Calendar

7:30 Rita Brown and Bill Smythe

Besides great singing, songwriting and guitar playing, this is the couple that created our annual benefit for CARDV

 

8:30 Jazzopolis

Great musicianship by a group that brings classic interpretations of the music of the 30’s and 40’s. Featuring Bev and Ray Brassfield, Fred Berman, Faye Cummins, and JG.

7:30 Rebecca Smith and Laura Zaerr

These two wonderful harpists bring musical influences from all over the globe. They play in support of Rebecca’s new CD.

8:30 Shanghaied on the Willamette

Gordy Euler and Jonathan Lay will make there way down the Willamette, well, I-5 actually, to entertain us with strong vocals, multi-instrument skill, and story telling. They’ve been a Best Cellar favorite for a long time.

7:30 Mike and Carleen McCornack

This singer-songwriter couple from Eugene has been delighting audiences for over 40 years with their own brand of original and contemporary, folk-influenced music, exceptional vocal harmony and guitar accompaniment that sparkles! They are a Best Cellar favorite.

8:30 Pete Kozak

Pete plays mandolin, guitar, banjo, fiddle, dobro, and harmonica. He’s a great musician who has played in several local bands, through the years: The Bush Pilots, Yellow Rose, Pickin’ Noodle Soup, and The Rubes. He’s stood on stage with Neal Grandstaff, Paula Walters, Jeff Hino, Creighton Lindsay, Mark Weiss, Ray Brassfield, and Gary Nolde. On top of all that, before coming out west, Pete earned a Best Vocalist award at the Nebraska Old Time Fiddlers and Country Music Festival.

Hass Kowert Tice Trio

Together, Haas, Kowert, and Tice have produced a body of work containing flights of improvisation and interesting compositional turns all grounded by memorable melodies and driving rhythms. The group’s adventurous spirit and desire to show the audience something new is never at the expense of the most intrinsically rewarding elements of music such as the beauty of a well crafted melody or the dance-inspiring energy of a great groove.

Hass Kowert Tice Trio is:

• Fiddler Brittany Haas, known for her work with Crooked Still and Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings
• Bassist Paul Kowert who plays with the Punch Brothers and David Rawlings Machine/ Gillian Welch
• Virtuosic guitarist Jordan Tice who performs regularly with Tony Trischka

It’s gonna be a great concert!  We expect it will sell out so let us know right away if you plan to come so we can reserve you a ticket.

PS: since so many have asked.  You’re welcome to bring either snacks or beverage to share (or not) and nothing is expected…

Eric & Suzy have devoted their lives to the pursuit of weird and obscure old-time American music – warped fiddle tunes in odd tunings, cinematic ballads, country blues songs that contain mysterious metaphors, early Cajun music with incomprehensible French lyrics and backwards chords. Using fiddle, mandolin, guitars, Cajun accordion, banjo (and the occasional odd instrument such as the ten-stringed cuatro) they bring these early 20th century sounds right into the present day.

Eric’s flatpicking on guitar and mandolin is exceptional for its purity of tone, speed, and soulfulness; Suzy is a powerful singer, an award-winning fiddler and Cajun accordion player who has apprenticed with older generation Louisiana Cajun musicians under an NEA Fellowship. Founding members of many influential roots music groups including the Black Mountain Boys, Any Old Time, the Klezmorim, and the California Cajun Orchestra, Eric and Suzy have also worked with Maria Muldaur, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, Jerry Garcia, Darol Anger, Laurie Lewis, the Savoy Doucet Cajun Trio, and many other fine musicians.

Note: This month the Best Cellar will be upstairs, at the top of the church.
Enter through the main 11th St. entrance.

7:30 Mark Weiss

Mark celebrates 50 years of playing the guitar with a number of friends: Pete Kozak, Dave Plaehn Chere and Cliff Pereira, Ed and Linda Waymire, Audrey Perkins, Tim Hardin, and a little piece of dynamite named Aurelia Rensema.

