 Starting March 1 all ticket sales will be handled by our new box office service, Brown Paper Tickets.
Tickets will be available online, or through a 24/7 call-in box office. |
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 This quartet takes a breezy, fun-loving approach to a wide-ranging repertoire of folk, blues, bluegrass, gospel, and early jazz.
The torchy vocals of Annie Rosen take center stage, with three and four part harmonies provided by husband Jonny Rosen (guitar), Steve Fry (mandolin, guitar & trumpet), and Betsy Fry (electric bass).
It's their laid back joie-de-vivre and stellar musicianship that makes an evening with The Hedonists such a delight for all.
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  Internationally renowned classical guitarist José Luis Merlin will grace the Caffè Lena stage for an afternoon of guitar music rooted in the folk rhythms of his native Argentina.
Merlin has toured the world many times over, astounding audiences with renditions of classical pieces by composers such as Scarlatti and Bach, and mesmerizing with a poetic blending of the sounds of Europe and his native Argentina.
Joining Merlin will be Albany's own Spiral Tango, a duo featuring William Simcoe on classical guitar and Elizabeth Williams on flute.
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 Rich Bala, Tom White and Rick Hill are bearded, bespectacled, balding and barefoot, but they sure know how to make musical mayhem!
At this special show they'll be debuting their brand-new CD, Sweetwater Passage. It features a wonderful collection of songs about the Hudson River, Erie Canal and steamboats.
The Boys really get their feet wet with this one! Music lovers and history buffs of all ages relish their rollicking guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, concertina, bass, dulcimers, hearty singing and madcap humor.
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| Wednesday, March 5 • 7 PM |
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Poetry Open Mic |
| $3 |
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With Featured Reader Jan Marin Tramontano |
Jan Marin Tramontano's poems and stories have appeared most recently in: Poets Canvas, Chronogram, American Intercultural Magazine, New Verse News, Mom's Literary Magazine, and Surviving Ophelia.
She has written a poetry chapbook, Floating Islands, as well as her father's memoir, I am a Fortunate Man, and she is a contributor to the Times Union's Book Section.
Sign up for open mic starts at 6:30. Poets may read one long poem or two short poems.
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 João Luiz and Douglas Lora of São Paulo, Brazil offer an extensive repertoire of classical guitar duets, combined with the traditional music of their native land, such as samba, maxixe, and choro.
Their sublime mastery of Brazil's intricate rhythms has won them top
prize at international competitions in South America and Europe.
To see this performance in the intimate environs of Caffè Lena is a remarkable experience for classical guitar fans, as the Brasil Guitar Duo has been featured in recent years at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Space.
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 Bridging the gap between the Three Tenors and the Three Stooges...it's Modern Man! A cross between Crosby, Stills & Nash and the Marx Brothers, David Buskin, Rob Carlson and George Wurzbach are three celebrated singers and songwriters who have written for Judy Collins, Pat Benatar, Johnny Cash, etc, and they are "terrific instrumentalists with gorgeous voices and hilarious wits."
Together they are delighting audiences as they interweave themes ranging from God to Godzilla, from manliness to cluelessness, from ESPN to the FBI, with a vocal blend that has not been heard since Ella and F. Scott Fitzgerald went their separate ways.
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| Sunday, March 9 • 7 PM |
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Luminescent Orchestrii |
$14/12 |
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| www.lumii.org |
 "The band stomps the stage, thumps their strings, and saws into their instruments. These are believers."
-Nonsense NYC (NYC, NY)
This hot New York City quartet eats up and spits out Romanian gypsy melodies, punk frenzy, salty tangos, hard-rocking klezmer, haunting Balkan harmony, hip-hop beats and Appalachian fiddle tunes.
Playing a couple violins, resophonic guitar, bullhorn harmonica and bass, the diverse members are Sxip Shirey, an international circus composer, Sarah Alden, an old-time fiddle player, Rima Fand, an experimental theater composer, and Benjy Fox-Rosen, a free-jazz bassist.
Every piece they perform smacks of tradition and adventure--a delightful blend for folk fans seeking something new.
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 From her birthplace on a Vermont sheep farm to Beirut cafés, Cairo apartments and Austin recording studios, Anaïs Mitchell has been around. Her listeners hear the Virginia countryside, bathe in New Mexico moonlight and hear the world whizzing by from inside a hobo's train car.
This remarkable young artist, who set out to do no more than indulge her love of language and truth, was catapulted into the national folk spotlight after capturing the prestigious Kerrville New Folk Award and being signed to Righteous Babe Records. She recently completed a tour with Ani DiFranco.
