Calendar

Sharon & Dave Thormahlen

For over 30 years Dave and Sharon Thormahlen have made their living creating music and musical instruments.  Their specialty is in the folk harp with Dave having built over 1400 instruments and Sharon having published 16 books of harp music.  Sharon plays the harp and Dave plays guitar,  mandolin and banjo, enjoying a variety of musical styles including originals, Latin, Irish and Beatles tunes.

Buffalo Romeo

A CORVALLIS CONCERT to celebrate the release of their brand new EP — Buffalo Romeo in 2020 — and the continuing success of their YouTube hit, Hang On Ruthie! 

Lea Jones and Keenan Dorn, aka Buffalo Romeo, kick off their “No More Negative Waves” tour for the spring/summer of 2020.  The show will feature pure acoustic and acoustic/electric music. Both Jones and Dorn sing like birds. Johnny Etheredge dubbed Lea Jones “one of Oregon’s finest musicians,” while jazz great Mike Denny tagged Keenan Dorn as “a virtuoso.”

“We’re real darn fun live and in person.”

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

Corvallis Guitar Society

The goal of the Corvallis Guitar Society is to act as a catalyst to bring local guitarists out of the woodwork and provide an opportunity to perform and enjoy guitar music in a friendly and supportive atmosphere. The accent here is on participation and we hope people will want to participate in the open stage section also – no piece of music is too short or simple (though there is a five minute limit if we have a full sign-up sheet) and you are guaranteed a warm round of applause for showing us what you can do! We do have a limited number of open stage slots so be sure to sign up early at the front desk on the way in.

Our Mission

To promote classical and related guitar styles by providing a supportive performance environment for people of all ages and ability.

We seek to achieve this through a monthly meeting that provides an opportunity to discuss, listen to, and play solo guitar music including classical, flamenco, finger-style, jazz, as well as classical guitar ensemble styles.

Jim & Susie Malcolm
From Scotland

Corvallis has a special treat coming on Feb 6. Jim Malcolm has done highly entertaining concerts here before but always by himself. I enjoyed the music they did together when we visited them in Perth, Scotland. Susie adds a lot to the show. The image shows them having a bit of fun Susie does not play an instrument, that is a frying pan.

“For his 14th album, favorite Scots troubadour Jim is joined by his wife Susie, who’s often sung backing vocals on Jim’s albums but here takes equal part in this collection of duets – including taking the lead on several songs – and the two singers sound very well together in happy consort throughout. Although a number of the songs embrace romance and elopement, there’s more than the usual quota of happy endings (False Lover Won Back, Braw Sailin’). There’s humor too (The Lass Of Killiecrankie, and a frisky take on Jack Foley’s ode to whisky, A Bottle O’ The Best). Even so, the album highlights for me are Jim’s own compositions., This is a most cherishable CD.”                    – David Kidman

“One of the great Scottish voices of our time” Frank Hennessy – BBC Radio Wales

“Quietly, unforcefully and undeniably stunning” – Mojo

“A master of well chosen words and melodic inventiveness” – Rock ‘n’ Ree

l“One of the finest singing voices in Scotland in any style” – Living Tradition

Karen Sikich and Friends

a concert benefiting Confluence: Willamette Valley LGBT Chorus

Karen Sikich and Friends will perform a concert benefiting Confluence: Willamette Valley LGBT Chorus at 3 PM Saturday, February 8 at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 4515 SW West Hills Rd in Corvallis. The concert, “Traces of Love”, will honor Valentine’s Day with songs of love and relationships. Featured performers include renowned accompanist Stephanie Lynne Smith and Confluence vocalists Corey Elliott-Jenks and Sal Currin, along with Julie Williams from Corvallis women’s choir Jubilate!.

Lucy Kaplansky

Lucy started out singing in Chicago folk music clubs as a teenager. Then, barely out of high school, Lucy Kaplansky took off for New York City. There she found a fertile community of songwriters and performers—Suzanne Vega, Steve Forbert, The Roches, and others. With a beautiful flair for harmony, Lucy was everyone’s favorite singing partner, but most often she found herself singing as a duo with Shawn Colvin. People envisioned big things for them; in fact, The New York Times said it was “easy to predict stardom for her.” But then Lucy dropped it all. Convinced that her calling was in another direction, Lucy left the musical fast track to pursue a doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Upon completing her degree, Dr. Kaplansky took a job at a New York hospital working with chronically mentally ill adults, and also started a private practice. Yet she continued to sing. Then Shawn Colvin—who was itching to produce a record—hooked up with Lucy, her ex-singing partner. They went into the studio, and when Lucy’s solo tapes got into the hands of Bob Feldman, president of Red House Records, he was blown away. Suddenly, Lucy was back in the music business. She signed with Red House Records and started playing gigs. Red House released The Tide in 1994 to rave reviews, and within six months Lucy signed with a major booking agency—Fleming Artists—and began touring so much it required leaving her two psychologist positions behind.

