Weekly Bluegrass Jam Session at Cuppa Joe's, EVERY Wednesday, 7:30 starts January 6. 194 Castro Street, Mountain View, (650) 967 2294.
Folk music open mike Saturdays at 7:30, Marsh Theatre, 1074 Valencia, SF (415) 826 5750
The Annual Summer Solstice Festival of Southern California, which was missing in 1997 and 1998, will be held again this June. More information in a later folknik
Marin Folk Club, rumors to the contrary, continues to meet on Fridays - alternating with SFFMClub - at St John's Episcopal Church in Ross at 8:30. Info at (510) 525-1965.
A PBS special of Celtic Harpestry will be aired nationally in December, 1998, and repeated in February and March, 1999. Check your local PBS station for exact dates.
The video was shot in and around a castle outside of Dublin, with performances and interviews of artists from Celtic Harpestry, a recording featuring some of the world's greatest Celtic harpists.
Rubin Boaz, the last full time accordion repairman in California, imports and sells accordions and organizes workshops on various styles of playing:
Workshops are $25 each. Call Rubin at Boaz Accordions (510) 653 6983 for details.
The Four Directions Dulcimer Kindred of the San Fransisco Bay Area still exists! Starting in January, we will rotate our meeting locations around the Bay. People in the Hayward, Hills, Berkeley, and Santa Clara will host meetings through next May, and we'll probably have our June meeting at the Free Folk Festival. We still meet on the second Saturday of the month, from 1 to 5 PM. Flyers with the new schedule should be available soon; if you are not on our mailing list, please email me at <klamar@shaman.com> or phone me at 510-733-0425 to request one.
Two very special events are happening in January and February. First, Mark Nelson will offer two dulcimer workshops at Gryphon on the afternoon of Saturday, 16 January 1999: one for beginners, and one (we hope) about Hawaiian music on the dulcimer. Call Gryphon, at 650-493-2131, for details. Mark will also appear at two house concerts (one at Garry and Cheryl's house in Alameda) that same weekend.
Second will be a workshop with Neal Walters, on the evening of Thursday, 4 February 1999, at 7 PM. Neal will teach us how to play "Fiddle tunes You Probably Can't Dance To" from the American tradition. Workshop will be at 21295 Birch Street, Hayward. Please email me at <klamar@shaman.com> or phone me at 510-733-0425 for reservations, directions, or more information. We truly would like to see you at some of our events!
Lal Waterson, born 1943, died of lung cancer September 4. Lal with her sister Norma, brother Mike and friend John Harrison (replaced later in the 70s by Martin Carthy) were the legendary traditional group, The Watersons, known and loved throughout the United States. She also recorded Waterdaughters albums with her daughter Marie, sister Norma and niece Eliza Carthy and in 1996 a critically acclaimed recording of originals with her son Oliver Knight. She is mourned not only by her immediate family but also by her extended, worldwide musical family.
Gene Autry of singing cowboy fame died October 2 following a long illness, he was 91. He began his claim to fame in the mid-1930s, and continued to perform in films, on radio and television or in his own rodeo until 1964
His theme song was "Back in the Saddle Again" his horse a chestnut stallion, Champion. He came by his cowboy image honestly having been born in 1907 on a small cattle and grain farm in Tioga, Kansas. He was a prolific songwriter of some 300 tunes including Here Comes Santa Claus and That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine.
Luke Baldwin, well known in Bay Area folk music circles during the 1970s, died of a heart attack in Arlington at age 47. For those 10 years he wrote songs and played music while working as a cook, janitor and journalist on the side. During that decade he recorded one album The Tattoo on My Chest, and published a songbook, Twenty-Odd Songs. Later he earned a masters degree and a doctorate from Harvard and at the time of his death was provost at Lesley College in Cambridge.