Calendar
Submit calendar info to:
calendar@corvallisfolklore.org
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.
Portland FolkMusic Society presents
Singtime Frolics Online
a spring weekend of singing, jamming, learning, sharing and good food (you provide) at Portland FolkMusic Society’s annual retreat.
To register click here
Guest artists
Gordon Bok & Carol Rohl
Gordon and Carol need no introduction to lovers of traditional music. Gordon says “I’m drawn to songs that show me how others have lived their lives and sorted through their problems… They’ve shown me how to live, and if others learn something from my passing them on, that’s another pleasure.” Carol plays Celtic harp and has a special love for Paraguayan music . Washington Post said “The shimmering weave of harp tones and supple guitar rhythms cast a spell unlike anything else the duo performed.”
Stephanie Anne Johnson
Stephanie Anne learned to sing and started to teach herself guitar in grade school, soaking up folk, blues and gospel singers. Building on that base, she went on to study music in college, and has sung opera and musical comedy. She is equally at home with her band, the Hidogs, or accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. Her music is “rooted in all that’s American,” and reflects her daily practice of cultivating joy. Her concert and workshop will leave you joyful!
Beth Wood
Beth has been writing and performing full-time for twenty-three years — delighting and inspiring audiences with her exceptional musicianship and her songs that pull you into her world, all presented in the warmest most inviting way. She is well known to the Portland folk community, and if you have never spent time with Beth, you are in for a treat!
Lauren Sheehan
Lauren launched her recording and performing career in 2002 and has been sailing on to critical acclaim, national and international radio charts and lots of encores at venues across the US and Canada ever since. This vivacious singer delights audiences with the breadth of her material, evocative artistry and musicianship.
Jermaine Malone
Jermaine writes songs that tell stories from his life, moving easily among genres from R&B to hip hop. He draws his energy from interacting with the people who come to be with him when he is performing. Jermaine says his main joy is “to bring a smile to your face, and a shake to your hips”!
The Gothard Sisters
The Gothard Sisters are a dynamic musical group of three sisters who play contemporary Celtic music. Through 10 years performing, touring and writing music together, the optimistic style of their music and performances continue to resonate with their fans, building a loyal international following.
Their latest all-original album release, Midnight Sun, reached #6 on the Billboard World Music charts as the highest ranking debut on the chart. The Gothard Sisters have performed in venues large and small all over the country, including a concert at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium stage in Washington DC, performances with Disney Cruise line in Europe, a 20-city concert tour of Japan in 2019 and appearances at music festivals and performing arts venues nationwide.
Blending Celtic, folk, classical, world and northwest musical influences, the Gothard Sisters bring songs to life with violin, acoustic guitar, mandolin, bodhran, djembe, octave violin, whistle and vocal harmonies, creating music that is “vivid, inspirational and captivating.” (Tim Carroll, Folk Words Review 2018)
Writing and recording near their home in the Pacific Northwest between touring nationally, the band has released 7 albums and has performed over 1,000 live shows over the course of their career.
Portland FolkMusic Society is delighted to announce this new event – not because of the pandemic, but because we want to create a space where old and new friends from across the US and around the world enjoy music together. No cars, no hotels, just music!
PFS is planning a full slate of events, starting with a wonderful group of guest artists: Cindy Kallet & Grey Larsen, Rita Gallagher, William Seiji Marsh, Michelle Alany, LaRhonda Steele, and Arietta Ward, who will do concerts over the three days. We’ll have workshops, song circles and panels led by participants, and there will be big events every evening where participants who want to can sing for the whole group, and those who don’t can soak up the good vibes and good singing. In March this year, we held our first big on-line event, Singtime 2021, and the participants – from 26 states and nine countries – created a magical space, filled with warmth, music and community. We hope you will come to fAll Song and create more magic. To find out more, to register, and to volunteer to lead a song circle or a workshop or help with tech, just click here. Thanks, keep singing, and we hope to see you in September.
Alana McKenzie for the PFS fAll Song organizing committee
Best Cellar – Canceled
Now that things are opening up we have scheduled Best Cellars for this year. We will add details of performers as they are confirmed. Unfortunately, the Beta variant has postponed the restart of the Best Cellar for the foreseeable future. Get Vaccinated!
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
Robbie Fulks
Robbie Fulks is a singer, recording artist, instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter. His most recent release, 2017’s Upland Stories, earned year’s-best recognition from NPR and Rolling Stone among many others, as well as two Grammy® nominations, for folk album and American roots song (“Alabama At Night”).
Radio: multiple appearances on WSM’s “Grand Ole Opry”; PRI’s “Whadd’ya Know”; NPR’s “Fresh Air,” “Mountain Stage,” and “World Cafe”; and the syndicated “Acoustic Cafe” and “Laura Ingraham Show.” TV: PBS’s Austin City Limits; NBC’s Today, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Later with Carson Daly, and 30 Rock. From 2004 to 2008 he hosted an hourlong performance/interview program for XM satellite radio, “Robbie’s Secret Country.” Artists who have covered his songs include Sam Bush, Kelly Hogan, Andrew Bird, Mollie O’Brien, Rosie Flores, John Cowan, and Old 97s.
