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.

An evening of Moroccan, Yemenite and Hebrew devotional music
featuring the soulful Yemenite singer Maya Haddi.
With David Reihs on percussion.
and special guest dancer, Jane Archer

Yuval Ron is an internationally renowned World Music artist, composer, educator, peace activist and record producer. Among his many honors, he composed the songs and score for the Oscar winning film West Bank Story in 2007, was the featured artist in the Gala Concert for the Dalai Lama’s initiative Seeds of Compassion in the Seattle Opera Hall in 2008, has collaborated with the Sufi leader Pir Zia Inayat Khan since 2006 and was the musical producer of master-musician Omar Faruk Tekbilek’s albums ONE and ONE Truth. He received commissions for original music scores from the Getty Center, Japan-America Theater and LAX International Airport and provided numerous scores for TV and films including the PBS/Nova special, Breaking the Maya Code, Proteus, Oliver Twist, The Spiral Staircase, Golda’s Balcony and Dance of the Maize God. Yuval Ron is a noted lecturer and has been invited to speak at numerous schools including: Yale, John Hopkins University, UCLA, Middlebury College, MIT, Berklee College of Music, University of Chicago. Yuval Ron has been on the faculty of Esalen Institute since 2009, is an affiliated artist with the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, and a “Guiding Voice” for Seven Pillars – House of Wisdom. His awards include the Los Angeles Treasures Award and prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Composers Forum, California Council for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Foundation. He is the author of the book Divine Attunement: Music as a Path to Wisdom published by Oracle Institute Press.

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.

Kef is based in Eugene and has been playing for dancers since 2007. Their music is a sampling of the regional genres found across the Balkans, from Bulgarian wedding music to Serbian brass band, and from 1960s radio-style orchestrations to simple melody/drone-based village music.  Most repertoire comes from the folk tradition, learned from recordings or directly from notable musicians in the Balkan music community.  Each member brings a unique aspect to the music stemming from the diversity of their individual musical experiences and aesthetics.  The band consists of Nisha Calkins-Godfrey on cello, Dan Gibson on guitar , Alex Lowe on trumpet, Sharon Rogers on accordion and vocals, Cody Simmons on trumpet and truba, and Ken Sokolov on percussion.

Bring finger food to share.

This event is sponsored by the Hoolyeh Folkdancers and the Corvallis Folklore Society.

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.

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

The 13th annual festival has moved from Peace Presbyterian Church to the Irving Grange which is still in the Santa Clara area.  The Eugene Scottish Festival Committee is a nonprofit organization that provides the only Scottish cultural event in Lane County, the 13th annual such event.  On stage the music is mainly folk with lots of fiddles, Guitars, harps and bagpipes.  It is a family event and no alcohol is served.  We organize games for children, including a bouncy house, a Scottish museum, Scottish foods and a dog parade.

Rebecca Lomnicky and David Brewer are a high energy pure-drop Scottish music duo, with world class fiddling talent in combination with bagpipes, guitar, bodhran, and whistle. International Scottish Fiddle Champion, Rebecca Lomnicky, and David Brewer of the popular Celtic band Molly’s Revenge, have each spent copious amounts of time delving into the traditions of their respective instruments, living and studying in both Edinburgh and the highlands of Scotland. Together they perform captivating Scottish music which bridges the gap between the fiddle and bagpipe music of Scotland—two worlds united, into a heartfelt and rousing musical experience. Between their entertaining and informative stage banter, their four instrument combinations and vast repertoire of tunes, including everything from soaring slow airs to intricately arranged dance tunes, these charismatic performers will leave you on your feet with your hands together.

The new CD, THE FIRE, is Lomnicky and Brewer’s second album together and fully showcases every aspect of their stylistic expertise, technical prowess, and musical passion. Combining the aesthetic elements of all their past recordings into a newer finely crafted sound, this album features the diversity of Scotland’s traditional regional styles with an added contemporary flare.

There can’t be many Swedish folk groups with a street named after them in America, a tribute some citizens of Bloomington, Indiana, have conferred upon the extraordinarily accomplished trio Väsen.

Väsen is a Swedish “folk revival” band that has been playing together for over 25 years and has been dubbed “the best band in the world” by music critics and listeners alike. Although inspired by, and firmly rooted in traditional Swedish folk music, Väsen adds to the genre with distinct harmonies and rhythms. The band features Olov Johansson on nyckelharpa, the national instrument of Sweden, Mikael Marin on 5-string viola, and Roger Tallroth on 12-string guitar (tuned A-D-A-D-A-D). Väsen in Swedish has multiple meanings: spirit, noise, a living being, and essence, being the most prominent.

Watch them on A Prairie Home Companion, or at the Celtic Colours International Festival.

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