Tag Archives: Acoustic Cafe Series

Banjo ‘King and Queen’ Fleck, Washburn return to St. Cecilia folk series stage

Entertainment, Local Entertainment, Upcoming Events,

By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org

They say that folk music is at it best where its played by family about real people. If that is true — and the musical proof of such things is in the listening — than Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn’s late-2018 recording of two songs for a video by renowned dance company Pilobolus may well be the art of folk music at its perfection.

The musical evidence will likely be heard Saturday, Feb. 9, as the husband and wife duo, both accomplished and innovative banjo artists, return to St. Cecilia Music Center’s Royce Auditorium for an Acoustic Café Folk Series concert.

Tickets are still available.

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn. (Supplied/Courtesy of the Artists)

In fall 2017, Fleck and Washburn released their second full-length studio album together, “Echo In The Valley”, an 11-track LP includes the two banjo players playing folk and bluegrass music. In October of last year, the duo released a new single that married two songs from that album, which also is the soundtrack for the Pilobolus music video.
 
 
The new single and video pairs “Come All You Coal Miners” — written by Sarah Ogan Gunning, an Appalachian ballad singer, activist and wife of a coal miner — with Fleck and Washburn’s own “Take Me to Harlan.”


Fleck and Washburn, who have been called “the king and queen of the banjo”, return to St. Cecilia after a sold-out concert midwinter in 2018.

“Béla and Abigail are two of the most delightful and gracious musicians we’ve hosted in concert,” Cathy Holbrook, executive director of St. Cecilia, said in supplied material. “Their warmth and love of music reflects in their amazing show.”

Fleck is a 15-time Grammy Award winner who has taken the instrument across multiple genres, and, according to supplied material, Washburn is a singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo player who re-radicalized it by combining it with Far East culture and sounds. “Echo in the Valley” is the follow up to Fleck and Washburn’s self-titled debut that earned the 2016 Grammy for Best Folk Album.

“The mission of ‘Echo in the Valley’ was to take our double banjo combination of three finger and clawhammer styles to the next level and find things to do together that we had not done before,” Fleck said in supplied material. “We’re expressing different emotions through past techniques and going to deeper places.”

Acoustic Café Folk Series remaining concerts

The Acoustic Café Series, in partnership with the syndicated radio show of the same name, features five remaining folk concerts this season. Following Fleck and Washburn are: The War and Treaty, on Sunday, on Feb. 24; The Milk Carton Kids, on Thursday, Feb. 28; Asleep at the Wheel, on Thursday, April 11; and guitar master Leo Kottke on Thursday, April 18.

Tickets for Fleck and Washburn

Fleck and Washburn concert tickets are $45 and $50 and can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224 or visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.scmc-online.org.  A post-concert party with complimentary wine and scmc-online.org beer bar is offered to all ticket-holders. All ticket prices include service fees and no additional fees are charged.

Asleep at the Wheel’s country swing coming to St. Cecilia on April 12

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Asleep at the Wheel’s current line-up is a mix o f founding members and new faces. (Supplied)

By St. Cecilia Music Center

 

St. Cecilia Music Center brings American Country Music Group Asleep at the Wheel to the Royce Auditorium stage on Thursday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m. The band will arrive in Grand Rapids directly following six straight concert dates in their home state of Texas.

 

With recent band additions Katie Shore (fiddle, vocals), Dennis Ludiker (fiddle, mandolin) Connor Forsyth (keyboard, vocals) and Josh Hoag (Bass), Asleep at the Wheel’s newest members have given a newfound energy and their own unique style to the band.

 

Asleep at the Wheel veterans Ray Benson (lead guitar and vocals), David Sanger (drums) Eddie Rivers (steel guitar) and Jay Reynolds (saxophone and clarinet) round out the new 8-piece band who will appear at St. Cecilia.

