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Ian Sherwood with Carmel Mikol and Charlie A'Court
Thursday July 21 at 7:30 pm
Canadian song writer Ian Sherwood returns to Maine. This time with two of Eastern Canada's finest song-smiths, Carmel Mikol and Charlie A'Court. All three performers are no strangers to song writer's circles. Each are involved in their own events throughout Canada. Ian comes from a background of Roots and Jazz, Carmel from Roots and Celtic, and Charlie is decidedly a seasoned Blues artist. The performers chose the title of the concert series as "The Maine Event"
Award winning songwriter, Ian Sherwood mixes catchy melodies and heart-breaking stories with intricate guitar loops, saxophones and pop/rock/jazz grooves to create music that has been described as “Traditional singer/songwriter style at it’s essence.” *. His live show can make you weep for goats, sing to Jesus and hop a boxcar to the Yukon. Ian is equally at home in front of a large festival audience or a quiet house concert. His energetic stage show and honest presentation have quickly gained him recognition as a solid performer, lyricist and player and garnered him Music Nova Scotia’s 2008 Musician of the Year award.
** “..romantic as they are clever and snarky… Sherwood has a tongue that can be firmly planted- in-cheek, in his often funny, often poignant lyrics.” -- Josh Visser, Halifax Chronicle Herald
Tickets $15
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Colin Grant Band
Thursday July 14 at 7:30 pm
Lingering somewhere amidst the rich, soulful roots of traditional Cape Breton music and the grooves of a thousand branches of rock and funk, Colin Grant embarks on his latest project: a dynamic and thoughtful mingling of beats and melodies from an extensive host of musical influences. Far from the awkward malaise of mohawked bag-pipers and kilted punks, the Colin Grant Band has created a kind of Celtic fusion that is as much Steely Dan and Yes, as it is Ashley MacIsaac.
With a Trad trio comprised of the amazing Jason Roach on piano, and embarrassingly talented Darren MacMullen (bouzouki, mandolin, guitar, banjo) Grant hooked up with the rough and red-eyed blues/funk rhythm section of Merlin Clarke and Donnie Calabrese on bass and drums. Together, the group produces a fervent yet calculated rhythm that backs an expressively diverse range of tunes. While the lively sound never strays too distantly from its Celtic roots, the Colin Grant Band has found an open ear in everyone from indie scenesters to blue-haired bingo stampers.
Colin has just released his second full-length album, Fun For the Whole Family-a highly anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed Colin Grant solo debut.
Tickets $15
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The Brew
Friday July 8 at 8:30 pm
Massachusetts-based quartet The Brew cook up a
musical melting pot on their brand-new, self-released
album, Back to the Woods, that combines their roots in
classic rock, adding ingredients of prog, jazz, reggae,
world beat, indie, funk and orchestral pop, sometimes in
the course of a single song.
The band has been busy building a fan base by touring the northeast, playing events like
the Gathering of the Vibes in Connecticut and the Up North Festival in Maine and
headlining Boston’s famed Paradise Rock Club. They opened for Bruce Hornsby in 2006,
and again in 2008, and were voted Best Opening Act by his fan site. This year, the band
was nominated for the “Best New Groove” (Best New Artist) award at the J ammy’s in New
York City’s Madison S quare Garden.
Their eclectic stylistic palette can be heard clearly on Back to the Woods,
from the tribal world beat and prog-rock of “Seen It All” and the reggae
rhythm of “Looking Down” to the jazz-funk and Sting-like vocal on
“Control,” the lush Beach Boys a cappella harmonies of the title track and
the Queen-like overkill of “Castle Walls” and the climactic “Chance
Reaching.”
Tickets $12.50
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The Kane Sisters
Thursday July 7 at 7:30 pm
From North Connemara, Liz and Yvonne Kane, known as The Kane Sisters, are much respected musicians and educators. Born in Letterfrack, they were taught music by their grandfather, local fiddle player, Jimmy Mullen and Mary Finn, a Co.Sligo musician and teacher.
Liz and Yvonne first came to national and international prominence during the three year period in which they toured with accordion player, Sharon Shannon as members of her band, The Woodchoppers. They travelled all over the world with her band and are featured artists on Sharon’s album ‘The Diamond Mountain Sessions’. At that time, a Hot Press review by Siobhan Long confirmed ‘...while 'Fire in their Bellies' (with Liz and Yvonne Kane) is ensemble playing at its best and most naked.'
