Down Home Radio Show

Hey Everybody -

We’re doing a fund drive to help produce this year’s Brooklyn Folk Festival.  Please check out the awesome silent movie (above) produced by the Jalopy Theatre for this special event!  We really need your support to help make this years festival happen.  Donations can be made through our page on Kickstarter: CLICK HERE.

Your donation gets you a variety of special items, including tickets to the festival and other special premiums!  See below for details…

Thank you.  Your host,

- Eli

Here’s all the information:

Four years ago, Eli Smith of Down Home Radio Show and Jalopy Theatre and School of Music teamed up to present the Brooklyn Folk Festival. A three-day event showcasing folk music of all styles, the festival highlights local Brooklyn musicians as well as bringing in folk music from around the world.

By the second year, there were lines down the block with sold out performances every night and it was time to expand. The festival was moved from Jalopy Theatre to the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist’s Coalition in Red Hook for the third year.

An unexpected loss of venue this year sent us searching for a new home. The 4th Annual Brooklyn Folk Festival will be held at 345 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Your donation will help us transform this raw space into a venue worthy of the Jalopy name!

The festival is set to be better than ever with over 30+ bands, vocal and instrument workshops, film screenings, a square dance, a special program celebrating Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday year – as well as the return of the much loved “Banjo Toss” of 2011.

Jalopy and Down Home Radio Show are committed to respectfully compensating our artists while keeping the festival tickets at an accessible price range for the public. We are also inviting 100 local students to attend the festival free of charge as an educational outreach to the community. Thus, we are raising funds to help cover artist fees, advertising, space transformation, and staff.

We believe in the power of folk music to forge community. We’ve seen it happen here at Jalopy and want to expand our reach to as many people as want to listen. Your donation will greatly help us get the word out about the festival and keep folk music alive and thriving in Brooklyn for many years to come.

Thank you so much.

See you at the Folk Fest!

- The Organizers

[Photo by E. Smith, June 2010.]

On Monday February 20th, Joe Thompson passed away at the age of 93.  He was considered to be the last living traditionally schooled African-American fiddler.

On a beautiful day in early June of 2010 my band The Dust Busters paid a visit to the home of Joe and Polly Thompson.  Joe Thompson lived outside of Mebane, NC.  He started playing fiddle at 5 years old, way back in 1923.  Joe was a World War II veteran and was long retired from his job at a furniture factory.  He continued to play music until very recently at home and at gigs including taking his music to Carnegie Hall in New York City, the National Folk Festival and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the International Music Festival in Brisbane, Australia.  In 2007 Joe Thompson was honored with the National Heritage Fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts.  The Carolina Chocolate Drops have spent a lot of time with Joe and have learned a lot from him.  They continue to present many of his tunes in their performances.  Joe Thompson was a wonderful man and a very fine musician and singer, the likes of whom we will not see again.

His recordings are available.  Here are a few:

Joe Thompson: Family Tradition
Black Banjo Songsters of N Carolina & Virginia
Carolina Chocolate Drops & Joe Thompson

Click Here for the recording and interview I did with Joe Thompson in June of 2010 when we visited him at his home.

Here is a link to a nice obituary:
Joe Thompson, 1918-2012: County treasure, irreplaceable artist left lasting legacy

And clips from a film made about Joe:

Hello everybody, check out this amazing film done by Drew Christie.  Its an animated interpretation of John Cohen’s first meeting with Harry Smith, the experimental filmmaker and animator who compiled the Anthology of American Folk Music on the Folkways label, probably the most influential collection of American Folk Music. Done for Greg Vandy’s American Standard Time blog.

Great job!  John Cohen says this is just how he remembers it…

Here’s a wonderful clip of a speech made by the great American comedian, cowboy and commentator Will Rogers about the state of the nation in the 1931, The Great Depression.  He could make the same speech today.

Hello everybody,

[Mike Seeger with some of his instruments] 

Here’s all of our November tour dates:

Tuesday Nov. 15th – Hiram College, Hiram, OH.
Frohring Recital Hall
11764 Dean St., Hiram
7:30pm

Hello everybody,

Just wanted to let you know that I have put together a concert to benefit the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Its gonna be a great show! The show is set to take place at Brooklyn’s own Jalopy Theater on Sunday Nov. 13th.  The show starts at 7pm and will feature a number of great bands and performers! (Including my own band The Dust Busters…) The complete list of performers and schedule plus all other relevant info is below.

All proceeds from this concert will benefit the Occupy Wall St. movement.

Hope to see you there!  All the best,

Eli

Venue: The Jalopy Theater, 315 Columbia St. in Brooklyn in Carroll Gardens/Redhook area.  Their website is .  F train to the Caroll St. stop.

Date and Time: 7pm till whenever on Sunday Nov. 13th

Check out the event page on:

Schedule of Bands:

7pm Gregory Nissen – pianist, composer and part of the OWS Arts & Culture Working Group.

7:20 Eric Koniger- Blues guitarist and volunteer at the OWS medical tent.

7:30 Brotherhood of the Jugband Blues – Great jug band music and original songs!

8:10 Veveritse Brass Band – Balkan brass band!

8:45: Kristen Andreassen – Old Time, Country and original songs.

9:10pm The Dust Busters – playing old time American string band music, including some good old American protest and topical songs.

9:50pm The Whiskey Spitters – Old Time, Blues, Jugband Music and more!

10:30pm Peter Stampfel & The Ether Frolic Mob – Wish for a potato!  Incredible banjo twang!

11:10pm Feral Foster – Blues, Folk and original songs

11:45pm Tik Tok – original songs from Berlin and New York – guitar and banjo, ” sounds like tin pans and chicken bones.”

Tickets are available at the door or by calling the Jalopy Theater at (718) 395-3214. Ticket price is $10, all proceeds go towards the Occupy Wall St. movement.  The Jalopy Theater serves beer, wine, tea and coffee.

[Banner by C. Cassano]

Hello everybody, just letting you know about the upcoming Washington Square Park Folk Festival.  I got hired by the Parks Department to produce the first ever folk festival in Washington Square Park.  Gonna be fun!

The festival is FREE and open to the public!

Its gonna be an excellent two days of music, with 9 of my very favorite groups (including my own) gracing the stage and myself on hand to serve as your MC.  Hope to see you there!

Saturday Sept 17th:

2pm The Calamity Janes – old time string band
3pm Feral Foster - original songs and blues
4pm East River String Band - country blues & old time
5pm Whiskey Spitters – country blues & old time