8:30 Audrey Perkins

As fine a singer as our community has, Audrey will be joined by Suzannah Doyle, Nancy Snowden, Bill Pfender, Page Hundermer, John Bliss, and Paul Regan. Songs will come from Diana Krall, Elvis Costello, Bruce Cockburn, Irving Berlin, Rogers and Hart, Nat King Cole, Lambert-Hendricks-Ross, and some guy named Neal Gladstone.

7:30 Mike and Carleen McCornack

Singer-songwriters Mike & Carleen McCornack have been delighting audiences for over forty years with an engaging musical style that blends clear, expressive, harmonious vocals with sparkling acoustic instrumental accompaniments. Their wide-ranging repertoire includes many critically-acclaimed original compositions. They have released seven albums during their career: Possibilities; Live On Earth; Beasties, Bumbershoots & Lullabies; Sunshine Cake; High Hopes; A Road To Call Your Own; and Ready For Christmas.

8:30 Triple Play – featuring Kurt Dietrich

Great three part harmony. Triple play features Kurt Dietrich, owner of Bull Frog Music, in his first Best Cellar performance.

Sterling Abernathy and Wilhelmina

Karen Savoca pours her heart into a song the way a great actor throws herself into a role. Her songs draw you into a world of humor and compassion, shared with grace and ease, as though you’ve been invited to her table for supper. Born in northern NJ, the daughter of a big band singer, Karen’s baby diary reads “20 months, knows 6 songs.” At the age of eight she asked for piano lessons, and at thirteen began composing on a guitar she bought with saved birthday money. She attended Syracuse University, where she studied music and elementary education.

Pete Heitzman, a Syracuse native, was playing in clubs at the age of fifteen. He carved out a reputation as an ace guitarist capable of playing many styles, touring across the country with a variety of bands. He met Savoca during a return trip to his home town, invited out by friends to hear a new singer. They jammed the night away, and he joined her group the next day.

In that band they forged their unique style, performing original songs to a packed house every Monday just off campus. Those Monday nights became a seven year long tradition where K & P reveled in patrons’ enthusiastic dancing and improvised call and response routines. Years later, that chemistry would spark an enchanted scene at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival when 10,000 people spontaneously removed their shoes and waved them over their heads.

Acoustic Guitar magazine calls Heitzman “A true virtuoso of groove, with a sly touch that, combined with Savoca’s in-the-pocket drumming and spectacularly soulful vocals, gives the duo the impact of a four-piece band.”

Shari Ulrich is a two time Juno Award winner, and member the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame.  Shari was first known for her multi-instrumentalist skills with the Pied Pumkin and on as the voice of the Hometown Band.  Her latest release “Everywhere I Go” (Borealis Records) – engineered and produced by her daughter Julia Graff, is Shari’s 8th solo album.

Karen and Pete toured extensively with Greg Brown, who said of her, “If she were a Native American, her name would be Sings Like Two Birds.”

The duo have released eight CDs on their own Alcove Records label, the latest of which is “Promise”, recorded in their 19th century church studio nestled deep in the hills of upstate NY. The Edmonton Journal says, “There’s soul in the delicious grooves and phrasing, and soul in the broader sense that floats out of her lyrical vision.” “Promise” reached #25 on the Euro/Americana chart.

“Embracingly beautiful songs that have a beguiling way of changing and reconfiguring themselves like an aural kaleidoscope.” – Duluth News Tribune

Winners of seven SAMMY Awards. Notable appearances include The Today Show, A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, Big Top Chautauqua, The Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa, Falcon Ridge, Kate Wolf, Stan Rogers & Winnipeg Folk Festivals, and many more.They are also independent record producers who have scored several feature films and documentaries.

