The StepCrew is Over the Top!

By now you know that The StepCrew is kicking off our Celtic Series this year. Again and again we've told how great the concert will be. If you're still not convinced, this is what the Artistic Chair of the Kerrville (TX) Performing Arts Society had to say about their performance there in February of 2008:

Over the top!!! That’s the only way I can describe the performances by The StepCrew in Kerrville this past week...I wasn’t prepared for the sheer excitement, the connection with our audience, and the level of playing and dancing that we experienced...Showcasing the three dance styles and then blending the styles both visually and with the audio description was well done. The variety of dance, instrumental and vocal was well balanced and the pace of the production left the audience clamoring for more...I cannot begin to tell you the impact that the show had on the young people in our audience; they treated the cast like they were rock stars…truly an “electric” evening!

Share that excitement by being in the audience for The StepCrew's performance at the Victoria Theatre on Saturday, November 7 .

YouTube Spotlight: Los Lobos

On Thursday, November 19, Cityfolk welcomes Los Lobos back to the Victoria Theatre. Three time Grammy-award winners, Los Lobos are our premier roots rockers...but that only starts to describe what they mean to the landscape of American music. For over a quarter century, they have melded rock and roll, country, folk, R&B and traditional Mexican music into one of the most original sounds around. Seamlessly blending carefully chosen covers, durable original songs and traditional music, a Los Lobos live show is as good as it gets.

Back in 2002, the band celebrated 25 years of playing together by recording Good Morning Aztlán [Limited Edition]. They created a seven-minute documentary about this milestone.


These two songs were recorded as part of Austin City Limits in 2006.




Want more? Los Lobos has their own YouTube channel where you can get your fill.

Confessions of an Unexpected Band Groupie

by Cityfolk member and fan Leslie Hyll

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I’d become a band groupie, and much less that it would happen in my late forties. But band groupie I’ve become, chasing after a band called Balkan Cabaret. From the greater Seattle, Washington area, Balkan Cabaret is a seasoned group of performers that reminds me of my more youthful travels to Europe and fulfills my interest in the cultures of Eastern Europe. They play the kind of music you would hear late at night in a café in the old town section of Belgrad, Sarajevo, or Sofia. They call it starogradski - Old City songs of the Balkans. I don’t understand the languages, but I understand the emotion, the feelings, the melancholy, the joy of the music, and I want to sing along.

I have always been interested in the music, dance, and culture of other countries. And my husband has been an avid fan of Balkan folk music since he was a youngster in California. So I’ve got to listen to oh so many CDs of Balkan music in our home, and hear his comments on various bands. But Dayton is not a hotbed of Balkan culture, so he had gone without much in the way of live Balkan music for many years. In 2004, he saw a notice that Balkan Cabaret was putting together a mid-west tour. Well, here was his opportunity to introduce me to his youth. Three of the band members are musicians he has known since he was a teen. I stood back and watched as he somehow managed to get the band to Dayton. But that was all he needed to do. I was hooked.

Mary Sherhart, their vocalist, has a sultry alto voice. It’s the kind of voice that I’d like to imagine I’d have if I had kept up with singing. Ok, so it’s wishful thinking, but I’ll live vicariously lip-syncing to Mary’s voice. You should know that even though Mary is an American, she is a very popular singer with Eastern European ethnic communities throughout the US. She is recognized as the best American singer of the Bosnian song style called sevdah, the traditional urban music of town centers of old Bosnia and Herzegovina. You will have the opportunity to hear Mary’s beautiful voice sing sevdah, sevdahlinke, and starogradski at Canal Street Tavern on Friday, October 30.

But don’t come just to hear Mary, because the guys she sings with are consummate musicians of Balkan folk music. Joe Finn, violin and clarinet; Michael Lawson, accordion and vocals; Steve Ramsey, guitar, tambura, bugarija and vocals; Rich Thomas, bass and vocals – these guys have spent much of the past 35 years studying and learning music and songs from throughout Eastern Europe and are now considered one of the finest Balkan ensembles in the United States. They can make their instruments cry or laugh; they thoroughly understand the odd rhythms of Balkan dance tunes. It is obvious they love the music they play. They feel the emotions of the music, and it shows on their faces. And I’ve just realized that they remind me of my husband.
Some of my favorite songs done by Balkan Cabaret are “Alaj mi je veceras po volji” (my friends are here so now it’s time to party!), “Tango Posledno” (who knew Bulgaria had 1930’s style tangos?), and “Rakija I Cigari” (the consequences of those horrible things, booze and cigarettes).

