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All ticket sales are handled by our box office service, Brown Paper Tickets.
Tickets are available online, or through a 24/7 call-in box office.
See our Ticket Info page. |
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 The six members of Adirondack TrueGrass have been playing music together for over 30 years. Held together by a common faith and love for bluegrass, TrueGrass is a multi-generation gospel group with an extensive repertoire of new and traditional hymns, instrumentals, and original folk songs written by members Martin Macica and David Ashdown.
Their influences include Blue Highway, Ricky Skaggs, and Tony Rice.
The band features Martin Macica on mandolin, David Ashdown on guitar and dobro, his mother Bonnie Ashdown on fiddle, father Wayne on guitar, Calvin Waldron brings up the low end on upright bass, and newest member Frank Dymond adds banjo. All members sing in carefully orchestrated six part bluegrass harmonies.
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 This husband and wife duo features one of the folk world's most highly regarded writers, Steve Gillette. His songs, including "Darcy Farrow," "Happy Hour" and "Back on the Street Again," have been recorded by the likes of Tammy Wynette, Ian & Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot and Garth Brooks.
Cindy plays dulcimer, guitar, banjo and concertina and sings with a smooth, silky voice utterly lacking in affectation.
In concert, these long-time Caffè Lena favorites cover a variety of country and folk styles, blending world-class professionalism with down-home, informal charm. This is a great choice for fans of A Prairie Home Companion.
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 This quartet of sisters has become a favorite at Caffè Lena's open mic. Their soft rock sound features four seamlessly blended voices, self-accompanied by two keyboards and two acoustic guitars. Their music is sweet and uplifting--a mix of little known pop songs and new original songs.
Over the past few years, they've appeared at local churches, nursing homes, schools, restaurants, community centers, and taken part in many benefit concerts for various area causes.
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| Wednesday, Jan. 7 • 7 PM |
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Poetry Open Mic |
| $3 |
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With Featured Reader Mary Cuffe Perez |
Mary Cuffe Perez is a writer and amateur naturalist living in Galway, New York. She has a poetry book, The Woman of Too Many Days, published with Calyx Press and most recently, a children's novel, Skylar (Philomel Books 2008). Her short fiction has appeared in New England Quarterly, Groundswell, 13th Moon and Salvage magazines. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary magazines over the years, including the Washout Review, Blueline, Bitterroot, Yankee Magazine and the Seattle Review.
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 “The distinguishing feature throughout is the couple's caressing harmonies, which carry on the legacy of Johnny and June, Gram and Emmylou.” —Maverick
This duo mixes country rock and down-home, back-porch ballads to create a sound that's something like the Carter Family meets Crazy Horse. The musical richness, spine-tingling harmonies and psychological depth of their music is irrefutable proof that the Guthrie family tradition is alive and well.
".the pair click together like an old belt buckle." - Independent On Sunday |
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 “Sounds like Kronos Quartet meets Led Zeppelin and Gene Pitney in a Munich beer hall where Marlene Dietrich is the barmaid.” —Tower/Pulse Magazine
Zen for Primates is a highly entertaining, strange and beautiful cabaret ensemble from Bethlehem, PA. The five-piece band offers brilliant, sardonic vocals by T. Roth ("T. Roth is a deliciously original weapon!" - Rolling Stone) backed by a wild amalgam of pop, classical, world, rock, blues and jazz music, for a sound that has left critics baffled yet raving for years.
Instrumentally, they are two violins, cello, saxophone and electric guitar. In addition to some surprising cover material, their usual themes include drinking, smoking, living, dying, perfection, sheepherding, indecision, insanity and Italian food.
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 Known in these part as "Banjo Dan," Dan Hubbs plays two-finger banjo and guitar, sings in an easy-going baritone, and writes songs that sound like they might have been favorites a hundred years ago on front porches and living rooms across rural America.
Fiddler and mandolinist Frank Orsini is one of the Northeast's acknowledged masters, in constant demand as a sideman for bluegrass, folk and traditional ethnic bands.
Together they offer not only the highest quality musical performance, but as scholars of traditional music and American history, you end up learning something along with your entertainment.
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| Wednesday, Jan. 14 • 7 PM |
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Storytelling Open Mic |
| $3 |
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 “Dazzling musicianship and mind-blowing shows . . . overwhelmingly entertaining.”
—Mark Schaeffer
This envigorating and completely unique New York City trio brings back to life old timey American music, vaudevillian ragtime blues, early swing, jugband and old time country with all the eccentricity and loose brilliance that has given the genre it's appeal down through the decades.
