well-worn roads of Americana to unexpected places, thumping and plucking out original tales that veer effortlessly from a graceful social consciousness to lusty romps and sinister seductions. Kelleigh's acclaimed debut album Chances was recently released nationally and her song "Gin" won the 2009 Independent Music Award (IMA) for Best Americana Song. She received two additional IMA nominations (Best Americana Album and Best Cover Song for "Eleanor Rigby") and was named a winner in last year's Mountain Stage NewSong Contest.

2009-06-30T23:14:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY JANUARY 9, 2010
8:00pm
SARAH LEE GUTHRIE & JOHNNY IRION
With special guest DANIELLE MIRAGLIA
$25 ($22 members)

Click Here To Order Tickets Online

“The distinguishing feature throughout is the couple’s caressing harmonies, which carry on the legacy of Johnny and June, Gram and Emmylou.” -- Maverick

“…the pair click together like an old belt buckle.” - - Independent On Sunday

“Welch and Rawlings apart – its hard to recall two modern country voices that dovetail as elegantly as this husband and wife team… A dream.” - – Uncut

“Authentic.” “Timeless.” “Harmonious.” “Exhilarating.” Any or all of these adjectives could describe the folk-rock sound created by Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion (eye-ree-un). Sarah Lee Guthrie (daughter of Arlo, granddaughter of Woody) and guitarist Johnny Irion (EYE-ree-on) met in Los Angeles (they were introduced by Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes), married two years later, and moved to Irion's hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.

Sarah Lee has inherited a good chunk of both the family charm and the ambitious songwriting bent of her famous ancestors, and Johnny adds a jolt of Southern blues to the mix. Comparisons to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings just seem to pop up when they sing harmony. Sarah Lee and Johnny are celebrating the release of their latest CD and DVD Folksong.

Opening the evening will Danielle Miraglia,who was selected for the prestigious Emerging Artist Showcase at the 2009 Falcon RIdge Folk Festival. A strong steady thumb on an old Gibson guitar is the driving force behind Danielle’s delta blues influenced guitar style. Add a raw, powerful, whiskey tinged voice and one might be tempted to label her a blues artist. But while Miraglia’s style pays homage to these blues traditions, her classic rock verve, catchy melodies and eclectic array of song subjects give it an original twist that is all her own. A fresh sound along with a sharp wit and a captivating stage presence is gaining her fans all over the map.

2009-06-30T22:17:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 6, 2010
8:00pm
AMY SPEACE
With special guest CHUCK E. COSTA
$18 ($15 members)

Click Here to Order Tickets Online

Possessing a commanding voice, a distinctive melodic sensibility and an uncanny knack for nailing complex emotions in song, Amy Speace makes music that’s both illuminating and effortlessly accessible. Her forthcoming release, The Killer In Me, follows her 2006 breakthrough Songs for Bright Street. While Songs won her a loyal international fan base, The Killer In Me finds the NY-based artist forging into deeper, darker lyrical and musical terrain, delivering an album of startling intimacy and resonance.

Born in Baltimore and raised in small-town Pennsylvania, Speace initially had her sights set on a career as a playwright/actor, graduating from Amherst College and toured with the prestigious National Shakespeare Company. After moving to New York, she had roles in various off-Broadway productions and independent films, ran her own theater company, and taught Shakespeare in the New York City school system. After teaching herself to play guitar, she began setting her poetry to music, and quickly found songwriting to be the most creatively fulfilling thing she'd ever done. She soon began performing as half of the female duo Edith O. Speace made her solo debut with the 2002 release Fable, recorded with $5000 donated by fans and released on her own Twangirl label. Giving up her hard-won acting career to become a full-time musician, she hopped into her car and hit the road, booking herself into every club, café and college that would have her. After catching a performance at the SXSW music-industry festival, Judy Collins' manager brought Speace to the attention of Collins, who signed her to her Wildflower label. Her debut for the label, Songs For Bright Street, received warm praise from critics, including those in Europe, which has enabled her to build a strong touring base there.

Opening the evening will be Chuck E. Costa. Since earning a degree in philosophy in Boulder, Chuck, a native New Yorker, returned to the Northeast and released 3 independent albums and an EP since 2002. He is a modern day troubadour who has been touring the country consistently for several years cutting his teeth as a performer and songwriter. With his dulcet voice and emotive lyrics Chuck has grown into a singer/songwriter with a unique and honest voice.

