April 12th at First Second Friday Concerts at Coho:
Jay Mankita
Hey everyone, this time I’m talking about myself, because I’m the featured artist on April 12th. Because I help Rob run the series, I don’t feel right taking your money, so it’s a free concert this time, following a potluck. Doors open at 6. Potluck runs from 6:30 to 7:30, then the concert. I hope to see you there. I realize that after 16 years of living in the Valley, there are some of you who don’t know my music – possibly because I hardly ever gig anymore, so here’s a link to a youtube page with a bunch of my songs.
(the playlist for all the songs is on the upper left hand corner of this first video)
I’ll be singing some of my own songs, along with some favorite collected ones. Be prepared to be entertained, and to sing along, too. We’re the cheapest game in town that night, so bring your friends!
My jaymankita.com website is down right now, so if you really want to know more about me, where I’ve played, who I’ve played with, who sings my songs, who says what about me, and what color my dog is, you’re kind of out of luck this time, but if you come to the show, you’ll probably end up knowing more about me than you need to know anyway!
Other than that, there are a bunch of videos of me singing my songs on the youtube playlist. Please check them out!
Also, if you use facebook, please talk to the facebook event here and let it know you are coming if you are, and what food you’re bringing, if you are.
We’re sorry to say that we’ve had to cancel this months concert. But have no fear, we will reschedule. And look forward to our April concert happening on the second Friday, April 12th, featuring our own intrepid songwriter, Jay Mankita.
Cindy Kallet & Grey Larsen
Cindy Kallet and Grey Larsen, each well-known and loved for their decades of music making, have spent well over a decade in a joyful musical collaboration.
Cindy is a superb singer, guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.
Grey is one of America’s finest players of the Irish flute and tin whistle, as well as an accomplished singer and concertina, fiddle, piano and harmonium player. As composers each contributes to the tapestry of contemporary folk and world music as it flourishes in the US today. Together, they weave songs and tunes of vibrant color and rich texture.
Listen and watch here: http://kalletlarsen.com/
And finally, coming up on the 2nd Friday in April: songwriter Jay Mankita – mark it down, I know I will!
Series: First Friday Concerts at Coho
Venue: Great Room at Pioneer Valley Cohousing, 120 Pulpit Hill Road in North Amherst.
Doors open: at 7 PM, Concert starts at 7:30.
Suggested Donation: $10-$20
Refreshments available.
This is a smoke and fragrance-free venue.
Facility is wheelchair accessible
Located in beautiful North Amherst, MA, the series provides a creative forum for talented and visionary musicians to share their gifts and be supported by attendee contributions in a way that values their artistry and encourages their dedication to building a brighter world. Performances take place in the Common House “Great Room”: a space intimate enough to feel like a house concert but large enough to draw in the broader community. The series is a purely volunteer effort, organized by Co-Housing members who enjoy live music and want to share their delight with other music lovers in the Valley.
We hope you’ll join us in the audience, or as a volunteer.
Happy Holidays everyone! Start it out right with a new concert by Claudia Schmidt at Coho!
The new album. “Concinnity” A perfect harmony of the constituent parts of any given thing.
CD Release! Claudia is back with a new CD, “Concinnity”. Claudia opened this series 6 years ago, and we’re glad to have her back again!
More than 4 decades as a touring professional have found Michigan native Claudia Schmidt traversing North America as well as Europe in venues ranging from intimate clubs to 4,000 seat theaters, and festival stages in front of 25,000 rapt listeners. She has recorded nineteen albums of mostly original songs, exploring folk, blues, and jazz idioms featuring her acclaimed 12-string guitar and mountain dulcimer playing.
Claudia Schmidt has been perfecting her craft of performing for almost four decades. It is a quirky and wonderful hodge-podge (her word!) of music, poetry, story, laughter. drama, and celebrating the moment. Work in clubs, theaters, festivals, TV, radio has added depth and dimension, and since she has always included her original work along with very personal versions of the work of others, what you get is a unique look at the world from someone who says what she sees with clarity, humor, and wonder.
The San Francisco Bay Guardian said: Schmidt’s shows are a lot like falling in love. You never know what’s going to happen next, chances are it’s going to be wonderful, every moment is burned into your memory and you know you’ll never be the same again.” More succinctly, Garrison Keillor said “when Claudia sings a song, it stays sung”
Here’s the facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/318076475700593/ – let us know you’re coming!
(with opening act – our own illuminating Kit Johnson and Swing Set!)
