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| Rick Rourke, 2009 |
Kerri Powers, 2009 |
Abi Tapia, 2009 |
Melanie, 2005 |
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PDF Downloads:
Full Calendar
(3 MB) Jun-Aug
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Fridge Calendar
(138 KB) Jun-Aug |
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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Calendar
September 2009
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Members receive 20% discount on most shows. Tickets sold at door cost additional $2.
Doors open 30 min. before showtime. Please, no earlybirds! |
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| Wednesday, Sep. 2 • 7 PM |
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Poetry Open Mic |
| $3 at door |
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With featured reader Georganna Millman |
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Georganna Millman lives in the Catskill Mountains and recently graduated from Skidmore College. Her poetry has appeared in national and regional publications. Her chapbook Formulary won the Astounding Beauty Ruffian Press 2008 Poetry Award.
Her poem "Hearing Voices" took 2nd place honors in the Ruth Stone 2009 Prize in Poetry and will be published in Hunger Mountain Literary Journal.
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| Friday, Sep. 4 • 8 PM |
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George Ward |
$15 advance / $17 door
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With opener Lawson |
| www.mulesong.com |
 With his songs new and old of the Erie Canal, the Adirondacks, and the human wit & heart, George Ward is a regional folklorist and songwriter who has been honored as "our living legend." (PSG Lena Spencer Award).
On this holiday weekend, which also happens to mark his birthday, George entertains with concertina, guitar, mandolin and accordion, passing on the older tradition and its stories even as he extends it with his own songs and tales.
This is a good choice for all ages and for those who enjoy the simple pleasures of an old-fashioned sing-along.
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| Seth Glier |
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Pesky J. Nixon |
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| We’re About 9 |
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It's a three-way win with this trio of 20-something folksters. Come hear what the future of folk sounds like with Seth Glier, a keyboard player and passionate songwriter who has been called "a star in the making" with an "intoxicating groove;" Pesky J. Nixon, a soulful, harmonizing duo from Boston playing guitar and accordion; and We're About 9, a Maryland trio returning to the Caffè Lena stage with their witty banter, soaring harmonies, and whimsical songwriting.
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| Sunday, Sep. 6 • 8 PM |
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Mike Gent and Pete Donnelly of The Figgs |
$14/12
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| www.thefiggs.net |
 Formed in Saratoga Springs in 1987, the ever-popular power-pop savants the Figgs are known coast to coast for memorable live shows, a steady stream of albums, singles, and EP's, and for backing the likes of Graham Parker and Tommy Stinson.
Their most recent album, Follow Jean Through the Sea, is full of bright invention and ultra-tight playing that takes the basic power pop formula and makes it sound fresh, raw, and exciting again.
Tonight the band¹s frontmen, Pete Donnelly and Mike Gent, will be performing as a duo on guitar and bass. |
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| Wednesday, Sep. 9 • 7 PM |
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Emerging Artist Breakout Series |
| $5 |
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Mary Leigh Roohan |
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 Rolling Stone Magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of the New Folk Movement." For more than two decades, John Gorka's keen ear has picked up the stories of those along his path, folding them into poetry and song.  His keen perception and trademark wordplay combine with an emotive baritone to create a listening experience that produces "goose bumps all over." (New York Times) He's smart, fun, unaffected, and just plain excellent at his job.
Red House recording artist Meg Hutchinson has been called "a master of introspective ballads" (Performing Songwriter) who pens "elegant and free-floating melodies that feel both modern and rooted" (The Boston Globe). |
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 Fronted by the reigning statesman of bluegrass mandolin, the Frank Wakefield Band features fine bluegrass harmonies and hot, innovative picking. Frank is famed for his zany humor, his brilliant teaching techniques, and above all for his lasting contribution to the development of bluegrass music.
He is widely considered to be the bridge between the traditional style of Bill Monroe and the wide-open spaces being explored by today's young "Newgrass" pickers, including Frank's students David Grisman and Ronnie McCoury.
Since Frank first burst on to the scene with his song "New Camptown Races" in 1953, he has gone on to record and perform with Ralph Stanley, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and all the greats of the bluegrass world.
This evening Frank will perform with Dave Shaw on banjo and fiddle, Robert Fraker on guitar and fiddle, and Lillian Fraker on bass. All members of the band chime in on harmony vocals. |
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| Sunday, Sep. 13 • 3 PM |
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Yosl Kurland Sorry, Cancelled! |
$12 advance / $14 door
½ price kids
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"Songs and Stories for the Jewish Holidays" |
| www2.crocker.com |
 Yosl Kurland is well known in Yiddish circles and at Caffè Lena as the lead singer and fiddler with the Wholesale Klezmer Band. In this rare solo appearance, Yosl will use fiddle, voice and guitar to perform some Wholesale favorites along with pieces meant for solo performance: liturgical music for the High Holy Days, Shabbos and Festivals; Yiddish Art Songs; and Yiddish stories, Vaudeville comedy and poetry.
Whether you're Jewish or not, you'll be delighted by the Yiddishe tam, the flavor of old-fashioned Ashkenazic culture which Yosl delights in sharing at festivals, schools, and concert stages large and small throughout North America.
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 For more than twenty years Old Blind Dogs has brought life and spirit to the music of Scotland. Fusing Scottish tradition with Afro-Caribbean rhythms, they have twice won Folk Band of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards-the only band ever to win more than once.
Dynamic percussion, polished vocals, soaring fiddle and stirring bagpipes fuel the delicately phrased melodies and traditional songs.
 The ever-popular Jonny Hardie fronts the band, backed by Aaron Jones (bouzouki, guitar, vocals), Ali Hutton (pipes, whistles, vocals), and Fraser Stone (drums, percussion).