 

“It is St. Cecilia Music Center’s mission to bring great music to Grand Rapids and we are pleased to bring Asleep at the Wheel to the Acoustic Café Series,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director, said in supplied material. “With the appearance of Margo Price last season, we opened the door for country music artists to perform in our acoustically-superb and intimate hall. We trust Asleep at the Wheel fans will be excited to hear them up close and personal.”

 

Founding member of the band, Benson, launched Asleep at the Wheel in Paw Paw, West Virginia 48 years ago. Now based in Austin, Texas, the band has garnered 10 Grammy Awards, released more than 20 studio and live albums, and charted 20 singles on the Billboard country music charts. 

 

The Grammy Award-winning Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys is the band’s most recent release (2015) and marks their third full-length Bob Wills tribute album. Featuring 22 acclaimed collaborations, the all-star lineup over the years has included legends such as Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and George Strait, The Avett Brothers, Amos Lee, Old Crow Medicine Show and many other fine talents.

 

The Acoustic Café Series, in partnership with the syndicated radio show of the same name, will round out the season with singer/songwriter, banjo and fiddler Rhiannon Giddens co-founder of the Grammy award-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops.

 

SCMC formed a partnership three years ago with the syndicated radio show Acoustic Café and its host Rob Reinhart. The Ann Arbor based radio program is syndicated to over 120 commercial and non-commercial stations throughout the country and airs locally in Grand Rapids on WYCE Friday mornings. The series at SCMC features touring singer/songwriter folk/Americana musicians in concert and also presents the opportunity for a live taping with the artists and Rob Reinhart.

 

“Since its inception in the 2015-16 season the Acoustic Café Folk Series has expanded its offerings and brought some of today’s up and coming artists, as well as some of the veterans of the singer/songwriter genre,” Holbrook said in supplied material.

 

Tickets for Asleep at the Wheel tickets are $35 and $40 and can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224 or visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE. Tickets can also be purchased online at scmc-online.org . A post-concert party with a cash bar will be offered to all ticket-holders where the band’s CD’s can be purchased.

 

St. Cecilia adds banjo royalty, Asleep at the Wheel to 2018 folk music lineup 

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Grammy Award winning country-swing band Asleep at the Wheel. (Supplied)

WKTV Staff

 

St. Cecilia Music Center this week announced two additional shows to their Acoustic Café Folk Series — the banjo royalty of husband and wife duo Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, and Grammy Award winning country-swing band Asleep at the Wheel — with both set to visit Grand Rapids in early 2018.

 

Fleck and Washburn will appear on Friday, Feb. 23, and Asleep at the Wheel will perform on Thursday, April 12, both at 7:30 p.m. There will also be additional Acoustic Café Folk concerts for 2018 announced after the new year.

 

“Over the years SCMC has expanded the genres of music we present with the creation of the jazz series 10 years ago and the Acoustic Café folk series a few years ago, in addition to our traditional chamber music offerings,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director, said in supplied material. “With the appearance of Margo Price last season, we opened the door for country music artists. … We trust Asleep at the Wheel fans will be excited to hear them up close and personal, and that banjo lovers will unite for the power-house couple Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn.”

 

Banjo royalty and husband and wife duo Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn. (Supplied)

Asleep at the Wheel, now based in Austin, Texas, holds 10 Grammy awards, 20 studio albums and 20 singles on the Billboard country charts. Most recently, the band shared a Grammy for “Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys”, the band’s most recent release in 2015. The recording  features 22 collaborations, including legends such as Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and George Strait and newcomers like The Avett Brothers, Amos Lee and Old Crow Medicine Show.

 

Fleck and Washburn, given the name of “the king and queen of the banjo” by Paste Magazine, have a unique musical partnership. Fleck is a fifteen-time Grammy Award winner who has taken the instrument across multiple genres, and Washburn is a singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo player. Whether at home, on stage or on record, their bond, combined with the way their distinct musical personalities and banjo styles interact, makes theirs a picking partnership.

