Labyrinth Cafe 2010-11 Season
Saturday, August 14, 2010 - 7:30 p.m. $5
Sing-along/Fundraiser for UUCFL
Help us kick off our 2010-2011 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 also hope to have copies for sale at the event.
Everyone is welcome. Without you, there is no sound!
Saturday, September 11, 2010 - 7:30 p.m.
The many inspired lyrics given to and interpreted by Eli, combined with Bill's bluesy finger-style guitar playing, create a very uniquely modern take on true Americana music in its purest form. Receiving much recognition for their tightly-woven musical creativity, Bill and Eli Perras humbly remain true to their personal values. They speak out with strong heartfelt lyrics accompanied by soulful genuine pentatonic rhythms against social injustices, corporate greed and daily follies in everyday life. They can grip your heart, search your soul, change a mindset or softly strike a funny bone, all the while leaving the audience with a sentiment for the common good we desire in all mankind.
Ron and Bari Litschauer are the core duo and founding members of the contemporary acoustic folk band, The Roadside Revue. Since the late 1980's they have toured and played the Florida folk music festival and concert circuit, as well as performances in the Carolinas, and the Deception Pass Music Festival in Seattle, Washington. Serious to silly, historic to hysterical, their music is presented with influences of folk, bluegrass, blues, rock, country, and gospel.
Saturday, October 2, 2010 - 7:30 p.m. (first Saturday)
Voted Best Acoustic Performer 2010 by Miami New Times, "local neo-folk act Raffa & Rainer's quirky, insightful, and downright haunting ditties of life and love leave little room on your palate for anything else. Comprising vocalist-guitarist Raffa Jo Harris and guitarist Rainer Davies, this duo has a sound that's delightfully campy... The foundation of their music is earnest and heartfelt songs crafted simply and beautifully."
Dar Williams' growth as a person over her 15-year career has gone hand-in-hand with her evolution as an artist. Raised in Chappaqua, NY, and educated at Wesleyan University, Williams spent 10 years living in the thriving artistic community of Northampton, MA, where she began to make the rounds on the coffeehouse circuit. An early fan of her music was Joan Baez, who took Williams out on the road and recorded several of her songs. Williams self-released her debut album, The Honesty Room, in 1993, then signed with Razor & Tie Entertainment in 1995, which has been her label home ever since. Through it all, Williams' motivation as an artist is to "experience meaning without fooling myself," she says. "There are these moments where everything feels connected, and I think my art is about trying to find the stories that make us feel connected. That's the verve of my life. It's what keeps things interesting."
Saturday, November 6, 2010 - 7:30 p.m. (first Saturday)
Amy Carol Webb – Holiday CD Release Party
"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."
Saturday, December 4, 2010 - 7:30 p.m. (first Saturday)
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.
"Doug & Telisha Williams call their music “Fuel Injected Folk,” those powerful songs that only exist in Southern isolation, where us mountainfolk can take off our shoes and ponder.” Since this husband-and-wife duo from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia cut their [first] CD, Rope Around My Heart, they have been steadily climbing the Roots Music Review Folk Chart. Their success is easy to understand, because they both have voices that cry folk, which bleed the sweet Southern cadences that are hard to find today. Doug could out-ballad Bobby Helms if he wanted to, but he’s content keeping his vocals minimal, understated behind Telishia’s voice, which sounds like a polished Kitty Wells, cooing heartfelt ballads with an unassuming downhome charm." - Metro Pulse, Knoxville, TN
Saturday, January 8, 2011 - 7:30 p.m.
Christine Lavin - 25th Anniversary Concert: What was I (EVER!) Thinking
Christine Lavin's smart and funny songs nail our lives and foibles on the head. From difficult men to today's fads and headlines, she takes it all on with irony and wit. While Lavin knows the downturns of human nature, and her songs can move to a lyrical and poignant realism, it is clear audiences come to her concerts wanting to laugh. She never disappoints! Now she is pulling out all the stops as she celebrates 25 years of songwriting and performance in a concert reprising many of her early hits and introducing her latest. Her 25th Anniversary Concert is vintage Lavin, combining signature songs with hilarious stories of the people, events, near disasters and minor miracles that have defined her life and music.
Saturday, February 12, 2011 - 7:30 p.m.
Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter Danny Schmidt is a writer's writer, with a lyrical depth drawing comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt, and Dave Carter. Upon winning the prestigious Kerrville New Folk award in 2007, Sing Out Magazine tagged Schmidt "the best new songwriter we've heard in 15 years." Just one man sitting alone on stage with his acoustic guitar and his poetry, in the timeless troubadour tradition, his musical influences draw from deeply-rooted Appalachian mountain gospel to haunted English balladry, from syncopated Piedmont country blues to vagabond 60’s protest folk-stumpery. But it all boils down to just great songwriting, in a singular style all his own. Not to be missed.
A troubadour in the most classic fashion, Carrie Elkin has ridden a Gypsy breeze of serendipity for the last ten years, landing for a time in Cleveland, Athens, Taos, Steamboat Springs, Colorado Springs and Boston, finally coming to settle in Austin, TX in the summer of 2007. It’s exactly this sort of openness to the people and places that pass through her life, and to the opportunities that might emerge in every new and particular circumstance... and the very process by which Elkin somehow managed to find herself in the midst of some of Austin’s finest musicians and producers, literally, within days of arriving in town. While already making quite a buzz around the Austin scene with her highly spirited and spontaneous performances, Elkin spends the majority of her time on the road still, touring nationally and in the UK and Europe.
Saturday, March 12, 2011 - 7:30 p.m.
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.
Chuck Brodsky is a down-to-earth musical storyteller, with a dry, barb-witted social commentary combined with a deep underlying compassion, who knows that the best stories are the little things in the lives of everyday people trying to muddle through with some grace. His great gift as a writer is to infuse these stories with humanity and humor, making them resonate profoundly with his listeners. His spoken introductions to his songs can be as spellbinding as his colorful lyrics, which he brings to life with a well-travelled voice and a delivery that's natural and conversational. His groove-oriented strumming and fingerpicking draw on influences from the mountains of western North Carolina where he now lives, and from lots of different good old traditional folk stuff of all kinds.
Saturday, April 9, 2011 - 7:30 p.m.
A major figure in the 80's folk renaissance of Greenwich Village, Rod MacDonald is a prolific communicator well known for his passionate interest in the events that shape our world's societies. As distinctive an entertainer as he is a songwriter, his engaging delivery, musical versatility, timeless ballads and modern folk songs place him in the elite of singer-songwriters performing in North America today. Influenced by songwriters Phil Ochs, Richard Farina and Bob Dylan, and his own background in journalism and law, Rod is not afraid to get political, take chances and ask tough questions. Approaching the genre differently from most contemporary singer-songwriters, his "protest" songs are non-judgmental narratives that rather invite his audiences to draw their own conclusions.
“It seems Joe Crookston can hardly set a foot wrong these days. Several of his songs have made it into the finals of some of the more prestigious national songwriting competitions; John Lennon, Mountain Stage, Great American Song Contest. The audience at the 2007 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival named him one of the Top 3 “Most Wanted” Emerging Artists. This honor landed him a spot on the 2008 Falcon Ridge Preview Tour… Joe Crookston’s star is rising. Versatile songwriting, excellent musicianship and a charismatic stage presence should earn him a permanent place on the national folk scene”. ~ "Top-12-Do-It-Yourself Recording"-- Performing Songwriter Magazine
Saturday, May 14, 2011 - 7:30 p.m.
“Marie Nofsinger came from Massachusetts and has long inhabited South Florida, but Marie's songs seem to drift out of western borderlands, all smoky with mesquite and a Texas-size longing. Standing resolute, cradling her guitar as both friend and shield, she sings of big empty skies and worn-out boots, looking back wistfully on love and history with a knowing voice that would almost break your heart if not for her punctuating smiles... Marie is a troubadour of the first order, gracing not just the stages of the region's top folk festivals but the late-night song-swaps around the campfires where reputations are made, places where she is known as one of the best.” ~ Broward/Palm Beach New Times
Annie Wenz’s songs are “remarkable both for the lyrical insights she presents as well as for the deliciously eclectic way in which she offers them… haunting & powerful”… like looking through a brilliant kaleidescope. Annie sings about our loves, passions & fears, about travel, spirit, & her own experiences… working as a registered psychiatric nurse, bungee jumping 150 feet off a bridge with her guitar on her back, climbing an erupting volcano in Costa Rica, as a rafting guide, a backhoe operator, delivering babies in Harlan County KY, running in a 100 mile relay with Penobscott Indian women to Mt. Katahdin, backpacking around the world... As a multi-instrumentalist with a love for American & world roots music, & good ol classic Rock, Annie is known for her unique way of blending textures & funky instrumentation.
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!
