Portland FolkMusic Society
PFS slates 3 top artists for next show
The Portland FolkMusic Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting folk music and arts in the greater Portland area. The mission of the organization is to preserve, present and promote folk music and arts. This is the 14th season for the PFS concerts.
This month, PFS presents three artists specializing in instrumental music, though all of them also sing: Carolyn Cruso plays hammered dulcimer; Doug Smith is a Grammy-winning guitarist and Dick Weissman is noted for his innovative banjo style.
Doug Smith with guitar
The show is Friday, Feb. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and will take place at Carvlin Hall, located at 1636 S.E. Hickory St., just north of S.E. Division at 16th, near the New Seasons Market.
Dick Weissman's musical career was interrupted by a teenage career as a semi-professional ping-pong player. Following Pete Seegerjs advice, Weissman bought a five-string banjo; about the same time he won a guitar in payment of a gambling debt that was part of his ping-pong expertise.
Weissman met the gospel blues guitarist Gary Davis in New York, sitting in with Davis at the house of Tiny Ledbetter, Leadbelly's niece. He studied with guitarist Jerry Silverman during this sojourn and spent four years alternating between graduate school and the folk music scene in Greenwich Village. Eventually, with John Phillips and Scott McKenzie, he formed the folk-pop band, The Journeymen.
Dick Weissman with banjo
Three-and-a-half years on the road, three Capitol albums and 100s of concerts later, Weissman settled down to become a studio musician, record producer and songwriter. In 1972, he moved to Colorado, got a music degree, wrote numerous instructional books, co-authored the award-winning Folk Music Sourcebook and wrote the best-selling The Music Business: Career Opportunities & Self Defense. He became a tenured professor in the Music & Entertainment Industry program at the University of Colorado at Denver and wrote a number of instructional folios and two feature film scores.
In 2002, Weissman moved to Oregon, where he continues to perform, record and teach seminars and workshops. To date Weissman has written 15 published books on music and the music business, released six instrumental CDs and has written over 50 instructional folios for various music publishers.
Doug Smith is a nationally-recognized acoustic guitarist who weaves together folk, classical, jazz into a unique, flowing fingerpicking style recalling the playing of Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, Michael Hedges and Alex de Grassi. Other musical influences include singer/songwriters such as James Taylor, Harry Chapin, Don McLean and Gordon Lightfoot. Smith attended Cal State, Fullerton, where he majored in classical guitar. The formal education in music and composition added to his technique, style and writing ability as well as his interest in the alternate tunings, heard on his original songs. In 1989, John Archer of American Gramophone Records, heard a demo tape of Smith and signed him to record.
Smith completed two albums with the label: Order of Magnitude and Labyrinth. He has been featured on KINK-FM's Lights Out III & IV, benefiting the Oregon Food Bank and has been featured on the nationally syndicated radio shows Echoes and River City Folk on National Public Radio (NPR). In February of 2005, Smith joined other guitarists from Solid Air Records, to win a Grammy Award for "Best Acoustic Pop Album" for the album, Henry Mancini - Pink Guitar. In September 2006, Smith won the prestigious International Fingerstyle Guitar competition in Winfield, Kan.
Carolyn Cruso has performed professionally in both the United States and Europe for close to two decades as a multi- instrumentalist playing hammered dulcimer, various flutes, guitar and vocals. She is now celebrating the release of her new instrumental recording, Boundless, a collection of original compositions for solo hammered dulcimer. Reviewers are calling it "intricate, joyous, complex and evocative." She is currently working on a new songwriter project to be released sometime in 2009.
Carolyn CrusoLady with hammer dulcimer
Cruso's performances have been called powerful and emotionally provocative. Her lyrics are thoughtful, poetic and possess a compelling sense of longing. Her vocals are tough and tender. Her guitar chordings are described as delicious and her playing is dynamic and expressive. She has released seven CDs. "Cruso's playing is superb. She has attained total oneness with the instrument." (Hammered Dulcimer Player)
Admission to the show is $10 for PFS members, $12 General Admission, $5 ages 12-18. Kids under 12 years of age are free. There are no advance sales, just tickets at the door. There is no smoking and no alcohol, but there are food and beverages available and it is a relaxed and enjoyable spot to bring the family or meet friends -- or make new friends who love folk music!