Performing on washboard, harmonica, kazoo, guitar, and upright bass, the WIYOS transport listeners back to a time before TV and mass-media were the main sources of entertainment. Great fun for all ages! |
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 Danny Kalb's concerts are a feast for the ears, with legendary guitar stylings that leap from the incendiary to the deeply poignant on a wealth of new and familiar folk and blues songs. His rough singing is the sound of a long, rich life in music, full of pathos, gratitude, and respect.
Kalb established himself on New York's folk and blues scene in the '60s, where he was first known as a solo performer and session player with Phil Ochs, Judy Collins and Pete Seeger, and in 1965 founded Verve/Folkways recording group, The Blues Project.
Tonight his story continues to unfold as he unveils his brand new and long-awaited Sojourn Records album, "I'm Gonna Live the Life I Sing About."
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Now celebrating its 105th season, the Monday Musical Club of Albany offers opportunities for classical musicians to learn from one another, play for the public, and promote the appreciation of classical music. Every winter their artist members gather at Caffe Lena for a lovely and relaxed afternoon that's perfect for adult listeners and aspiring young students alike.
This year¹s concert will feature guitarists William Simcoe and Eugenio Reis, along with guest flutist Elisabeth Williams, playing music from Mexico, Spain, Argentina and Brazil including works by Manuel Ponce, Isaac Albeniz, Astor Piazzolla, Antonio Carlos Jobim and more.
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 St. James Gate is a familiar purveyor of Irish music at pubs around the Capital District. The core members are Bill Connelly on guitar, Rick Russo on bass, Cassidy Buckley on fiddle, and Robert Daly on bodhran and djembe. They're coming to us fresh from Saratoga's First Night celebration where they entertained hundreds with their blend of original ballads and traditional Celtic classics.
Being essentially sociable fellows they're likely to show up with friends to pitch in with singing and playing.
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 This powerful yet gentle father-and-son duo gets their audience lost in revererie with arrestingly soulful blues-based music. Their original songs blend folk, R&B, jazz, country, and bluegrass together in songs that might be classics, or might just sound like it.
David and Adrian Mowry of Philadelphia play a handsome range of instruments including six and twelve string guitars, slide guitar, Dobro, harmonica, and sing in two voices that blend together like only family members can. Subtle mouth percussion and taps on the guitar create a mesmerizing groove that makes Beaucoup Blues' songs stand way out in the crowded field of acoustic blues.
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 Bill Staines' insightful, inspirational songs and funny stories have become a family tradition for many, passing from parent to child and on down the line. They've also become a tradition in the music world, having been recorded by Nanci Griffith, Jerry Jeff Walker, Grandpa Jones, and others.
Now past his fortieth anniversary of playing the Caffè Lena stage twice a year, Bill Staines' brand of entertainment continues to be a delightful discovery for new fans every time he comes.
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 This former Philadelphia jazz singer turned Boston songwriting sensation has a riotous sense of humor, unfailing connection to his audience, and deeply sensitive songwriting style. His strength lies in his ability to combine all three in a one-of-a-kind show. He "does not duck hard truths and never succumbs to the temptation to tie up his points in neat platitudes or truisms." (Boston Globe)
Tonight Vance will debut tunes from his brand new album, Up On Rockfield, the seventh in a series of albums that has been praised by critics and fans coast to coast.
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 Long known as the mastermind behind the legendary British blues-rock band Savoy Brown, Kim Simmonds is acknowledged as one of England's finest bluesmen. Many of his recordings throughout the '60s and '70s landed in Billboard's top 100 making his group one of the few blues bands to penetrate the pop charts.
Forty years later Simmonds continues to grow artistically and have a ball doing it. On his new CD, Struck By Lightning, he regales with a glorious combination of acoustic blues, jazz and folk.
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 Vermont-based guitarist Scott Ainslie takes a uniquely soulful and scholarly approach to the blues, both speaking and playing with compelling passion and authority.
For the better part of two decades he has immersed himself in the music of Robert Johnson, recording three solo CDs and writing the bestselling Robert Johnson/At the Crossroads, transcriptions of the blues legend's recordings. For this work he was granted a Living Heritage Award at the National Slide Guitar Festival.
But where Ainslie really separates from the pack is in his original songwriting. As heard on his latest CD, Thunder's Mouth, Ainslie is a compelling songwriter whose work addresses themes of social justice, love and redemption with lyrics and melody that are both sensitive and commanding.
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