Fiddling Cricket Concerts 
October 2007
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Concert Calendar |
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Jimmy Lafave
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Trail is a treasure trove of
ragged roadhouse beauty from Jimmy LaFave, one of music's most emotive
voices. This double CD's 30 tracks are culled from more than nine years of
LaFave performances ("Live, unreleased, and off the air"). What is
startling is the soul-baring expressiveness of LaFave's phrasing and the
malleable texture of his voice. Whether it's a forlorn Okie folk ballad, a
smoldering blues excursion, or one of the 12 Bob Dylan songs he
reincarnates (rock critic Dave Marsh calls him "the best rock 'n'
roll interpreter of Dylan songs ever"), LaFave lays it on the line every
time.http://www.jimmylafave.com |
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James Lee Stanley
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James Lee
Stanley, a true renaissance man, was born into a musical family in
Philadelphia, PA, and already performing and recording for LeGrand
Records by the time he was fourteen. He majored in music at Cal State
University, did a stint in the Air Force as a Chinese linguist, and performed
three hundred dates a year with such diverse acts as Bonnie Raitt, Robin
Williams, Chick Corea & Return to Forever and Bill Cosby by the
time he landed his second recording contract. That was many years ago. It is
only a long lived singer-songwriter career that lets James unite the
unpredictable creativity and the eclectic elements that make up his world. His
remarkable abilities as vocalist, composer, and instrumentalist (guitar and
piano) allow him to create songs, each with a finely crafted instrumental
backing, that are actually enhanced by his outrageously hilarious repartee. He
is one of the undisputed geniuses among singer-songwriters. He has amassed
about 20 album recordings in his career as well as scoring a number of film and
TV tracks. http://www.jamesleestanley.com/ |
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Kristina Olsen
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Kristina Olsen is one
of the most entertaining and compelling performers on the international folk
circuit. A fine instrumentalist (acoustic guitar, steel-body slide guitar,
saxophone, concertina and piano) as well as a powerful songwriter with a big
bluesy voice, Kristina has audiences around the world coming back for more. Her
mix of strong songs in the troubadour tradition, some jazz-inspired sounds and
powerful bottleneck blues (as well as her hilarious storytelling) makes for a
diverse and satisfying musical experience, on stage and on disc. |
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Connie Doolan Quartet
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Connie
Doolan has been appearing on the Fiddling Cricket stage for all 11
years we have been in existence. With classical, jazz, and musical theater
training, music teaching and playing have always been Connie's living. As one
of the principal vocalists of The Mighty Avalanche Choir, her beautiful
soprano was heard in folk and Celtic arrangements for several years at the
FC Annual Holiday Party. Later she also appeared as one third of the
group, Doolan, Herold, and Haan, (Sylvia Herold of Cats and
Jammers and Patrice Haan from Leftover Dreams). Over the last
few years Connie has concentrated on developing her own group, appearing for us
in both trio and quartet arrangements and presenting a wide range of material
from jazz standards to folk. During this time she also released her debut CD,
Haunt Your Heart. Fiddling Cricket is proud to have supported this
venture and have the CD appear on the Fiddling Cricket label. It features
beautifully arranged renditions of material ranging from Tom Waits to
bluesy versions of traditional American and Irish songs, to favorite jazz
standards, swing, folk, and quirky pop hits such as "Calling You" from
the film Baghdad Café, and "Summer Fly" by Cheryl
Wheeler. Accompanying and augmenting Connie's vocals will be the entirely
elegant and lyrical playing of the rest of the Quartet, consisting of Julian
Smedley on violin and viola (formerly of The Hot Club of San
Francisco), Mike Wallenberg on jazz guitar, and Steven
Strauss on upright bass and ukulele, just as they do on the CD.http://conniedoolanquartet.blogspot.com |
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Lost Weekend Western
Swing Band
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Don Burnham 's mighty
ten-piece all-star band LOST WEEKEND returns to Don Quixote's Music Hall for an
evening of classic Western Swing, LW-style. |
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Harry Manx
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Chicago Sun Times:
"Ry Cooder is as good a point of reference as any for newcomers to Manx. But
while such comparisons may work to describe Manx's fretwork, the raw sensuality
of his sound is all his own. Rarely has folk blues sounded as hauntingly
beautiful." |
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Gretchen Peters plus Ray
Bonneville
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Grammy-nominated
singer-songwriter Gretchen Peters' new album, Burnt Toast &
Offerings , is now out in the UK and Europe, with a US release scheduled
for August 7, 2007. The daughter of an author/activist father and a mother whom
Peters describes as a "free spirit", she was raised in New York and
Boulder, Colorado , but moved to Nashville in the late 80's "when they were
still signing people like Steve Earle and Nanci Griffith" . Rejecting the
Nashville assembly-line model and eschewing what she laughingly calls
“gratuitous co-writing”, she nevertheless accumulated enough
accolades as a songwriter, for artists as wide-ranging as Martina McBride ,
Etta James , Trisha Yearwood , Bonnie Raitt , The Neville Brothers , Patty
Loveless , George Strait , Neil Diamond , Bryan Adams and Faith Hill
, to earn her a recording contract in 1996. That resulted in The Secret
Of Life , about which Time magazine wrote, “Peters, whose
choir-girl voice has a seductive hint of late nights and cigarettes, knows the
tunesmith's secret: crafting a good love song...".
http://www.gretchenpeters.com |
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Concert Calendar |
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Last Updated: 11/07