Joining Balkan Cabaret that night is Lyuti Chushki. In Bulgarian, Lyuti Chushki means “Hot Peppers,” and that is the kind of spicy traditional Bulgarian music this band plays. Lyuti Chushki is a combination of musicians from Bulgaria and American musicians from the Baltimore/Washington area. Their unusual, traditional Bulgarian instrumentation includes kaval (endblown flute), gaida (bagpipe), gudulka (bowed stringed instrument with resonating strings in the rebec family), tambura (fretted instrument similar to a guitar) and tupan (large drum), all of which serve to accompany the unique Bulgarian vocal style, which has a beauty all its own.

So, I think you should check out Balkan Cabaret and Lyuti Chushki at Canal Street Tavern, Friday, Oct. 30, 2009. Yeah, you don’t understand Bosnian, Serbian, or Bulgarian but it doesn’t matter. You will feel the music and move to the music and know.

YouTube Spotlight: Son de Madera

The innovative traditionalists of Son de Madera have won considerable renown both in the U.S. and Mexico for their updated take on son jarocho, the exciting string-driven traditional music and dance of the Mexican state of Veracruz. Fusing elements from Spanish, African and indigenous music and dance, the quartet sings, plays such traditional instruments as jarana, cinco zapatero and guitarra de son and dances an energetic and percussive form of traditional heel dancing called zapateado.

Even a short listen to these videos will clue you in to the excitement of Son de Madera. Come hear where their improvisation takes them at UD's Boll Theatre on Thursday, November 12.

In this lecture/demo performance from the World Music Festival: Chicago 2008 starts with a long introduction in Spanish. During the course of the performance, the focus shifts from voice to instruments to feet and back again.



Here is a wonderful Smithsonian Folkways video with three of the members of the band, discussing and demonstrating how important improvisation is to son jarocho music. It's in Spanish with subtitles.



Ready for more? YouTube has a lot to offer.

Jon Hartley Fox Hits the Airwaves

A couple of weeks ago, we let you know that Jon Hartley Fox's book King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records (Music in American Life) has been published. You're already familiar with Fox's smooth and knowledgable writing style because he has also written nearly all of Cityfolk's program notes for the season and the Festival (as well as sporadic articles for the E-newsletter and blog posts) for the last several years.

You can learn more about Jon Fox and his labor of love through his recent interview on WVXU's Around Cincinnati with Lee Hay. This afternoon, his interview is part of an entire program of Fresh Air with Terry Gross that "discover[s] the world of King Records, the studio that recorded James Brown, among others, through the stories of musician Bootsy Collins and Seymour Stein — the Sire Records founder who learned the ropes working at King." The program airs at noon on WMUB/WVXU and at 3 PM on WYSO. You can listen to the Fresh Air interview here. Fox is featured in the second section, but if you have the time, take a listen to the whole program to get a broader picture of life at King Records in its heyday.

By the time you've listened to these interviews, you'll want to rush right out and buy a copy. Well don't stop there--Fox is in the Cincinnati area this weekend so you can get him to sign it for you. He will appear at Cincinnati's book festival Books by the Banks on Saturday, October 17 and at Shake It Records on Sunday, October 18 at 2 PM.

(Photo by Michael Allen Jones of The Sacramento Bee)

YouTube Spotlight: The StepCrew

Conceived as a cross between Riverdance and Tap Dogs, the StepCrew is a phenomenal and exciting new Canadian dance and music ensemble that blends Irish and Ottawa Valley step-dancing and modern tap to sensational effect. Featuring a troupe of seven dancers, three fiddlers and a five-person band, the Crew includes acclaimed dancers (and Chieftains associates) Cara Butler and Jon and Nathan Pilatzke and musicians Boyd and Ryan MacNeil of Cape Breton's famed Barra MacNeils. If you were at the Dublin Irish Festival in 2008, you probably already know how amazing they are. Your next chance to see them is on Saturday, November 7 as they kick off the Celtic Series at the Victoria Theatre.

