May-June 2008

MIKE SEEGER - old-time musician

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

By Audrey Coleman

It was mid-afternoon in the modest green room of UCLA's Schoenberg Hall, where ethnomusicology students and aficionados of Southern traditional music had gathered to chat with musician-field researcher Mike Seeger. A soft-spoken man, who often pauses thoughtfully to find the precise word to express his meaning, he had just concluded a lecture on the history of the Southern guitar. This was part of a two-week stint in the Department of Ethnomusicology where students and faculty benefited from his breadth of knowledge of rural songs and of performance styles on instruments ranging from the banjo, fiddle, and mandolin to the less familiar lap dulcimer and quills (Southern pan pipes). Today's lecture also tied in with Seeger's most recent Smithsonian Folkways recording, Southern Guitar Sounds, which he is following with a two-DVD instructional program due for distribution next fall.

May-June 2008 

SUZY WILLIAMS AND HER SOLID SENDERS

performing at the Temple Bar throughout 2008

By Joel Okida

About a mile and a half from the boardwalk and just past the promenade of Third Street in Santa Monica, on a stage encompassed by shadow and red, a raven-tressed figure gyrates back and forth to the big beat of a sizzling band. The LA Weekly calls her, "L.A.'s Diva Deluxe," but perhaps a better monicker would be Suzy "the Doozy" Williams. Williams coaxes and cajoles her Solid Senders 8-piece rhythm section to reach for that something extra on the upbeat tunes and eyelashes them to caress those minor keys on the ballads. On any given night, the Solid Senders include: Kahlil Sabbagh (bandleader and vibes), Brad Kay (piano), Dave Jones (bass), Nick Scarmack (drums), Danny Moynahan (sax), Dan Heffernan (sax), Dave Weinstein (trombone and arrangements) and Corey Gemme (trumpet).

January-February, 2008

THIS BYRD HAS FLOWN: 

JOHN YORK TRANSCENDS HIS MUSICAL PAST WITH INNOVATIVE ROOTS AND INTERNATIONAL MUSIC

By Terry Roland

John York is the last pure voice of the Silver Sixties to make it through… intact to the first decade of the 21st Century - Kim Fowley

   John York is not a typical veteran of the 60s LA music scene. Number one, he's still alive. This may put him in a very small percentage of the veterans from those days. Number two, he's not holding on to the musical style and songs of the past. Rather, York has remained passionate about his musical growth and pilgrimage in world music, Native American styles and a diversity of international instruments. Along with the twelve and six-string guitars, fretted and fretless bass, the instruments he has studied include pipa (the Chinese lute), gu zheng (the Chinese table harp), violin, Native American flute, Chinese jade screen flute, dong xiao (Chinese bamboo flute), oud (Arabic lute), Mexican five-string guitar, and Irish harp. His musical path has taken him through Arabic, Native American, Chinese and Japanese influences. Probably most important of all these accomplishments is the spirituality energizing his music with a fresh and original integration of eastern and western influences.

January-February 2008

SLACK KEY FESTIVAL IN SO CAL

By Audrey Coleman

Jim Kimo West
Photo Jim Viets

On January 20, nine acclaimed slack key guitarists will grace the stage of the Redondo Performing Arts Center in the first Southern California Slack Key Guitar Festival. They include Cyril Pahinui, Dennis Kamakahi, George Kahumoku, Ozzie Kotani, Makana, Jeff Peterson, Owana Salazar, Steve Espaniola, and Jim “Kimo” West.

Slack key is the least known of the guitar traditions despite the rich history, refined aesthetic, and continued vitality that should give it equal status with flamenco, bluegrass, jazz and blues guitar. But recently slack key has been attracting attention on the mainland, in part because of its presence at the Grammy Awards. This year a compilation of live performances by slack key guitar luminaries, Treasures of Slack Key Guitar (Daniel Ho Creations), is competing for a Grammy in the Hawaiian Music Category. The 2006 and 2007 music awards went to similar compilations.

November-December 2007

RICHIE FURAY RETURNS TO RE-CLAIM HIS FAME WITH HEARTBEAT OF LOVE

By Terry Roland

On first listen to Richie Furay's latest CD, Heartbeat of Love, one may have a hard time hearing his folk influences. As co-founder of the legendary Buffalo Springfield and country-rock pioneers Poco, he is no stranger to originality, innovation and the marriage between traditional and contemporary music. One of the many innovations of his first mainstream release in 25 years is the layer of styles that he has successfully integrated. As in the past, he has provided an innovation of country and rock roots into an original contemporary sound.