Last year, Chuck released his third independent release "Where the Songs Come From." Chuck teamed up with Mark Thayer of Signature Sounds to create an album of rich arrangements that stay true to the heart of each of Chuck's candid and visceral songs. The opening track was selected to be featured on a compilation released by Hear Music in every Starbucks in North America. The album appeared on the Billboard charts in its first week of release.

2009-06-30T22:05:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY APRIL 3, 2010
8:00pm
THE WOODS TEA COMPANY
With special guest MIKE AGRANOFF
$20 ($17 members)

Click Here to Order Tickets Online

Wood's Tea Company is a musical group that defies categorization. Established in 1981, Woods Tea Company has played from pubs to Lincoln Center. They perform bluegrass, Celtic tunes, sea chanties, and folk songs with an equal ease and skill. In concert, the group draws on a wide variety of musical experience and expression. They employ as many as a dozen different instruments from banjos, bouzoukis and bodhrans, guitars, ukelele and hammered dulcimer.

The Vermont based group tours the country offering a mixture of lively and dry New England humor. The award winning band has been featured at Lincoln Center, The Chautauqua Institute, National Public Radio and on over 150 public television stations throughout the U.S.A.

The Woods Tea Co. suffered two tragic deaths within one year. In October 2006, a motorcycle accident claimed the life of fiddle player Chip Chase, and on August 15, 2007, Rusty Jacobs, the groupsʼ founder, died of a heart attack. The group has announced that singer/songwriter extraordinaire, Patti Casey has become the seventh permanent member of the Woods Tea Co. since 1981. Patti has appeared live on "A Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor, has won Texasʼs prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk songwriter's competition, and was a winner of the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at the
legendary Merlefest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Patti also brings her skills on the guitar, penny whistle, flute and is a French-Canadian Clogger.

The Woods Tea Company displays a unique style of audience rapport and music that features rich vocal harmonies leaves everyone smiling. “Our goal every night is to please the audience,” says bandleader Howard Wooden. “I love it when someone comes up and says, ʻThey dragged me here tonight, but I had a great time!ʼ”

Opening the evening will be New Jersey folk music icon Mike Agranoff. What Mike does as a folk musician is a rather difficult question to answer. He plays a superb fingerstyle guitar in idioms ranging from ancient harp tunes to obscure Tin-Pan-Alley compositions. His concertina arrangements of music by anyone from Bach to Berryman's may be haunting, complex, exciting, but are, above all, musical. A performance might include a song of heart-stopping emotional impact, a Scott Joplin piano rag, an acapella Irish patter song sung to the melody of a mile-a-minute fiddle tune, a rivetting recitation in the style of Robert Service, and some of the most horrible parodies in the English speaking world. Whatever else he does, Mike puts a lie to the notion that folk music is boring.

2009-06-30T13:15:00.000-04:00

PHIL OCHS SONG NIGHT

Hosted by Sonny Ochs

SATURDAY APRIL 10, 2010
8:00pm
Feauring MAGPIE,
KIM & REGGIE HARRIS,
GREG GREENWAY,
JOHN FLYNN, and JEN CASS
$20 ($17 members)
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The Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club takes great pride in presenting a Phil Ochs Song Night. Hosted by his sister Sonny, Phil Ochs song nights commemorate his life and music while also highlighting new talents making music in the spirit that Phil made his music.

GREG GREENWAY'S music blends the passion of Richie Havens, the lyrical guitar of James Taylor, and the rhythmic and political influences of Peter Gabriel, the Police and a wealth of Third World Artists. Greenway now has five critically acclaimed solo Releases: A Road Worth Walking Down (nominated for two Boston Music Awards), Singing For the Landlord (top five CDs for 1995 on the Internet Folk DJ list), Mussolini's Head(1998), Something Worth Doing (2001), and most recently, Greg Greenway: Live (2003). He has been included on numerous compilations as well, including Sliced Bread's Phil Ochs tribute CD, What's That I Hear, and the compendium of disrespectful car songs from NPR's Car Talk, CarTalk CarTunes. Greg was born in Virginia and now makes his home on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

KIM & REGGIE HARRIS' are two vibrant, superbly talented and engaging performers whose captivating stage presence has inspired audiences around the world for over 25 years. As singers, songwriters, storytellers, educators, historical interpreters and cultural advocates, they have used their remarkable voices and their unique talents to bring new insights to the entertainment and educational spectrum. Kim and Reggie have recorded 5 CDs on the Appleseed Recordings label, one CD for Folk Era; contributed tracks to each of Appleseed's Pete Seeger releases and are also featured (with other leading Folk and Acoustic artists) on a growing number of compilation and tribute CDs. Originally from Philadelphia, Kim and Reggie live in upstate New York.