Following this period of touring with Sharon Shannon, the girls decided to embark musically on their own and they recorded their first album together entitled ‘The Well Tempered Bow’. This received rave reviews including this review from well known New
York music critic, Earle Hitchner:
“Aptly titled, 'The Well-Tempered Bow' is fine-honed unison fiddling by two musicians who know how to draw out the heat and light within a melody. There's no superficial flashiness substituting for a more difficult-to-achieve understanding of what makes a tune tick. This duo debut has real depth and heft, with superb accompaniment from guitarist and pianist John Blake, a member of the band Téada. The Kanes Head Up Best Traditional Albums of 2002”
The Kane Sisters toured Ireland and the United States following the release of their first album and this followed with a second album entitled ‘Under the Diamond’ in 2004.
Tickets $15
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The Outside Track
Thursday June 30 at 7:30 pm
A stunning synthesis of virtuosity and energy, The Outside Track's marriage of Canadian, Scottish and Irish music and song has been rapturously received around the world. Hailing from Scotland, Ireland, Cape Breton and Vancouver, its five members are united by a love of traditional music and a commitment to creating new music on its foundation. Using fiddle, accordion, harp, guitar, flute, step-dance and vocals these five virtuosos blend boundless energy with unmistakable joie de vivre.
Each player within The Outside Track is a master of their chosen instrument with the band stacking up an impressive amount of international awards. This amount of talent alone would be enough to recommend the band but in this case the end result is so much greater than the sum of the parts.
The line up comprises Norah Rendell (Canadian Traditional Singer of the Year nominee), Mairi Rankin (Beolach), Ailie Robertson (Live Ireland Winner, BBC Young Trad Finalist), Fiona Black (BBC Fame Academy Winner), and Cillian O'Dalaigh.
The band have enjoyed 5 years of extensive touring in the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA, including appearances at Celtic Connections, Celtic Colours, Goderich, Mission, Memoire et Racines, Sidmouth, and Whitby Festivals.
Tickets $15
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Lennie Gallant
Thursday June 23 at 7:30 pm
Recognized by his peers as one of Canada’s best performing songwriters, Lennie Gallant is a native of Prince Edward Island now living in Nova Scotia. This prolific songwriter has recorded nine albums (seven in English and two in French), which have won him a host of awards and nominations from both the JUNOs and East Coast Music Awards. His album, "When We Get There" was nominated for a JUNO Award and went into space aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in July 2009. Canadian astronaut Julie Payette chose the album for the astronaut crew to enjoy.
With the release of "If We Had A Fire" in 2009 he claims it is his best work yet. Recorded in beautiful St Cecilia Studios on the outskirts of Halifax, the album holds 14 new Gallant songs, performed by the artist and some of the best musicians the East Coast has to offer. "If We Had A Fire" Won the 2010 "Roots Recording of the Year" at the East Coast Music Awards.
He has shared the stage with such accomplished songwriters as Lucinda Williams, Roger Hodgson (Supertramp), Patti Griffin, and Ron Sexsmith and has represented Canada at songwriter events in Nashville, London, and Texas. “Our northern neighbor has given us some of the best songwriters living today. You can add Lennie Gallant to that list.” -- The Performing Songwriter
Tickets $20
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Girsa
Thursday June 16 at 7:30 pm
The women of Girsa have all known each other since they were very young, growing up participating in Irish music and dance in their community of Pearl River, New York.
Most of them come from musical families, with their parents having learned Irish traditional music from such greats as Martin Mulvihill, Maureen Glynn Connelly, and Pete Kelly. Some of their parents and their lifelong friends carry on this great tradition by teaching music in the community.
"We loved playing together so much that we started our own band just over 6 years ago and called it Girsa, which means “young girls” in Gaelic. We’ve been having tons of fun ever since!"
Tickets $15
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Nuala Kennedy with Andrea Beaton and Owen Marshall
Thursday June 9 at 7:30 pm
Nuala Kennedy is a singer and flautist playing traditional music from
Scotland, Ireland and the fathomless realms of her own imagination. She is
currently promoting her second solo album released on Compass Records in 2010.
Based in her adopted homeland of Scotland, Irish singer and flute player Nuala Kennedy performs a range of material from across the Irish and Scottish traditional music repertoires. She also composes her own idiosyncratic brand of music and tours in a variety of lineups from duo and quartet to a nine-piece festival band.