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 Winners of Metroland's Best Acoustic Trio, 2007
“Just as precious antiques should be preserved and displayed, the melodic gems of the folk tradition need to be handed down and performed. Fiddler-banjoist George Wilson, fiddler-mandolinist Frank Orsini, and guitarist/pianist Peter Davis are the consummate curators of a marvelous musical museum bursting with Celtic fiddle tunes, old French Canadian songs, and Appalachian string-band music. In the realm of acoustic trad, the Whippersnappers rule.”
-Metroland
The Whippersnappers have been making music together for more than three decades. They offer stately Old-world tunes, rousing mountain music and bluegrass, and plenty of sprightly Celtic jigs and reels to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. |
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 Singer-songwriter Antje Duvekot pens "provocative, dark-eyed ballads [that] are becoming the talk of the folk world." (The Boston Globe) Her deep, quiet songs get under your skin with fresh poetry and an outsider's gifted insight.
Antje has won the new song competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival and the John Lennon Songwriting Award. This show has been rescheduled from December, when snow forced a cancellation.
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 Called "a cross between the Dixie Chicks and 'O Brother, Where Art Thou'' this hot NYC trio blends their voices on irresistible songs by Gillian Welch, Iris DeMent and Hank Williams, adding in bluegrass standards, old-time southern gospel, and classic American tunes.
 You simply can't hear them without falling in love.
Special guest Anthony DaCosta is being called "the future of folk music." He is the youngest ever winner of the Kerrville New Folk competition and was voted "Most Wanted to Return" in last summer's Falcon Ridge Folk Festival New Performer Showcase.
Buy tickets now for Red Molly's return visit on
Friday, September 19 |
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| Saturday, March 22 • 8 PM |
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3rd Annual Blues Fest |
| $15/14-Performance |
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And Workshops |
| More Information... |
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Mark Tolstrup |
For the third year running Caffè Lena sets aside a full day to celebrate one of its most popular styles of music, acoustic blues. In a room that has hosted some of the genre's best known players, including Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Honeyboy Edwards, Dave Van Ronk and John Hammond, blues fans will get a chance to participate in workshops and hear new and old blues songs in a 'round-robin' style concert.
The festival's featured performers are:
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Thomasina Winslow |
Mark Tolstrup - Mark specializes in bottleneck Delta blues and sings both classics and new blues songs with a powerful, soulful voice. He has sold out many concerts at Caffè Lena and now tours regularly along the east coast.
Thomasina Winslow - Thomasina spent her childhood performing and touring with her father, renowned bluesman Tom Winslow. Now a mature talent in her own right, Thomasina blends classics with her own deep originals.
Beaucoup Blue - This Philadelphia father-and-son duo offer arrestingly soulful songs based in blues tradition. They play a handsome range of instruments and blend voices like only family members can.
Workshops
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| Beaucoup Blue |
1 to 5 PM
More Information...
$25 each, or $60 for all three
1 to 2 PM
Thomasina Winslow’s Workshop:
Right-Hand Technique for Fingerstyle Blues
More Information...
2:30 to 3:30 PM
Beaucoup Blue’s Workshop:
“Slide guitar techniques for Ensemble Playing”
More Information...
4 to 5 PM
Mark Tolstrup’s Workshop:
“78 RPM Blues Records”
More Information...
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 John Jorgenson is known as one of the pioneers of the American gypsy jazz movement. Whether playing his own accessible compositions or classic standards, John and his band make music that is equally romantic and ecstatic, played with virtuosity and soul.
Originally a rock guitarist, John absorbed other styles as quickly as he discovered them. His broad musical palette has enabled him to play with artists as diverse as Elton John, Luciano Pavarotti, Bonnie Raitt, and Benny Goodman.
He has appeared on numerous platinum-selling and Grammy-winning CDs. Although renowned in the pop, country and rock world, gypsy jazz is the style of music closest to his heart. He has twice been asked to recreate Django Reinhardt's music for feature films.
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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 are highly entertaining cabaret-rockers. The five-piece band based in Bethlehem, PA offers brilliant, sardonic vocals 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. Their brand-new album is entitled Mary Ann's Dead Husband Was My Stella Novagratz.
In addition to some surprising cover material, the album offers typical Zen themes such as drinking, smoking, living, dying, perfection, sheep-herding, indecision, insanity and Italian food.
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 Beloved Vermont humorist and storyteller Tom Weakley takes the Caffè Lena stage one last time. After this evening he will retire from a storytelling career that has spanned three decades, crossed continents and earned him numerous awards.
Tom's folksy, poignant and often riotous stories celebrate the wit, wisdom, history and foibles of his family and Vermont neighbors. Rather than walk off with a gold watch, Tom has turned his retirement party into a benefit for The Foundation for International Community Assistance, a non-profit organization sometimes referred to as the "World Bank for the Poor."
Your ticket purchase will help FINCA offer microloans to 3rd world entrepreneurs, mostly women, creating new businesses and alleviating poverty.
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