Saturday, December 7, 7:30 PM: The Heather Pierson Jazz Trio performs “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
Based in New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Valley, Heather Pierson is a pianist, singer/songwriter, and performer, known for her bell tone vocals, equal parts New Orleans-Oscar-Brubeck jazz piano leanings. In addition to her touring schedule with the Heather Pierson Acoustic Trio, Heather also leads her own jazz trio, with Shawn Nadeau on bass and Craig Bryan on drums, performing for audiences all over the Northeast. The jazz trio performs a rich variety of Heather’s originals, jazz and blues standards, and unique reworkings of familiar American music. The three are best known for their annual Charlie Brown Christmas tour, wherein they present their interpretations of the work of the late great jazz pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi.
The Jazz Trio performs the entirety of the Charlie Brown Christmas album as recorded by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. A Charlie Brown Christmas was originally telecast in December 1965 and was an instant hit with audiences who connected with Peanuts creator Charles M. Schultz’s cast of characters – especially with its rounded-headed hero Charlie Brown, his woefully scrawny Christmas tree, and his typewriter-wielding dog Snoopy. Nearly given the ax by CBS studios at the time of its release, this beloved holiday classic resonates with both children and adults of every generation. Fifty years on, it still holds up as one of the most endearing Christmas tales ever told, and the story of commercialism run rampant echoes clearly to this day. The musical score for A Charlie Brown Christmas, composed by the late Vince Guaraldi, is just as poignant and touching as the story and includes the hugely popular hit “Linus and Lucy”. His gentle jazz riffs established musical trademarks that, to this day, still prompt smiles of recognition.
Tickets: Front row–$22 in advance, $25 at the door; General admission–$18 in advance, $20 at the door.
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Saturday, January 18, 7:30 PM: KJ Denhert Trio, w/ special guests Us!
KJ Denhert’s performances will move you to laugh, to dance and even to cry. Her special blend of urban folk & jazz has earned her four Independent Music Award nominations and in ’09, she was named as one of Jazz.com’s top female vocalists. She’s appeared at scores of festivals and has residencies at the ’55 Bar’, Smoke in NYC, at the Baz Bar in St. Barth’s, and the prestigious Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy. Consistently praised for her pathos, originality and impeccable musicianship, KJ is a one of a kind songwriter, guitarist, and performer, not to be missed.
Opening the evening will be Us!, featuring Glen Roethel, Judy Kass, and Amy Soucy. The trio combines their voices to lift up causes of social justice, unity, and the connectedness of all things. California born Glen Roethel is one-of-a-kind artist, gifted vocalist, dazzlingly musical acoustic guitarist. New York-based Judy Kass, quickly draws in her audience with soulful vocals, no-nonsense lyrical storytelling and genre-bending exploration of guitar and piano. Amy Soucy is a Beacon, NY-based contemporary folk chanteuse who writes evocative songs exploring the kaleidoscope of human experience (dreams, longing, forgiveness, and healing) and sings them in a voice that’s been called “powerful,” “comforting,” and “angelic.”
Tickets: Front row–$25 in advance, $30 at the door; General admission–$20 in advance, $25 at the door.
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Friday January 31-Saturday, February 1: The Irvington Folk Festival
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ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Common Ground and Irvington Theater are proud to announce the first annual Irvington Folk Festival, to be held on January 31-February 1, 2020, featuring Dar Williams, The Dustbowl Revival, Joe Crookston, Antje Duvekot, Nora Brown, Divining Rod, and more!
Join us at the crossroads of creativity and community for two evenings and one afternoon of live music, special VIP workshops, whiskey tastings, and Q&A sessions at Irvington Theater and elsewhere in Irvington, NY.
The Irvington folk Festival offers performances by internationally-touring and emerging “on-the-rise” artists alike. The festivities begin with a special Q&A and reception with — and then a performance by — Friday night’s headliner, Dar Williams, whom Henrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker described as “one of America’s very best singer-songwriters.”
