Dan Navarro

Muddy Creek House Concerts is pleased and excited to welcome our good friend and very talented singer/songwriter Dan Navarro to the back deck of the Aro Farm, seven miles south of Corvallis, Oregon. Dan is one of our very favorite performers, both with his acoustic duo, Lowen and Navarro from 1990 to 2008, and now as a solo artist. We welcome the opportunity to share his talents with all of our friends!

To reserve a seat or seats for the show, go to our Dan Navarro Reservation Page
Dan Navarro’s web site is at https://dannavarro.com/

A voluntary donation of $25-30 per person is suggested, 100% of which goes to the artist. Donations will be collected at the door.

Note:

•  You are welcome and encouraged to bring your own food and/or drinks.
•  While there should be plenty of sunshine on this day of summer solstice weekend, bring clothes that are appropriate for the day’s weather report. Also bring a camp chair and/or blanket to sit on while on the lawn. Although most of the concert area will likely be in the shade by showtime, feel free to bring an umbrella to set up in the perimeter of the seating area.
• If you find that you have to cancel your reservation, please contact Pete Angwin ASAP (see contact information). Non-cancelled no-shows make it difficult to host concerts in the future!

Directions:  Turn onto Greenberry Road from Hwy 99W or Bellfountain Road, then turn north onto the gravel road where the mailbox says 26809, then follow the road approx. ½-mile to the white farmhouse.

The Best Cellar

Masks welcomed for everyone’s continued safety

7:30 Willis, Brassfield & Chiller

A jazz group with guitar, bass, and percussion.

8:30 Tim Hardin and Audrey Perkins

Tim and Audrey have been singing in Covallis for decades and most people reading this already know their music.  If you don’t, you should.

 Best Cellar is held on the last Friday of each month of the school year.
Admission is pay-what-you-will, with a minimum of 2 dollars. Kids are free and welcome.
Coffee, tea, and gluten free cookies are fifty cents each.
Masks are encouraged but not required.
We will be in the cellar for this show. Enter from the back of the church parking lot.
For more information contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com

Jim Page

JIM PAGE is an American singer and songwriter living in Seattle, Washington. He’s made 24 full length albums, been on a dozen compilations, done numberless tours, and written hundreds of songs.

He sings of politics and romance, adventure and comedy, tragedy, history, and meditations on life, death and the absurd. His improvisations are legendary, and if there’s anything to talk about that he hasn’t sung about it’s just that he was too busy singing about something else.

When he was 20 he hitched across country in the wintertime, 3 000 miles to New York City and the fabled Greenwich Village, looking to find his own voice. Living on rooftops, borrowing guitars, playing everywhere he could, he stayed for a year until life took him out west to Seattle where the whole city opened up. Carrying his guitar like a sack of tools he left his mark on every square inch of that town. Every theater, cafe, rock and roll bar, and sidewalk street corner was a stage, until a cop came by to shut him down. But he wouldn’t shut so easy. So in 1974 he sang to the City Council that street music should be free and legal and they should overturn an old backward law against it … and they did!

Mixing sounds and ideas like back in the old California days, the attitudes and the themes. Organic associations with jazz players, rock players, country, blues and folk. They fold around Jim’s songs to create soundscapes. His most recent project, THE TIME IS NOW, is the most solid and ambitious to date. The song writing is top notch, the music and performance too. After all these years Jim Page is still at the top of his game.

The concert will be at the Friends Meeting House on NW Polk.  “This room has fabulous acoustics so we will not use a sound system. It promises to be a great night. I haven’t played Corvallis is a long time, good to be back.”

The Best Cellar

Masks welcomed for everyone’s continued safety

7:30 River Rocks

Laurie Childers, Joe Casprowiak,
Michael Everett, Tracy Daugherty,
Bill Veley

Long time Best Cellar favorites, RiverRocks plays some of Laurie’s originals and a broad range of sweet covers.  We like lyrics that matter, that uplift, that tell a good story, that make us laugh or cry, that prompt us to get up and dance.  You might even sing along!

8:30 Space Neighbors

Space Neighbors bring an original blend of retro future classics to life by taping into the universal consciousness of love. Yohan Solo(John Navarro), Rigel 7(Rigel Woodside), Nick of Time(Nick Rivard), Melanie Moonbeam(Melanie Reid), and Jennatronix (Jenna Summer Smith) are your crew.