Whet your whistle with these clips, of the full group:



and of two members, Jon Pilatzke and Cara Butler:

Steve Kuhn: Mostly Coltrane

Perhaps you were lucky enough to see Steve Kuhn when Cityfolk presented his trio as part of a piano series at the Dayton Art Institute last January. A towering virtuoso who’s been refining his craft for a half century, he may be the most underappreciated elder master in jazz. His most recent CD, Mostly Coltrane (on ECM) casts back to near the start of his career in 1960. As saxophonist John Coltrane was separating from the band of Miles Davis and beginning to build his own group, Kuhn was the pianist he was working with at a club called the Jazz Gallery in New York City.

Mostly Coltrane includes some of the tunes they performed together, music the saxophonist composed later in his career and two Kuhn originals. Joined by two longtime associates, bassist David Finck and drummer Joey Baron plus saxophonist Joe Lovano, Kuhn has delivered one of 2009’s best CDs. It’s more than another shopworn tribute record. And more than a compelling musical what if? (McCoy Tyner found fame soon after Kuhn’s early encounter as Coltrane’s permanent pianist). Mostly Coltrane has real heart.

Rather than me prattling on, read Ted Panken’s superb interview with Kuhn, conducted for the jazz.com website. It touches on his relationship with John Coltrane, the music they performed together that appears on Mostly Coltrane and offers insights into his extensive career. Then click on the album link above to hear sound samples from this superb new recording.

YouTube Spotlight: Balkan Cabaret

On Friday, October 30, Cityfolk will transport Canal Street Tavern back to the old country with a performance of traditional Balkan music and dance by Balkan Cabaret and Lyuti Chushki. Balkan Cabaret is an exceptional quintet that’s acclaimed from Seattle to Sarajevo for its authentic repertoire of songs and dance tunes. Lyuti Chushki is a popular Washington, D.C. band specializing in traditional folk music from Bulgaria.

One Teacher Describes How Culture Builds Community in the Schools

by Sally Hahn, ESL Teacher at Fairview Elementary Neighborhood School Center (pictured in black in the last photo)

Last Spring, and again in late summer, Fairview and Edison Schools were visited by the Prophecy Music Project. This small band of musicians worked their wonders on a large group of refugee and immigrant students and their native (English-) speaking classmates. I was the supervising teacher for the four-day transformation that took place here.

The children were a huge canvas, ready to be energized and transported. The shyest children danced in a whirl not to be believed. Little ones who never speak, danced around a bottle; jumping, spinning while wearing street shoes! Their martial arts dance turned into ballet and their concentration never wavered.

Prophecy instructed, they paraded, drummed, sang, danced and lightened the hearts (and souls) of everyone involved. When their time with us was ending, I wanted to tell them personally what they had meant to me and the children. I wrote this for them.

Prophecy, Movable Glee
By Sally Hahn Sept. 17, 2009

A stunning bird came to us,
Bringing her noisy brothers.
She twirled and sang
And coaxed the young,
The familiar and the others.

They came to us in a strange new way,
Plucked us from the morass.
We left the red-taped halls upstairs
And soon we flew,
With rhythm and with sass!

The children were captured
And carried away
Their bodies and spirits renewed.
Up and above the raggedy rug
They split and kicked and grew!

Their minds, their hearts
And all they had
They’d have gladly given over—
To stay in the moments of movable glee
To keep that rhythm going.

The brothers pumped the air with power
Making the skins call out.
They pounded, they tinkled
They gave, gave, gave—
The earth moved—we knew its shout!

Their voices called, our tribe heard,
They moved and twirled pristine,
Power and flight united in dance
To that throbbing earthly beat!

And so I respond to the griot’s call,
I knew it before you named me.
That pull of the Spirit to raise up the young,
Forms the bond between you and me.

My friends from everywhere on the earth,
Did you know you would find us here?
Sent to fulfill the prophecy,
Your joy has set us free!

Our god knew of young ones’ hearts galore,
Who needed the drummers’ call,
The young ones drank of your pulsing cup,
Your liquid grace filling all.

I remain in your debt,
Your tribute to me,
Was more than I can express.

Thank God, Cityfolk and you.