MAGPIE consists of Greg Artzner and Terry Leonino, a husband-and-wife duo from Tacoma Park, Maryland. Originally from northeast Ohio, they met while attending Kent State University in 1973. Their repertoire of largely topical songs encompasses traditional and contemporary folk, jazz, blues, country and ragtime styles, and includes many original compositions. Magpie has a high-energy sound, characterized by tight harmonies and expert work on guitar, concertina, harmonica, mandolin and fretted dulcimer. They have released several cds including Spoken In Love, a collaboration with Kim and Reggie Harris.

JOHN FLYNN sings from the heart. His powerful songs of humanity and hope are deeply rooted in the traditions of Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs. John paints vivid, lasting images with words and music, drawn from a palette of awareness, irony, humor, and compassion. John’s artistic journey has taken him from Temple University, where he earned a degree in Political Science, to Nashville’s Music Row as a songwriter, to award-winning children’s recording artist and performer, to social justice activist. John is truly an American troubadour. John has shared the stage with some of the greats of our time, Willie Nelson, Arlo Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson, to name a few. Arlo invited John to join his Train to New Orleans tour post-Hurricane Katrina, and Kris Kristofferson has not only sung on two of John’s CDs, but has given John previously unrecorded material to use. He lives in Delaware with his wife, four children, and their exuberant German Shepherd.

JEN CASS was born to unusually hip parents in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, where she was raised on a healthy mix of folk music, homegrown vegetables, spontaneous dancing, black licorice and Motown. Jen has always remained true to her folk roots, writing beautifully crafted songs that draw comparisons to songwriting legends Bob Dylan, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Indigo Girls, and Dar Williams, as well as playwright Eugene O'Neill. In 2003, Jen's song "Main Attraction" was selected as a winner in the Folk Category of both the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and the USA Songwriting Competition. Jen's latest release, Accidental Pilgrimage was one of the most added CDs of the summer of 2006 for folk and Americana radio, spawning five Top 25 hits including "Dear Mr. President" which finished the year at #26 on the 2006 Folk Chart, and is still receiving airplay worldwide.

We hope that you will join us for this exciting evening of music when the Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club commemorates the life and music of Phil Ochs and celebrate the troubadors who carry on in his spirit .

2009-06-30T11:29:00.000-04:00

SATURDAY MAY 1, 2010
8:00pm
AZTEC TWO-STEP
With special guest TERENCE MARTIN.
$30 ($27 members)

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Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman have spent a lifetime making music together as the folk/rock
duo Aztec Two-Step. Their first album on Elektra Records, and their subsequent albums for RCA Records, were staples of progressive FM and college radio and helped bring the music of the 60s into the 70s. As their recording career continued, so did the critical acclaim. In 1987 Living in America received the
New York Music Award for Best Folk Album and was named in Billboard’s year-end critic’s poll.

Praised in major media outlets such as Rolling Stone, and having appeared on numerous TV and radio shows such as David Letterman, King Biscuit Flour Hour, and World Café Live, in 1999 Aztec Two-Step was the subject of a documentary that aired on PBS. Of their 2005 release, Days of Horses, the Boston Globe said “fans of the duo’s harmony-driven tunes and easygoing acoustic guitar riffs will recognize their James Taylor-meets-Simon & Garfunkel sound. What’s new is the mood. This album sits back on its haunches as Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman look back wistfully at American pop culture and their own ride through it.”

In 2007, when Forever Changing – The Golden Age of Elektra Records 1963-1973 was issued by Rhino Records, the 5-CD box set included “The Persecution and Restoration of Dean Moriarty (On The Road),” Aztec Two-Step’s ode to Jack Kerouac’s groundbreaking novel of the Beat Generation. In a happy coincidence, 2007 is also the aforementioned 35th anniversary of the album Aztec Two-Step and the 50th anniversary of the publication of On The Road. Aztec Two-Step continues to impress audiences with intelligent songwriting, dazzling acoustic lead guitar, and inspiring harmonies. They are one of acoustic music’s most popular and enduring acts.