Anyone not familiar with the music of Bill Staines is in for a special treat.
For more than forty years, Bill has traveled back and forth across North America, singing his songs and delighting audiences at festivals, folksong societies, colleges, concerts, clubs, and coffeehouses. A New England native, Bill became involved with the Boston-Cambridge folk scene in the early 1960’s and for a time, emceed the Sunday Hootenanny at the legendary Club 47 in Cambridge. Bill quickly became a popular performer in the Boston area. From the time in 1971 when a reviewer from the Boston Phoenix stated that he was “simply Boston’s best performer”, Bill has continually appeared on folk music radio listener polls as one of the top all time favorite folk artists. Now, well into his fifth decade as a folk performer, he has gained an international reputation as a gifted songwriter and performer.
Singing mostly his own songs, he has become one of the most popular and durable singers on the folk music scene today, performing nearly 200 concerts a year and driving over 65,000 miles annually. He weaves a blend of gentle wit and humor into his performances and one reviewer wrote, “He has a sense of timing to match the best standup comic.”
Bill’s music is a slice of Americana, reflecting with the same ease his feelings about the prairie people of the Midwest or the adventurers of the Yukon, the on-the-road truckers, or the everyday workers that make up this land.
Many of Bill’s songs have appeared in grade school music books, church hymnals, and scouting campfire songbooks; he is one of only a few songwriters to have eight songs published in the classic song collection, Rise up Singing. Composer David Amram recently described Bill as “a modern day Stephen Foster…his songs will be around 100 years from now.”
Over the decades, you have heard Bill singing on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, HBO’s award winning series Deadwood, and Public Radio’s Mountain Stage. Additionally, his music has been used in a number of films including Off and Running, with Cyndi Lauper, and The Return of the Secaucus Seven, John Sayles’ debut as a writer- director.
In 1975, Bill won National Yodeling Championship in Kerrville Texas. Another important recognition was given to him in 2007. Presented by the Boston Area Coffeehouse Association, The Jerry Christen Award recognized Bill’s contribution to New England folk music.
Currently, Bill has recorded 26 albums; The Happy Wanderer and One More River were winners of the prestigiousParents’ Choice Award, taking a gold medal and silver medal respectively. His songs have been recorded by many artists including Peter, Paul, and Mary, Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy, The Highwaymen, Mason Williams, Grandpa Jones, Jerry Jeff Walker, Nanci Griffith, Glen Yarborough and others.
As well as recordings, over 100 of Bill’s songs have been published in three songbooks: If I Were a Word, Then I’d Be a Song, Movin’ It Down the Line, and Music to Me, the latter published by Hal Leonard Corporation. His song, All God’s Critters, has been recently released as a Simon and Schuster children’s book with illustrations by Caldecott honor-winning artist, Kadir Nelson.
“Folk music is rich in the human spirit and experience. I’ve always wanted to bring something of value to people through my songs.” With these thoughts, Bill continues to drive the highways and back roads of the country year after year, bringing his music to listeners, young and old.
In the fall of 2015 Yankee Magazine, New England’s premiere magazine, published it’s “80th Anniversary Issue.”In the issue, along with the likes of Stephen King and Katherine Hepburn, Bill was chosen as “One of the 80 gifts New England has given to America.”
A true honor.
What Other People Are Saying About Bill
“Bill Staines has been my hero since 1977. He carries on where Woody left off-carrying on the tradition of stories and characters you wish you knew.” – Nanci Griffith
“Staines is one of the best songwriters in folk music today, penning lyrics that evoke a sense of place and a generous spirit to go along with his pretty melodies. – Associated Press
“Staines is one of folk music’s best songwriters and entertainers.” – Milwaukee Journal
“There is no better writer of instantly memorable singalong choruses in this genre of music!” – The Boston Globe
“His gentle lilting voice, spacious melodies and common-chord lyrics give his songs a homespun grace that often belies his mastery of the folk form. He is such a pure pleasure too, people forget to notice how damn good at the job of singer-songwritering he really is.” – New England Folk Almanac
“Folk singer Bill Staines’ compositions recall the paintings of Grandma Moses – simple, literal and evocative of a bucolic tranquility that modern times have almost erased.” – Hartford Courant
“Bill Staines is one of our very best folk and country singer/songwriters. He’s a New Englander who dreams of open plains and vast, Western skies, and damn his soul, he writes better cowboy songs than anybody in the Southwest. – The Houston Post
“Bill Staines is a prototypical singer/songwriter, long on the anecdote, quick with the quip, not a stranger to his character’s plights and/or escapades. He’s an old hand at selling you the kind of truisms that crop back into your consciousness a few days after his tunes have floated off into the ether.” – The New Paper (Providence)
“One of the most admired and imitated writers on the contemporary folk circuit.. [He writes] pensive, probing narratives made especially memorable by their ability to translate the common details of common lives into songs of uncommon eloquence and beauty.” – The Austin American-Statesman
“He is a poet with Insight about a world that many of us let pass by. He is a storyteller with a gift for transporting the listener into the body of his songs.” – The Record Roundup
“A craftsman who has cobbled together evocative details, pithy aphorisms and singalong melodies into a trunkful of unassuming, marvelous songs.” – The Washington Post
From Jay: Most folks know Freebo was Bonnie Raitt’s bass player back in the day of course, but I’ve been fortunate enough to sit with him at song circles at the Kerrville and Falcon Ridge Folk Festivals, and really admire him as a fine songwriter and guitar player, his music melodic, and full of depth and beauty. A gentleman, and a true professional.