With at least 7 solo albums on the Red House label and many performances with other artists Lucy continues to tour and receive airplay both nationally and internationally. Her CD Ten Year Night is the #1 selling album of all time at Red House Records.

RiverRocks

“Rocking the folk out of it since 2003”

RiverRocks band melds 2 songwriters and 4 instrumentalists to present songs that connect and lift us. Laurie Childers, Mina Carson, Bill Veley, Michael Everett, Tracy Daugherty, and Joe Casprowiak wield a variety of instruments to bring you a mix of genres. Contemporary favorites, provocative originals, sweet melodies, harmonies, toe-tapping, laughter, and maybe a tear are all likely to be part of a RiverRocks concert.

Laurie broke a bunch of backbones last May, and spent the summer horizontal on a big hospital bed at home. RiverRocks rehearsals continued every Wednesday afternoon (minus Laurie’s keyboard). Singing for two hours every week kept her lungs clear and healthy. At least as vital was the love, humor and normalcy of
playing music with the band. At this concert we will celebrate the vibrant healing power of music and community.

No cover. Wines will be for sale by the glass or bottle.

Directions: Go 10+ miles N of Corvallis on Hwy 99 to Suver; turn left/west on
Airlie Rd and go another 2 miles.

This event has been CANCELED

The Hoolyeh International Folk Dancers meet once a month on the 2nd Monday at the UU Fellowship Social Hall, 2945 NW Circle Blvd, Corvallis, OR 97330. We will meet from 6:30 to 9:30 with beginning teaching from 6:30 to 7:15, program dancing from 7:15 to 8:00, intermediate teaching from 8:00 to 8:15 or 8:30, and request dancing from 8:30 to 9:30.

We will mix Balkan, Israeli and other folk dances each week, with occasional live music from Balkan, Israeli and other traditions. Watch the calendar for announcements about special dances, but just come to each dance and learn all sorts of dances.

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas

Scotland’s premier fiddle ambassador and the sizzlingly-talented Californian cellist Natalie Haas may not seem an obvious one, but the duo’s dazzling teamwork, driving rhythms, and their shared passion for improvising on the melody and the groove of Scottish tunes have helped reconstruct and revive the Scottish tradition of playing dance music on violin and cello. They have toured internationally for over eighteen years, wowing audiences at festivals and concerts worldwide with their unique sound and have released five critically acclaimed and award-winning albums along the way.

” … you would think they’d been playing together for centuries. While his fiddle dances, her cello throbs darkly or plucks puckishly. Then [Haas] opens her cello’s throat, joining Fraser in soaring sustains, windswept refrains, and sudden, jazzy explosions. Their sound is as urbane as a Manhattan midnight, and as wild as a Clackmannan winter.”        — Boston Globe

“As many gigs as they must have played together over the past decade or so, there remains a striking spontaneity about Fraser and Haas’s music-making. He has tonal variation and attack to spare, but what makes them so consistently absorbing is the responsiveness each shows to the other. Haas is more than a cellist: she’s the rhythm section who uses the percussive chip’n’chop of her bowing and the double bass-like pulse of her pizzicato playing to great effect. The accompanist’s role moves so fluently between them, building tension all the while, and then they’ll slip into unison and it’s like floodgates opening. ”
— The Herald

“Fraser, one of the most respected of all exponents of the Scots fiddle, would look long and hard to find a more appropriate cellist as a partner…A positive joy.”
— The Scotsman

Fraser has a concert and recording career spanning over 30 years, with a long list of awards, accolades, radio and television credits, and feature performances on top movie soundtracks (Last of the Mohicans, Titanic, etc.). In 2011, he was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame. Haas, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, is one of the most sought after cellists in traditional music today. She has performed and recorded with a who’s who of the fiddle world including Mark O’Connor, Natalie MacMaster, Irish supergroups Solas and Altan, Liz Carroll, Dirk Powell, Brittany Haas, Darol Anger, Jeremy Kittel, Hanneke Cassel, Laura Cortese, and many more.

