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.
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.
Peter Asher of Peter & Gordon joins forces with Jeremy Clyde of Chad & Jeremy to star together in an unforgettable evening of music and memories. This “storytellers” style evening features songs and stories from their sixties heyday as recording artists to Jeremy’s success on stage, television (Downton Abbey) and film (The Iron Lady) and Peter’s Grammy-Winning career as Producer and manager of the likes of James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and more.
Their respective British Invasion duos were collectively responsible for 30 Billboard chart hits. From the Chad & Jeremy catalog, they bring you “Distant Shores”, “Yesterday’s Gone” “Willow Weep For Me”, “Before and After”, “A Summer Song” and more. From the Peter & Gordon songbook comes “Woman”, “I Go To Pieces”, “I Don’t Want To See You Again”, “Lady Godiva”, “A World Without Love” and more.
Don’t miss this special opportunity to hear the stories behind the lives and music of these two legendary duos from the era that wiped clean and drew again the face of popular culture.
Presented by Last Dance Productions