Dar will be joined by the award-winning Boston-based singer-songwriter Antje Duvekot.
The festival continues on Saturday afternoon with several very special FREE events, including a curated showcase of local and regional singer-songwriters performing both on the theater’s stage and on a second stage in Irvington, to be announced shortly. Also performing on Saturday afternoon at the theater will be local psych-folk-country favorites, Divining Rod.
On Saturday night, The Dustbowl Revival, the eclectic, Los Angeles-based six-piece ensemble, takes to the stage. Over the past few years, the band has been making a name for itself with a vibrant mix of vintage Americana sounds. The Los Angeles Times has proclaimed that this “would have sounded utterly at home within the hallowed confines of Preservation Hall in New Orleans’ French Quarter”. Saturday night will also feature songwriter, guitarist, painter, fiddler, slide player, and 2016 Folk Alliance International Artist-in-Residence, Joe Crookston. In addition, Joe will lead a special Saturday afternoon creativity workshop. The evening will begin with Nora Brown, who plays traditional old-time banjo music. Still only 13 years old, she is the subject of a Tribeca Film Festival funded short called “Little Nora (the Banjo Prodigy).
More information about the Irvington Folk Festival, please click links below
TICKETS
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
(in alphabetical order)
Nora Brown
Joe Crookston
deer scout
Divining Rod
The Dustbowl Revival
Antje Duvekot
Joshua Garcia
Greetings From Anywhere
Ursula Hansberry
Neil Nathan
Pluck & Rail
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Saturday, February 29, 7:30 PM: VickiKristinaBarcelona Plays the Music of Tom Waits
“My advice is to delay your heartbreak and see them now ” — Penny Arcade
VickiKristinaBarcelona is Rachelle Garniez, Amanda Homi and Terry Radigan, a power trio of seasoned music veterans dedicated to re-imagining the songs of Tom Waits via inventive three-part harmonies and a treasure trove of instruments including banjos, bottles, squeezebox, and zills. They create a world of sound at once powerful, playful and poignant.
Seasoned singers and songwriters, each a hybrid story-teller and multi-instrumentalist in her own right, join forces to salute the tragicomic lyrical genius of the Waits songbook. Picture the Triplets of Belleville disguised as Depression Era hobos riding the rails across America stopping to play dance parties and funerals along the road to nowhere.
Three distinct styles form a captivating original mix, greater than the sum of its’ parts, never failing to amaze and delight audiences of all stripes. Collectively, they have worked with artists including Jack White, Jackson Browne, Jane Siberry, Patty Loveless, Dan Penn, Ray La Montaigne, Thomas Dolby, and Taylor Mac.
Genre-fluid native New Yorker Rachelle Garniez is known as a certified free spirit. She is at home in many worlds, from busking to theater stages all over the world. Rachelle has released 6 albums; her influences ranging from Tin Pan Alley to klezmer and Latinesque Soul. Her story songs have been described as “romantic, rhapsodic and casually hilarious.” (The New York Times)
Globe trotting adventuress Amanda Homi was born in London. Her colorful songs reflect the music of her travels from Carnival in Rio to the rhythms of Bollywood and raucous Gypsy weddings. She was the 2015 Independent Music Awards best story song recipient. “Amanda Homi covers a lot of musical territory in a masterful, yet adventurous way…an enchanting journey” ( Roots Music Report )
Grammy-nominated songwriter Terry Radigan mixes her gritty Brooklyn girl sensibility with a deep respect for classic American roots, country, and soul. She has had her songs covered by a wide variety of artists including Ashley MacIsaac, Trisha Yearwood, and Anúna. “Radigan gets inside the pathos of love like no one else. A jazz noir sound with pop sensibilities. A stunning collection of songs.” (Mademoiselle)
Tickets: Front row–$25 in advance, $30 at the door; General admission–$20 in advance, $25 at the door.
