Les Sampou performs Saturday. Reserve your campsite now for the 27th Annual Spring Gulch Folk Festival. A weekend-long event of excellent music, sing-a-long campfires, workshops, dancing, and crafts. The 2013 Folk Festival will run for four days, Thursday through Sunday
More information here.
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.
“Powerfully expressive, Les Sampou has been tested in the trenches of life and survived brilliantly. Her new album, “Lonesomeville,” is a personal Top Ten favorite of the year. She invests many songs with the emotional honesty of Lucinda Williams, probing love in all of its complexity while belting the heck out of the music. She has a passionate, rockabilly-blues edge that lifts your spirits high, followed by ballads that dig into your soul like few artists can.”
STEVE MORSE Boston Globe Correspondent & Contributor to Billboard and Rolling Stone
The International Folk Alliance conference is an annual event that draws together music industry professionals from throughout the world to share ideas, network, and celebrate traditional music and dance. It is an event of celebration, education, and entertainment.
Keynote Speaker: Graham Nash
Special Presentations from Al Gore
Held over five days, the Conference includes:
- Over 2000 registered attendees
- Over 50 workshops, panel discussions, and peer group meetings that address critical issues relating to presenting, promoting, and preserving folk and traditional music and dance.
- 100+ industry exhibitors
- Special events, such as the Folk Alliance Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Awards, networking receptions, official Performance Alley and private showcase performances, feature shows, exhibit hall, community outreach concerts, and much more.
- 200 official juried performances (Performance Alley)
- 300+ unofficial private showcases (Hotel Rooms)