Nuala grew up in Dundalk, playing traditional music in an award-winning local ceilidh band Ceoltoiri Oga Oghrialla. She also studied classical piano under Professor John O'Connor at the Royal Academy of Music in Dublin. Recent collaborative projects included a Scottish tour with Voyage de Nuit, showcasing songs and compositions inspired by flamenco, jazz and traditional music
Tickets $15
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Buddy MacDonald & Rachel Davis
Thursday June 2 at 7:30 pm
Buddy's career as a singer, song-writer, entertainer, began thirty years ago.
Born and brought up on the Northern Shores of Cape Breton Island, he was exposed at an early age, to the singing and story telling of some of the great Celtic singers of his native Island. Much of his song-writing is still influenced by this style he was so familiar with as a young boy. Over the years he has travelled and entertained audiences throughout Canada, the United States, Germany, Scotland and the Scandinavian countries, performing as a solo act and in different combinations with other musicians from Cape Breton. He has performed on stage with many of Eastern Canada's traditional artists such as Natalie MacMaster, Howie Mac Donald, Ashley MacIssac, Dave MacIssac, John Allan Cameron and more. Since  Celtic Colours International Festival began ten years ago, Buddy has been the host of the late night Festival Club, and has performed over various parts of the Island with Scotland?s Dougie MacLean,Archie Fisher, Irelands Tommy Makem, Michael Black, and hosts of other artists from all over the world of music.
Now considered one of the best young Cape Breton style players currently on the go, Rachel Davis was fortunate enough to be the recipient of the 2009 Frank “Big Sampy” Sampson Award, which is sponsored by the Celtic Colours Festival Volunteer Driver Association, and Lakewind Sound Studios, giving financial aid for a Cape Breton artist to record their first CD. Her self-titled debut album was released during the Celtic Colours Festival that October, with a CD release party held at the late night Festival Club. Her CD has received rave reviews, with articles in the Cape Breton Post, Rambles.net, fRoots magazine, and Penguin Eggs Magazine. Cuts from Rachel’s debut album have been featured on promotional CDs for Lakewind Sound Studios and Cape Breton University.
Tickets $15
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Cynthia MacLeod
Thursday May 26 at 7:30 pm
From her home base in tiny Prince Edward Island, Canada, fiddling sensation Cynthia MacLeod has built an international reputation that is expanding around the globe.
It's a reputation founded in raw talent, nurtured by boundless energy, and polished to a gleaming finish by a touring schedule that has taken her across Canada, through New England, and as far away as Japan.
And all this before she's 25 years old.
In that time, she has produced three critically-acclaimed (and top-selling) CDs. Head Over Heels (2002) won her instant credibility with a hard-bitten music industry and was named Album of the Year. Her second CD, Crackerjack (2004), built on her growing reputation as a precise, lively interpreter of traditional fiddle music. Hot Off The Floor (2007) combined that traditional sound with newer compositions and cemented Cynthia's place among the very best in East Coast fiddle music.
Tickets $15
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Cadence
Monday May 23 at 7:30 pm
Four men. Four microphones. No instruments. This is the formula for Canada’s celebrated vocal band, Cadence.
Combining the lyricism of Stan Getz, the sophisticated harmonies of the Count Basie Big Band and the devil-may-care attitude of Louis Prima, this fabulous foursome has been entertaining audiences worldwide for over a decade with their innovative jazz arrangements, genre-hopping covers and eclectic originals. With an infectious energy and a good measure of wild stage antics, this cool cat rat pack of musical misfits is guaranteed to leave you shouting out for more. “One of the finest quartets to make an appearance in the a cappella scene,” Cadence continues to thrill its fans night after night by pushing a cappella music to new heights and demonstrating that the human voice has no limits.
Cadence's three-time Juno-nominated albums have been met with wide critical acclaim, having received numerous awards and nominations including Best Jazz Song, Best Original Composition and Best Rock/Pop Album (CARA AWARDS.) Their 2005 release Twenty for One was nominated for the Juno Award for Best Vocal Jazz Album alongside such established musical mainstays as Diana Krall and Paul Anka. Most recently, Cadence's 2010 release - Speak Easy - hit the Top Ten on the Jazz Radio charts in France.
Tickets $15
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The Press Gang
Thursday May 19 at 7:30 pm
A bold new sound has emerged in New England's traditional music scene: The Press Gang fuses the talents of squeezebox player Christian "Junior" Stevens, fiddler Alden Robinson, and guitarist Owen Marshall into a high-octane musical partnership. The trio blends their skill and fluency in traditional Irish music with their curiosity and aptitude for other styles.
