Calendar
Submit calendar info to:
calendar@corvallisfolklore.org
Contra dance is back to the regular schedule in Corvallis! The dance will start at 7:00 PM with a newcomer’s lesson and community meetup, helpful for all dancers. Following the lesson will be dancing from 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM. No partner necessary. Dance calling and role terms will be Larks & Robins. The cost is $12 – $20 sliding scale.
Because of the Covid-19 situation:
All attendees must sign a waiver for the First Congregational UCC (our dance hall) before their first dance of the 2024-25 season. Please read the waiver here before you arrive in order to speed up the check-in process at the door.
Thank you for helping to keep our dance community safely dancing! For more information on attendance requirements and other precautions, please see our current COVID-19 policy here, to be further updated soon.
Northwest Stomp
Katie Jane Lubiens is a dynamic fiddler from Portland, OR, best known for her high-energy fiddling, infectious smile, and unstoppable dancing feet. Katie Jane fiddles her way up and down the West Coast with her popular traditional Irish band, Katie Jane Band. She has recorded several albums, and she directs the dazzling Celtic Light Orchestra. As a teacher Katie Jane shares the joy of fiddle music with students of all ages in every step of their musical journey.
Thom Dudley, singer/guitarist/songwriter, is one of the founding members of the Portland area Celtic group Raven. He has been composing and playing music for many years, with his song “If I were the West Wind” winning a JPF Songwriter award in 2004. He has recorded two “solo” albums of well received original contemporary folk music featuring musicians from the Pacific NW, British Columbia, and Alberta.
Rob Ripley is a multi-instrumentalist originally from New England, and currently located in Portland, Oregon. He has been playing Irish Traditional Music for 8 years, primarily on the flute and whistle. In addition to playing traditional music, Rob is also an audio engineer and a long time producer of electronic music.
Eddie Butler and Nila Garner both reside and enjoy playing Irish music in Portland. They have been playing Irish music professionally since 2014 at Contra Dances, Ceili Dance, wineries, breweries, St Patrick’s Day Celebrations and for special occasions. Eddy is an excellent musician demonstrating great skill and authentic Irish style while also using the freedom afforded by the genre to create his own unique Celtic voice on the fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. Nila who plays Bodhran, the Irish frame drum, is also an excellent musician with a terrific sense of rhythm and highly ornamented authentic Irish style.
Noah Grunzweig
Noah Grunzweig is a master of stories and dance! It’s been a while since he’s called in Corvallis but he’s called here many times. Noah brings enthusiasm and encouragement to new and experienced dancers alike. He promotes safe dancing and a culture of consent that welcomes children and adults to contra dancing. Noah is fluent in traditional and techno contra.
Dance starts at 7:30pm.
Each dance is taught. No partner necessary
(it’s traditional to dance each dance with a different partner).
We are still seeking new volunteers to help with dances in the fall! If you are interested in volunteering this fall, please see role descriptions and tell us how you would like to help by taking our volunteer survey at:
https://bit.ly/CorvallisContraVolunteering2022
For questions regarding contra dance volunteering, please contact Shell Stowell at corvalliscontra@gmail.com
Online Song Circle
Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate. Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.
The song circle is conducted on Zoom (you can download the app to your laptop, tablet or smart phone at https://zoom.us/ ). You can play or sing along with your microphone muted. If you plan to sing, please set your audio settings to
- Original Sound: on (if this is available on your Zoom version)
- Automatically adjust microphone volume: unchecked
- Suppress background noise: low
You can access the audio settings when you are in a Zoom meeting by pressing the ^ next to the microphone icon and clicking audio settings.
You can get the Zoom link by emailing Kurt at song-circle-2@CorvallisFolklore.org .
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
As part of
2025 Corvallis Open Streets Festival
CFS is presenting a
Free Contra Dance
with The Nettles playing
and Noah Grunzweig calling.
The Nettles have been a premiere Corvallis contra dance band for years, having played here most recently at the March 1 dance.
Noah Grunzweig will have called here most recently at the June 21 dance.
Open Streets this year will be in Southtown
Lilly Park in the north to- Willamette Park in the south
via - SE Bethel St.
- SE Alexander Ave.
- SE Thompson St.
- SE Park Ave.
- SE Heron View St.
