Matt Brown, 2009 Wholesale Klezmer Band, 2005 Ellis Paul, 2005
Home
Calendar / Buy Tix
Ticket Info
F.A.Q
Directions
Open Mic Night
Emerging Artist
Breakout
Theater
Membership
Mailing List
Contact
Booking information
Caffe Lena History Project
MySpace
Facebook
 



PDF Downloads:

Full Calendar
(2.6 MB) Dec-Feb
Fridge Calendar
(156 KB) Dec-Feb



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.
    Calendar
March 2010
Archived     Dec     Jan     Feb     Mar     Apr     May     Upcoming
 Members receive 20% discount on most shows. Tickets sold at door cost additional $2.
Doors open 30 min. before showtime. Please, no earlybirds!
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday


1 2 3
Poetry Open Mic
4
Open Mic
5
Red Molly


6
Stacy Phillips & Paul Howard

Benefit for SAM Fund
(1 PM)
7
Michael Eck


Benefit for SAM Fund (1 PM)
8
9 10
Emerging Artist
Aaron Civic
11
Open Mic
12
Decade Concert: Mary McCaslin & Garnet Rogers
13
Professor Louie and the Crowmatix

Benefit for Kanatsiohareke
(Noon)
14
Session Americana
15 16 17
Emerging Artist
St. Pat's Day Concert with The Fiddle Group
18
Open Mic
19
Gordon Stone Trio
20
Phil Henry
21
Eilen Jewell Band
22 23 24
Emerging Artist
Dorothy Jane Siver
25
Open Mic
26
Buskin and Batteau
27
Addie & Olin—Unleashed!
28
Chandler Travis Philharmonette

Skidmore Small Jazz (1 PM)
29
30 31
Emerging Artist
Caught By Desire
 



Top
Wednesday, Mar. 3  •  7 PM     Poetry Open Mic
$3   With featured reader Lucyna Prostko
lucynaprostko.com



Lucyna Prostko was born in Poland and graduated from the M.F.A. program at New York University, where she was awarded the New York Times Fellowship. Her poetry has appeared in The Bitter Oleander, Fugue, Washington Square, Painted Bride Quarterly, New York Spirit, Quiddity, Ellipsis, Salamander, Cutthroat and Five Points.
     Bright Hill Press published her first book of poems, Infinite Beginnings in June 2009. She currently teaches at Queensbury High School and is pursuing her Ph.D. in English at SUNY Albany.
Top
Friday, Mar. 5  •  7 & 9:30 PM     Red Molly
$18 advance / $20 at the door
   
www.redmolly.com



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.
     Their latest album, "Love and Other Tragedies," made it to the Americana Music Association's Top 100 albums and was a folk DJ favorite coast to coast. They're soon to follow up with a new album, "James" in 2010.
Top
Sat. and Sun.   March 6 and 7
    Benefit for Southern Adirondack Musicians Fund
1 PM to 4:30 PM
  $15 general admission / $10 for students / Children FREE
 



Dedicated to the memory of beloved banjo and mandolin player Chan Goodnow, The Southern Adirondack Musicians Fund was formed following Chan's sudden death in 2001.
     The purpose of this not-for-profit organization is to raise funds to help local musicians and their families who may fall on hard times due to health issues, accidents, death, and other "acts of god."
     The Southern Adirondack Musicians fund has raised and given away thousands of dollars and seen the good come of it. Still, it is a proverbial drop in the bucket. Please help continue this work and support these local artists who give our region so much through music. To those of you who have already contributed we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

The amazing all-star line-up includes:    
Saturday:     • The BlueBillies (1-1:30)  •  Jim Gaudet and The Railroad Boys (1:35-2:05)  •  Gary Moon, Kate Blain and Phil Henry (2:10-2:40)  •  Addie and Olin—Unleashed! (2:45-3:00)   •  Nancy Walker and Rick Rourke (3:05-3:35)   •  Jessica Kane (3:40-3:50)   •  The Stony Creek Band (4:00-4:30)   •  Orion Kribs
Sunday:    •  John Kribs w/ Dannielle Spindler-Swart, Arlin Greene and Doug Moody (1-1:30)   •  Red Hen (1:35- 2:05)  •  Bob Warren (2:10- 2:40)  •  Wanda Fisher (2:45 -3:00)   •  Kevin Maul (3:05- 3:20)  •  Michael Jerling and Terri Huxtable (3:25- 4:00)   •  John Kirk and Trish Miller ( 4:05- 4:40)
Subject to change....


