Calendar
Submit calendar info to:
calendar@corvallisfolklore.org
A fund raiser for The Folklore Society and The Best Cellar. We will have several local musicians: 
Rita Brown,
Suz Doyle, Adam Scramstaad, Fred Towne, Mina Carson, Cliff and Chere Pereiera, Mark Weiss, Evelyn Idzerda, and others.
They will be singing songs from The Great Women Songwriters. Including songs from Carol King, Elizabeth Cotton, Joni Mitchell, Etta James, Nanci Griffith, Kate Wolfe, Gillian Welch, Laura Nyro, Malvina Reynolds, and more.
The best Cellar is a once-a-month evening of acoustic music. Admission is “pay what you will,” and kids are free. Cookies and coffee are available. Located in the cellar of the Methodis Church on 11th and Monroe, in Corvallis. For more information, or to join the volunteer team, contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com
Harris Bridge Folk Festival Songwriting Camp
HARRIS BRIDGE SONGWRITING CAMP: A retreat exploring songwriting, folk music, community, nature, and how they all intersect. The 3-day camp includes workshops, small-group song swaps, co-writing opportunities, 1-on-1 time with instructors, as well as plenty of opportunities for jamming, writing, and exploring the gorgeous Harris Bridge area’s hiking trails, vineyard, river, and swimming hole! This is a welcoming and non-judgmental community where songwriters at any stage of experience can come and be inspired, connect with their creativity and to the land, and have the time and space to write, reflect, and play!
WHO ATTENDS AND HOW MANY? All levels of writing and musical experience are welcome. What matters most is that you are a great appreciator of music and people and the outdoors. Most songwriters play guitar or keyboards, but songwriters can also work acapella and on a range of other instruments. All genres are welcome. Note, all under 21 years of age must be accompanied by an adult due to the host site being a winery/vineyard. Attendance is capped at 25 guest participants.
OUR INSTRUCTORS: Beth Wood and Clara Baker have decades of experience writing songs, teaching, touring and performing professionally. They will lead guided workshops and small group classes, and can also offer 1-on-1 song feedback, guitar and vocal mini-lessons, and more.
OUR SCHEDULE: Check-in begins on Tuesday Aug 13th, at 10am. Participants set up and get to know one another the first afternoon with, followed by dinner and a campfire song circle. In the mornings we will gather as a group and share in writing exercises. Afternoons we will focus on co-writing and one-on-on mentor sessions with plenty of free time sprinkled in to explore and gather inspiration from each other and the beautiful setting. In the evenings we will gather in a circle and share songs.
The camp ends on Friday morning by 11am, after breakfast and a closing gathering. All guests are invited to stay as complimentary guests for the Harris Bridge Folk Festival, or we can see you safely on your way on Friday, just let us know your desire at the time you register for the song camp.
TUITION FEE: Tuition is $295 and includes the following.
- A spot for tent camping and/or vehicle camping (RV availability is limited).
- Access to all classes as well as the occasional opportunity for private instruction
- Nightly song circles
- Three meals daily from Tuesday Aug. 13 dinner to Friday Aug. 16 brunch (8 meals).
- Self-serve coffee and tea.
- Access to hiking trails, and the swimming hole on the Mary’s River.
- Complimentary tickets/all access passes to the Harris Bridge Folk Fest (Aug 16, 17, 18, includes complimentary camping! Value is $80)
OUR LOCATION: The camp is hosted by Harris Bridge Vineyard, on a 4 acre patch of paradise, located right in the heart of Harris Valley, Oregon, just West of Corvallis. The site includes a beautiful winery and tasting room, camp sites, 3 separate fire circles, and two distinct places to dip toes into the Mary’s river to restore after long day. It also includes access to hiking. The site is a 2-hour drive from Portland, and a 1-hour drive from Eugene.
OUR ACCOMMODATIONS and FOOD PROVISIONS: Most participants camp in tents or vehicles. We also have a limited network of friends who host guests in their homes. If you would prefer to be set up in a home, please contact us at harrisbridge@yahoo.com and we will attempt to connect you with a host (may involve additional cost). The camp is an outdoor experience: all classes, song circles and meals are outdoors. Weather is most often beautiful in August, but it can be cool in the evenings and possibly even rainy, so campers should come with enough clothes to keep them warm and dry.
We’ll provide three delicious meals a day, beginning with dinner on Tuesday through brunch on Friday. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options are available. Please let us know of any food allergies or restrictions when registering. Self-service tea and coffee is provided, and beer and wine will be available for purchase through the tasting room all day long.
If you have any other questions, please let us know by contacting Nathan and Amanda (Owners of Harris Bridge) at harrisbridge@yahoo.com.