The result is a unique sound—at once energetic and sensitive, innovative and reverent. A debut CD, to be released in the spring of 2010, gives a generous helping of Irish tunes spiced with Appalachian music and original compositions. The joy that these musicians take from playing with each other shines brightly, both in the recording and on the stage.
Tickets $15
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Old Blind Dogs
Thursday May 12 at 7:30 pm
Since forming in the early 1990's, Old Blind Dogs have stood on the cutting edge of Scotlands roots revival. The band has developed its own trademark style with an energetic mix of songs and tunes. Dynamic percussion, polished vocals, soaring fiddle and stirring pipes fuel the delicately-phrased melodies and traditional songs.
"The Old Blind Dogs play with a compelling energy and intoxicating rhythm," says The Scotsman, "as players and audience seem to share a wild ecstasy of emotion." Sixteen years is a long time in the life of any band and most who reach that milestone are content to rest on the tried and true formulas that have worked in the past. Not so for Scotlands Old Blind Dogs whose newly released Four on the Floor takes them bravely in many new directions.
The Dogs, one of Scotlands most highly touted traditional folk bands, are not known for shying away from change. A strong, shared musical vision has allowed the group to ride out inevitable line-up changes to the extent that the only original member still with the band is Jonny Hardie (fiddle, guitar and vocals). The Dogs popularity has never dimmed though and the current foursome of Hardie, Aaron Jones (bouzouki, guitar, vocals), Ali Hutton (Border pipes, whistles, vocals) and Fraser Stone (drums, percussion) have proven more than capable of carrying on the tradition of the band that the Montreal Gazette called ...a Scots neo-traditional supergroup with a bracingly modern musical attack.
Together, in varying line-ups along with past members Buzzby McMillan (bass, bouzouki, vocals), Davy Cattanach (percussion, vocals), Fraser Fifield (saxophone, small pipes), Paul Jennings (percussion), Rory Campbell (Border pipes, whistles, vocals) and singer/guitarists Ian Benzie and Jim Malcolm, the Dogs have released ten albums and have won numerous awards including the prestigious title of Folk Band of the Year at the 2004 and 2007 Scots Trad Music Awards. Their latest album 'Four On The Floor' also picked up the IAP 'Best Celtic CD' Award.
Tickets $20
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PEI Fiddle Camp Road Show
Thursday May 5 at 7:30 pm
  
The Prince Edward Island Fiddle Camp Roadshow will feature Master instructors Ward MacDonald, Pastelle LeBlanc and Pascal Miousse. The Pineland Fiddlers with Ellen Gawler will open for the Masters.
Ward MacDonald grew up in the Scottish fiddling traditions of Prince Edward Island. His playing reflects four generations of family fiddling and is spiced with a unique blend of Cape Breton, Acadian, and Irish influences.
Pascal Miousse is one of the Magdalen Islands' finest fiddle players. He has developed his own style using a unique bowing technique rarely heard anywhere else. He left the islands in his late teens and since then has been performing in concert halls and festivals around the world.
Multi-instrumentalist Pastell LeBlanc favors the accordion. At the age of ten, she started playing the piano and accompanying fiddle tunes. It is only many years later that she picked up the piano accordion and hasn't looked back since.
As always, the Celtic Jam starts an hour before show time. Bring your instrument!
Tickets $15
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Colin Grant with Jason MacDonald and Adam Young (Cape Breton Kitchen Party)
Thursday April 28 at 7:30 pm
Hard-driving but clean, lively and passionate, traditional yet original; Colin Grant’s fiddle playing has stepped to the forefront of the East Coast traditional music scene – and people are sitting up and taking notice. Although most at home with traditional Cape Breton fiddle music, his versatility as both a lead and side musician has given him experiences in a variety of traditional styles, in addition to folk, rock and country genres.
He will be joined by fellow Nova Scotians, Jason MacDonald and Adam Young. Singer-songwriter MacDonald is quickly emerging as one of the East Coasts finest artists. His debut album “Leave My Mark” has earned critical acclaim and impressive sales, and his new release, “The Day” showcases the depth of MacDonald’s songwriting with edgier production elements.
Adam Young accompanies Grant and MacDonald on piano and is one of the fine young players who continues the tradition of the energetic, yet haunting Cape Breton style piano. Young’s playing harmonizes with the guitar, fiddle and vocals and also provides the driving dance rhythms necessary for stepdancing.
Tickets $15
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OLAS
Friday April 22 at 7:30 pm
Heavily influenced by Andalusian Flamenco and Arabic folk music, translated through a blend of American folk, rock, Arabic, and Afro-Cuban sounds,  OLAS is an original, all acoustic mash-up of very raw and passionate music and dance, complete with songs sung in Spanish, original, non-traditional dance choreography, and traditional instruments such as the cajon, oud, ney and guitar.
