Anyone not familiar with the music of Bill Staines is in for a special treat.
Last Dance Productions is pleased to welcome Bill Staines to one of the great listening rooms in town, the New England Folk Music Archives. The event takes place on on Wednesday, July 17th at 7pm. We’ll have a conversation with Bill recording his thoughts about the Folk Scene in New England over the past years that will be deposited into our growing oral history collection.
After the conversation we’ll be treated to a performance by Bill Staines.
For more than forty years, Bill Staines has traveled back and forth across North America, singing his songs and delighting audiences at festivals, folksong societies, colleges, concerts, clubs, and coffeehouses. A New England native, Bill became involved with the Boston-Cambridge folk scene in the early 1960′s and for a time, emceed the Sunday Hootenanny at the legendary Club 47 in Cambridge. Bill quickly became a popular performer in the Boston area. From the time in 1971 when a reviewer from the Boston Phoenix stated that he was “simply Boston’s best performer”, Bill has continually appeared on folk music radio listener polls as one of the top all time favorite folk artists. Now, well into his fifth decade as a folk performer, he has gained an international reputation as a gifted songwriter and performer.
The New England Folk Music Archives is thrilled to have Deborah Holland and Cidny Bullens perform this special benefit concert.
Produced by Last Dance Productions, only 40 tickets will be sold for this performance.
DEBORAH HOLLAND was introduced to the world as the lead singer and songwriter of Animal Logic, (with Stewart Copeland of The Police and jazz bassist Stanley Clarke). She went on to record 4 solo albums, 2 with the folk-Americana “super-group” The Refugees, scored 5 films, and wrote and performed dozens of songs for film and TV. Her new solo album, VANCOUVER, was released on June 4th, 2013 and is already getting airplay on over 75 US and Canadian radio stations.
CIDNY BULLENS began a music career touring with Elton John and in the studio with mega-hit songwriter/producer Bob Crewe. A 30+ career includes the breakthrough hit “Survivor”, (Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance), three lead vocals as part of the Grease movie soundtrack album (also Grammy-nominated), and 6 critically acclaimed albums featuring a who’s who of Americana artists including Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Rodney Crowell, Bryan Adams, Beth Nielsen Chapman, John Hiatt, Steve Earle, and Emmylou Harris, and Delbert McClinton. In 2007, Cidny formed the super-trio The Refugees.
Antje Duvekot has solidified her reputation as one of Boston’s top singer songwriters with “Big Dream Boulevard” her debut studio release and “the Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer” her follow-up CD. The debut CD was produced by Seamus Egan, founder of the Irish super group, SOLAS. The project was released on acclaimed songwriter Ellis Paul’s label, Black Wolf Records and quickly attracted international attention for Antje. It was voted “#1 Folk Release of 2006” by the Boston Globe and was named to the “Top10 Releases of the Year” by National Public Radio’s, Folk Alley. Her follow up album “the Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer” was produced by Richard Shindell and along side with Richard features other “folk royalty” such as John Gorka, Lucy Kaplancky and Mark Erelli. It was voted #1 album of the year 2009 by WUMB 91.9 fm in Boston.
“What a blessing to have worked with someone as talented as Antje. With a voice like hers, and songs as good as these, a producer (especially a first-time producer!) just tries to get out of the way, to do no harm, and to let the artist speak for herself.” – Richard Shindell
“Duvekot has gotten hotter, faster than any local songwriter in recent memory. Her songs feel at once fresh faced and firmly rooted, driven by the whispery sensuality of her voice. She believes in the redemptive power of the shared secret; and is utterly unafraid to mine the darkest corners of her life for songs that turn fear into resilience and isolation into community”. The Boston Globe
Antje has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the prestigious, Kerrville (TX) “Best New Folk Award” and in one of the nation’s top music markets, she won the Boston Music Award for “Outstanding Folk Act”, three of the top prizes in the singer songwriter world.
Hey Nineteen and Don Campbell – Two of the best tribute bands in concert representing two of the biggest international performers in American music history.
Hey Nineteen – A Tribute to Steely Dan
Hey Nineteen is the Nation’s top Steely Dan tribute band! An 11 piece group of professional musicians with the theoretical knowledge and musicality required to master the complex music of Steely Dan. They have packed venues throughout New England and are well known for their high energy show as well as their “spot on Steely Dan sound!
Hey Nineteen will amaze you with their exacting solos (as originally recorded), vocals, harmonies, and musicality, all while keeping you moving with their high energy show.
Hey Nineteen a Tribute to Steely Dan is comprised of top professional musicians, many of whom have performed with Grammy- winning, international artists. Hey Nineteen brings the big hits and the deep cuts, from ‘Do It Again’ to ‘Your Gold Teeth II’, from ‘Reelin’ in the Years’ to “Doctor Wu” and many more.
More on Hey Nineteen here
Don Campbell: Celebrating the Music of Dan Fogelberg
Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dan Fogelberg was a multi-platinum selling artist, with hits such as “Leader of the Band”, “Longer”, “Same Old Lang Syne” and a large and diverse catalog of over 20 albums. He passed away in 2007 after a three year battle with prostate cancer.
Dan remains a huge influence and musical hero of Don’s. On November 13, 2012, Don released a double CD, Kites To Fly: Celebrating the Music of Dan Fogelberg and in January, 2013 began presenting live performances of this music around his own busy schedule of Don Campbell Music shows.
A Tribute to Todd Rundgren, Gary Backstrom’s Road to Utopia, comes to the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford Street, Arlington, MA on Friday, June 7, at 8 pm. Tickets here.
Todd Rundgren
Considered by many to be the “Ultimate Rock Cult Hero” Todd Rundgren has maintained a legion of fans through four decades. Todd’s searing guitar work reached a nationwide audience in his role as lead guitarist for the blues-psychedelic band Nazz. He wrote and arranged almost all of the work that went into the three albums the group produced.
His first big solo success was in 1971 with “We Gotta Get You a Woman” and in 1973 from the double album “Something/Anything?” He scored big on the charts with “I Saw the Light” and a revision of a Nazz song, “Hello, It’s Me.”
Rundgren has scored huge as a music producer, most notably on Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” opus. In the late 1970s and through the 1980s Todd formed the group Utopia, each member an accomplished musician and vocalist. He has also been called on by films and TV for his musical scores and sometimes tours with Ringo Starr as a member of his All-Star Band.
Gary Backstrom
Gary is the founder and frontman of the acclaimed Jam Band “Jiggle The Handle.” The Gary Backstrom Band is a Boston-based Band that mixes Soul, R&B, Funk, Rock and Latin grooves blended into a unique sound. Their sound features exciting, unpredictable improvisation that can only be heard in the best live acts on the scene today. Gary is considered “one of the most underrated, fluid, and melodic players in the Northeast.”
Some of the proceeds from this concert will go to
The project brings personalized iPods to people living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, helping them reconnect with the world through the music they love.
This will be a quite the night for a great cause.