Top
Saturday, Mar. 6  •  8 PM     Stacy Phillips and Paul Howard
$15 advance / $17 at the door
   
www.stacyphillips.com



“…one of the hotstest pickers around.” —Guitar Player magazine

“…compelling and moving.” —Acoustic Guitar magazine

“Outrageously delightful Dobro playing. Exquisite playing…lightening fast and tonally immaculate.” —Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine


Stacy Phillips is an internationally acclaimed resonator guitarist and violin player. In addition to three solo albums he is featured artist on the Grammy award-winning The Great Dobro Sessions, and has authored twenty-five books and DVD's on various aspects of his chosen instruments.
     His duo with Paul Phillips performs music from around the world, including Latin America, Hawaii, Eastern European, as well as American jazz and traditional styles. Add their original pieces and you have performances that have thrilled audiences across the United States, Canada and Europe.
Top
Sunday, Mar. 7  •  7 PM     Michael Eck
$14 advance / $16 at the door
  CD Release Concert
www.michaeleck.com




Well known to Caffè Lena audiences from appearances with the Ramblin Jug Stompers and Lost Radio Rounders, Albany singer-songwriter Michael Eck tonight offers his first solo Capital Region club date in three years. He calls his thing "maximum solo acoustic" and it's maximum in every way, from his hulking frame and primal-folk bashing to his quiet country-tinged ballads.
     Tonight is a CD Release Concert for In My Shoes.

“There are few songwriters who stare as deeply into the abyss as Eck, and fewer still who can find hope and redemption therein by wrapping their observations around a D chord.” —Paul Rapp, Metroland

“Eck is sometimes wistful, sometimes witty and always nearly novelistic in the vivid imagery of his folk stories. Think Townes Van Zandt. Think Guy Clark. Think James McMurtry.” —John Rodat, The Source

Top
Wednesday, Mar. 10  •  7 PM     Emerging Artist Breakout
$5 at the door   Featuring Aaron Civic
www.myspace.com/aaroncivic



Aaron is well-known to Saratogians for his summer-season busking on Broadway. An avid guitar player, Aaron began performing at the age of ten. Now fifteen, he has developed a body of original work and covers in the classic rock and new wave style.
Top
Friday, Mar. 12  •  8 PM     50th Annivesary Decade Concert: The 1980s
$25
  Featuring Mary McCaslin and Garnet Rogers
www.marymccaslin.com | www.garnetrogers.com



In celebration of our 50th Anniversary, Caffè Lena is presenting a five-part Decade Concert Series. Tonight we mark the 1980s with Mary McCaslin and Garent Rogers.
     Mary McCaslin emerged onto the folk scene in the 1970s with a new ballad style that made her one of the top folk artists of the decade. Working totally outside of the Nashville sphere, singing of prairies and the Old West in almost mythic terms, her own audience was confined to the folk circuit, yet her unique style paved the way for country-folk-pop stars such as Nanci Griffith and Mary-Chapin Carpenter.
     Mary was an honored name on the Caffè Lena roster in both the '70s and '80s, performing frequently with her husband Jim Ringer, and later on her own. Mary handpicked Canadian singer-songwriter Garnet Rogers to partner with her for this special celebration of the 1980s at Caffè Lena.
     After years of working with his brother Stan Rogers, Garnet's first solo album was released in 1984 and was followed by another album every two years into the 1990s. He sings in cinematic detail about people who are not obvious heroes, carrying his audience from song to song with memorable stories and quips.
     With his "smooth, dark baritone" (Washington Post), his incredible range, and thoughtful, dramatic phrasing, Garnet continues to be an audience favorite at Caffè Lena and other great stages across North America.
Top
Saturday, Mar. 13  •   Noon - 4 PM     Benefit Concert for Kanatsiohareke
$15
  Mohawk Community
www.mohawkcommunity.com



