Labyrinth Cafe 2011-12 Season
Saturday, August 13, 2011 - 7:30 p.m. $5
Sing-along/Fundraiser for UUCFL
Help us kick off our 2011-2012 season with this fun, lively and interactive event! Local performers will host, emcee and lead the evening's festivities, refreshments are available for sale and plenty of free parking is provided. “There is no pressure to sing out really loudly, or to sing incredibly well. The only common bond is that everyone in the group loves to sing. That's it. Sharing songs and creating magical sound is really way too much fun.”
We will be singing from the “Rise Up Singing” songbook (a wonderful guide compiled by SingOut Magazine with lyrics to over 1200 classic songs) as well as from our own memory – selections will include a great mix of folk, gospel, bluegrass, jazz, contemporary, rounds, old-time. If you have a copy of “Rise Up Singing", please bring it. We will also have copies for sale for at the event.
Everyone is welcome. Without you, there is no sound!
Saturday, September 10, 2011 - 7:30 p.m.
Matthew Sabatella and The Rambling String Band
With vocals, guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, bass fiddle, mountain dulcimer, and a wealth of traditional American folk songs, Matthew Sabatella and The Rambling String Band bring the story of the United States vividly to life. Audiences, young and old, sing and dance along to familiar songs as well as virtually forgotten gems that reveal the dreams, hardships, and joys of people who built homes and lives in a fledgling nation. Featuring fiddle tunes, folk songs, Old World ballads, work songs, spirituals, love songs, sea shanties, reels, play parties, breakdowns, and blues, Ballad of America explores the songs, music, and instruments of colonists, pioneers, sailors, lumberjacks, immigrants, '49ers, farmers, mountaineers, slaves, soldiers, cowboys, and railroaders.
Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 7:30 p.m.
Rebecca Zapen/Grant Peeples
Rebecca Zapen’s versatile violin playing, pure clear voice, and ability to write nostalgia-infused music have earned her comparisons to Astrud Gilberto, Suzanne Vega, Leonard Cohen, and The Ditty Bops. Her influences include Stephane Grappelli, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chet Baker, and Nick Drake.Rebecca's "dreamy, ethereal vocals swoon and sweep atop sublime melodies and infectiously charming lyrics, instantly hypnotic and effortlessly charming" (Subba-Cultcha UK). Accompanying herself on ukulele, guitar, and violin, Zapen's music is "mellow, creative, happy, and smart" (Celebrity Cafe).
There is something that distinguishes Grant Peeples from the vast, strumming herd of singer/songwriters. His songs and his performances are strictly bereft of cliché and sentimentality. There is never an “ooh baby” in a Grant Peeples song. There are no white picket fences. His songs bite and twist, turn on a phrase, dig beneath the surface of appearances. He violates the “No Trespassing” signs, peeks over the backyard fences of the culture. Then he picks up his guitar and lets you know what he’s seen–unapologetically–like a poet would anchor the Six O’clock News.
Saturday, November 12, 2011 - 7:30 p.m.
Jennings & Keller/Roy Schneider and Kim Mayfield We regret to inform that Small Potatoes had to cancel their Florida tour, and we are extremely disappointed they will not be gracing our Labyrinth Cafe stage for the next show - however, we are equally delighted that the very-talented Roy Schneider (and his musical partner Kim Mayfield) have agreed to step in as the other half of November's co-bill with the always-amazing Jennings & Keller!
Jennings & Keller is Laurie Jennings Oudin and Dana Keller, an acoustic duo based out of Miami, Florida. They bring a wealth of experience to their collaboration, from the Broadway musicals of New York to the honky tonks of West Texas. Their music is called "Fusion Folk Americana' - a blend of many different elements that comes from their vast and wide-ranging musical backgrounds. Laurie Jennings Oudin is well-known as the former proprietress of The Main Street Cafe, which was viewed across the country as the premier acoustic music venue in Florida. Dana Keller is a veteran pedal steel, dobro, and guitar player. The synergy created from these two diverse talents is not easy to define, but will leave a lasting impression on all who listen.
Since ending his nationally syndicated comic strip in 2008 to focus on his lifelong musical aspirations, singer/songwriter Roy Schneider now plays all over the US and beyond, often backed by Kim Mayfield on piano and vocals. "While the world is littered with people toting acoustic guitars and second-hand Hallmark card verses masquerading as insights, Schneider is a cut above the hoardes... Sometimes he sounds like he's auditioning for Little Feat (he'd get in, too), sometimes he's light and jazzy and sometimes he's a proper acoustic rocker. All the time he's interesting, with the changes of pace keeping the listener on their toes, not least in wondering how he manages to be good at it all." James Soars, 'Maverick' Magazine (UK)
Saturday, December 3, 2011 - 7:30 p.m. (first Saturday)
Karen Mal/Laurie McClain
Karen Mal sings. From raw sensuality to shimmering bell-like clarity, her voice is both tender and powerful, and as effortless as a waterfall. There's a river that flows between Karen and her audience. It's about love. The possibility and the unbearable beauty of it. Elusive and abundant at the same time. Based in Austin, TX, Karen has created a name for herself as a captivating singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Ranging from charming to seductive, impressionistic to philosophical, her songs have brought her nationwide acclaim. Karen has a storyteller's voice, sifting words like she is talking to you over coffee, effortlessly rising from dusky phrases to bell-pure highs. You believe every word and note and you could listen to her sing all night long.