Membership in the Portland FolkMusic Society offers a variety of experiences. Details can be found at the PFS website (www.portlandfolkmusic.org), a fascinating site that will help amateurs and professionals interested in Portland’s diverse Folk scene see what is going on every week of the year.
This is the 13th season for the PFS concerts. This month's concert offers discounted admission prices to union members of any occupation to hear two very political and prolabor performers: Pittsburgh's Anne Feeney and Seattle's Rebel Voices on Friday Jan. 23 at 7:30 p.m. The concert will be at Carvlin Hall, located at 1636 S.E. Hickory St., just north of S.E. Division at 16th--near the New Seasons Market.
Anne Feeney is the granddaughter of an intrepid mineworkers' organizer, who also used music to carry the message of solidarity to working people. After two decades of community activism and regional performances at rallies, Feeney took her message on the road. Since 1991, she has traveled to the frontlines in 40 states, Canada, Mexico, Ireland and Sweden. Peter, Paul and Mary are performing her anthem Have You Been to Jail for Justice?
Feeney has lived her life on the frontlines - performing at 1000s of rallies, picket lines and demonstrations over the years - including the World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle, Solidarity Day in Washington, DC and for 1.5 million at the April 25, 2004, March for Women's Lives. Dubbed the "minister of culture" to the movements for economic and social justice and human rights, Feeney is "the best labor singer in North America," according to Utah Phillips.
In her own words, Feeney explains, "The Vietnam war and the Civil Rights Movement shaped my conscience and consciousness. I worked for a dozen years or so as a trial attorney and served as President of the Pittsburgh Musicians' Union. These days, I am living my dream. I'm on the road 200+ days a year... all over the U.S. and Canada, and more recently, Sweden and Denmark. It's my privilege to spend most of my waking hours with people who are trying to make a difference in this world... people on strike, or in a union or community organizing drive, or defending women's rights, the environment, human rights ... working to end poverty and racism ... teaching peace."
For over 20 years, Susan Lewis and Janet Stecher have created incredible harmony as members of The Belles of Hoboken, Shays' Rebellion and, since 1989, Rebel Voices. They took their name from the book by Joyce Kornbluh, Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology, a collection of writings, songs, poems and cartoons by members of the Industrial Workers of the World.
Wobblies have always been rabble rousers, unionists, artists, and singers who attack the issues of their time with passion and humor. This same spirit moves Rebel Voices today as they sing out for social and economic justice. Rebel Voices concerts present the struggles and triumphs of real people - workers from many lands and many times. Included too, are the voices of today's rebels: union activists, gays and lesbians, prochoice advocates, environmental activists, persons with disabilities and those who are usually powerless and therefore too frequently voiceless: Children, immigrants, political prisoners.
With an integrated vision of theater, harmony and politics, Janet Stecher and Susan Lewis fill the stage with rare power and compassion. They are members in good standing of Local 1000 of the American Federation of Musicians. "Rebel Voices provide an energetic attack on social injustice with humor and vocal gymnastics...Janet Stecher and Susan Lewis deliver messages of political reform, sexism, violence, and the general advancement of change for common good; urging us all to take a piece of the various walls that divide and block freedom. The songs are . . .well chosen to show off the variety and cleverness of their arrangement abilities...fun listening that maintains a social conscience." SING OUT magazine.
Admission for the show is $10 for PFS members and Union members, $12 General Admission, $5 ages 12-18. Kids under 12 years of age are free. There are no advance sales, just tickets at the door. There is no smoking and no alcohol, but there are food and beverages available and it is a relaxed and enjoyable spot to bring the family or meet friends - or make new friends who love folk music!
Membership in the Portland FolkMusic Society offers a variety of experiences. Details can be found at the PFS website ( www.portlandfolkmusic.org), a fascinating site that will help amateurs and professionals interested in Portland's diverse folk scene see what is going on every week of the year.