I haven’t met Alice, but I’ve heard her music, and very much look forward to hearing her in person. She’s building a great reputation on the folk circuit.
On another note, Nov 2nd also happens to be my birthday, and if I find the time, I’ll build a Rube Goldberg candle lighting machine for intermission.
Read more about Alice and Freebo below.
Alice Howe
With her soulful, impeccably tuned voice and crafted poetry, Boston singer-songwriter Alice Howe is “at once of the moment and timeless, personal and universal” (Mark Walton, Americana UK). Her pure, distilled sound reflects a musical sensibility rooted in ’60s folk and ’70s Southern California songwriters. Credit is due to Alice’s parents for raising her on a steady diet of Taj Mahal, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Jackson Browne, and Joan Baez. As a performer, she is sure-footed and captivating, familiar to her audience from the very first song.
2017 was the year that Alice began making big waves in the folk world. Her EP You’ve Been Away So Long debuted on the April Folk-DJ charts with a #1 song – “Homeland Blues” – and #11 album. “Homeland Blues” went on to become the #7 song for all of 2017. Alice has been touring consistently in support of the EP, playing at such venerable Northeast venues as Club Passim, Caffe Lena, and Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. All in the last year, she was a Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artist, an Official Showcase Artist at FAR-West, and a Formal Showcase Artist at NERFA.
Alice is currently hard at work on her first full-length album, Visions, produced by legendary bass player turned award-winning singer-songwriter Freebo (Bonnie Raitt 10 years, CSN, Maria Muldaur, Ringo Starr, Dr. John, and many others). The release is expected in late 2018. To stay up to date on the progress of the new album, upcoming shows, and other news, please join Alice’s mailing list or follow her artist page on Facebook or Instagram.
Freebo is more than a beloved musician, he’s an institution. Most famous for the funkified precision and fluid soul of his bass playing for Bonnie Raitt, he’s also a longtime beloved studio cat, a musician’s musician, sought out for his greatness in the studio by everyone from Ringo and Dr. John to CSN, Aaron Neville, Marie Muldaur and the late great Willie DeVille.
But Freebo is more than one of this town’s best players, as those in the know have known for a long time: he’s also a richly gifted and distinctive songwriter. Like other famous musicians most often linked in the public’s mind with artists they’ve supported onstage and on recordsers, his own voice as a singer-songwriter hasn’t received the attention it’s been due. But the guy is a seriously good writer, as expressive in his writing as on a bass. If anyone has written a more poignant song about homelessness than “Where There’s No Place Like Home,” I haven’t heard it yet, but I hope someone tries. Because it’s aiming high, to write a song about a subject so hopeless without being hopelessly maudlin or cliché, so most songwriters don’t even try. Freebo does it with easy grace, as simple and right as the beautifully understated arrangement. [Read More]
Freebo is best recognized for the decade or more that he recorded and toured with Bonnie Raitt. In fact, Freebo is a genuine folk, rock and blues icon. For more than 30 years, Freebo has played bass and tuba on recordings and toured with some of the great artists of our time: Bonnie Raitt, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, Crosby Stills & Nash, Maria Muldaur, Ringo Starr, Michelle Shocked, Neil Young, Loudon Wainwright III, Dr. John, and many others. He has also appeared on Saturday Night Live, Midnight Special, Muppets Tonight, and in concert with the legendary Spinal Tap.