 Best Cellar is held on the last Friday of each month of the school year.
Admission is pay-what-you-will, with a minimum of 2 dollars. Kids are free and welcome.
Coffee, tea, and gluten free cookies are fifty cents each.
Masks are encouraged but not required.
We will be in the cellar for this show. Enter from the back of the church parking lot.
For more information contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com

Corvallis Celtic Festival
2025

The third annual Corvallis Celtic Festival will be held in several locations downtown.  All Events are free except the Open the Door for Three concert on Friday at PRAx and Saturday performances at Tyee Winery.

Activities will take place::

Check the full schedule here.

This will be the third year for the festival, now becoming a favorite summertime tradition in Corvallis. While the general theme of the festival remains the same, bringing the finest local and regional Celtic musicians and dancers together and encouraging participatory sessions open to all, there are also a few new and exciting changes!

The festival kicks o@ Thursday evening, July 24 with a free event at Common Fields including dancers from the Blackthorn Academy of Dance and performances by The Nettles and The Ballybogs. Friday night, July 25 features a concert at PRAx with the Boston-based Irish music trio Open the Door for Three. Legendary fiddle player Liz Knowles, uilleann pipes player Kieran O’Hare, and bouzouki-player and singer Pat Broaders will spark plenty of musical joy! Come early to hear local favorites Sharon and Dave Thormahlen on harp, guitar, mandolin, and tenor banjo and enjoy refreshments for purchase in the PRAx lobby. Tickets are available through prax.oregonstate.edu/events. If you’re a member of CFS, you may apply the code cfs2025 to receive a $2 discount on tickets.

Saturday, July 26 is the biggest day of the festival. Events begin with bagpipers at the riverfront and morning workshops on Celtic instruments and singing at the Corvallis library and the Dragon’s Whistle in downtown Corvallis. Workshops are free to all on a first-come, first-served basis. Check the schedule and workshop descriptions on the Corvallis Celtic Festival website for more information. Saturday’s music performances will be held this year at Tyee Wine Cellars, located on a scenic farm and vineyard 10 miles south of Corvallis. Come and enjoy a variety of Celtic performers (Fionnghal, Willamette Valley Pipes and Drums, James Wilson, Amhranaithe, Schmid & Guest, and Steeplechase) in this gorgeous outdoor setting from 12:30-8:30 pm. In addition to fine music, there will be food and craft vendors and beer and wine for purchase. There is plenty of shade, but you may want to bring a blanket or camp chair. Children’s craft activities will be o@ered from 1-5 pm, and the nature trail is open all day! Please, no outside alcohol or dogs. Tickets for this event are $20/person in advance or $25 day of show. Children 12 years old and under are free, so bring the whole family! Tickets are available online from the Corvallis Celtic Festival website or in person at Grass Roots Books and Troubadour Music Center (cash or check only). After the festivities at Tyee, all Celtic musicians are invited to a free late-night jam session at the Brass Monkey from 9:30-11:30 pm.

Sunday morning, July 27, begins with performances by Whitehorn Crossing and Loose Flagstone at the Old World Deli, followed by afternoon instrumental and singing sessions at the Old World Deli and Common Fields. A special treat will be a Ceili Dance led by Ceili of the Valley, with Triple File, a youth trio from Portland, providing live music. Close out the festival at the no host slow-tune session. Come and play, or just listen!

The festival needs volunteers.  Go to https://www.corvalliscelticfestival.org/volunteer/

Open the Door for Three

Open the Door for Three is a road-tested, audience-approved, laughing-out-loud trio of Irish musicians, including fiddle player Liz Knowles, uilleann piper Kieran O’Hare, and Dublin-born singer and bouzouki player Pat Broaders. Their music is a rare combination of unearthed tunes from centuries-old collections, newly composed melodies, fresh arrangements of songs old and new, homages to the musicians and bands they grew up listening to, and the unmatched energy of a trio of good friends playing great Irish music together.

Join us at 6 p.m. for a PRAxPRELUDE with local musicians Sharon and Dave Thormahlen on harp and mandolin, alongside a Lightbox Happy Hour. Corvallis Folklore Society members also receive a $2 discount on tickets.