There will be dancing at Lilly Park and music at Willamette Park. At Lilly Park:
- 11am Swing Dance
- noon Cuban Salsa
- 1pm CFS Contra Dance
- 2pm traditional dance performance by Corazón Oaxaqueño
For more information on the event, which runs from 11am to 3pm, go to
https://openstreetscorvallis.org/
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.”
Online Song Circle
Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate. Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.
The song circle is conducted on Zoom (you can download the app to your laptop, tablet or smart phone at https://zoom.us/ ). You can play or sing along with your microphone muted. If you plan to sing, please set your audio settings to
- Original Sound: on (if this is available on your Zoom version)
- Automatically adjust microphone volume: unchecked
- Suppress background noise: low
You can access the audio settings when you are in a Zoom meeting by pressing the ^ next to the microphone icon and clicking audio settings.
You can get the Zoom link by emailing Kurt at song-circle-2@CorvallisFolklore.org .
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::
| Thursday 7/24 | 6:00pm-9:00pm | Common Fields | |
| Friday 7/25 | 6:00pm-9:30pm | PRAx | Tickets |
| Saturday 7/26 | 9:00am-noon 10:00am-noon 9:30pm-11:30pm |
Public Library Dragon’s Whistle Brass Monkey |
|
| 12:30pm-8:30pm | Tyee Wine Cellars | Tickets | |
| Sunday 7/27 | 9:30am-4:00pm 12:15pm-6:00pm |
Old World Deli Common Fields |
Online Song Circle
Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate. Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.
The song circle is conducted on Zoom (you can download the app to your laptop, tablet or smart phone at https://zoom.us/ ). You can play or sing along with your microphone muted. If you plan to sing, please set your audio settings to
- Original Sound: on (if this is available on your Zoom version)
- Automatically adjust microphone volume: unchecked
- Suppress background noise: low
You can access the audio settings when you are in a Zoom meeting by pressing the ^ next to the microphone icon and clicking audio settings.
You can get the Zoom link by emailing Kurt at song-circle-2@CorvallisFolklore.org .
Online Song Circle
Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate. Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.
The song circle is conducted on Zoom (you can download the app to your laptop, tablet or smart phone at https://zoom.us/ ). You can play or sing along with your microphone muted. If you plan to sing, please set your audio settings to
- Original Sound: on (if this is available on your Zoom version)
- Automatically adjust microphone volume: unchecked
- Suppress background noise: low
You can access the audio settings when you are in a Zoom meeting by pressing the ^ next to the microphone icon and clicking audio settings.
You can get the Zoom link by emailing Kurt at song-circle-2@CorvallisFolklore.org .
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
Online Song Circle
Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate. Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.
The song circle is conducted on Zoom (you can download the app to your laptop, tablet or smart phone at https://zoom.us/ ). You can play or sing along with your microphone muted. If you plan to sing, please set your audio settings to
- Original Sound: on (if this is available on your Zoom version)
- Automatically adjust microphone volume: unchecked
- Suppress background noise: low
You can access the audio settings when you are in a Zoom meeting by pressing the ^ next to the microphone icon and clicking audio settings.
You can get the Zoom link by emailing Kurt at song-circle-2@CorvallisFolklore.org .
Online Song Circle
Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate. Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.
The song circle is conducted on Zoom (you can download the app to your laptop, tablet or smart phone at https://zoom.us/ ). You can play or sing along with your microphone muted. If you plan to sing, please set your audio settings to
- Original Sound: on (if this is available on your Zoom version)
- Automatically adjust microphone volume: unchecked
- Suppress background noise: low
You can access the audio settings when you are in a Zoom meeting by pressing the ^ next to the microphone icon and clicking audio settings.
You can get the Zoom link by emailing Kurt at song-circle-2@CorvallisFolklore.org .
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
Online Song Circle
Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate. Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.
The song circle is conducted on Zoom (you can download the app to your laptop, tablet or smart phone at https://zoom.us/ ). You can play or sing along with your microphone muted. If you plan to sing, please set your audio settings to
- Original Sound: on (if this is available on your Zoom version)
- Automatically adjust microphone volume: unchecked
- Suppress background noise: low
You can access the audio settings when you are in a Zoom meeting by pressing the ^ next to the microphone icon and clicking audio settings.
You can get the Zoom link by emailing Kurt at song-circle-2@CorvallisFolklore.org .