The Harris Bridge Folk Festival (Aug. 17th – 19th) features PNW songwriters Anna Tivel, Jeffrey Martin, Beth Wood, Dave McGraw & Mandy Fer, Tyler Stenson, and Wilhelmina FrankZerda, our very own songwriter from just up the road in Summit, Oregon. The weekend will be filled with concerts, camping, swimming, food, all family friendly (Children 8 and under are free!), so come spend the weekend with us!
TICKETS (Both Concert and Camping passes) available on the Harris Bridge Vineyard website (www.harrisbridgevineyard.com).
FRIDAY Aug 17th
- 4pm: Beth Wood with Paper Wings {Wilhelmina & Emily Mann} opening
SATURDAY Aug 18th
- 12pm: DTW concert on the river
- 3pm: Depart for the Summit Fest (10 mile drive into the woods) for an afternoon and evening of arts, crafts, music, all in support of the Summit Community.
SUNDAY Aug 19th
- 12pm: Tyler Stenson
- 2pm: Dave McGraw & Mandy Fer
- 4pm: Jeffrey Martin
- 6pm: Anna Tivel
FOOD: Brad Burnheimer will be cooking all weekend with lots of fresh, local veggie and meat options!
Note: food and drinks are not included in this ticket price.
When you arrive please check in at the winery and give your name for confirmation.
Campers may set up on Friday from 10am to 4:30pm or after the concert. Campers joining on Saturday or Sunday may set 9am to 11:30am or after 8pm on both days.
Arts Alive
Arts Alive is one of the most unique, family-friendly, action-oriented community art events in the Greater Willamette Valley. An outside art event, we build an outdoor studio space, bring professional artists and invite the entire community of art enthusiasts, of all ages, to share the experience and process of art. Dedicated to raising the visibility of working artists, the opportunity also provides for community art lovers to engage, where the observer becomes the artist, the poet, the musician. Participants actually make art with the artists, write and read poems with poets from our community, make music and dance with area musicians. Through our Call to Artists, creatives of all stripes painters, poets, sculptures, writers, performers, and musicians from all over the area to share their creative process and art with the larger community. In the past, we’ve had ceramicists, jazz musicians, printmakers, glass artists, jewelers, poets, and more participate in Arts Alive!
For our 2nd Annual Arts Alive, August 24, 2019 from 1-8PM. TAC has planned an even bigger and better event. Join in the discovery of more music, more poetry, and more art. Admission is free, $10 donation suggested. Food and beverages are available.
The Arts Alive! event is funded by Corvallis Benton County Economic Development Office, Downtown Corvallis Association, Inc., PEAK Internet, City of Corvallis Parks & Recreation, Stover Evey & Jackson, and Burcham’s Metals. Food and drink will be available for purchase. More information can be found on The Art Center’s Website: https://theartscenter.net/arts-alive/
The mission of the Arts Center is to foster creativity and engagement with the arts to inspire personal growth and community well-being. The Arts Center’s Artist Accelerator Program focuses on career building for artists and brings the Arts Alive! event to Corvallis as an engaging opportunity to promote the development of early to mid-career artists. The program director, Claire Elam hopes that Arts Alive! raises the visibility of local and regional artists and aids in strengthening the artistic community.
7:30 Sharon and Dave Thormahlen
Sharon and Dave have been making beautiful music together in Corvallis for decades. They perform traditional and new music written by Sharon, mostly on instruments made by Dave.
8:30 Wild Hog In The Woods
Stringband music from a bygone era played the way it always should have been.
The best Cellar is a once-a-month evening of acoustic music. Admission is “pay what you will,” and kids are free. Cookies and coffee are available. Located in the cellar of the Methodist Church on 11th and Monroe, in Corvallis. For more information, or to join the volunteer team, contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com
16th Annual FAR-West 2019 Music Conference
FAR-West, one of five regions of Folk Alliance International, celebrates folk music through our annual conference. We invite you to join us this October — to listen, celebrate, recognize, and enjoy the richness of folk music in the West. Our regional conference offers an affordable, intimate and interactive way for acoustic artists and presenters to focus on the folk community in the western region of the US and Canada. Join us for four days of music, learning and connecting. We welcome a wide variety of styles, levels and disciplines, encouraging musical and cultural diversity and excellence.
7:30 Fred Towne
Fred has been writing and singing songs for many years, independently and as part of Where To? and with other performers.
8:30 Suz Doyle and Friends
Suzannah Doyle is a composer, performer, and on-the-spot songwriter whose work appears in productions world-wide. She plays with and in groups of all sizes, from classrooms to concert halls, from singers and instrumentalists to improv groups, and she is the chief comedy wrangler of Ringtone Theatre.
She played by invitation at the White House in Washington, D.C., and appears live and on 23 albums with a diverse array of performers in the Pacific Northwest, including her most recent group “The Wallop Sisters” (formerly “the Ukes of Hazard”), with whom she co-hosts the monthly Corvallis Ukulele Cabaret community Singalongs.