The influence of folk music on Richie's music should come as no surprise for those who know his story. He began playing Kingston Trio influenced music in the early 60's in his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio. From these roots he graduated to the basket houses of Greenwich Village following in the footsteps of artists like Bob Dylan and Tom Paxton. Richie's musical odyssey in NYC included the formation of the Au Go-Go Singers which included a young Stephen Stills. The Au Go-Go singers were an attempt to follow the success of the New Christy Minstrels. They performed Civil War songs and traditional folk songs with a contemporary flair. The group completed one album before disbanding

September-October 2007

BOHEMIANS WHO RHAPSODIZE-

A NIGHT AT THE VAGABOND OPERA

By Joel Okida

If you like your Opera-Balkan-Arabic-Klezmer music with a touch of nostalgia, a jab of the bawdy, an uppercut of mystery, and a roundhouse punch of impassioned showmanship, and the thought of jumping in a hand-cranked time machine with a sextet of footloose ramblers appeals to you, then leap on board or more accurately, crowd into this medicine show.  Like running away with the carnival, Vagabond Opera let's you peek under the tent flap, sip from their musical elixir, and then allows you to bump to their grind at the cabaret, leaving you a bit wide-eyed and short of breath.  This is no sideshow which hints at the bigger things happening under the big top, but a finely tuned showboat that invites you to paddle away from that hum-drum life at the office, follow the siren call and dive into their world, if only for one night.  They can be unabashedly absurd, droll and melodramatic, but always keep the art, heart and soul of the music cohesive and tight.

Blowin’ in the Wind:
A Breath of Fresh Air at the Jammin’ Tree Didgeridoo Festival

BY JOEL OKIDA

The small, but mighty Jammin' Tree Didgeridoo Festival ( www.jtdidgefest.com ) located in a wisp of a town called North Fork, and under the shadow of Yosemite, is the kind of unique entertainment that runs below the radar of the giant music festivals in California.  An acquired taste to be sure, the festival promotes the culture, music and art of the Aboriginal people.  The intimate setting requires a mellow demeanor, but a curiosity for the unusual in terms of sound and art.  The mood is low key, but friendly and the family atmosphere adds to the openness of the environment.  The grounds of the festival are actually a local baseball field, but this grassy venue is surrounded by the wildness of its Sierra surroundings.  A river and swimming hole a few steps from the vendor booths are much more inviting as the warm temperatures push the visitor to submerge in some relief.  If you are lucky enough to reserve a camping spot adjacent to the water, you have the best of both worlds at opposite ends of your tent.

September-October 2007

YIDDISH TANGO, ARGENTINEAN KLEZMER Y MAS...

BY AUDREY COLEMAN

A Yiddish tango! Sounds crazy, no? But in our global village of Los Angeles, that's what's in store for the audience at Redcat on the evening of October 20th.

Of course, if you're already steeped in Yiddish culture and history, then you know that the waves of immigration bringing East European Jews to North America at the turn of the 20^th century and then again after the Second World War, also brought Yiddish speakers to Latin American countries. Thus, in the 1930s, while Irving Berlin and George Gershwin were making music for Tin Pan Alley, Anibal Troilo and Carlos Gardel were busy writing Yiddish lyrics for tangos performed in the clubs of Buenos Aires. 

July-August 2007 

The Living Tradition Concert Series

by dennis roger reed

In the land of folk music concert series, a year or two is a highly regarded history. However, the Living Tradition concert series held in the Anaheim Downtown Community Center has reached the 100 show mark. These concerts, held on the third Saturday of each month, have featured the best in all things folk, and helped to foster the Southern California folk scene in a myriad of ways.

July-August 2007

New World Flamenco Festival

La Flor de la Vida, August 10-19

By Chris Stuart

There are few folk dances that blend passion and precision, energy and elegance, as well as flamenco.

Its origins are only dimly known, and there is debate over the very word. The dance appeared first in the Andalusian region of Spain in the sixteenth century during what is known as the Reconquest and quickly spread. The unique mélange of native Andalusian, Islamic, Sephardic, and Gypsy cultures, gives the dance its themes of loss, persecution, pride, as well as its characteristic rite of sexual tension.