The musicians of OLAS come from a rich and diverse musical scene based in Portland, Maine. Chriss Sutherland and Tom Kovacevic hail from Cerberus Shoal and Fire on Fire, Dylan Blanchard from Portlands premier salsa band Grupo Esperanza, and Leif Sherman Curtis from Conifer, who has released two records on Important Records. Dancers Lindsey Bourassa and Megan Keogh come from an eclectic dance background that includes ballet, modern, jazz, salsa, and flamenco. And palmeras Molly Angie and Anna Trunzo are local artists from Portland, ME who have spent the past year learning and performing the palmas rhythms inherent to the music of OLAS.
All proceeds from this performance will go to Unity Barn Raisers
Tickets $15
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Long Time Courting
Thursday April 21 at 7:30 pm
Take four individually accomplished traditional musicians and singers with fresh attitudes. Combine them, and you have the rich, soaring four-part vocal arrangements and high energy Irish jigs and reels that are Long Time Courting.
Long Time Courting brings heavenly harmonies to old and new ballads and serves up a zesty side of dance tunes!
Bringing together the talents of Sarah Blair on fiddle/vocals, Liz Simmons on guitar/vocals, Shannon Heaton on flute/vocals, and Ariel Friedman on cello/vocals, this Boston-based band shares a love of traditional Irish and American music as well as contemporary material. They bring elements of these various genres to their traditional repertoire in a way that is seamlessly innovative and fun!
"Long Time Courting infuses traditional ballads, jigs, and reels with fresh life and energy and vocal harmonies that are nothing short of sublime... Their rendition of “Barbara Allen” is beautiful enough to break your heart." - Nashua Telegraph
Tickets $15
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Bruce Molsky
Monday April 11 at 7:30 pm
Bruce Molsky stands today as the premier old-time fiddler in the world, the defining virtuoso of Appalachia's timeless folk music traditions. That must feel odd for a former engineer from the Bronx,  who didn't begin a music career until he was forty. But folded into those strange facts is the secret to his unique genius.
In addition to a prolific solo career, performing on fiddle, guitar, and banjo, Molsky frequently joins genre-busting supergroups, like the Grammy-nominated Fiddlers Four, and Mozaik, with Hungarian Nikola Parov, and Celtic giant Donal Lunny. He was on Nickel Creek's farewell tour, and performs in a trio with Scottish fiddler Aly Bain and Sweden's great Ale Moller.
"Playing in these kinds of groups is an important part of what I do," Molsky says. "Regionalism was one of the hallmarks of traditional music in the old days; now we're in the Information Age, and I don't think that's what folk music does anymore. But the more cultures I discover, the more I realize that folk music performs the same function for everybody; and therefore is the same thing everywhere - just spoken with different accents."
Great fiddlers ask him to teach at their fiddle camps, including Alasdair Fraser, Jay Ungar, and Mark O'Connor, who says Molsky has "a mystical awareness of how to bring out the new in something that is old."
"Young people realize this is a guy who's tapped into the real deep emotional wellsprings of this music," says Matt Glaser, director of Berklee's American Roots Program. "He has a way of removing everything that's unnecessary; and young people are very hungry for something real. Bruce has that in spades."
Tickets $15
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Alasdair Frazer and Natalie Haas
Thursday April 7 at 7:30 pm
The musical partnership between Alasdair Fraser, long regarded as
Scotland’s premier fiddle ambassador, and the sizzlingly-talented young
California cellist Natalie Haas may not seem an obvious one.  Fraser,
acclaimed by the San Francisco Examiner as “the Michael Jordan of
Scottish fiddling,” has a concert and recording career spanning 30 years,
with a long list of awards, accolades, television credits, and feature
performances on top movie soundtracks (Last of the Mohicans,Titanic).
Fraser has been sponsored by the British Council to represent Scotland’s
music internationally, and received the Scottish Heritage Center Service
Award for outstanding contributions to Scottish culture and traditions.
The 25-year-old Haas, a graduate of
the Juilliard School of Music, wasn’t
even born when Alasdair was
winning national fiddle competitions
on the other side of the Atlantic.
But this seemingly unlikely pairing is
the fulfillment of a long-standing
musical dream for Fraser, whose
cutting-edge musical explorations
took him full circle to find a cellist who could help him return the cello to its
historical role at the rhythmic heart of Scottish dance music.