Suz’s music can be heard in network television, PBS, commercials and videos, in Piano Dreams: the Movie, in Jane Eyre, the Musical Classic (with playwrite Kristina Harris), and on the CD “Ringtone Theatre: Volume 1” featuring short musical comedy sketches for cellphones and comic relief. Her songs are available online at many nifty digital marketplaces.
The best Cellar is a once-a-month evening of acoustic music. Admission is “pay what you will,” and kids are free. Cookies and coffee are available. Located in the cellar of the Methodist Church on 11th and Monroe, in Corvallis. For more information, or to join the volunteer team, contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com
7:30 Choro Na Cozinha
- Kimberly Cullen (pandeiro),
- Spencer Doidge (7-string guitar)
- John Bliss (mandolin)
- Bill Pfender (clarinet).
Choro na Cozinha: (“Choro in the Kitchen”). Choro is a lively, lyrical genre of Brazilian music. Syncopated and harmonically complex, it is the ancestor of samba and bossa nova and still a widely-popular music in bars, restaurants and backyards of Brazil.
8:30 Swangle
Swing tunes from the early to mid 1900’s – with clarinet, fiddle, piano, vocal harmonies and an emphasis on fun. Group members are Michelle Dedman, Barbara Barry-Doyle, Evelyn Idzerda, Jacques Gabriel, Bill Pfender.
The best Cellar is a once-a-month evening of acoustic music. Admission is “pay what you will,” and kids are free. Cookies and coffee are available. Located in the cellar of the Methodist Church on 11th and Monroe, in Corvallis. For more information, or to join the volunteer team, contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com
7:30 Randy McCoy and Family
Randy McCoy is a local musician and co-owner of the Little Gym of Corvallis
His song “26 Reasons”, inspired by the Sandy Hook shooting, appears on the CD Connecticut Voices for Heroes.
8:30 Rita Brown
Rita has been performing in Corvallis for years, as a soloist, with partner Bill Smyth and as part of groups The Flow and Crooked Kate. She helped highlight the Best Cellar tribute to female musicians last spring.
The best Cellar is a once-a-month evening of acoustic music. Admission is “pay what you will,” and kids are free. Cookies and coffee are available. Located in the cellar of the Methodist Church on 11th and Monroe, in Corvallis. For more information, or to join the volunteer team, contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com
7:30 Dinna Fash
Dinna Fash is Scots Gaelic for don’t worry, and this trio uses cellos and fiddles to play a wide variety of traditional and modern Celtic tunes so you can leave your worries behind. Kevin Craven, recently arrived from Hawaii is a local violin teacher and also plays with the OSU Symphony. Maria Blair on fiddle and cello, most recently from Durango Colorado, is also a step dancer. She brings special rhythm and vitality to the music. Beth Brown has been playing Celtic cello on the Corvallis scene for over 10 years, previously with the bands Three Fingered Jack and Lark. The trio is heavily influenced by Alasdair Frasier and Natalie Haas and has attended their camps and workshops. Along with traditional Irish, Scottish, Québécois and Shetland tunes, they play some of the modern tunes composed by the new generation of Celtic influenced musicians.
8:30 Adam Scramstad
Adam is an award winning Acoustic/Electric Finger-style & Blues Musician, born and raised in Oregon. Performing regularly throughout the Pacific Northwest, Scramstad’s reputation as a professional Blues Guitarist & Vocalist is rapidly becoming widespread.
A strong and creative Songwriter in his own-right, Scramstad’s repertoire also covers a broad range of early American Folk/Blues artists’ works – such as: Son House, Bukka White, Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Lightning Hopkins, Blind Blake, John Fahey, Elizabeth Cotton.
Adam’s 2006 debut Solo album “No Sun Around Blues” climbed to #33 on the Roots Music Radio Blues Chart – June 2006. The CD is a mix of acoustic blues (w/vocal) & finger-style guitar songs, and quickly became a favorite of local NW Radio Stations. His music has been featured on the nationally syndicated “Blues Deluxe Show” as well as receiving regular airplay on many regional, national and international stations/shows.
Although he maintains a focus on Solo Acoustic Delta Slide & Country Blues (both vocal and instrumental), Adam also regularly performs with Blues Guitar Legend Terry Robb (Adam’s Producer & Mentor)– as an acoustic duo as well as slinging electric guitar in the acclaimed Terry Robb Band. You can hear Adam’s rhythm & lead electric guitar work throughout the 2012 Terry Robb Band release “Muddyvishnu”.
The best Cellar is a once-a-month evening of acoustic music. Admission is “pay what you will,” and kids are free. Cookies and coffee are available. Located in the cellar of the Methodist Church on 11th and Monroe, in Corvallis. For more information, or to join the volunteer team, contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED
7:30 Revel’n
Evelyn Idzerda and Ron Snyder create some wonderful sounds with sweet singing and hot guitar picking doing old timey classics and innovative bluegrass.