The word flamenco might mean gypsy or perhaps a reference to the Flemish, the legendary home of the gypsies. In either case, the origins are distinctly folk oriented, the dance developing from the poorer strata of society. Over the past 500 years it has been alternately derided as an uncouth regional dance and hailed as the pinnacle of Iberian soul.

Now we have a unique opportunity to appreciate the very best in flamenco dance with the New World Flamenco Festival August 10-19 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The festival is titled La Flor de la Vida, The Prime of Life, and premieres three companies of young flamenco dancers who are among the very best currently performing in Spain.

A Feast of Hawaiian Festivals

L.A.-Honolulu Round-Trip

By Audrey Coleman

The pitch was mid-range, the tone full, yet somehow fragile. It reminded me of a Native American flute, yet the sound had a unique, delicate quality I couldn't define. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that the breath was coming from the player's nose.

Mike Kalikolani Wong, maker of Hawaiian nose flutes, was one of several workshop leaders demonstrating traditional Hawaiian arts at the annual E Hula Mau Competition held Labor Day weekend. Visiting the canopied "Hawaiian Village" on the mall of the Long Beach Convention Center, I came upon Kalikolani chiseling holes into a small, dried, hollowed-out gourd. Moments later, he picked it up in the palm of his right hand and pressed it to his right nostril while blocking the other nostril with his left index finger. Then he made this marvelous music. He spent over a half an hour showing me the rudiments of nose flute technique and made an instrument for me to take home.

Cultural workshops and demonstrations add an important dimension to E Hula Mau, There is an exciting difference between attending an event purely as a spectator, wandering among performance stages and craft booths and having opportunities for meaningful encounters with cultural practitioners such as Mike Kalikolani Wong. This gives an event the quality of a folk life festival, even if it doesn't bear that name.

July-August 2007

SUMMERGRASS

by dennis roger reed

Southern California has a lot of bluegrass fans, but not nearly enough great bluegrass festivals. The San Diego Bluegrass Society decided to do something to rectify that, and Summergrass will be celebrating their fifth year in 2007. The festival runs from Friday August 24 to Sunday August 26. This year's festival has a theme of "Saluting the Military" and the headlining stars include the US Navy's bluegrass band, Country Current. Also billed this year are Bluegrass Etc., Fragment, John Reischman & the Jaybirds, Lost Coast, the Brombies, Uglum & Sons, the BladeRunners, Lighthouse, Virtual Strangers and Soledad Mountain Band. As part of this year's theme honoring the folks in the military, there will be discount tickets to those in the armed forces.

July-August 2007

INTI-ILLIMANI CELEBRATES 40^TH ANNIVERSARY AT FORD

By Audrey Coleman

On the evening of July 13, the sweet melancholic yet life-affirming sounds of Andean panpipes and bamboo flutes will soar high above the Hollywood hills. Within two hours, these hallmarks of Latin American indigenous music will blend with over 20 other wind, string, and percussion instruments drawn from European, Native American, African, and Mestizo cultures. The occasion: the 40^th anniversary concert of Inti-Illimani. The Ford Amphitheatre, an open-air, 1245-seat venue -- intimate compared to the neighboring Hollywood Bowl --  seems ideally suited to showcase the music of the acclaimed eight-member Chilean ensemble.

FORD STAGE TO SIZZLE, COLUMBIAN STYLE

By Audrey Coleman

Do you have plans yet for Sunday afternoon? How about an outdoor fiesta of Columbian music and dance? Slather on some sunscreen, bring your broad-brimmed straw hat, perhaps a fan to cool you down, and be ready to surrender to the hot rhythms of some of Columbia's most talented musicians. On August 5 at 3 p.m., the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood will host a Columbian Festival of Traditional, Contemporary, and Popular Music.

May-June 2007

47^th Annual
Topanga Banjo & Fiddle Contest

By Warren Garfield

Since the first Topanga Fiddle Contest in 1961, numerous bluegrass, folk and old-time musicians have graced its stages, including Jackson Browne, David Lindley, Taj Mahal, John Hartford, Byron Berline, Dan Crary, Frank Hamilton, Eric Darling, John Hickman, Stuart Duncan, Phil Salazar, Pat Cloud, Larry McNeeley, Bill Knopf, Howard Yearwood, Tom Sauber and many more. Others who got their start as contestants became musical headliners. This year on Sunday, May 20th, the Topanga Festival will again present some of the finest bluegrass, old-time and folk musicians ever assembled in Southern California.