Laurie McClain moved to Nashville, TN, in 1997 with three daughters in tow after spending most of her life in Lincoln, Nebraska. She has managed to make a name for herself as a formidable songwriter and engaging performer on the national folk and Americana scene while raising her children, therefore touring only sparsely & sporadically around the U.S. for the last 20 years. With her three daughters raised, Laurie is now embarking on a full time music career. “Laurie turns each venue into her own living room, and each listener into a new friend with her disarming humor and passionate performance. Laurie's songs explore the themes of identity, growth, friendship and love in a way that always honors the fundamental mysteries of the human journey. In this Mecca of songwriters, she is a gem of uniqueness and authenticity." -JM Kearns
Saturday, January 14, 2012 - 7:30 p.m.
Rod MacDonald/John Wort Hannam (joined by fiddler extraordinaire Scott Duncan)
A pivotal force in the 80’s Greenwich Village folk revival, New York’s Village Voice wrote of Rod MacDonald, “politics, passion and a sense of humor…” which accurately describes Rod’s passion for music, and his personal commitment to communicating events that have effected and shaped our world’s societies. Rod seamlessly weaves romantic ballads in between his trademark tongue-in-cheek socio-political commentaries. With lyrics and music that are infectious and inspiring, often humorous, sometimes reckless, frequently evocative, usually thought provoking – and – always compelling, Rod’s songs will stay in your heart and mind long after the music has ended. “…an extraordinarily gifted songwriter who does the topical, humorous and touching folk songs equally well – think Phil Ochs, Loudon Wainwright and Bob Dylan all wrapped in one.” (Dans Distractions)
John Wort Hannam’s Blue Collar Canadian Roots music touches the heart of “everyman”. Winner of the 2010 Canadian Folk Music Awards Contemporary Album of the Year, John is a true poet of the Alberta prairies. He is a born storyteller and his music feels a bit like coming home. His engaging tunes, straight-forward attitude, and quirky humor add to his captivating stage performance. Ten years ago, he quit his job teaching English at a reservation school to write music. Good choice! Since then he has gained a growing reputation as both a writer and a performer of great talent by winning major songwriting competitions in both Canada and the United States and becoming a crowd favorite on festival and other stages. A player since 5 and conservatory trained, Scott Duncan has toured internationally with renowned Alberta groups Barrage and Calgary Fiddlers and is an in-demand celtic fiddle player. “The pleasure of Hannam’s writing is that he makes the world personal rather than making his personal life the world.” – Sing Out! Magazine
Saturday, February 11, 2012 - 7:30 p.m.
Gurf Morlix/Sam Baker
Tempting as it may be, don't just judge Gurf Morlix by the company he keeps, even if it does provide a fine starting point: eminent musical artists like Lucinda Williams, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Warren Zevon, Patty Griffin, Robert Earl Keen, Buddy Miller, Mary Gauthier, Tom Russell, Jim Lauderdale and Slaid Cleaves, to name but a few. As critic Henry Cabot Beck notes on Amazon.com, "If anybody is still looking for a candidate to replace Robbie Robertson in The Band, look no further. Morlix can write, sing, produce, and play nearly every instrument (mostly stringed) and has a bottomless (albeit muddy) range of American musical idioms from which to draw." Through more than four decades of professional music endeavors, Morlix has distinguished himself with his innate musicality, exquisite taste, keen creative instincts, and well-honed ear for not only songwriting but also the elements that bring songs to their fullest fruition.
Sam Baker's is a hard-hewn grace, transcendentally wrought with grit, brutally chiaroscuroed by a weary deliverance sought in common lives. Persistent in Baker's vision is an empathetic evocation of treading life's stilled waters, beauty welled in the dirt of daily endurance. His characters, drawn with the insight of Townes Van Zandt and John Prine, toil unglamorously, overlooked save for Baker's rough, sing-talk psalms giving them fitting voice. His songs are closely observed narratives of eccentric and marginalized people finding meaning in seemingly defeated lives--almost like Leonard Cohen’s, if Cohen had been a Baptist raised in west Texas. There is tenderness and vulnerability in Baker’s songs, perhaps a product of his own nearly-wasted life. An adventurer of sorts, he was almost killed when the Shining Path Maoist guerrillas blew up a train he was riding in Peru in 1986. Not your usual songwriter bio.