Kanatsiohareke (pronounced Ga na jo ha lay gay) is a Mohawk community founded in 1993 by Mohawk elder and spiritual leader Tom Porter (Sakokwenionkwas). It is located on the northern shore of the Mohawk River about one hour west of Albany, NY.
     Many indigenous languages around the world are now on the brink of extinction. Kanatsiohareke has been working since 1998 to revitalize Mohawk language by offering language immersion classes, festivals, workshops, and lectures throughout the year. Kanatsiohareke is a beautiful 400 acre farm where native and non-native people can learn accurate information about the culture, history, traditions and spirituality of the Haudenosaunee.
     Help support this wonderful cultural treasure and enjoy an afternoon of rich Mohawk entertainment and comraderie featuring Roy "Poncho" Hurd, The Akwesasne Women Singers, Jesse Bruchac, Kay Olan, and Tami Mitchell. Tom Porter, Mohawk/Bear Clan Elder, will be doing the traditional Haudenosaunee opening address.
Top
Saturday, Mar. 13  •  8 PM     Professor Louie and the Crowmatix
$20 advance / $22 at the door
   
www.woodstockrecords.com



This Woodstock quintet offers the most impressive credentials, the deepest hearts, and a genuine love of performing live. Enjoy a night of their rompin', stompin' roots rock, sweet ballads, and roadhouse blues led by Professor Louie on keyboards and accordion, joined by Miss Marie on vocals and percussion, Gary Burke (Bob Dylan, Joe Jackson, Graham Parker) on drums, Frank Campbell (Levon Helm, Asleep At The Wheel) on bass, and Josh Colow (Jesse Winchester, Livingston Taylor) on guitar.
Top
Sunday, Mar. 14  •  7 PM     Session Americana
$15 advance / $17 at the door
  With opener Noelie McDonnell
www.sessionamericana.com | www.myspace.com/noeliemcdonnell




This fun-loving, musically superb roots music ensemble from Boston has swept up their hometown's top awards and taken their show on the road.
     Comprised of six guys who play with some of the folk world's top acts (Patty Griffin, Lori McKenna, Treat Her Right), they gather tightly around a small cafe table and throw themselves into a repertoire of classic country music played on an old-time suitcase drum kit, a vintage electric bass, a range of acoustic instruments, and a WWII-era field organ. They draw their audience in with great tunes, theatricality, warmth, joy and camaraderie.
     Singer-songwriter Noelie McDonnell has topped the charts in his native Ireland and toured with Greg Brown, Anais Mitchell and several others on this side of the pond. His folk rock style has immediate appeal.
Top
Wednesday, Mar. 17  •  7 PM     Emerging Artist Breakout
$5 at the door   St. Patrick’s Day Concert with The Fiddle Group
 


Caffè Lena celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with seven young fiddlers from Saratoga Springs High School under the direction of music teacher Jessica LaBello. The students will perform lively Celtic pieces from Cape Breton, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as French Canadian numbers. They will be accompanied by piano and flute.
Top
Friday, Mar. 19  •  8 PM     Gordon Stone Trio
$18 advance / $20 at the door
   
www.gordonstone.info



The music that comes from Gordon Stone's imagination is simply uplifting—a blend of jazz flavored, groove-driven funk, and buoyant bluegrass. Rolling Stone wrote, “The best pedal steel we've heard in a rock context since Jeff Baxter's work with Steely Dan.”
     Gordon has been at the forefront of the jam band scene since the beginning, recording and playing with Phish and Strangefolk and collaborating with Max Creek, moe, and many others. He played as one of the "World's True Masters of Bluegrass" at Gathering of the Vibes, along with Peter Rowan, Vassar Clements and Sam Bush.
     His Vermont-based, world-travelling trio combines Gordon on pedal steel and banjo, backed by mandolin, drums and bass. You'll hear everything from mesmerizing banjo exotica to kick-up-your-boots barn dance numbers, to genre bending audio alchemy, with each new piece sweeter than the last.
Top
Saturday, Mar. 20  •  8 PM     Phil Henry and Friends
$15 advance / $17 at the door
  CD Release
philhenryband.com/wordpress



Phil Henry is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Rutland, Vermont. He sings original, contemporary folk songs in coffeehouses, festivals, and house concerts across the Northeast and has won top honors in songwriting contests at the Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival and Vermont's SolarFest.
     Tonight he is celebrating the release of his third full-length album, Robots and Romance, a collection of twelve "short films" in song, inspired by the dramatic stories found at drive-in movie theaters. Each song takes the perspective of a different character in a compelling personal narrative—a desperate man attempts a bank robbery, an amateur radio DJ holds his community together during Hurricane Katrina, and a group of miners struggle to survive in a cave-in.
     Phil will be accompanied by Gary Moon on vocals and guitar, and Jeff Kimball on mandolin and accordion.
Top
Sunday, Mar. 21  •  7 PM     Eilen Jewell Band
$20 advance / $22 door
   
www.eilenjewell.com



On her 2009 album Sea of Tears Eilen Jewell and her stellar band wed her unflinching songwriting with a rustic, pre-Beatles swagger that encapsulates vintage R&B, Midwestern garage rock, Chicago blues, and early rock and rockabilly, while maintaining the haunting, folk-inspired purity that first made her an artist to watch.
     Raised in Boise and now based in Boston, Eilen has been pegged by national music critics one of the rising stars of a new generation of roots musicians.
Top
Wednesday, Mar. 24  •  7 PM     Emerging Artist Breakout
$5 at the door   Featuring Dorothy Jane Siver
www.dorothyjanesiver.com