On the Main Stage, it's all-out, unadulterated bluegrass with PETER FELDMANN AND THE VERY LONESOME BOYS, which always includes high energy instrumentals and heartfelt singing. Peter Feldmann has been the pre-eminent bluegrass artist of the Santa Barbara area for decades. Tommy Marton has a great sense of finesse, blending several bluegrass, old-time and Western contest fiddle styles. David West is known as one of the founding members of the Cache Valley Drifters, and currently divides his time between performances and record production for Los Angeles-based CMH Records. Tom Lee is one of the West Coast's premier bass players in bluegrass, jazz, and blues circles. Guitarist Mike Nadolson is a great singer as well as a hot-picker and he also runs Tricopolis Records, a new venue for Western bluegrass bands.

May-June 2007

Walking on Bilgewater

Eefing, bilabial fricatation, and the "strum" and "twang" of the Bilgewater Brothers

By Joel Okida

Design by David Barlia
Photo by Thomas Hargis

The act of grinning comes naturally when you hear the very tongue-in-cheek tune, Give It to Mary with Love. And when David Barlia resurrects the lost art known as "eefing," the grin becomes a chuckle. For those not in the know, eefing is the vocal ability to nasally impersonate a coronet, oddly named by uke old timer, Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards. John chirps in with a melodic whistling solo and you know there's a spectacle of rare entertainment to be had. Over the course of an evening with the Bilgewater Brothers, you get a very lively variety show without having to change channels. Mostly you get uke strummer, David and plectrum banjo and National guitar wiz, John Reynolds, having a good time for your listening and viewing pleasure. They are often supported by other local musicians and surrounded by makeshift props which give a wink and an elbow of embellishment to whatever theme they are imbedded in. No matter how ragged the production may get, the music stays up front and engaging. It's an excuse to have a good time for what is really a madcap romp through vaudeville, burlesque, a backroom speakeasy, a squat in the parlor room and always a Keystone-Kop-run down tin pan alley.

May-June 2007
Chicks Nix Hicks' Picks
By Ross Altman

After striking out in Nashville at the CMA awards, the Dixie Chicks hit a grand slam home run in Los Angeles at the Grammy's last February 11. They swept all three major awards: Song, Record and Album of the Year, on the way to winning all five categories in which they were nominated. They added insult to the injury of the red states' defeat in all the major contested elections last November, throwing control of the House and Senate into blue state Democratic hands for the first time in a generation.

Call it the last nail in the southern coffin. The bi-coastal cultural power centers New York and LA showed that they have no objection to country music - it was the politics they abhorred. Give us a country band not tied to Bush country, and we'll embrace it wholeheartedly, which we did.

It was also a great night for folk music, as Joan Baez - who was there to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award - looked resplendent as she introduced the Chicks to an international TV audience, as well as the Staples Center crowd. Joan drew abundant applause when she reminded us that over the years she too has been told many times to shut up and sing (the title of last year's documentary on the Dixie Chicks). She ended her brief but bravura performance by quoting Woody Guthrie: This Land Is Your Land. For one beautiful evening, it felt like it.

Ross Altman's Mailbag

Occasionally a column elicits some interesting differences of opinion that our readers might enjoy-so herewith are a few of the comments on Barry Manilow from three FolkWorks readers with an afterthought by columnist Ross Altman (How Can I Keep From Talking-Jan/Feb 2007 issue).

Hi Ross-I picked up a copy of FolkWorks' Jan-Feb issue at the Coffee Gallery Backstage last week and read your article.

I have no difference of opinion with you on the subject of the King of Pap; however, I do feel inclined to point out that your selection of The Greatest Songs of the Sixties bears some glaring omissions, notably Ohio and Joni Mitchell's Woodstock by CSNY and For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield.

I'm sure I could comb my memory to discover dozens more...these are just the first that came to mind. The point I would make is that there's a certain liability in labeling something "the greatest" (unless one floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee), and it would be best to title a collection the likes of which we speak "Great Songs of..." and let the superlatives lie.

Tom Fair

May-June 2007
Support Your Local Folk Festival
By Ross Altman

The Crooked Jades
Photo by Cesar Rubin

In the summer of 1927, Babe Ruth was on his way to hitting 60 home runs, Charles Lindbergh had just flown solo across the Atlantic, Ralph Peer discovered the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, and the rhododendrons were blooming in Asheville, North Carolina.