Phil Ochs Song Afternoon
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Labyrinth Café (UU Church of Ft. Lauderdale)
2:00 p.m.
$20
See 'Special Events' Page
Saturday, March 10, 2012 - 7:30 p.m.
Nick Annis/Sam Pacetti
Drilling for oil in the Midwest. Selling ice cream from a truck. Running a bakery. Starting points for just a few stories Nick Annis deftly weaves between and through song and performance banter. One man medicine show? Itinerant philosopher? Nick Annis is an award-winning songwriter, but he is also admired by folk fans for the storytelling talent that makes his performances so memorable. Audiences return to hear him deliver spoken word pieces in the style of brilliant songwriter/storytellers like Gamble Rogers, John McCutcheon and Dave Carter. Drawing on his diverse background and Greek roots, Nick crafts “true” stories and timeless accounts of humanity.
Sam Pacetti is one who brings it all together. A fingerstyle guitar wizard. A deft songwriter, capable of haunting depth and wry humor in the space of one song. An impassioned and ecstatic vocalist, as well as a mesmerizing live performer, seamlessly melding headspinning guitar pyrotechnics and raw emotion into one breathtaking package. Tradition and innovation neatly balance in Sam Pacetti's music, the whole infused by a relentless intelligence intent on musical and philosophical synthesis. Martin Simpson, Richard Thompson, Joni Mitchell and Merle Travis are touchstones to Pacetti, and while there are strong elements of the American primitive school of guitar wizardry throughout his work, there is a powerful raw emotionality evident as well - an earthy sensuality more reminiscent of a Greg Brown or a red-dirt blues master than of a musical academian.
Saturday, April 14, 2012 - 7:30 p.m.
Raina Rose/Rebecca Loebe
As the second daughter of a country music historian and a Jewish poet, Americana musician and songwriter Raina Rose revels in sharing with you her beautifully twisted, yet refreshingly optimistic perspective on the world. Her unique voice and exceptional guitar playing transcend age, gender, generation, and even catch the ears of those who aren't typically into acoustic guitar-driven songwriting. With a naturalist's eye, an artist's pen, and a lion's attack, Raina lays everything she has on the line; she makes you feel as if she's your best friend whispering a honeysuckle-sweet secret in your ear, warmly inviting you into a joyfully intimate and darkly candid conversation. It's that ability to forge her own path in the world of music that sets Raina apart from her contemporaries, and her “no holds barred, lay it on the line” brand of Americana that secures Raina’s place in music history as more than a mere footnote or a passing trend.
Berklee College of Music graduate Rebecca Loebe is a laid-back award-winning indie-folk singer from Atlanta, GA. Since quitting her job as a full-time recording studio engineer in 2006, she has performed 100+ shows per year at colleges, coffeehouses and theaters in over 30 states of the US and in Europe. She has garnered rave reviews for her high-energy performances, weaving together skillful, emotional songwriting, folk storytelling and whimsical comedy for the ADHD generation. Rebecca was recently a contestant on the NBC television show The Voice and her cover of Nirvana's "Come as You Are", which she performed for her blind audition, reached #7 on the iTunes US Alternative song chart.
Saturday, May 12, 2012 - 7:30 p.m.
Amy Carol Webb/Kat Eggleston
"Amy Carol Webb" defined, is "beloved song weaver." She is passionate, powerful, and poignant. She's the girl next door and no ordinary woman. Born and reared in Oklahoma, Amy traces her heritage back to Native Americans through her Great-Grandmothers who settled Oklahoma when it was still a Territory. Amy's music reflects the same pioneering spirit, tenacity, integrity and never-quit grit. She is "beauty and vulnerability, genuine, sympathetic and electrifying." (Gables Gazette) Her joy is infectious, her courage inspiring, her songs gifts of literate, humorous, often profound poems of one woman's remarkable journey from precious child, to woman to mother... to "Songweaver."
Kat Eggleston is one of the most accomplished guitarists and singer/songwriters in the folk, Celtic and traditional music genres. Elating, moving, and amusing audiences with her beautiful blend of sweet melodies, gentle honesty and searing humor, Kat's music reflects a wide range of life's experiences with unusual clarity and authority. In a clear alto with flawless intonation, Kat goes straight to the lyrical and emotional truth of every word and every note. Her musings on home, childhood, and her father's garden are gems of direct, unassuming plainspokenness. Her narratives push hard at our senses and demand we return again and again to pick up the pieces we dropped on first hearing, expanding our comprehension of difficult, personal and universal experience.
Click on the link to print a copy of our Labyrinth Cafe schedule to put on your refrigerator (this will print full size)... or help spread the word about our great concerts by printing off a few copies to hand out to friends or post on bulletin boards. Thanks for supporting live, original music!
