Upcoming Concerts
Saturday, December 14, 2013 – 2 Shows!
4:00 pm and 8:00 pm
An Afternoon and Evening with
Brother Sun
Please specify which show you are interested in attending when you contact us. Doors open to guests 30 minutes prior to each performance.
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From three major points on the map Boston, New York, and Chicago – Greg Greenway, Pat Wictor, and Joe Jencks have blended themselves into Brother Sun: a unique celebration of the amazing power of singing together. As they will tell you, the music of Brother Sun is not resident in any one of them – but rather it exists in the space between them. Audiences feel this sincerity immediately. Their combined musical skills make for an unforgettable experience – three rich voices blending on a well-crafted foundation of guitar, slide guitar, piano, ukulele, and bouzouki.
Brother Sun’s debut CD announced to the world that these respected singer-songwriters had banded together to produce some of the most powerful male harmonies on the acoustic music scene. After two years of nationwide touring and performances marked by outstanding songwriting, ethereal harmonies, off-the-cuff humor, and standing ovations, they have released Some Part of the Truth: a CD that goes a large step further in revealing Brother Sun not only as singers, but as complete musicians. It debuted at #1 on the Folk-DJ Chart, where it remained for 2 months, and spent 5 consecutive months in the Top-40. The CD also rose to #2 on Sirius XM’s Americana Chart. The record has quickly become a favorite of DJs, as well as fans. Brother Sun’s self-titled first release (2011), debuted at #2 on the Folk DJ Chart, and was named the #8 album of 2011 on FOLK-DJ. In addition, Brother Sun made the “Best of 2011″ and “Best of 2012” lists for over a dozen radio stations in the US, including WUMB- Boston, WFUV – NYC, and WFMT – The Midnight Special – Chicago.
The response to the trio’s music has been tremendous! From main stage performances with standing ovations at Kerrville, Falcon Ridge, Philadelphia, Old Songs, Connecticut and other Folk Festivals; to sold out concerts throughout the U.S.A, Brother Sun has earned the respect of fans, colleagues, and presenters alike. And, their music and message appeals to fans of both contemporary and traditional music.
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Saturday, January 18, 2014 – 7:30 pm
An Evening with Molasses Creek
Molasses Creek’s high-energy performances and phenomenal songwriting bring the love of their coastal home to the stage. The band’s elegant harmonies and arrangements, blazing instrumentals, and quirky sense of humor have won loyal followers throughout the United States and around the world. Their inspiration arose amidst exotic fig trees and rich tidewater marshes of isolated Ocracoke Island, NC. Only accessible by ferry, Ocracoke is an enchanting step out of modern times into a world of captivating natural beauty, rich maritime history, ghostly shipwrecks, heroic lifesavers, crafty pirates, and a community of 900 independently minded residents. Award winners from Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion,” Molasses Creek has recorded 13 albums over the past 20 years. In April of 2012, Molasses Creek’s new release, “An Island Out of Time” reached the #4 spot on the National Folk Radio DJ Charts!
Molasses Creek includes Gary Mitchell (guitar/vocals), Fiddler Dave Tweedie (fiddle/vocals), Lou Castro (dobro/bass/vocals), Marcy Brenner (mandolin/banjolin/bass/vocals), and Gerald Hampton (mandolin/upright bass).
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Special Valentine’s Day Concert
Friday, February 14, 2014 – 8:00 pm
An Evening with Mollie O’Brien & Rich Moore
Sometimes the story is just about the ordinary. No big bang, no big gig, no big promoter or writer hearing the band and telling the rest of the world. Sometimes the story is just about doing what you do and keeping at it. In the case of Mollie O’Brien and Rich Moore it means 30 years of marriage, two kids, numerous day jobs, and making music together and apart. They met in 1981 at the Denver Folklore Center on April Fool’s Day and married a few years later. At the time they were involved in their own bands and working solidly all over Colorado – Mollie was singing with Prosperity Jazz Band, a vintage swing band which featured local luminary Washboard Chaz among others; Rich was playing bass with the rock-steady blues band, The Late Show. Within a year Mollie joined The Late Show, and they attracted notice outside the bar band scene and began playing Colorado blues festivals and concerts. A few years of marriage and two daughters later, things began to change. O’Brien quit the blues band and Moore got a day job that he held until both of their daughters graduated from college. Now, here’s how things turned out.
Grammy Award winner Mollie O’Brien became known to the rest of the world as a singer’s singer when, in 1988, she and her brother Tim released the first of three critically-acclaimed albums for Sugar Hill Records (Take Me Back, Remember Me and Away Out On The Mountain). Eventually, Mollie recorded five equally well received solo albums (Tell It True, Big Red Sun and Things I Gave Away for Sugar Hill Records, and I Never Move Too Soon and Everynight In The Week for Resounding Records). Additionally, she was a regular on the nationally-syndicated radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion” from 2001 through 2005. She’s long been known as a singer who doesn’t recognize a lot of musical boundaries and audiences love her fluid ability to make herself at home in any genre while never sacrificing the essence of the song she tackles. O’Brien has primarily focused her efforts on the fading art of interpretation and the end result is a singer at the very top of her game who is not afraid to take risks both vocally and in the material she chooses. Husband Rich Moore has busied himself in the Colorado music scene for many years. While staying home with the kids when Mollie & Tim toured, he held a day job and continued to perform locally with a variety of Colorado favorites, including Pete Wernick and Celeste Krenz. Not only is Moore known to produce some of the funniest onstage running commentary, he’s also a powerhouse guitar player who can keep up with O’Brien’s twists and turns from blues to traditional folk to jazz to rock and roll. He creates a band with just his guitar and, as a result, theirs is an equal partnership.