The Asheville City Council decided to have a rhododendron festival to celebrate their favorite local attraction. Only it didn't turn out to be the flowers. They asked Asheville's old-time banjo player and folk song collector Bascom Lamar Lunsford - The Minstrel of the Appalachians - to invite a few of his musician friends to liven up the festival, and suddenly a new tradition was born: The Great American Folk Festival.

If the name Bascom Lamar Lunsford doesn't ring a bell, you have probably sung his songs. He wrote Good Old Mountain DewI Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground. and

So when you make your plans for May 5, the day of the 27^th annual Claremont Folk Festival, and May 20, the 47^th annual Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest and Folk Festival, and June 22-24, the 25^th annual CTMS Summer Solstice Festival of Traditional Music, Dance and Storytelling, remember that you are doing more than supporting your local folk festival, you are participating in an American ritual that is now 80 years old.

Call them folk singers or perhaps sea song gypsies. William Pint and Felicia Dale travel the country, singing seafaring songs at gigs such as the Renaissance Faire here in Southern California and the Mystic Seaport Festival in Connecticut. Their 2003 Dodge Sprinter is outfitted with camping gear for all weather. Their constant travel companion, parrot Ranzo, whose name appears in many a sea shanty, belts out "There's a good bird!" and imitates the sounds of cell phones to amuse them. Together 21 years now, Pint, 53 and Dale, 49, cross the salt seas regularly to perform in England and throughout Europe in pubs and folk clubs and at sea music festivals. In concert, they definitely seem touched by the maritime folk music muse - Pint with his stubbly beard and robust baritone, Dale cradling a hurdy-gurdy, her delicate features framed by flowing dark hair threaded with silver strands.

May-June 2007
San Pedro Shanty Sing
By Audrey Coleman

On a warm spring evening, you're strolling down West Seventh Street in San Pedro, headed towards the Whale and Ale. Friends have recommended the traditional British restaurant-pub and you are looking forward to the beef Wellington and for dessert, that uniquely delectable "sticky toffee pudding." Approaching, you can see the Victoriana furnishings and oak paneled walls through the thick, green-paned picture window. Then you hear something between a song and a chant emanating from the open second story window.

Leader: Oh, poor old Reuben Ranzo!

Chorus: Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!

Roundin’ Up the Music

The 17th annual festival has moved around, and this year it’s at a recreated western town near Phoenix, AZ. With five stages, music (artists being booked at press time), cowboy poetry, chuck wagons, a western film fest, mountain man rendezvous, square dancing, Buffalo Soldiers, and more, it’s very affordable, at $12/day. Info at http://www.festivalofthewest.com/.

This local festival has become one of the nation’s best annual western events. It delivers many of the stars of western and cowboy music, performing everything from traditional 19th century cowboy folk music to Bob Wills-flavored prairie swing and wonderful new songs. You’ll hear AWA and WMA award winners for top vocalists, best artists, best original songs and best groups among today’s top western singer-songwriters and bands, along with national award-winning cowboy and cowgirl poets.

March-April 2007
Gig for a Musical Statesman
By Audrey Coleman

One month after a terrorist bomb ripped open the United Nations Headquarters in Bagdhad, killing 22 U.N. workers and injuring over 100 people, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan invoked the healing power of music to help colleagues and families of the fallen recover from the horror and loss. At a memorial service held in the Great Hall of the U.N. General Assembly on September 19, 2003, Annan introduced a musician who, he explained, “… can do justice to all the complex feelings we are experiencing today. Someone who can lift us all out of our sorrow. I can think of no one better suited to do this than Gilberto Gil, an artist with a conscience, an artist with a gift. Gilberto has given the world a kind of music that seeks to empower people as much as to move them.”

March-April 2007
A Legacy of Sagebrush and Song
By Larry Wines  

There are Cowboy Junkies, a Cowboy Nation, Cowboy Celtic, even Kahuna Cowboys, and all are bands on today’s music scene. There are the enduring images of frontier primogeniture, Sons of the Pioneers and Sons of the San Joaquin. There are Riders in the Sky and Riders of the Purple Sage, all riding decades before, and still in the saddle decades beyond, the life span of the rock-era’s New Riders of the Purple Sage. And there are all those rangers, including the Lost Canyon Rangers, the Steep Canyon Rangers, and the Americana band with the Celtic name of Kaedmon, and their song, Still the Lone Ranger.

All these and countless more conjure western images, and to varying degrees, perpetuate the legacy of western music.