Robbie’s writing on music and life have appeared in GQ, Blender, the Chicago Reader, DaCapo Press’s Best Music Writing anthologies for 2001 and 2004, Amplified: Fiction from Leading Alt-Country, Indie Rock, Blues and Folk Musicians, and A Guitar and A Pen: Stories by Country Music’s Greatest Songwriters. As an instrumentalist, he has accompanied the Irish fiddle master Liz Carroll, the distinguished jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman, and the New Orleans pianist Dr. John. As a producer his credits include Touch My Heart: A Tribute to Johnny Paycheck (Sugar Hill, 2004) and Big Thinkin’ by Dallas Wayne (Hightone, 2000). Theatrical credits include “Woody Guthrie’s American Song” and Harry Chapin’s “Cottonpatch Gospel.” He served twice as judge for the Winfield National Flatpicking Guitar competition. He tours yearlong with various configurations.
Besides country and bluegrass music, Robbie is fiercely fond of Charles Mingus, P.G. Wodehouse, quantum mechanics, his wife Donna, comedy in almost all forms, cooking, swimming laps, the past, Arthur Schopenhauer, Universal horror movies, his grandson and even his sons, coastal towns in the off-season, and rye whiskey, though in nothing like that order.
Advance GA seats $20 online at WhitesideTheatre.org/live-events and at Corvallis Brewing Supply
All Tickets $25 day of the show
Golden Bough
Golden Bough’s first European performances were in the streets and small folk clubs of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Holland and Switzerland in the early `80’s. These simple beginnings soon led to major tours of European cities and a recording contract with a top European folk music label. Other activities that Golden Bough has been involved in over the past several years include peace marches in cities all over Europe protesting the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, musical presentations for tens of thousands of elementary school children and events for human rights, religious freedom and drug rehabilitation.
Since their inception, Golden Bough has become a popular and in demand group on both sides of the Atlantic, gaining critical acclaim and enthusiastic support from folk fans wherever they perform. Blending their voices in pristine harmony, they back themselves on an array of rare and more common acoustic instruments, including; Celtic harp, penny-whistle, violin, octave-mandolin, mandolin, accordion, guitar, harmonica, recorder and bodhran. In the recording studio, as well as on stage, Golden Bough captures the essence and joy of traditional folk music and captivates listeners with the uniqueness of their original compositions. With songs and instrumental pieces ranging from ballads to lively jigs, reels and sing-alongs, Golden Bough provides an atmosphere in which the listener can enjoy unique entertainment within and beyond the boundaries of traditional folk music. Their music is well received and enjoyed by audiences of all ages.
Best Cellar
Now that things are opening up we have scheduled Best Cellars for this year. We will add details of performers as they are confirmed.
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
Best Cellar
Now that things are opening up we have scheduled Best Cellars for this year. We will add details of performers as they are confirmed.
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
Best Cellar
Now that things are opening up we have scheduled Best Cellars for this year. We will add details of performers as they are confirmed.
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
Open to all community members.
Open to all community members.
Robin and Linda Williams
For more than four decades now, Robin & Linda Williams have made it their mission to perform the music that they love, “a robust blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time and acoustic country that combines wryly observant lyrics with a wide-ranging melodicism.” Today some might call it “Americana,” but these two revered music masters were living and breathing this elixir 20 years before that label was turned into a radio format.As live performers, they are second to none. Their stirring concerts have earned them a huge body of fans over the years. But as gifted songwriters Robin and Linda have earned an even rarer honor, the devotion and deep respect of their musical peers. As The Washington Post put it, “The Williamses are able to sum up a life in a few details with moving completeness.” The list of artists who have covered their original songs include some of the greats of country music, names like Emmy Lou Harris, Tom T.Hall, George Hamilton IV, Tim & Mollie O’Brien, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea and The Seldom Scene. One of their most requested songs, “Don’t Let Me Come a Stranger,” has been recorded by the well-known Irish singer, Mary Black.
Save $2 with promo code CFS
Attendance is limited to 300 so get tickets early!
See COVID requirements: https://www.whitesidetheatre.org
CFS annual Corvallis Contra Weekend 2022 CANCELED
This event is yet another casualty of Covid
Elixir
Elixir blends driving fiddle and guitar with the rich texture and rhythmic excitement of a full horn section, deftly weaving brassy riffs and daring solos in and out of traditional Irish, French Canadian and New England tunes. Elegant melodies evolve into raucous dixieland horn riffs; transcendent harmonies, playful improvisations, and rock, swing and reggae-inspired rhythms weave in and out of traditional and original Irish, French Canadian and New England tunes.
Second band TBA
Nils Fredland
Nils Fredland has been calling dances with admirable skill and infectious energy since 2000. Respected for his expertise as a teacher and caller, sensitive leadership, and generosity, Nils is one of the busiest and most sought-after callers in the business. He draws on a large and varied repertoire of dances, presenting material from centuries-old “chestnuts” to cutting-edge contemporary choreography.
Nils is also known for breathing new life into traditional singing squares, and he has co-authored two books on the topic with master callers. Nils studied classical trombone at Indiana University, and has played his horn in ensembles ranging from symphony orchestras to ska bands. In Elixir Nils brings together his myriad talents in one thrilling package. Nils also works as the American Dance Publications Coordinator at the Country Dance and Song Society.
Jacquie Grennan
Jacqui Grennan is a contra dance caller, choreographer, and dance organizer in the Los Angeles contra dance scene.
A fixture in the Los Angeles contra dance community since 2010, Jacqui currently calls at contra dances around the nation and in her home community of Los Angeles, CA. Jacqui produced and organized the 3rd Saturday contra dance series held at the Woman’s Club of South Pasadena, CA, from 2014 to 2016.
Best Cellar
Now that things are opening up we have scheduled Best Cellars for this year. We will add details of performers as they are confirmed.
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