 

Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn tickets are $45 and $50. Asleep at the Wheel tickets are $35 and $40. Tickets and can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224, visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE, or online at scmc-online.org.  A post-concert party with a cash bar will be available to all ticket-holders after the concerts

.

 St. Cecilia opens new season(s) with Acoustic Café visit by guitar master Kottke

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Leo Kottke will bring his guitar, his songs and his stories to the St. Cecilia Music Center’s Acoustic Café Series Oct. 26. (Supplied)

By. K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

 

A sure sign of fall, in addition to those changing colors and chilly mornings, is the beginning of the musical seasons at the St. Cecilia Music Center — a season each of chamber music masters, acoustic singer/songwriter folkies, and jazz lions young and older.

 

Judy Collins (Supplied)

First up on the 2017-18 calendar is the center’s Acoustic Café Series and a visit from acoustic guitar legend Leo Kottke on Thursday, Oct. 26 — with a Café visit by the incomparable Judy Collins already set for early next year and more of the series to be announced.

 

The opening acts of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center series, and the Jazz Series for the 2017-18 season begins in November.

 

David Finckel, left, will be one of the featured performers at the St. Cecilia Music Center concert. (Supplied)

First up next month is a chamber music program on Nov. 2, Essential String Trios, with CMS co-artistic director and cellist David Finckel performing with violinist Arnaud Sussman and violist Paul Neubauer. The program will include the works of Beethoven and Mozart, but also a less well known modern work by Krzysztof Penderecki — Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello (composed in 1990-91).

 

The Jazz Series — titled the “Encore Series” as all performers will be making their return visit to St. Cecilia — begins Nov. 16 with Grammy-winning bassist Christian McBride and his trio, and continues Nov. 30 with pianist Brad Mehldau and his trio.

 

McBride’s visit may well be “the concert” of the St. Cecilia season, for any of the series; okay, maybe just behind Collins. But back to the opener, and Kottke.

 

“To see Leo Kottke perform is one of the most memorable music experiences of my life,”  Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director said in supplied material. “He is truly one of the best folk performers we have seen at St. Cecilia Music Center. His sold-out performance with us in April 2016 was so good that we wanted to bring him back for an encore.

 

“In addition to Leo Kottke, we are excited to bring the renowned and beloved singer Judy Collins to the intimate Royce Auditorium stage,” Holbrook added.

 

Kottke has gained Grammy nominations, a Doctorate in Music Performance by the Peck School of Music at the University of Wisconsin, and — in typical Kottke humor, a Certificate of Significant Achievement in Not Playing the Trombone from the University of Texas at Brownsville with Texas Southmost College (according to supplied material!).

 

More than 25 years after the release of his debut recording, in 1968, Kottke collaborated with jam band Phish bassist Mike Gordon for an album titled “Sixty Six Steps”, and he continues to reinvent himself while always being true to his guitar.

 

The Acoustic Café Series is a now-5-years-old partnership between St. Cecilia and the syndicated Ann Arbor based radio show Acoustic Café and its host Rob Reinhart.

 

The Acoustic Café radio show is syndicated to more 100 commercial and non-commercial stations throughout the country and airs locally in Grand Rapids on WYCE on Friday mornings. The Acoustic Café series at SCMC presents the opportunity for a live taping with the artists and Reinhart while they are visiting St. Cecilia.

 

St. Cecilia Music Center is located at 24 Ransom Ave. NE, Grand Rapids. For tickets and more information on all the series’ concerts, call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-online.org.

 

Leo Kottke in concert from 2014:

 

 

Marc Cohn walking in from Memphis to St. Cecilia Acoustic Café stage

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Singer/songwriter Mark Cohn will be bringing stories about his songs and songs about his stories to the St. Cecilia Music Center’s Acoustic Café. (Supplied)

WKTV Contributor

 

Singer/songwriter Mark Cohn has survived success, sabbatical and a shooting, and has the stories to tell — and he will be bringing stories about his songs and songs about his stories to the St. Cecilia Music Center’s Acoustic Café series later this month.