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Saturday, March 7, 8:00 PM: Darlingside
“It’s over now / The flag is sunk / The world has flattened out,” are the first words of Extralife, the new album by Boston-based quartet Darlingside. While the band’s critically acclaimed 2015 release Birds Say was steeped in nostalgia and the conviction of youth, Extralife grapples with dystopian realities and uncertain futures. Whether ambling down a sidewalk during the apocalypse or getting stuck in a video game for eternity, the band asks, sometimes cynically, sometimes playfully: what comes next? Their erstwhile innocence is now bloodshot for the better.
Hope arrives in the form of Darlingside’s signature superpower harmonies, drawing frequent comparisons to late-60’s era groups like Crosby, Stills & Nash; Simon & Garfunkel; and The Byrds. And yet, their penchant for science fiction and speculative futurism counteracts any urge to pigeonhole their aesthetic as “retro”. The four close friends construct every piece of their music collaboratively, pooling musical and lyrical ideas so that each song bears the imprint of four different writing voices. NPR Music dubs the result”exquisitely-arranged, literary-minded, baroque folk-pop”, and calls Extralife “perfectly crafted”.
Darlingside perform all of their music around a single vocal microphone, inviting audiences into a lush, intimate world where four voices are truly one. Their 2016 performance at the Cambridge Folk Festival “earned an ecstatic reception and turned them into instant stars”, according to The Daily Telegraph. The band tours regularly throughout the United States, Canada, the UK, and Europe.
TICKETS: $30-$45
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Saturday, March 28, 7:30 PM: Session Americana
“It’s right there in the name for this ultra-gifted, rotating collective of singers and multi-instrumentalists. And sprawl is a good word when it comes to the Boston-based group’s raucous live shows, which were initially built around the community concept of traditional Irish seisiúns. The group, whose members have played with a variety of acts including Patty Griffin, Josh Ritter and the J. Geils Band, expertly blends vintage American roots music styles — from country to jazz to rock — in a rowdy but deft fashion.” – Rolling Stone
Session Americana (Boston) is a rock band in a teacup, or possibly a folk band in a whiskey bottle. This band/collective of talented musicians crafts a musical experience unlike any other. On stage is a collapsible bar table wired with microphones, a vintage suitcase recast as a kick drum, an old Estey field organ, a pre-war parlor guitar, a mandocello and all of its smaller siblings, a harmonica case fire damaged when Jack’s bar went up in flames and graffitied by Depeche Mode roadies, and an assortment of other instruments that get passed around in this freewheeling modern hootenanny. The anything-could-happen feel of a Session show depends on craft that’s not accidental or easily won; they bring a kind of ease and genuineness to this timeless music, sometimes presenting the latest batch of original songs, sometimes reaching back into depths of the American “song bag”.
Tickets: Front row-$30 in advance, $35 at the door; General admission– $25 in advance, $30 at the door.
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Saturday, April 25, 7:30 PM: The Restless Age
The Restless Age is a collaboration – a harmony of Will Bryant, Lee Falco and Brandon Morrison. Each player brings a unique song and voice to the bandstand, as the trio spans generations and genres.
The members of The Restless Age have been a premier rhythm section throughout New York’s Hudson Valley for the past half-decade. As the house band for Amy Helm’s ‘Oh to be Home Again’ at Levon Helm Studios, they performed behind Donald Fagen, John Sebastian and Graham Nash, as well as being Kate Pierson’s (The B-52’s) touring band in support of her 2015 debut album ‘Guitars & Microphones’. During that same year they toured the U.S. & Canada supporting the The Waterboys and The Gipsy Kings along with fellow Hudson Valley singer-songwriter Connor Kennedy.
Lee Falco, Brandon Morrison and Will Bryant rose to national attention backing Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, as “The Nightflyers” on his 2017 national tour.
Now, with their harmonious indie rock, The Restless Age steps out as a unit of songwriters, singers, and instrumentalists.