Tickets $20
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Occidental Gypsy
Saturday April 2 at 7:30 pm
Their well rehearsed and lightning fast swing brings the Parisian jazz manouche of the 1930's alive and the audience to its feet. The musical genre has undergone a tremendous resurgence in popularity for its sophisticated yet sentimental sound and swinging precise rhythm, often light hearted and whimsical, sometimes aching with melancholy. It was guitarist Jean Baptiste “Django “ Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli along with their Quintet of the Hot Club of France who eventually codified this fusion of swing, American jazz and manouche (traditional gypsy music).
Occidental began in 2007, by 2009 they we’re playing at all the major venues and festivals in Rhode Island. Most notably, the only Rhode Island band to play at the Rhythm & Roots festival, receiving standing ovations. In the winter of 2010 the band entered a Foxwoods contest and although they submitted during the last week, the song rose to eighth place out of 204 bands. Their debut album, Over Here was released in December.
Occidental's rapport with a crowd has an immediacy and warmth that has everyone smiling, dancing, and clapping out the rhythm, transporting the room to the cafes of Paris in the thirties.
Tickets $15
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Richard Wood
Thursday March 31 at 7:30 pm
For more than two decades, Richard Wood has impressed audiences all across Canada, as well as in the US, Europe, and Japan. Highlights include TV guest appearances with Shania Twain on “David Letterman” and “Good Morning America,” Carnegie Hall with Irish legends The Chieftains, a featured performer on CBC’s Canada Day on Parliament Hill, “Rita MacNeil and Friends,” and with Jean Butler of Riverdance on “Celtic Electric.”
Richard has played for Canada’s Prime Minister and Governor General, the Queen of England (in Toronto), and for the Emperor of Japan in Tokyo. In the late 1990s he toured the UK & Europe headlining concert halls and folk festivals. He’s since played at the Lincoln Centre in New York City, Epcot at Disney World, and was a featured performer in the touring fiddle spectacle “Bowfire.”
Richard is proud to have entertained Canada’s armed forces in Bosnia and twice in Afghanistan. He has five previous CD recordings and has won three East Coast Music Awards. MacLean’s Magazine named him one of the Top 100 Canadians to watch in the 21st Century.
With a new CD, rejuvenated energy and enthusiasm, Richard Wood, Prince Edward Island fiddler, artist, composer and entertainer has taken on the world once again in 2010.
Tickets $20
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Cabin Fever Reliever Free Concert with Alan Gerber
Friday March 25 at 7:30 pm
Join us for an evening of music with Alan Gerber as we celebrate the long awaited arrival of Spring! Strap on your boogie-woogie shoes, hold on and get ready ... Alan Gerber has arrived!
This eccentric entertainer is wowing audiences internationally. His amalgamation of boogie-woogie, stunning vocal interpretations and fine musicianship make Gerber an artist of the highest order.
Alan's professional career began when he entered a music program at Roosevelt University in 1965. Producer Paul Rothchild (The Doors, Paul Butterfield, Janis Joplin...) discovered Alan's talent and soon he was a singer, songwriter and keyboardist for a group to become known as Rhinoceros. The release of two albums on the Elektra label brought Rhinoceros to tour North America with such names as Janis Joplin, BB King, Jefferson Airplane, Traffic, Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf, John Lee Hooker, Jeff Beck and others.
Alan left Rhinoceros and released his first solo effort in 1971 with Shelter Records and the worldwide distribution of this recording earned him a tour with Leon Russell. In 1974 the release of the single "Tied On" (produced by André Perry) went to number one on Québec radio and Alan toured the province in the wake of its success. Gerber placed two songs on the soundtrack of Bob Bob Dylan's movie "Renaldo and Clara", performed at Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and played with Lou Reed in the United States. A songwriter, vocalist, musician, producer, and comic Alan Gerber is quite the enigma...... certainly not to be missed
Thanks to our sponsors Unity College and UniTel, admission to the concert is by donation only. All donations collected will be gifted to Veggies for All - a community agriculture project that works to relieve hunger by growing vegetables for whose in need, while collaborating with partners to distribute and increase access to quality and nutritious food.
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McPeake
Monday March 14 at 7:30 pm
For generations of folk music enthusiasts the name of the McPeake Family of Belfast has stood for one of the most distinctive sounds in Irish music. Francis McPeake IV, the fourth generation of this world-famous musical dynasty and one of the few authentic uilleann pipers in the world today, has put together a revived band, 'McPeake', which is unique in the world of music with its fusion of original Celtic compositions and contemporary rhythms and styles.
