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A Conversation and Performance with Bill Staines

Bill Staines

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, 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.

For more than forty years, Bill 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.

Ticket and more information here

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Marina Evans Debuts New Album

Marina Evans

Marina Evans is looking for funding for her new cd and LDP is happy to spread the word.

From Marina:

I am Marina Evans, a folk/rock singer songwriter from Rockport, Massachusetts. This April, I am SO excited to board a plane to Florence, Italy where I am hoping to record my first full length album!

I’ve got the plane ticket, and I’ve written the songs. The band, producer, and studio are on board and at the ready; pre-production is already underway. Now, all I need is your help to git ‘er done!

First off, let me explain how Italy fits into the picture. I was fortunate enough to study abroad in Florence in 2008, and promptly and permanently fell in love with the place. I had written a few songs then and played at the open mics, where I met some Florentine musicians with whom I eventually gigged and recorded. From that point on I couldn’t stay away, and I have been extremely lucky to be able to return to Florence over the years as time and money has allowed.

When I wasn’t in Italy, I was in my hometown of Rockport, Massachusetts or nearby Gloucester. These too are beautiful, inspiring places that are just full of music – so much so that the majority of my catalog has been written here (check out Dogtown, the EP I released in Gloucester last fall). In fact, unless something spontaneous happens in the studio in Florence (you never know), this entire new album will have been written on Cape Ann. In that way the new album is a product of a bi-continental life, divided and bridged by oceans.

Years of traveling back and forth have paved the way for this record. And now, incredibly, it’s all in place – the songs, the band, even the studio (!) – just waiting for me to pull the trigger.

That is (ahem), with your very kind assistance!

Help out with the project

Click here

 

 

 

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W50 SUMMIT Accelerating the advancement of women leaders who make a difference in the world.

W50 SUMMIT

Accelerating the advancement of women leaders
who make a difference in the world.

APRIL 4–5,2013
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
BOSTON, MA

Last Dance Productions is thrilled to assist Barefoot Events in producing this historic event.

In celebration of this year’s 50th anniversary of women being admitted to the two-year MBA Program, Harvard Business School, under the umbrella of the Culture and Community Initiative, is undertaking a series of special events, programs, and exhibitions that explore the past, present, and future of women leaders in business and civic life.

A major part of the celebration will be the W50 Summit, a two-day program focused on accelerating the advancement of women leaders who make a difference in the world. Taking place at the School, the Summit program will begin on Thursday, April 4 at 11:00 a.m. with an address by Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust, and conclude on Friday, April 5 with remarks by HBS Dean Nitin Nohria and a lunch with HBS students. There will be an optional morning program on Thursday, April 4 from 9:00–11:00 a.m.

Highlights will include a presentation of the results of the alumni survey, discussion of a new case on the history and future of women at HBS and in business, workshops, panel discussions, and screening of a new documentary about the experiences of women on campus and after graduation. This event promises to be an exciting opportunity to join with fellow alumni and HBS faculty to reflect on where we have been and where we are now, and to set an agenda for the future.

 

More information on the W50 Summit here.

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Amy Speace and The Sea, The Sea To Perform Benefit Concert

Amy Speace

Amy Speace

Amy Speace and The Sea, The Sea To Perform Benefit Concert for The New England Folk Music Archives

April 17, 2013 at 7pm

For Tickets and More information click here

Produced by Last Dance Productions

The New England Folk Music Archives is delighted to welcome Amy Speace and The Sea,The Sea to one of the great listening rooms in town at 191 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA

AMY SPEACE

Amy Speace has been quietly but steadily making waves in the Americana/folk world for a few years now, and in the journey, gaining support from the likes of Judy Collins, Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark and other icons in the songwriting community. A self-described ‘late bloomer’ to songwriting, Speace landed in New York City after college to pursue a life in theater. She studied acting at The National Shakespeare Conservatory, toured the US with the National Shakespeare Company, started her own theater company to direct and produce the plays she had written, and in the midst of her early 20′s, picked up a pawn shop guitar, wrote her first songs, and found herself with steady gigs at such storied venues as The Bitter End and The Living Room.

On April 16, Wind Bone Records/Tone Tree will release “How to Sleep In A Stormy Boat” an 11 song album, produced by Neilson Hubbard, with collaborations with John Fullbright, Mary Gauthier and Ben Sollee.

Nice interview with Amy here

 

 

The Sea The Sea

The Sea The Sea

THE SEA, THE SEA

The Sea The Sea weave their many voices into one. Since the Fall of 2011, Chuck e. Costa and Mira Stanley have been touring the country, making new friends and evolving their sound. Now a playful mix of old and new, acoustic and electric, raw and graceful, TSTS has created an inspired trove of harmony-rich, lyric driven songs. Dynamic and sincere, simple and true, their live shows will leave you stirring.

No Depression Says:
Last night, inside a cold Dobbs Ferry church with the snow falling outside, I sat and listened to a young couple who just this week recorded their first album together. If their performance is any indication, the April release will bring a welcome relief to a cold winter. To say I was taken with Chuck E. Costa and Mira Stanley who perform as The Sea The Sea would be an understatement. On top of well-crafted songs, commanding stage presence and instrumental abilities, their voices in close harmony evoked for me a sound landing somewhere between Bowling Green and Bakersfield.

Tickets here

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Kerri Powers and Brendan Hogan Gallery Concert

Brendan Hogan to perform with Kerri Powers

Brendan Hogan and Kerri Powers come  to one of the great listening rooms in town,  The New England Folk Music Archives. Kerri and Brendan will perform solo sets and if we’re lucky play a few tunes together.

For tickets to the March 2nd show, click here

Kerri Powers
Kerri Powers’ throaty voice complements the moody, intimate songs on her recordings. With these songs, it’s clear that she looks for beauty on the darker side of life. However, with lyrics that are often considered quirky and whimsical, the songs can also have a hopeful feel but are never bouncy. “I put myself right in the middle of each song and find the truth in them,” Kerri says. She brings that same intimacy and charm to her live performances.

Kerri grew up listening to Neil Young, Gram Parsons, Patsy Cline, and Hank Williams. She took guitar lessons alongside her father when she was 9 and gravitated to the edgier sound of blues and soul. You might put her in the company of Lucinda Williams, Margo Timmins, or Karen Dalton.

 

 Brendan Hogan

Brendan Hogan’s second solo album, SilverQuick, was recorded in a home studio using a single microphone, a few guitars, a couple old tube amps, and a lot of experimentation with ordinary (and extraordinary) household objects, analog and digital synths, and a lot of delays.

SilverQuick features 12 new songs, and a 10+ page booklet with lyrics, artwork, and instrumentation details. The album is a “Do What You Want With It” release. That is, it was written and recorded as an album to be listening to as an album, sit down at a CD player and listen to it with the booklet. It’s worth it.

In late-2009, Hogan wrote and recorded his debut CD, Long Night Coming, featuring original roots, modern folk, and blues-based songs, The Boston Globe newspaper has called SilverQuick “elusive, transcendent, mercurial Americana”.

True music fans expect a little more from the artists they appreciate, and Brendan Hogan’s new album SilverQuick stays true to the methods of making a genuine album.

Last month Brendan performed at the Crossroads Coffeehouse in North Andover, MA.

To hear Brendan’s version of Bob Dylan’s “Things Have Changed”.  click here

For tickets to the March 2nd show, click here

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