When I first met Freebo back in 1997, he had just released his debut solo album, The End Of The Beginning, and was just learning to step into the spotlight as a headliner after decades as a consummate side- man. That CD featured appearances by many of his talented friends including Bonnie Raitt, Paul Barrere, Catfish Hodge, Albert Lee, Sam Clayton and others. That CD has a variety of styles and showed great promise for Freebo’s future solo career including some clever song writing, good rock and pop sensibilities developed over decades of working with some of the best artists around, and fine production by Freebo and Michael Jochum. [Read More]
Something To Believe is a great album that sounds as if Freebo is not really singing to you; he’s talking to you. One of the best albums of the year. www.jSITop21.com
Freebo’s intimate and go-down-easy personable vocals are at times reminiscent of vintage Cat Stevens. It’s a voice that can tie in light-hearted fare, social commentary and spiritual quest with love-sweet-love, and make it sound seamless. —Janet Goodman, Music News Nashville
Freebo has more than proven his songwriting chops, but outdoes himself here with the potent “When There’s No Place Like Home,” a tale of a veteran who returns stateside, “had my job and I had my pride/but they shipped them both to China,” leaving him homeless, a plaintive Chris Gage accordion subtly bringing home the point. It is the title track, though, co-written with Eric Lowen (of Lowen and Navarro), who suffers from the debilitating disease ALS, that is the emotional center of the album, a vow “And when it’s finally time for me/To leave this life behind/Sooner than I might wish it would be/Will I hear the angels sing/Will it stop my wondering/Will I finally feel like I am free?” It is what everyone hopes for, sweet release. Freebo’s music provides it in timeless fashion, proving those ideals of peace and love still have currency some 50 years later. —Roy Trakin, Hits Magazine
Colleen is a favorite here, and if you haven’t been to one of her concerts here, we encourage you to come check her out. She’s a friend of both Rob and Jay through the Peoples’ Music Network, so she’s going to make wonderful music and hit the issues hard at the same time.
“Ever since childhood Kattau has been imbued with a voice that haunts with its clarity and range”– Syracuse New Times.
“Pitch-perfect vocals, superb sound quality”, Professor Louie (musician and former producer of The Band)
Colleen Kattau is a bilingual vocalist, song-crafter and dynamic performer of Latin-influenced indy eclectic folk. Colleen toured with Holly Near, and performed on Democracy Now and with Pete Seeger who said “she’s a great singer and organizer at the same time”. Colleen performs solo and with her group Dos XX, that performs “gringa-grooves from the heart”. She won the 2016 String-buster songwriting contest at the 2016 Great Labor Arts Exchange, is a selected showcase artist at NERFA, and of course, a long time member of PMN.
She is a musician deeply rooted in her community who performs throughout Central New York and in the Northeast, singing for the Onondaga Nation, the Syracuse Community Choir, and for Renewable energy campaigns in CNY. She often performs in Phil Ochs Night concerts throughout the Northeast.
Colleen will be joined by bandmates, Jane Zell on lead guitar and vocals and virtuoso bassist, Mike “train and catman” Brandt.
Opening act: Swing Set. Cohousing’s own Kit Johnson leads this awesome local vocal jazz group!
From Jay: Marc is one of my songwriting and guitar heroes. I hope you’ll come and be with us for this intimate concert. He really must be heard.
Marc at the Towne Crier
Marc Black plays a finger style blues in the traditions of Mississippi Hurt and the great Tim Hardin. A proud road warrior, he was inducted into the New York Chapter of the Blues Hall of Fame in June of 2014. He’s performed and recorded with Art Garfunkel, Taj Mahal, Richie Havens, Rick Danko and Pete Seeger to name a few. He was recently named Folk Artist of the Year on ABC Radio, and a winner at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Noted for his “timeless songs, deep grooves and excellent playing”, Marc was inducted into the New York Chapter of the Blues Hall of Fame in June of 2014.
Marc, No Frackin’ Way
He’s performed and recorded with many luminaries including Art Garfunkel, Rick Danko, Richie Havens, Taj Mahal and Pete Seeger. He was chosen by Levon Helm to play one of the Midnight Rambles and was recently named Folk Artist of the Year on ABC Radio.
Marc is currently working on a multi-media campaign to help folks who have been gagged by corporate bullying, called Sing for the Silenced. But his song subjects range from his love for the New York Mets, to good coffee and just about everything in between. His fingerstyle blues is reminiscent of Mississippi John Hurt and Lightnin’ Hopkins.