7:30 James Wilson

I’m very happy to say that I am a member of SACtown’s Whiskey and Stitches and that we have been awarded a 2012 SAMMIES Award to go along with our 2011 SAMMIES Award! That and a weekend playing at the KVMR Celtic Festival in Grass Valley, rubbing elbows with the likes of the Young Dubliners, Old Blind Dogs, Molly’s Revenge, Bricktop Blaggards, Wake the Dead, and others have made this one of my best musical years ever. play mandolin, whistle, tenor banjo, melodeon in Whiskey and Stitches and mostly mandolin with Stout Rebellion – two of Sacramento’s finer Irish bands. Both regularly gig around the SACtown area and beyond. I came to Sacramento from Corvallis, Oregon where I played in folk-punk group Poitin and Stout – great experience and a fine group of lads. I occasionally get to return there and play some solo instrumentals for folks who appreciate it. Other than that, I spent a lot of years driving and working, driving and working in Southern California. My parents came to the United States from Ireland via England and Canada. Mom had a pretty good voice and Dad played melodeon and harmonica. Music was always around the house. I’m one of those Irish-Americans who was lucky enough to venture overseas when I was younger to meet the aunts, uncles, and cousins. Those are irreplaceable memories. I LOVE instrumental music and feel lucky to have connected with some many fine musical folks in my middle age. Get out and support live music!

8:30 Tom and Ellen Demarest

Tom Demarest was one of the founders of the Best Cellar and played at the first one, more than 40 years ago.  He and Ellen have been playing together in Corvallis for decades, and are perennial favorites with their original songs and great covers.

Dana and Susan Robinson

Songs and Tales of the American Landscape Rockin’ Southern Oldtime Music
From Asheville, North Carolina

From performing at Carnegie Hall to being featured in Ken Burn’s PBS documentaries, such as “The National Parks,” and “The Dust Bowl,” Dana and Susan have been playing their trademark brand of “new-time, old-time music” for nearly twenty years.

From Asheville, North Carolina, in the heart of the southern Appalachian Mountains, Dana and Susan Robinson bring to the stage an exciting blend of original songs of the American landscape. With Dana on guitar and fiddle, Susan’s clawhammer banjo playing and harmony singing, their music is the sound and feel of bedrock America.

The genius of a Dana and Susan Robinson performance lies in their ability to capture the imagination of their audience, evoking a transformative experience that touches on the deepest humanity. They can make the audience howl with laughter or hush with poignant reflection as they take them on a journey across America and convey the mystery and wonder of the places they visit.

Dana and Susan Robinson’s newest CD American Hornpipe has been described as, “…a melting pot of Appalachian, British, and African influences, full of earthy grooves, elegant melodies, stories of heroes, ne’er do-well’s, and cautionary tales.”

A native of the Pacific Northwest, Dana relocated to New England where he discovered both a thriving songwriters scene and the deep well of traditional mountain music. In the early 1980’s, Dana settled in northern Vermont and built a house “off the grid” (no electricity and phone) on 30 acres near the Canadian border. There he founded a popular bakery, café and folk music venue. Dana launched into full-time touring after the release of his 1994 debut CD, Elemental Lullabye, and after receiving a request to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City for Putumayo’s Shelter benefit project.

7:30 Jeff Hino
8:30 Dave Plaehn 

Dave Plaehn and Jeff Hino are the Corvallis Blues Brothers, and tonight they each get independent billing for their solo acts, though I’ll bet there will be some duets involved.  Guests will include Deborah and Creighton Lindsay, Pete Kozak, and DeLynn Anderson.

Dave Plaehn & Jeff Hino have been performing their own distinct blend of acoustic blues, folk, and original material since 1990. Plaehn and Hino explore the uncluttered powerful interplay of blues harmonica, National steel guitar, and vocals in the tradition of the great country bluesmen like Robert Johnson, Elmore James, and Bukka White.

“It’s a nice reminder that not all the talented musicians in this state are based in the city at the terminus of the Willamette River. This is roots music at its finest played by craftsmen in the deepest sense. This is a duo that has a lot to say and the skills to back those voices, too.”