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Saturday, March 14, 2014 – 7:30 pm
An Evening with Joe Craven
Award winning creativity educator, actor, festival emcee, and multi-instrumentalist, Joe Craven’s love of music making has put him in many musical genres and alongside many musicians over the years, from Jerry Garcia, Yo-Yo Ma, David Lindley, and other groups such as Alison Brown’s Quartet, The Persuasions, Psychograss, The Horse?ies and the list goes on. For 17 years, he was percussionist/violinist with the David Grisman Quintet.
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Saturday, July 19, 2014 – 7:30 pm
An Evening with Rj Cowdery & Tony Denikos
Rj Cowdery is a Columbus, Ohio based artist who has solidified her place as a standout of the next generation of performing songwriters. Though she wrote her first songs as a teenager, Cowdery took a circuitous path to becoming a full-time artist. She experienced exciting creative breakthroughs followed by distractions and obligations that took her away from her lifelong dream of being a professional singer/songwriter. But it has all paid off in recent years. After working for years in health care and writing on the side Rj finally found the nerve to choose music as her career. Since joining the ranks of traveling troubadours she has gained fans from across the country her heartfelt lyrics and tender voice and racked up major songwriting awards including Kerrville New Folk, Mountain Stage NewSong, Wildflower, and most recently the Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Contest at Sisters Folk Festival in Sisters, Oregon.
Maryland native Tony Denikos is one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s songwriting treasures. A familiar face at local clubs, festivals, and coffeehouses showcasing his foot-stomping backbeats, engaging melodies and “tastier than Texas BBQ” guitar work, he’s won the hearts of those who appreciate great songwriting delivered with an honest and authentic voice. A contemporary singer-songwriter who describes his music as modern Americana with deep roots, Denikos has independently released four critically acclaimed recordings and garnered national songwriting awards including the grand-prize in the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest (“Tip Of My Tongue”) and winner of the Great American Song Contest (“Home For Christmas”).
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Saturday, August 9, 2014 – 7:30 pm
Pot Luck Dinner & BBQ at 6 pm
An Evening with Beggar’s Ride and
BeJae Fleming with Jackie Blount
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Saturday, September 6, 2014 – 7:30 pm
An Evening with Jon Shain
Over the years Jon Shain has developed and refined his own contemporary version of the Piedmont Blues, a bouncy, energetic style that developed in Shain’s adopted hometown of Durham, NC and elsewhere around the region. In 1986, Shain headed south to North Carolina to study American History at Duke University and to continue his musical journey, as well. In addition to studying with jazz professor Paul Jeffrey, he also had the good fortune to learn the piedmont blues tradition firsthand by playing in Big Boy Henry’s backing band. It was at this time that Jon Shain also got to meet and play with John Dee Holeman and a number of the great older NC blues players. His classes in school were heavily concentrated in southern history, English, and world religions. That mixture of the academic environment and the real-world blues music is what has most informed his musical direction. Jon cut his touring teeth from 1989-1998 founding the Chapel Hill, NC folk-rock group, Flyin’ Mice and their spin-off group, WAKE. The band performed with acts such as David Grisman, Tony Rice Unit, Hot Tuna, and the Dixie Dregs, released four CDs, and played clubs, schools, and festivals up and down the East Coast, building a legion of fans. After his band’s breakup, Shain went solo, returning to his roots in the folk and blues circuit. He has released six studio albums and in addition to festival slots and headlining club dates, the last few years has seen Shain playing esteemed listening rooms such as The Living Room and Caffe Lena and opening sold out theatre shows for John Hiatt, Keb’ Mo’, Little Feat, and others. When Shain is not recording or performing, he stays busy giving private instruction in Piedmont blues fingerstyle guitar, and teaching group workshops in songwriting and blues guitar.
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November 2014 – Date to be determined
An Evening with Moors & McCumber
James Moors and Kort McCumber are an acoustic duo that crafts beautiful story songs that walk the line between rootsy folk and melodic pop. The two songwriters met at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in 2005. Sitting around a campfire swapping songs, they each heard something in the music of the other that just fit. The two have been performing and writing together ever since. Having collectively sold more than 15,000 copies of independent releases from the stage, the duo has now released two of their own full-length albums.
Based in Superior, Wisconsin, James Moors is heralded by Steve Morse, longtime Boston Globe writer, as “Sharing some of the same melodic gifts of Neil Finn, enhanced by a warm-hearted spirit that makes you want to hear more.” Born and raised in Minneapolis, he grew up with the music of The Replacements, Soul Asylum and Prince but today
draws inspiration from troubadours like Ron Sexsmith and Eliza Gilkyson. An official recipient of the prestigious McKnight Foundation Emerging Artist Grant, his songwriting has been recognized three years in a row by the Big Top Chautauqua competition.
A talented multi-instrumentalist, Colorado artist Kort McCumber plays a variety of instruments (guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, piano) in his own brand of Americana that is one part rock and blues, two parts country bluegrass and all parts McCumber. But it is his songwriting abilities that have made him a Colorado favorite and garnered him national and international recognition. He won last year’s Flat Rock Festival Songwriting Competition in North Carolina and was a finalist in this year’s International Songwriting Competition.
Although successful solo songwriters, Moors & McCumber discovered that their music together is more than the sum of the parts. Embracing a bigger sound than most duos, they switch up instruments on almost every song (playing guitar, mandolin, piano, bouzouki, fiddle, harmonica, cello, 12-string guitar and Dobro), creating catchy melodies that are big, bright and electrifying to watch live.