Marc spends most of his time on the road— playing festivals, clubs, arts centers, libraries and house concerts. He was a finalist in the prestigious Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition. Sometime a Spark, his song about Mohamed Bouazizi and the Arab Spring, caused an international stir that led to an interview on Tunisian State Radio.
While still in high school, his band, the Blades of Grass, reached the top forty and performed along side the biggest acts of the day including the Doors, Van Morrison and Neil Diamond. He has since recorded more than a dozen CDs including one ‘pick hit’ in Billboard Magazine and another that was recognized as a ‘minor masterpiece’ by famed music producer John Hammond Sr.
Marc’s song, No Fracking Way – recorded with John Sebastian and Eric Weissberg (of “Dueling Banjos” fame), and some 100 Woodstock, NY citizens — has been sung at rallies as far away as South Africa, Ireland and Australia, and has become a worldwide anthem for the anti-fracking movement.
The First Friday Concert at COHO Series welcomes national recording artists Adler & Hearne Friday, August 10, 7:30 p.m. at Cherry Hill Co-Housing, 120 Pulpit Hill Road, Amherst, MA. This is an “unofficial” add-on to our series, hosted by our good friend and great songwriter, Eric Phelps, who also will be opening the show.
From Texas’ upper east side, award-winning singer-songwriters Lynn Adler and Lindy Hearne connect with audiences coast to coast. Their music is a signature blend of original folk, jazz and blues with deep Texas roots. With 12+ recordings and decades of touring between them, their repertoire is playful, poignant and poetic – including sparky love ballads, historically based tributes, children’s music, quirky story songs, modern-day spirituals, and anthems of justice and peace. Raised by musical families and nurtured by choirs through college, the two met in Nashville, and now pay it forward together in performances from listening-room venues, festivals and community events to churches, libraries and schools.
Lynn co-wrote the theme song for the hit PBS children’s TV series “Wishbone.” Her diverse writing background brings added experience to the duo’s workshops and presentations. Lindy sang in the famed Texas Boys Choir as a child, and for several years he and his band were Roy Clark’s backup group performing with Roy from Las Vegas to Hee-Haw to Carnegie Hall. How to describe Adler & Hearne’s music and vibe? Think ‘song circle’ between Johnny and June Cash, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrud Gilberto, and Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell.
Eric Phelps of River Rhapsody will be opening for Adler & Hearne. Eric is a singer-songwriter who has performed in hundreds of concerts across the US and UK. He will be playing with his 11 year old song, Elijah Rain, a drummer and performer since age three.
Mark your calendars for this one, folks – Sean and Jack do a delightful and compelling “approximation” of the Everly Brothers. This is a first for us here at Coho, and we hope to see you there. Note from Jay: Sean was at my Bar Mitzvah in 1973, but that’s not why he’s a great performer.
The Everly Set stars acclaimed NYC singer-songwriters Sean Altman (Rockapella founder, Carmen Sandeigo theme song composer) & Jack Skuller (winner of the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame’s Holly Prize in songwriting) in a tribute to The Everly Brothers.
You’ll hear the sparkling hits- Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Suzie, Cathy’s Clown, All I Have To Do Is Dream, When Will I Be Loved, Crying In The Rain, Love Hurts, Bird Dog, Claudette, Walk Right Back, and Let it Be Me – as well as rarities and Everly-influenced classics, all sung with the supercharged Everly harmonies that influenced The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, The Hollies, and the Bee Gees.
Wheelchair accessible. Refreshments served. Suggested $10-$20 donation. Doors open at 7.
From Jay: David and Jenny are old friends from the People’s Music Network, and I’ve had the opportunity to hear them sing many times over the years. They are very talented entertainers, sweet and funny, very political, sometimes corny, occasionally snarky, and always fun to be around.
Bio: Two of a Kind is the award-winning duo of David & Jenny Heitler-Klevans. They do both interactive performances for kids and families, and folk/singer-songwriter material for adults. For this First Friday Concert, they will do a “family-friendly” 1st set, followed by a more “grown-up” 2nd set. Two of a Kind’s music for adults is similarly engaging to their family music (they think adults deserve to be engaged too!). They have an eclectic repertoire with subject matter both personal and political, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. They do original material as well as songs by the likes of Greg Brown, Dido, John Prine, Peggy Seeger and Tom Waits. Based in the Philadelphia area, David & Jenny have been performing together for over 30 years. They have released 9 CDs and a DVD for kids – garnering over 20 national awards – and 2 CDs for adults, including their 2018 CD entitled “Lead With Love”.