 Greg Johnson, President,
Cascades Blues Association

“Two talented blues musicians who offer a fresh and diverse array of original and traditional acoustic based compositions. Treat you ears to a real pleasing performance.”

 Rod Downing, President,
Washington Blues Society

Perennial favorite Chuck Pyle will be in town on Friday May 15 to do a house concert at the Pereira’s. The show starts at 8 PM and admission is $18 for CFS members and $20 for nonmembers. Admired as a sly humorist and an innovative guitarist, Chuck Pyle has performed for the Colorado Legislature, on Austin City Limits, and at Bill Gates’ home. He’s had his songs recorded by John Denver, Chris LeDoux, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band & Jerry Jeff Walker. He sees what’s best about America, writing songs about love lost & love found, forgetful cowboys, heroic highway patrolmen, and brain stems gone “critical”.

He is an accomplished guitarist with a warm and welcoming voice. He has performed in Corvallis many times and his concerts are really entertaining- with great stories and songs that make you laugh, keep you thinking, and many that make you want to get on your horse and ride the open range.

Pyle’s latest CD, COVER STORIES, is a collection of tunes by some lesser-known songwriters – like Pete & Lou Berryman, Walt Wilkins, Lynn Miles and Hayes Carll – whose work has been admired by other songwriters for years. These are 12 well-crafted songs beautifully rendered in 12 great performances by Chuck Pyle with his innovative Chuck Pyle Finger-Style, accompanied by side-kick, Gordon Burt on fiddle, and Don Richmond on steel guitar, dobro & mandolin.

“Chuck Pyle’s songs, playing and singing are transporting. If you’re looking for top-flight alt-country-inflected contemporary folk… this is it.”    – Sing Out!

“Pyle was one of my favorite songwriter discoveries of this year. Every song lover in town should make it a point to seek out this man’s music.”  – Music Row Magazine

To reserve a space and get directions,   send an email to cherep@comcast.net (or, if an email won’t work, call 541-753-9224).

Lily Henley and Duncan Wickel

Lily Henley is a soulful singer, driving fiddler, and innovative songwriter breaking out of the box with influences ranging from homegrown Americana to the haunting melodies of the Mediterranean and the Middle-East. She’s performing as a duo with multi-instrumental phenom Duncan Wickel, who has captivated critics and fellow musicians alike with his creativity, authenticity and the chameleon-like ease with which he blends and changes styles on fiddle, cello, and bozouki. With a repertoire combining ear-catching vocal melodies, grooving fiddle tunes, and raw lyrics drawn from Ladino, Hebrew, Celtic and American folk songs, Lily & Duncan  have delighted audiences across the US, and have performed alongside many great musicians including John Doyle, Tim O’Brien, Rushad Eggleston and the Foghorn Stringband. Together they offer music lovers a tantalizing palate of familiar and refreshingly new sounds.

These folks are potent musician so don’t miss this one!  It’s going to be an enjoyable evening.  We do anticipate selling out so please reserve soon if you wish to join us…

THIS CONCERT HAS BEEN CANCELED

With a voice “like butter” and a repertoire of original, folk-soul inspired songs, Juliet Strong touches audiences with her depth of sound, musicality, poetic imagery and eclectic style. Juliet’s energetic sound is underscored by rhythm piano, counter melodies, vocalise, and ukulele. The result is a unique and infectiously uplifting musical experience.

Juliet has a background in folk, classical and jazz piano and voice. Her performance style incorporates her classical training and theatrical background, as well as her upbringing among a tightly knit community of folk musicians, dancers, poets, and performers from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has drawn inspiration from her exposure to musical styles of all types, including Balkan, Turkish, Flamenco, Americana, English Country Dance, Indian and Brazilian. Her love of jazz, bebop, soul, funk and R&B have also influenced her original work. She has showcased her diverse training and background in theatrical collaborations, writing projects, live music performances, tours, and a discography of self-released recorded work. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Our own inimitable Mark Bielman will accompany her on bass.  I hope you will join us for what will surely be another fine show Juliet and Mark…