March-April 2007
Back By Spring: The Return Of Wendy Waldman
By Rex Butters

From 1973’s Love Has Got Me to 1978’s Strange Company, Wendy Waldman proved her talent justified her inclusion in the legendary Warners/Reprise brain trust, which included Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison, Maria Muldaur, Captain Beefheart, Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Miriam Makeba, Arlo Guthrie, John Hartford, Jesse Colin Young, and John Sebastian. In addition to her own performances, Waldman became a widely covered songwriter, with versions by Muldaur, Linda Ronstadt, Kim Carnes, Judy Collins, Melissa Manchester, Rita Coolidge, and Bette Midler released simultaneously with Wendy’s. By decade’s end, nearly all these legendary artists were dropped or forced to find greener pastures due to management changes and the arrival of punk rock.

January-February 2007
Tango!
A Beginner's Tale
By Meg Hoffman 

On a recent trip to San Francisco my husband and I decided to include an Argentine tango lesson as an anniversary treat. So, on the Sunday we were in San Francisco, we took an early evening bus down Polk Street from our hotel, got off south of Market and walked a couple of blocks to Heron Street.

Heron is really an alley, as we had seen on the map, but when we arrived at dusk to find ourselves in a short cul-de-sac occupied by car repair shops and decorated with some vivid graffiti, we began to get nervous. And we couldn’t immediately find number 19, Studio Garcia. Curiosity won out, as we stuck our heads in an open doorway where we could see past a cluttered vestibule into a lime green 

January-February 2007
An Interview with Jorge Mijangos
Son Jarocho Musician and Luthier

By Sonia Kroth

  Son - Literally a sound that is agreeable to the ear, it is a Mexican regional song/dance style, usually in 6/8 rhythm.

Jarocho - "of Veracruz" Applied to the people and music of Veracruz, the term originally meant "irreverent," but the jarocho people have turned it into an assertion of pride.

January-February 2007
Supergrass Festival Offers World-Class Luthiery
By Yvonne Tatar

  Did you know that 80% of the guitars sold are in the lower-end of the market price range ($1,000 or less) and sold to beginners? And, of that 80%, half of those buyers never progress past the beginning stage of proficiency. So, in guitar sales, the biggest market share is for entry-level instruments. 

Players beyond the beginner stage usually desire a higher quality instrument with better tonal resonance, ease of playing, and ornamentation. This 20% creates the market for the higher-end instruments.

September-October 2006
Digeridoos and Don'ts
A Talkabout with Didgeridude Jay Atwood
By Joel Okida

The mysterious drones and grunts emanating from the didgeridoo bring to mind the sound one would get if it were possible to goose a humpback whale. Or perhaps the snorted mantra of a yak meditating. In reality, the variety of tones can’t really be described in a metaphor. This speaks to the mystical, native Australian origins of the long, tubular instrument called the didgeridoo. There are references, in some northern Aboriginal lore, to its tone being the cumulative sound the creatures in the animal kingdom would make if all were in chorus.

Recently, Jay Atwood, solo artist, and didgeridoo player for Celtic band, The Wicked Tinkers, came up for air, and we asked him about the story behind this unique instrument and to find out why being long-winded can be a good thing.

September-October 2006
The Stairwell Sisters
Old-Time String Band Breaks Out
By Steve Goldfield

The Stairwell Sisters, from the San Francisco Bay Area, have been honing their traditional sound through six years and two widely acclaimed CDs, with a third on t he way soon. Since their appearance at the International Bluegrass Music Association, they have been touring nationally on the festival circuit. The Stairwells will make their Los Angeles debut on Saturday, September 9, at the Coffee Gallery Backstage and at the Peter Strauss Ranch on Sunday, September 10.

September-October 2006
A Hawaiian Musical Treasure: Genoa Keawe
By Audrey Coleman

It was a few minutes before six on a tropical December evening in 2001 when Michael and I strolled on to the Moana Terrace of the Marriott Waikiki. We managed to claim one of the few remaining tables clustered near the performance platform. As we ordered our Mai Tai’s, I noticed a white-haired lady dressed in a floor-length pink and white flowered mumu, moving gracefully among the tables, greeting people. Two flower leis bedecked her shoulders and another floral cluster adorned her hair on one side, setting off a beaming smile and bright eyes. Michael grinned. “That’s her.”

On business trips to Honolulu, my husband had discovered Auntie Genoa’s Thursday night show. I was about to be initiated to a Waikiki institution.