Boston quartet Long Time Courting will provide a delightful start to the evening with their heavenly three-part harmonies and zesty Irish jigs and reels.
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| Wednesday, Sep. 16 • 7 PM |
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Emerging Artist Breakout Series |
| $5 |
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Lisa Piccirillo |
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 “Specker is the Mick Jagger of the Appalachian fiddle.”
We got a tip that this family trio was a standout at last year's Grassroots Festival in Trumansburg, NY. We checked them out and sure enough-they are Red Hot! Father John Specker is a revelation to those not familiar with the old-time style, playing dark, driving, traditional fiddle songs.
On stage he stomps, whispers and grins like the wild-eyed fiddle-man from the mountains of Vermont that he is. Joining him are his two singing, fiddling, beautiful daughters, Ida Mae and Lila, who have both inherited their father's passion and true heart. |
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 CD RELEASE CONCERT
“Red Hen = organic acoustic stringband music with fun, substance and harmonic convergence!”
—Grammy Winner Cathy Fink
Old Time band Red Hen comes to Caffe Lena to celebrate the release of their new acclaimed CD, CROSSING, out on the band's label Red Hen Records.
Red Hen is a “new” Old Time Band that dips into a blended palette of Appalachian old time, folk and  bluegrass, with a few Celtic roots showing. Their repertoire is traditionally based, mixed with award winning new tunes and songs written by band members Jane Rothfield and Allan Carr.
Boasting four distinctive lead voices with great harmonies and instrumental excellence, Red Hen is acoustic Americana music at its best! Red Hen features veteran musicians Jane Rothfield (fiddle, banjo and vocals), Linda Schrade (guitar and vocals), Allan Carr (double bass, guitar and vocals) and David Kiphuth (banjo, dobjo and vocals) with hot tunes and great singing!
Opener Matt Brown is a superbly skillful young traditionalist with an innovative approach to old-time fiddle and banjo. He learned his material from Lomax recordings, older musicians, and commercial recordings from the '20s and '30s. |
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 Peter Mulvey distills funk, folk, rock and now old jazz and swing into songs that are lyrical, ethereal, and thoroughly contemporary. With a novel guitar style utilizing unique, bass-heavy tunings, a husky voice, and a superb sense of lyricism, Peter stands out among contemporary folk songwriters.
 He is famed for his intrepid approach to the musical life. Peter spent years busking in the Boston subways and on the streets of Dublin. On this tour he'll be rolling into town on his recumbent bicycle. This is his most ambitious bike tour to date, taking him all the way from Michigan to Boston with his guitar strapped on board. He is promoting his upcoming Signature Sounds album, Letters from a Flying Machine.
Opener Brianna Lane hails from Minneapolis and has received high marks for her classic, new-folk voice and talent for turning good stories into good songs. And she's riding her bike right alongside Peter!
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| Wednesday, Sep. 23 • 7 PM |
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Emerging Artist Breakout Series |
| $5 |
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Steve Candlen / David Maswick |
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| Friday, Sep. 25 • 8 PM |
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Michael Jerling Trio |
$15 advance / $17 at the door
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CD Release |
| michaeljerling.com |
 One of our favorite songwriters, Michael Jerling, has been touring nationally since 1975 but happens to live right here in Saratoga. He is a keen student of the good and ghastly in American life, with a first-rate lyrical sense and appealing sense of melody borrowed from blues, rock, country and R&B.
Tonight Michael will be celebrating the release of his brand new CD recorded live by sought-after sound engineer Scott Petito at Caffè Lena this past summer. Michael will be joined by Teresina Huxtable on reed organ and accordion, and Tony Markellis on bass.
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 In an ideal world, country radio would sound more like the Doc Marshalls. With influences ranging from Buck Owens and Johnny Cash to innovators such as Gram Parsons and Dwight Yoakum, this New York City-based five-piece delivers an honest, unflinching honky tonk sound and a raucous set of Cajun breakdowns and Zydeco shuffles. Led by Texas-raised Acadian Nick Beaudoing, the Doc Marshalls have quickly forged a reputation for wildly energetic live shows.
 Whether performing Bakersfield-style shuffles or traditional Cajun French two-steps, they are determined to make converts of even the most country-shy souls. The Doc Marshalls are Nick on guitar and accordion, Mat Kane on fiddle, mandolin and washboard, Matt Walsh on guitar, Terence Murren on bass, and Doug Clark on drums.
Albany's own Tern Rounders will kick off the night with a sort set of their harmony and guitar rich Americana originals.
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 Legendary folksinger Rosalie Sorrels, nicknamed the Travelin' Lady, has once again been lured from her log cabin in Idaho for a visit east, this time to work on a documentary film. She's finishing out the month with a concert at Caffè Lena, long one of her favorite stages to play.
This totally hip and ageless chanteuse combines a folksinger's clarity and populist ideals with the worldliness of a hard-living blues singer.
She mixes traditional numbers, contemporary folk standards, wry observations on modern life and short autobiographical tales. She received a Grammy nomination earlier this year for her recent album of Utah Phillips' songs, Strangers In Another Country. |
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| Wednesday, Sep. 30 • 7 PM |
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Emerging Artist Breakout Series |
| $5 |
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T.B.A. |
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Photo:
Rick Rourke
© 2009, Joseph Deuel
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Photo:
Kerri Powers
© 2009, Joseph Deuel
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Photo:
Abi Tapia
© 2009, Joseph Deuel
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Photo:
Melanie
© 2005, Joseph Deuel |
Copyright © 1998-2010, Caffè Lena, Inc.
All Rights Reserved |
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