8:30 Cassandra Robertson
A muse with a message, Cassandra has the heart of a lion, and the mane to match. Accompanied by her acoustic guitar, she floors the audience like a sonic boom with captivating messages of peace, prosperity, hope and above all, inspiration. Her unique style of “acoustic conscious folk” kick starts the heart and levitates the soul; reminding us all that we CAN positively affect the world we all share, as long as we choose planet over profit and remember to be ourselves.
The best Cellar is a once-a-month evening of acoustic music. Admission is “pay what you will,” and kids are free. Cookies and coffee are available. Located in the cellar of the Methodist Church on 11th and Monroe, in Corvallis. For more information, or to join the volunteer team, contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com
This event has been canceled
7:30 Absolute Harmony
Absolute Harmony is four singers who believe in the power of harmony and in music with a message. They blend tight vocal harmonies, weaving a musical tapestry that lifts the spirit and arouses the heart. Their music ranges from folk music to South African freedom songs, from doo-wop to original compositions by Absolute members. They are: Elizabeth Wyatt, Julie Williams, Shelley Willis, and Micki Reaman.
8:30 Guitar Masala
Sid Rosen and his friends play unusual music with an international flavor.
The best Cellar is a once-a-month evening of acoustic music. Admission is “pay what you will,” and kids are free. Cookies and coffee are available. Located in the cellar of the Methodist Church on 11th and Monroe, in Corvallis. For more information, or to join the volunteer team, contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED
Salem Folklore Community’s
34th Annual
Westwind Weekend
of music and dance
A beautiful setting on the Oregon Coast. A pristine, sheltered beach, tidepools galore, wildlife in the water, woods, and air, hikes that lead to superb vistas up and down the coast. It’s a weekend at the beach, with music and friends old and new. It’s always sunny at Westwind, AND it almost always rains. Which is to say, any weather can happen.
A growing, family friendly community. More than a fourth of those who attend the Westwind Weekend are young people. Kids bring their friends. They dig in the sand, play Frisbee, hike, play cards, dance, play music, drink hot cocoa, help out, hang out, and build lasting memories.
Non-stop music jams. At any moment you’ll find swing favorites on the front porch, old-time in the shed, and Irish/contra tunes in the kitchen. Some of the finest musicians in the Willamette Valley come to Westwind and are joined by folks just learning to play and everyone in between.
Contra dancing and more. Friday and Saturday evenings feature the Westwind All Star Orchestra playing tunes, and dance programming that’s aimed at all ages and abilities. Expect family dances, contras and squares, and a set of Scandinavian favorites. Also find musicians jamming and swing or zydeco dancing underway outside the main hall.
Camper-led workshops. Gumboot dancing, daisy chain squares, swing chords, beach talk, favorite folk songs: come with your special talent to share or learn something you’ve never heard of before. Sunday morning expect time for singing the gospel of our non-denominational love of community.
A Saturday camper concert. Enjoy listening to the crazy, creative, and sublime as your fellow campers perform, or put together your own high or low art performance and step up onto the whale bone stage.
Happy, hearty vegetarian food. Beth Littlewolf has been our cook for 25+ years. She makes wonderful fare that brings us all together in the historic Wilson Lodge for family-style meals. Meals at Westwind include snack Friday evening, breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday, and early-wake up breakfast fare plus brunch on Sunday.
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED
7:30 Dave Plaehn and Jeff Hino
Dave Plaehn and Jeff Hino are the Corvallis Blues Brothers.
Dave and Jeff 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.
8:30 The Lucky In Love String Band
Pete Kozak, Jeff Hino, Ron Green, and Mark Weiss
Bluegrass with a twist. Well, maybe a few twists. Hot instrumental work and three part harmony.
The best Cellar is a once-a-month evening of acoustic music. Admission is “pay what you will,” and kids are free. Cookies and coffee are available. Located in the cellar of the Methodist Church on 11th and Monroe, in Corvallis. For more information, or to join the volunteer team, contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com
Folk Unlocked: Connection, Discovery, Inspiration, is a five-day event for the entire international folk community to come together for panels, workshops, showcases, affinity and peer group meetings, exhibit spaces, networking, and mentorship. This is a year for innovation and creativity, and our goal is to create a space for community building and career development for everyone from the comfort and safety of their own home.
While the conference officially starts on Monday, 2/22, there are events on Sunday, 2/21, including meet-ups with artists such as John Gorka, Eliza Gilkyson, Cathy Fink and many others. The schedule is much too long to even summarize here, but there will be the Keynote Interview: Margaret Atwood with Anaïs Mitchell, and a session on Songs and Pursuit of Social Justice including OSU’s Bob Santelli.
For more information and to register click here or on the logo above.