Thirteen-year-old Dorothy Jane Siver from Crown Point, NY plays fiddle, guitar, mandolin, upright bass, piano, and sings lead & harmony in her family's hard-driving traditional bluegrass band. Dorothy Jane is accompanied by her mom, Jennifer Siver, on guitar and vocals, her dad, Ron Siver on bass, and mandolinist Jim Bevins.
Top
Friday, Mar. 26  •  8 PM     Buskin and Batteau
$15 advance / $17 at the door
   
www.buskinandbatteau.com



“…Versatile, sophisticated…by turns acerbic, funny and plaintive. Buskin and Batteau are breathing new life into the genre of the folk-pop singer/songwriter.” —The New York Times

“Acoustic heaven” —The Boston Globe

“Post-folkies on cruise control...sexy...magical” —Boston Phoenix

Legendary folk duo Buskin & Batteau began in earnest when Tom Rush invited them to be his backup band. They stayed for a while, then went out on their own, which is when things really began to heat up: albums on Columbia and Epic, reviews in national magazines and newspapers, an appearance at Carnegie Hall, and songs recorded by Judy Collins, Paula Abdul, Aretha Franklin, and other top artists.
     After a thirteen-year hiatus to 1) be dads, and 2) take a nap, Buskin & Batteau are back on the road again. They've released their long-anticipated CD Red Shoes and Golden Hearts, which continues to offer their audiences, in the words of The Washington Post, “an irresistible amalgam of melodic, sensual pop, folkie grit and killer wit.”
Top
Saturday, Mar. 27  •  8 PM     Addie & Olin—Unleashed!
$15 advance / $17 at the door
   
 


Olin's funky, folky, fingerpicking guitar and mandolin pairs up with Addie's pipin' hot piccolo, 'cool school' sax and flute, crazy concertina and accordion for an unforgettable night of swinging whoopee jazz, soulful klezmer and hipster originals that are unleashed, unbridled, uncut & unglued!
     Highlighted by madcap visual performances and vaudevillian humor, this one of kind duo offers 'Bodacious good humor, free-flying technical facility and drawling witticisms that are supremely excellent.'
Top
Sunday, Mar. 28  •  1 PM     Skidmore Small Jazz Ensembles
$5 at the door
   
www.skidmore.edu/academics/music/curriculum/skidjazz.htm



Come enjoy an afternoon of diverse jazz styles and inspiring talent as the music students of Skidmore College take the stage with their guitars, brass, reeds, keyboards, drums and vocals. They never fail to put on truly engaging show of jazz standards and contemporary compositions. This is a great one to bring your aspiring young music student to!
Top
Sunday, Mar. 28  •  7 PM     Chandler Travis Philharmonette
$16 advance / $18 at the door
   
www.chandlertravis.com



“Dixieland, pop, avant-jazz, rock...and fully over the top.” —Boston Globe

“This man should either be locked up or made king of the planet. Despite the apparent anarchy, the band (playing their "psycho-jungle-dixieland") is incredibly tight.” —Jason Dean Moriarty

Boston's Chandler Travis Philharmonette is the slightly pared down version of his famed 9-piece Philharmonic. The band shares certain personnel and many fans with NRBQ. Chandler is also known as George Carlin's opening act, a post he filled for ten years.
     His blazing, zany, Dixieland Philharmonic has accrued a die-hard underground following, with three official albums on the market and another twenty un-official. They have opened shows for Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen and Bonnie Raitt. Seeing Chandler's debut on the Caffè Lena stage is an experience not to be missed!
Top




Archived     Dec     Jan     Feb     Mar     Apr     May     Upcoming



       
Photo:
Matt Brown
© 2009, Joseph Deuel
Photo:
Wholesale Klazmer Band
© 2005, Joseph Deuel
Photo:
Ellis Paul
© 2005, Joseph Deuel



Copyright © 1998-2010, Caffè Lena, Inc.
All Rights Reserved