CFS discount code: cfs2025

The Best Cellar

Masks welcomed for everyone’s continued safety

7:30 Jim Lynch

Jim Lynch is a singer/guitarist whose music reflects his passion for blues, country, old standards, and folk-inspired Americana. His set will include an eclectic variety of both well-known songs and hidden gems in these genres.

8:30 Choro Na Cozinha

The name is Brazilian and means “choro in the kitchen.” And they, in fact, practice in the kitchen.  CnC plays a Brazilian music style known as Choro, whose character ranges from fun to sweet. The quartet has clarinet (Bill Pfender), mandolin (John Bliss), 7-string guitar (Spencer Doidge), pandeiro (hand drum) and vocals (Kimberly Cullen). Choro has a long history as an urban popular music in Brazil, and has become better known around the world in the last few decades.

 Best Cellar is held on the last Friday of each month of the school year.
Admission is pay-what-you-will, with a minimum of 2 dollars. Kids are free and welcome.
Coffee, tea, and gluten free cookies are fifty cents each.
Masks are encouraged but not required.
We will be in the cellar for this show. Enter from the back of the church parking lot.
For more information contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com

Kalos

Kalos is made up of three innovative interpreters and composers of Celtic roots music: Eric McDonald, Ryan McKasson and Jeremiah McLane. They are masters of tradition who purposefully explore the dark corners floating on its edges, delivering an alluring musical complexity full of spontaneity and joyful exuberance. They set the standard for traditional repertoire with an underlying drive and pulse charged with rhythmic electricity and integrity, forging a new musical path that draws on Celtic, Breton, American and other musical traditions on accordion, guitar, fiddle, and vocals. The title of their new album, Headland, which refers to a point where land meets sea, is a fitting analogy for the exploratory space Kalos inhabits — one that calls forth driving, heartfelt music journeying through unknown territory to seek and find its essence – the enduring, resilient experience of the human heart.

Rated: G

The Best Cellar

Masks welcomed for everyone’s continued safety

7:30 Nicasio

Ralph Penunuri and Beth Brown bring their neo-traditional folk stylings old, new and borrowed back to the Best Cellar after a long hiatus. Their shared musical conversations on guitar, cello, woodwind and vocals – create far-ranging musical journey, from rootsy mystic balladry to swingin’ improv celebration.

8:30 Cucunandy

Corvallis based Cucunandy brings a wide variety of traditional and contemporary Scottish, Irish, Manx, Quebecois, and Old Time tunes to the contra dance floor. With Katie Maxey on fiddle, Beth Brown on cello and penny whistle, Laureen Urey on Bodhran and other percussion instruments, Cucanandy is now joined by Van Fister on guitar. Van brings his expertise as a contra dancer to the band making for a wonderful program of dance sets.

 Best Cellar is held on the last Friday of each month of the school year.
Admission is pay-what-you-will, with a minimum of 2 dollars. Kids are free and welcome.
Coffee, tea, and gluten free cookies are fifty cents each.
Masks are encouraged but not required.
We will be in the cellar for this show. Enter from the back of the church parking lot.
For more information contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com

The Best Cellar

Masks welcomed for everyone’s continued safety

7:30 Wallop Sisters

Suz Doyle and Jeannie Holmes (joined by their spouses, John Swanson and Nils Nielson) doing “Novelty Songs through the ages.” One of the most “alive” groups around. Full of energy, great singing, and some very special instrumental work.

8:30 Mike and Carleen McCornack

These three absolutely delighted The Cellar audience last year and for decades before. Here’s what some other artists have said about them:

“Beautiful melodies, great musicians, pure, heartfelt vocals all blended together into music that will leave you smiling in your heart.” -Bill Staines, singer, songwriter

“Their songs are wonderful. exquisite. I love their voices and sweet harmonies. Very expressive. -Steve Gillette, songwriter

 Best Cellar is held on the last Friday of each month of the school year.
Admission is pay-what-you-will, with a minimum of 2 dollars. Kids are free and welcome.
Coffee, tea, and gluten free cookies are fifty cents each.
Masks are encouraged but not required.
We will be in the cellar for this show. Enter from the back of the church parking lot.
For more information contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com

Breabach

Twenty years on from winning the Danny Kyle Open Stage Award at Celtic Connections, Breabach remain securely ranked amongst Scotland’s most skilled & imaginative contemporary-folk acts and at the forefront of the burgeoning traditional music scene. The band unite deep roots in Highland and Island Gaelic tradition alongside progressive musical influences and have cultivated a unique sound, anchoring double bagpipes, fiddle, whistle, step-dance and song with energetic double bass and guitar accompaniment.