Tickets $15
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Tracy Grammer
Friday March 11 at 7:30 pm
“Music for me is a language like no other; it is my channel of authenticity. I know I'd only be telling half the truth without it..”
- Tracy Grammer
Born in Homestead, Florida and raised in southern California, Grammer comes from a musical family. Cousin Leo Fortin played double trumpets in Lawrence Welk’s band, while her grandmothers and mother played keyboards and accordion. But it was her guitar-playing father who was her first true inspiration.
“When Dad used to get out his lap steel and electric guitars, we’d invite the neighborhood kids over and sing country songs. I’d sit across from my dad and read the music upside-down so I could turn the pages for him. I developed an ear for harmony early on and hardly ever sang the melody,” she muses, “and it drove my little brother crazy.”
Tracy Grammer first saw Dave Carter perform at a songwriter's showcase shortly after she moved to Portland, Oregon. "As far as I was concerned, the rest of the room disappeared at that point. I knew instantly that I was in the presence of greatness." They met on their way out the door and by early 1998 had entered into a mutual "marriage in music."
Within weeks were working up material with a band. They began touring in late 1997 and during the summer of 1998, recorded their first album, WHEN I GO, in the kitchen of Grammer’s apartment.
Folk music authority Andrew Calhoun of Waterbug Records comments: “No one sings Dave Carter’s songs better than Tracy. He chose her to be the voice of his songs. His vision, their vision, was that they shared something they both saw. She is half the reason why they were great.” Dave Carter died suddenly in 2002.
Tracy Grammer's later albums feature previously-unreleased songs by the late Dave Carter as well as traditional tunes and original material.
Tracy Grammer is a brilliant artist and unique individual. Her voice is distinctive, as is her mastery over the instruments she plays.”
- Joan Baez
“Tracy Grammer has that elusive quality of being able to speak directly to another person's heart - instantly bypassing all of the usual infrastructure - the moment she starts singing. She's great.“
- Richard Shindell
Tickets $15
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Maeve Gilchrist Quartet
Thursday March 10 at 7:30 pm
Maeve Gilchrist was born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. Daughter to an Irish mother and Scottish father she grew up immersed in traditional folk music.
At seventeen Maeve received a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA where she studied jazz and world music, and began a colorful career as a professional musician and teacher.
Recent performance highlights include the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, the World Harp Congress (Netherlands), Celtic Connections Festival (Scotland), the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival and the ICONS Irish Festival. She has collaborated with some of the most celebrated contemporary musicians on the scene today such as Darol Anger, Vardan Ovsepian, the Unusual Suspects, Kathy Mattea, Esperanza Spalding and Martyn Bennett. Her debut CD 'Reaching Me' was released in 2006 to International Acclaim and she is about to release her second album ‘Song of Delight’ on Adventure Music Records in the Spring of 2011. Maeve is currently based in Boston MA. She tours regularly with Scottish bassist Aidan O Donnell fusing her Scottish roots with the colors and freedoms of jazz to produce a fresh and unique new sound.
Tickets $15
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Wendy MacIsaac with Andrea Beaton
Thursday March 3 at 7:30 pm
Wendy MacIsaac is a fiddler/piano player/stepdancer from Creignish, Cape Breton, Canada. Wendy has been touring all over the world for the last ten years with Mary Jane Lamond, Ashley MacIsaac, Beolach (her current band) and as a solo performer.
Wendy began performing at age 5 as a stepdancer. At age 12, she began fiddle lessons with Stan Chapman. By age fifteen, Wendy was playing dances all over Cape Breton island and forming the sound that makes her so recognizable today. She soon began travelling further, to Boston, Detroit, and Toronto, to play for the popular Cape Breton dances in those areas.
At this time, Wendy also developed a strong reputation as a piano player and has accompanied just about all of the Cape Breton fiddlers of her generation.
In 1995 she began touring with the Cape Breton Summertime Revue and has made the road her second home ever since. Wendy has performed with the Chieftains, Capercaillie and Buddy MacMaster, to name a few.
One of Cape Breton's most promising young fiddlers, Andrea Beaton comes by her music honestly. Listen to her play, the power of her bow, the drive and swing of her timing, the crispness of her attack. She's making a name for herself in dance halls, concerts, ceilidhs, and festivals. Like the compelling tradition she represents, her reputation is growing, spreading beyond the island. Andrea Beaton seems destined for great things.