This seemingly unlikely pairing of fiddle and cello is the fulfillment of a long-standing musical dream for Fraser. His search eventually led him to find a cellist who could help return the cello to its historical role at the rhythmic heart of Scottish dance music, where it stood for hundreds of years before being relegated to the orchestra. The duo’s debut recording, Fire & Grace, won the coveted the Scots Trad Music “Album of the Year” award, the Scottish equivalent of a Grammy. Since its release, the two have gone on to record four more critically acclaimed albums that blend a profound understanding of the Scottish tradition with cutting-edge string explorations. In additional to performing, they both have motivated generations of string players through their teaching at fiddle camps across the globe.

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

Radim Zenkl

Mandolin * Mandola * Irish Bouzouki * Ukulele * Tinwhistle * Ethnic Flutes * Didgeridoo * Vocal

Radim’s style features progressive original and eastern European traditional music flavored with string jazz, new age, bluegrass, flamenco, rock, classical and other. The US Mandolin Champion is redefining the mandolin and its role in music by designing new mandolin-family instruments and creating new playing styles. He has invented a masterful technique, the “Zenkl style,” in which a single mandolin sounds like two. Besides collaborating with the top musicians of the acoustic music scene, Radim has built up an extensive repertoire for solo mandolin. He is a member of the Modern Mandolin Quartet and one of the founding members of the Ger Mandolin Orchestra. In recent years he added a variety of ethnic flutes to his concerts and recordings. This show is sponsored by Troubador Music and the Corvallis Folklore Society.

“Radim has reinvented the mandolin in several different ways.”- David Grisman

“Imaginative and great.” – Jerry Garcia

 “Excellent technique and lots of great ideas!” – Bela Fleck

Lúnasa

Lúnasa, the hottest Irish acoustic band on the planet, is composed of Kevin Crawford (flutes, low whistles, and tin whistles), Trevor Hutchinson (double bass), Ed Boyd (guitar), Seán Smyth (fiddle and low whistle) and Cillian Vallely (uilleann pipes and low whistles).

Lúnasa has sold more than a quarter of a million albums in the course of the band’s career and boasts an impressive back catalog of 7 highly acclaimed and award-winning studio albums.

The band is internationally acknowledged as being the finest traditional Irish instrumental outfit of recent times. They are renowned for their stunning shows honed by superb musicianship and a constant touring cycle. They have performed over 1,500 shows across 36 countries since the band formed in 1997. The band has appeared at internationally renowned venues such as The Hollywood Bowl, National Concert Hall (Dublin), Sydney Opera House and Moscow International House of Music. They have been invited to appear at the White House.

Their inventive arrangements and bass-driven grooves have steered Irish acoustic music into surprising new territory. Their recordings have been hailed as some of the best and most important world music albums anywhere, while their blend of intelligence, innovation, virtuosity, and passion has brought them to the forefront of Celtic music.

Corvallis Guitar Society

The goal of the Corvallis Guitar Society is to act as a catalyst to bring local guitarists out of the woodwork and provide an opportunity to perform and enjoy guitar music in a friendly and supportive atmosphere. The accent here is on participation and we hope people will want to participate in the open stage section also – no piece of music is too short or simple (though there is a five minute limit if we have a full sign-up sheet) and you are guaranteed a warm round of applause for showing us what you can do! We do have a limited number of open stage slots so be sure to sign up early at the front desk on the way in.

Our Mission

To promote classical and related guitar styles by providing a supportive performance environment for people of all ages and ability.

We seek to achieve this through a monthly meeting that provides an opportunity to discuss, listen to, and play solo guitar music including classical, flamenco, finger-style, jazz, as well as classical guitar ensemble styles.

International Guitar Night

Each year, International Guitar Night’s founder Brian Gore invites a new cast of guitar luminaries from around the world for special concert tours of North America highlighting the diversity of the acoustic guitar. We are proud to celebrate our 20th year of touring the U.S. For our special Anniversary Tour, Brian Gore has put together his most eclectic lineup yet: Guest host Mike Dawes (England) and his incredible two-hand contemporary style is joined by fretless guitarist from Turkey Cenk Erdoğan; electrifying jazz virtuoso Olli Soikkeli from Finland and Hawaiian Slack Key master Jim Kimo West.