Newsletters
April 10 – 16
In 2021, the International Bluegrass Music Association awarded top prize for an emerging bluegrass band to Colorado’s Stillhouse Junkies. The band went on to become two-time Telluride Bluegrass band contest finalists. This fast-rising trio plays a delirious, head-spinning mixture of original roots, blues, funk, swing, and bluegrass music and is a perfect fit for our Bright Series!
April 3 – 9
Folk songs tell stories, and if they’re good folk songs, they connect us with the emotional experience of another person. American folk music has a mixed history when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Certainly, folk songs have been central to movements for civil rights and labor organizing and peace. But there are also plenty of folk songs that have reflected the racism or war-mongering of their time and place. It’s a joyful fact that . . . .
March 27 – April 2
Armed with a guitar, deadpan humor, killer songs & a voice that makes tough guys cry, Lucy Wainwright Roche, daughter of Loudon Wainwright and Suzzy Roche, has fans across the USA and Europe. This Saturday she’ll play her first solo show at Caffe Lena. With “wry lyrics and gift of mysteriously beautiful vocals, Lucy leaves fans with no doubt that her music is her own, regardless of her family’s legacy.” – Billboard
March 19 – 26
GRAMMY-nominee Bruce Molsky and Scots harpist and composer Maeve Gilchrist (Silk Road Ensemble) create sheer joy when they play together. Molsky, described as an “absolute master” (No Depression), creates intimacy & warmth on fiddle, banjo and guitar. Grounded in the Irish & Scottish tradition, Maeve’s total command of the harp is entrancing . . .
March 6 – 12
Guy Davis, coming Friday night, is a 2-time GRAMMY nominee for Best Traditional Blues album. Whether he’s playing the six or twelve string guitar, the five-string banjo or harmonica, Davis uses music to confront social injustice, historical events and common life struggles with songs that are timeless, and storytelling that’s earthy, warm and bold.
Feb 27 – March 5
Ecstatic gospel, dusty country blues, thoughtful folk, rip-roaring rock and roll, even avant-garde studio experiments. She melds them together into a powerful statement of survival, revealing a probing songwriter who indulges no comforting platitudes and a highly innovative guitarist who deploys spidery riffs. Sunny War is poised to be a major break-out artist in 2023.
February 20 – 26
Grace Pettis (Thursday) uses her powerful, beautiful voice like a fine artist to color and craft her songs, blurring lines between country, Americana and folk. Her dad is Caffe Lena veteran Pierce Pettis. Her fabulous new album is an activist statement as well as an artistic one. “Her soulful delivery of calculated lyric lines helps her tell stories for all generations.” – American Songwriter Magazine
February 13 – 19
You can’t go wrong with jazz if you’re looking for a cozy evening with someone special. Chuck Lamb’s JAZZ at Caffe Lena series brings the best of NYC to Saratoga every month, and lucky are we that he’s bringing Eric Person to sit in with the band on Valentine’s Day. . . .
Feb 6 – 12
Honeysuckle’s lyrics are haunting, mesmerizing, and their stage banter is deliciously witty. It’s a winning combination that has won them major festival slots and top awards in their hometown of Boston. Their show on Friday is one of a rich array of events that range from a pre-Valentine’s performance of Shakespeare scenes, to a children’s show, to open mics and superb headline concerts . . .
Jan 30 – Feb 5
Singer-songwriter, troubadour and musical alchemist Kris Delmhorst likes to write songs from the inside out. Songs that she doesn’t know the answer to, and sometimes doesn’t even know what the question is yet. Her soulful, thoughtful and richly entertaining music is called “bold and brilliant” by the Boston Globe and “transcendent” by the LA Times. She’s been compared to Anaïs Mitchell, Lucinda Williams, and Juana Molina – though she cites Rickie Lee Jones, in all her fearless joy and complexity, as an artistic north star.