She's the youngest of generations of Beaton musicians. Her father, Kinnon, is one of today's most influential Cape Breton fiddlers, and you can hear some of his timing in Andrea's playing. Her mother, Betty Beaton, is one of the great piano accompanists of her generation, contributing to that remarkable Beaton timing.
Tickets $15
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The Irish Descendants
Thursday February 24 at 7:30 pm
Since their formation in 1990, The Irish Descendants have garnered a loyal fan base in their native Canada, and captured the attention of an ever-growing international audience. The band’s award winning recordings range from lilting ballads to toe-tapping reels, and their high energy, humorous live performances have made them a popular attraction at home and abroad. To date, the band has sold half a million albums.
Having toured extensively throughout North America,including headlining Celtic Festivals in Chicago, Boston and Cleveland, The Irish Descendants have performed at such prestigious venues as The Smithsonian in Washington D.C., and have played with many of the nation’s best symphony orchestras. They appeared on stage at The Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto in the theatrical production of Needfire, as well as headlining The International Festival of the Sea in England.
The 1991 release of their first album, Misty Morning Shore, quickly catapulted the band from pub circuit regulars to radio stars. This led to a contract with Warner Music, and the release of Look to the Sea in 1993.
In 1996, following the release of Gypsies and Lovers the previous year, The Irish Descendants were named Entertainers of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards, and received a Juno Award, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy. By year’s end, the band’s first two albums were both certified Gold.
Over the next decade the band continued to evolve, touring every year and releasing albums including a Greatest Hits Package, So Far So Good, and The Gift, a Christmas album.
In 2004 the band released Across The Water for the New York based Kells Label. The album immediately cruised to the top of the North American Irish Charts, and drew rave reviews from the Irish media.
The band has now released a new CD, Southern Shore, produced by Alan Doyle (Great Big Sea), and will be touring extensively throughout North America.
Tickets $20
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The Sweetback Sisters
Friday January 28 at 7:30 pm
The rollicking country swing of the Sweetback Sisters is as infectious as it is heartbreaking. Their charismatic charm harkens back to the golden era of both the silver screen cowgirl and the ersatz cowboy stars of local UHF TV kiddie shows.  That whimsical exterior is wrapped around a core of deeply felt love for traditional country music styles and a palpable joy in playing and singing together. Like their pseudo-sister role models, the Davis Sisters, the Sweetback Sisters sing country songs in close, surrogate-sister harmony and matching dresses. Their repertoire combines several of the Sisters' passions -- country music from before they were born and new interpretations of those traditions -- to create a fresh take on what it means to be country.
The Sweetback line-up features the sugar sweet vocal pairing of Zara Bode and Emily Miller joined by an all-star cast of instrumentalists including: West Virginian triple threat Jesse Milnes; Stefan Amidon on drums; Philly's stringed slayer Ross Bellenoit on electric guitar, and Peter Bitenc on upright bass.
Their debut EP Bang! was released in early 2007 and earned them a spot on A Prairie Home Companion's talent contest for twenty-somethings. Their first full-length album Chicken Ain't Chicken was released in 2009 on Signature Sounds Recordings and still creating a stir.
Tickets $17
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Fishtank Ensemble
Friday January 7 at 7:30 pm
The LA Weekly calls them “cross pollinated gypsy music….one of the most thrilling young acts on the planet.” Formed in 2005 and playing everywhere from the hippest LA clubs to festivals, cultural centers, museums, parades, and even on the street, the band includes two explosive violins, the world's best slap bass player, musical saw, flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar, trombone, opera, jazz and gypsy vocals, accordion and one little banjolele. Tackling everything from French hot jazz to wild Serbian and Transylvanian gypsy anthems, Flamenco, and oddball originals, the band is a not to be missed event for world music lovers...and everyone will love this intoxicating mix of music.
The dynamic, virtuosic, fiery and peripatetic quartet that comprises Fishtank Ensemble take their roots both from their own varied musical and national backgrounds, as well as from their adventures and travels. The singer Ursula sang opera on the streets and town squares of Italy, until she found a love of gypsy music...their French violinist voyaged around all of Europe in a handmade mule-drawn caravan for ten years, collecting music and experiences. Their Serbian bass player has spent time playing with gypsies as well as some of the rock and roll's legends, and aptly defends his reputation as the best slap bass player in the world... and the guitarist is a master of flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar who honed his craft in the gypsy caves of Granada, Spain... Whatever wild time you can expect from this band, it will never match their out of this world performance!
Tickets $15
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