Versatility, love of experimentation and a willingness to push the boundaries of Scottish roots music have endured as the core values of the band over the past two decades. They have embraced and pioneered many cross-genre collaborations, linking up with artists including Quebec’s Le Vent du Nord, BAFTA award-winning animator Cat Bruce, indigenous Australasian artist Moana & the Tribe, video game composer Big Giant Circles, Cape Breton powerhouse Beòlach and most recently the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra.

With 8 critically acclaimed studio releases to date, an extensive global touring schedule and having received recognition with 6 BBC ALBA Traditional Music Awards, a 2023 German Record Critic’s Award and as European Folk Group of the year finalists in the prestigious Songlines Awards, Breabach’s journey shows no sign of slowing. They continue their adventures throughout this special anniversary year with performances and festivals across the UK, USA and Europe.

Breabach are: 

• Megan Henderson (Fiddle/Vocals/Step Dance)
• James Lindsay (Double Bass/Vocals)
• Calum MacCrimmon (Highland Bagpipe/Whistle/Bouzouki/Vocals)
• Conal McDonagh (Highland Bagpipe/Uilleann pipes/Whistle/Vocals
• Ewan Robertson (Guitar/Cajon/Vocals)

The Best Cellar

Masks welcomed for everyone’s continued safety

7:30 Song Tenders

These collaborators and longtime friends are on a mission to serve up great music. Don’t we all get crushes on songs? Great songs never die but they sure could get played more! The Songtenders do just that–they echo songs from the past with sweet harmony and hearty respect. Singer Melanie Reid and piano player Evelyn Idzerda started The Songtenders after an epic late-night jam. The music that resulted made them realize their chemistry is perfectly aligned for giving service to songs they love. Later, to even better serve those songs, they were joined by Luke Painter on electric guitar, Barbara Barry-Doyle on stand up bass, and George Beekman on percussion. It’s always a treat when the Songtenders serve up their fun musical nostalgia!

8:30 Can’t Never Could

Can’tNeverCould is a new Corvallis band made up of long-time local musicians Rita Brown, Bill Smyth and Leigh Ann Starcevich. Featuring rich vocal harmonies, expressive guitar, they do originals as well as intriguing songs from the 60s to the present (The Band, Joni Mitchell, Pure Prairie League, Guy Clark, Brandi Carlile, Tracy Chapman, Natalie Hemby, and more). A fun and friendly band.

 Best Cellar is held on the last Friday of each month of the school year.
Admission is pay-what-you-will, with a minimum of 2 dollars. Kids are free and welcome.
Coffee, tea, and gluten free cookies are fifty cents each.
Masks are encouraged but not required.
We will be in the cellar for this show. Enter from the back of the church parking lot.
For more information contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com

The Best Cellar

Masks welcomed for everyone’s continued safety

7:30 Karen Sikich

Songs from multiple eras. Karen sings beautifully and covers everything from swing
to the sixties to current songwriters.

8:30 Us and Them

Us and Them is a Celtic quartet composed of two couples who love to create musical tapestries together. With twin fiddles, guitar and bodhran, they stitch together music from Cape Breton, Scotland, Ireland, Quebec, among other interesting places. Soaring soulful melody lines slip into groovy foot tapping lines that grow to driving reels. Deep explorers of music, this band loves to be a magpie – picking delicious tunes from the Celtic world and weaving them into a dynamic new mix. David Greenberg brings in baroque violin, Cape Breton and 18th century Scottish music. Maria Blair plays fiddle, cello, and adds some Cape Breton step dancing. Marjorie Sandor rocks the DADGAD guitar, and Tracy Daugherty has condensed his full drum kit down to the portable bodhran.

 Best Cellar is held on the last Friday of each month of the school year.
Admission is pay-what-you-will, with a minimum of 2 dollars. Kids are free and welcome.
Coffee, tea, and gluten free cookies are fifty cents each.
Masks are encouraged but not required.
We will be in the cellar for this show. Enter from the back of the church parking lot.
For more information contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com