Väsen (from Sweden) is returning by popular demand.
Local fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves will be Väsen’s special guest.

The Swedish word Väsen has three meanings — essence, spirit, and hullabaloo — making it the perfect name for a band that is part Nordic tradition and part whirling dervish. To its roots in the musical traditions of Uppland, Sweden, Väsen brings playfulness and vitality, transforming venerable polskas and marches into modern groove masterpieces, yet retaining the consummate playing skills and ageless appeal of the best traditional music.

Väsen’s unique sound showcases the playing of Olov Johansson, a virtuoso of the nykelharpa, a bowed, 16-string instrument related to both the hurdy-gurdy and the fiddle, along with violist Mikael Marin and guitarist Roger Tallroth, in a ensemble that swings through dense, sinuous arrangements with amazing intensity and deft interplay, on stage and on albums like their recent Väsen Street.

Public radio’s All Things Considered said of the group, “The absurdly broad term ‘world music’ is rendered useless in the face of these musicians who play with such passion and glee that everything on the globe seems to disappear except their hometown fires. This is ‘local music’ in the best sense of the word—believable, human-scaled, and fluent in the international language of musical interplay.” As one member of Väsen put it more succinctly: “We can promise you one thing. You never know quite what’s going to happen.”

Beloved Storytelling Festival for Adults and Children Returns For Its 10th Season

The beloved Tcha Tee Man Wi Storytelling Festival returns for its 10th season on March 6 – 8, 2014. The Festival brings some of the best storytellers from across the country to the Mid-Willamette Valley just as live storytelling continues to gain renewed vigor and respect across the nation. The festival features three days of exciting performances and creative workshops for both adults and children in the Albany and Corvallis areas.

After a two year hiatus, the Wonderkeepers Storytelling Guild has assumed the production of the Festival with the help of dedicated volunteers, local sponsors and contributors, and the National Storytelling Network. Joyce Morgan, founder of Wonderkeepers and a former Festival board member said, “Storytelling creates community, cultural awareness, and a great deal of fun. We knew we had to return this important gathering to the community.”

The Festival continues its tradition of inviting respected national, regional and local performers to share the drama and comedy of their own lives and varied backgrounds, along with the universal insight of myth and legend.

This year’s performers:

Latina storyteller, performance artist, and writer, Olga Loya uses a dramatic mix of Spanish and English to share traditional tales from Latin America as well as stories from her own varied and colorful life growing up in East Los Angeles.

Cowboy poet and storyteller, Joe Herrington, grew up under a big Texas sky and roamed the wilderness beneath it. With the clear eye of a Will Rogers and a voice of campfire warmth, he finds the deep connections between our current world and the day-to-day lives of his rugged characters.

Raised in a Midwestern storytelling family, Steven Henegar celebrates the wonderful variety of stories that we use to share our lives. Funny, touching and relatively honest, Steven calls up the everyday and the fantastic – truth and lies mined from a long life looking around.

Steven Henegar

Joe Herrington

Beloved Storytelling Festival for Adults and Children Returns For Its
10th Season

The beloved Tcha Tee Man Wi Storytelling Festival returns for its 10th season on March 6 – 8, 2014. The Festival brings some of the best storytellers from across the country to the Mid-Willamette Valley just as live storytelling continues to gain renewed vigor and respect across the nation. The festival features three days of exciting performances and creative workshops for both adults and children in the Albany and Corvallis areas.

After a two year hiatus, the Wonderkeepers Storytelling Guild has assumed the production of the Festival with the help of dedicated volunteers, local sponsors and contributors, and the National Storytelling Network. Joyce Morgan, founder of Wonderkeepers and a former Festival board member said, “Storytelling creates community, cultural awareness, and a great deal of fun. We knew we had to return this important gathering to the community.”

The Festival continues its tradition of inviting respected national, regional and local performers to share the drama and comedy of their own lives and varied backgrounds, along with the universal insight of myth and legend.

This evening’s performers:

Cowboy poet and storyteller, Joe Herrington, grew up under a big Texas sky and roamed the wilderness beneath it. With the clear eye of a Will Rogers and a voice of campfire warmth, he finds the deep connections between our current world and the day-to-day lives of his rugged characters.

Raised in a Midwestern storytelling family, Steven Henegar celebrates the wonderful variety of stories that we use to share our lives. Funny, touching and relatively honest, Steven calls up the everyday and the fantastic – truth and lies mined from a long life looking around.

Beloved Storytelling Festival for Adults and Children Returns For Its
10th Season

The beloved Tcha Tee Man Wi Storytelling Festival returns for its 10th season on March 6 – 8, 2014. The Festival brings some of the best storytellers from across the country to the Mid-Willamette Valley just as live storytelling continues to gain renewed vigor and respect across the nation. The festival features three days of exciting performances and creative workshops for both adults and children in the Albany and Corvallis areas.

After a two year hiatus, the Wonderkeepers Storytelling Guild has assumed the production of the Festival with the help of dedicated volunteers, local sponsors and contributors, and the National Storytelling Network. Joyce Morgan, founder of Wonderkeepers and a former Festival board member said, “Storytelling creates community, cultural awareness, and a great deal of fun. We knew we had to return this important gathering to the community.”

The Festival continues its tradition of inviting respected national, regional and local performers to share the drama and comedy of their own lives and varied backgrounds, along with the universal insight of myth and legend.

This year’s performers:

Latina storyteller, performance artist, and writer, Olga Loya uses a dramatic mix of Spanish and English to share traditional tales from Latin America as well as stories from her own varied and colorful life growing up in East Los Angeles.