 

The Grammy Award winning Cohn — he of 1991’s Grammy winning ballad “Walking in Memphis” — will offer music from his 2016 release “Careful What you Dream: Lost Songs and Rarities” as part of a tour focused on a 25-year retrospective of his career.

 

Cohn and his songs, new and old, will close this season of the St. Cecilia Music Center Acoustic Café series Thursday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available.

“We will be in the presence of one of the best singer/songwriters of our time on April 13 during Marc Cohn’s concert,” said Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia’s executive director. “His newer work is magnificent and his earliest songs are treasured classics.”

 

Cohn was nominated twice for his hit song, “Walking in Memphis”,  at the 1991 Grammy’s, for Best Pop Male Vocalist and Song of the Year. He ultimately won the Grammy award for Best New Artist. His debut album, with the hit song, was later certified Gold in 1992 and certified Platinum in 1996.

 

Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash and Patty Griffin all made guest appearances on Cohn’s early records for Atlantic, as his reputation as an artist and performer continued to grow. In 1998 Cohn took a decade-long sabbatical from recording, ending in 2007 with a new album called “Join The Parade” — inspired by the horrific events following Hurricane Katrina and his own near fatal shooting just weeks before, “Parade” is his most moving and critically acclaimed record to date. He followed that up with the album “Listening Booth: 1970” in 2010.

 

In March 2016, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of his debut album, Cohn released “Careful What you Dream: Lost Songs and Rarities” and the bonus album, “Evolution of a Record”, featuring never-before-heard songs and demos dating back to years before his debut album and the Grammy Award that followed.

 

For a video of his recent musical work, visit here.

 

There will be a post-concert “Meet-the-artist” reception open to all ticket-holders with the opportunity to meet Cohn and obtain signed CDs of his releases.

 

For more information visit scmc-online.org.

 

St. Cecilia brings Pokey LaFarge’s Americana sounds to Acoustic Café series 

Entertainment, Local Entertainment, ,

Pokey LaFarge bring his sound and songs to the St. Cecilia Music Center’s Acoustic Café stage this week. (Supplied)

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

 

What kind of music will Pokey LaFarge bring to the St. Cecilia Music Center’s Acoustic Café stage this week? Well, that’s a straightforward, but kind of complicated story.

 

Pokey LaFarge

The easy answer is that the St. Louis-based singer songwriter incorporates early jazz, ragtime, country blues and western swing into his music. The complicated answer is that his music has attracted the attention and admiration of both Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor and The White Stripes’ Jack White. Think about that for a minute.

 

The audience at St. Cecilia will make their own decision — likely a joyfully complicated one — when LaFarge hits the stage Thursday, Feb. 9, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are still available.

 

LaFarge has a will charm the audience with his down-to-earth unique sound all his own,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director said in supplied material. “He’s a fabulous musician and totally engaging entertainer.”

 

White added LaFarge to his Third Man label and included him as his opening act on his North American Tour in 2013, according to supplied material. LaFarge performed on “The Prairie Home Companion” radio show in 2013 and 2014.

 

Two of LaFarge’s albums have been named Best Americana Album by the Independent Music Awards.

 

For a video of LaFarge, visit here.

 

A post-concert “Meet-the-artist” reception, with a cash bar, will be to meet LaFarge and obtain signed CDs of his releases.

 

Next up for the Acoustic Café Series is Grammy nominated Texas-trio Los Lonely Boys will bring their unique acoustic performance to St. Cecilia on March 14. Margo Price will bring her Nashville country/soul sound to to town on April 6. And Grammy Award winning Marc Cohn — of 1991’s Grammy winning ballad “Walking in Memphis” — will perform on April 13.

 

For more information and tickets, call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-onlilne.org.