Opening the evening will be Terence Martin. Born in London and raised in Los Angeles, singer/songwriter/poet Terence moved East in 1997 to become part of the flourishing NY acoustic music scene. His musical background includes performing as a double bassist in the Burbank Symphony and in several touring rock bands.

Terence recently released his 5th independent CD, Even Trade, on the Good Dog Music label. The new collection of 12 original songs features the artist’s most personal and ambitious work to date, sophisticated and spiritual in tone, with roots in folk, Americana and pop.

He’s performed on the Most Wanted Stage at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, been a New Folk winner at the NJ Folk Festival, a finalist in the 2006 Mountain Stage New Song Contest, received honorable mention in the Mid Atlantic Song Contest for “East of the River” and performed at the 2006 Boston Folk Festival.

2009-06-29T22:15:00.001-04:00

SATURDAY MARCH 6, 2010
TWO CONCERTS!
TOM CHAPIN

3:00pm – Family show
$20 ($17 members), $15 for children 14 and under

8:00pm – Adult show

with special guest PAT WICTOR
$25 ($22 members)

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Adult albums and kids’ albums, contemporary folk and pop, Tom Chapin’s music spans styles and generations. For more than thirty years and through twenty compact discs, Chapin has entertained, amused and enlightened audiences of all ages with life-affirming original songs told in a sophisticated array of musical styles. Tom’s remarkable musicianship, great songwriting and personal warmth shine through whether he’s performing in a concert hall, an outdoor festival, a school, in front of a symphony orchestra or in an intimate coffeehouse.

Tom’s adult concerts and recordings are sparked by strong, intelligent songwriting with clear, engaging vocals and the intricate, melodic guitar work that has become his trademark. He has recorded nine albums of adult-oriented material. The newest, Let The Bad Times Roll, was released in the Spring of 2009. The New York Times calls Tom Chapin “one of the great personalities in contemporary folk music.”

He says: “Mine is not a traditional music, but it comes from a tradition. My musical heroes are people like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie who wrote and sang real songs for real people; for everyone, old, young, and in between.”

Tom has gained widespread critical and popular acclaim for his recordings aimed at 4 to 11 year-olds and their families. His family albums have been recognized with awards from the American Library Association, Parents’ Choice, the New York Music Awards, the National Association of Parenting Publications and Parents Magazine. Five of his family recordings have received Grammy nominations for Best Musical Album For Children, including Some Assembly Required, Tom’s newest family recording. Billboard magazine calls Chapin “the best family artist around.” A new family CD is in the works.

Chapin’s live performances engage the hearts, minds and imaginations of children and adults alike. Parents Magazine says, “Nobody today is writing and performing better kids’ songs than Tom Chapin . . . the Pied Piper of children’s music.” Elementary school teachers across North America have incorporated Chapin’s songs into their curriculum, finding them accessible and adaptable to classroom study and interaction.

His varied career has taken him to Broadway as lead in the musical “Pump Boys and Dinettes,” off-Broadway as musical director of both “Cotton Patch Gospel” and “Harry Chapin: Lies & Legends” and on television as host of “Make A Wish” on ABC, and as host of the documentary series “National Geographic Explorer.” He has contributed satiric topical songs to National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, poking fun at social and scientific trends in the news.

In addition, Tom works tirelessly on behalf of many charitable organizations. He is on the Board of Directors of World Hunger Year, a hunger organization founded in 1975 by Tom’s late brother, singer/songwriter/humanitarian Harry Chapin. He is active in environmental causes; and is working to get music and the arts back in schools.

Opening the 8:00pm “adult” show will be special guest Pat Wictor. In a remarkably short period of time, Pat has become the name that is being chatted about on the acoustic, blues, folk and Americana circuits. Steeped in American "roots" music, Pat is a contemporary songwriter and interpreter drawing on the rural country, gospel, and blues traditions of our nation.

His performances--part fireside chat, part meditation on matters earthly and transcendent--feature his original songs. In addition to his own tunes, he is quick to offer up a newly-discovered lyric from another performer, or a fresh arrangement of a traditional song, delighting in introducing his audience to innovative material. With flowing red hair and zen-like calm, Pat embraces his audience with the sincerity of his music and the clarity of his voice, inviting them in.

2007-04-02T10:22:00.001-04:00

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