Cowboy poet and storyteller, Joe Herrington, grew up under a big Texas sky and roamed the wilderness beneath it. With the clear eye of a Will Rogers and a voice of campfire warmth, he finds the deep connections between our current world and the day-to-day lives of his rugged characters.

Raised in a Midwestern storytelling family, Steven Henegar celebrates the wonderful variety of stories that we use to share our lives. Funny, touching and relatively honest, Steven calls up the everyday and the fantastic – truth and lies mined from a long life looking around.

Beloved Storytelling Festival for Adults and Children Returns For Its
10th Season

Zeroing in on the Story

Latina storyteller, performance artist, and writer, Olga Loya uses a dramatic mix of Spanish and English to share traditional tales from Latin America as well as stories from her own varied and colorful life growing up in East Los Angeles.

Beloved Storytelling Festival for Adults and Children Returns For Its
10th Season

Finding and Shaping Family Stories

Raised in a Midwestern storytelling family, Steven Henegar celebrates the wonderful variety of stories that we use to share our lives. Funny, touching and relatively honest, Steven calls up the everyday and the fantastic – truth and lies mined from a long life looking around.

Beloved Storytelling Festival for Adults and Children Returns For Its
10th Season

The beloved Tcha Tee Man Wi Storytelling Festival returns for its 10th season on March 6 – 8, 2014. The Festival brings some of the best storytellers from across the country to the Mid-Willamette Valley just as live storytelling continues to gain renewed vigor and respect across the nation. The festival features three days of exciting performances and creative workshops for both adults and children in the Albany and Corvallis areas.

After a two year hiatus, the Wonderkeepers Storytelling Guild has assumed the production of the Festival with the help of dedicated volunteers, local sponsors and contributors, and the National Storytelling Network. Joyce Morgan, founder of Wonderkeepers and a former Festival board member said, “Storytelling creates community, cultural awareness, and a great deal of fun. We knew we had to return this important gathering to the community.”

The Festival continues its tradition of inviting respected national, regional and local performers to share the drama and comedy of their own lives and varied backgrounds, along with the universal insight of myth and legend.

This year’s performers:

Latina storyteller, performance artist, and writer, Olga Loya uses a dramatic mix of Spanish and English to share traditional tales from Latin America as well as stories from her own varied and colorful life growing up in East Los Angeles.

Cowboy poet and storyteller, Joe Herrington, grew up under a big Texas sky and roamed the wilderness beneath it. With the clear eye of a Will Rogers and a voice of campfire warmth, he finds the deep connections between our current world and the day-to-day lives of his rugged characters.

Raised in a Midwestern storytelling family, Steven Henegar celebrates the wonderful variety of stories that we use to share our lives. Funny, touching and relatively honest, Steven calls up the everyday and the fantastic – truth and lies mined from a long life looking around.

Alex Hargreaves and Nathaniel Smith join with Sarah Jarosz to form the Sarah Jarosz Trio.

SARAH JAROSZ is a 22- year-old, Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who hails from just outside Austin, TX.  A recent graduate from the prestigious New England Conservatory, she released her third album, Build Me Up From Bones, for Sugar Hill Records on September 24^th.  Over the past four years, Jarosz, who musically fits comfortably where contemporary folk, Americana and roots music intersect, has covered a remarkable amount of ground thus far.  She has toured the United States extensively, as well as Canada and the UK, taped Austin City Limits and the BBC Series The Transatlantic Sessions and appeared on A Prairie Home Companion.  Her two previous records (Song Up In Her Head andFollow Me Down) received high praise from outlets including Rolling Stone, New York Times, USA Today, Paste, Mojo, Acoustic Guitar and American Songwriter, and she has received multiple Grammy and Americana Music Association nominations.

Sarah is supported on the road by stellar musicians Alex Hargreaves (fiddle) and Nathaniel Smith (cello).  Hargreaves recently completed the prestigious Berklee Global Jazz Institute at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and has been tapped to perform and record with such musicians as Jerry Douglas and jazz master Danilo Perez.  Smith has toured for years with renown Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster and, more recently, in various configurations with Jeremy Kittel.  Jarosz, Hargreaves and Smith, who met at various music camps when they were much younger, have been performing together since 2010; the sheer joy they express on stage during performances is contagious.  Hargreaves and Smith are both featured on Jarosz’s upcoming release Build Me Up From Bones.

Portland FolkMusic Society presents Singtime Frolics

a spring weekend of singing, jamming, learning and sharing at Portland FolkMusic Society’s annual retreat.

Registration is now open!
Early registration ends Feb. 22

click HERE for more information

Semmy Stahlhammer is First Concertmaster at the Stockholm Royal Opera, faculty member at the Stockholm Royal Music College, and appears as solo artist on 20 CD recordings. His CD anthology, Swedish Turn of the Century, was chosen as “Records of the year 2000” by Sweden’s largest newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Semmy also leads the “Stahlhammer Klezmer Classic Ensemble”, an ensemble founded by Semmy’s grandfather around 1910, in Poland.

He will join cellist Isabel Blomme’ and Sergei Teleshev in a performance of kelzmer music (sometimes called “Jewish jazz).  He will also speak about his father, Mischa.  Semmy wrote a memoir, Codename Barber: My Father’s Story, based on Mischa’s reminiscences of the Holocaust and documents that attested to his service.  The Wartime experiences of Mischa Stahlhammer will be the topic of Semmy’s talk when he appears in Corvallis.

Portland FolkMusic Society presents

Singtime Frolics

a spring weekend of singing, jamming, learning, sharing and good food at Portland FolkMusic Society’s annual retreat.

click HERE for more information