Down Home Radio Show

Brooklyn Folk Festival Preview Concert and Benefit

Friday, March 1^st @ the Jalopy Theatre

9pm: John Cohen (of the New Lost City Ramblers)
with Walker Shepard and Eli Smith

10pm: Alex Battles

11pm: The Four o’Clock Flowers

The proceeds from this concert benefit the production of the 2013 Brooklyn Folk Festival.  Get a taste of what is to come at this year’s festival, and at the same time help us raise money to produce the event.

Jalopy Theatre
317 Columbia St.
Brooklyn, NY
www.Jalopy.biz
cover: $10

www.BrooklynFolkFest.com

Doc Watson’s daughter Nancy, Roy Andrade and others are producing an incredible 4 CD box set of recordings of Doc Watson and his family including Gaither Carlton.  They need your support right now to produce it, with less than 2 days to go on their fund drive: Click Here for the Kickstarter link.

This is a very important collection, which promises to be incredibly powerful, affecting and informative.

Here is a message about it from Jody Stecher followed by a short film about the production of the material and box set itself.  Amazing!

“Milestones” is the most moving and stirring collection of recorded music I have heard in a decade. I co-wrote the liner notes with Roy. “Milestones” is a book of Watson Family photo collages, assembled with scissors and glue over a 10 year period by Doc Watson’s daughter Nancy. And it’s four CDs of music.  The recordings are extraordinary musically but also historically as they comprise a major document of a local musical tradition that was made from within the tradition itself. Some of the music was recorded by Nancy as a girl. Her familiarity to the musicians she recorded gave her access to a side of the singers and players that a folklorist or “collector” from “outside” would be unlikely to ever see or hear.  This includes gentle loving renditions of beautiful traditional songs and tunes by her grandfather Gaither Carlton, sacred songs recorded at home prayer meetings and at Mount Paran Church, (more…)

Hey Everybody,

Ernie Vega – an awesome folk musician and friend of Down Home Radio – has started a brand new weekly show at 116 Macdougal St. (Btwn Bleecker and W. 3rd St.) in Greenwhich Village, NY, NY.  This is the same room that used to be known in the 1960′s as the Gaslight Cafe, probably the greatest small folk club of the 60′s era, where Dylan played, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Dave Van Ronk, Stampfel, Ramblin’ Jack, New Lost City Ramblers, all those amazing folks from that era.

A new club has opened in the same space and we are lucky to have a regular high quality FREE folk show there every Monday.  Check it out!

- Eli

Here’s a link for the facebook group if you wanna get announcements about the show.

Come check out the festival – It’s free and open to the public, out in Washington Square Park in New York’s own Greenwhich Village!

Saturday Sept. 15th
2pm Jackson Lynch – Blues and old-time singer, multi-instrumentalist
3pm Randy Burns – Songwriter
4pm Ian Link – Songwriter
5pm Stephanie Coleman – Old-time fiddler
6pm Banjorama – Banjo oriented jug band
7pm Whiskey Spitters – Blues and old-time stringband

* The stage is located just East of the central plaza/fountain area of the park.  Seating will be provided.

Here’s what happened last year at the inaugural 2011 festival!

[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, 2011:

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

Sunday Sept 18th, 2011:

2pm Bob Malenky – country blues
2:45pm Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues – jug band music
3:40 Frank Fairfield – Old Time songs and fiddle tunes
4:15pm The Dust Busters with John Cohen – old time string band
5:10pm Willy Gantrim & the Phantoms – original songs, country & blues
6pm Peter Stampfel and the Ether Frolic Mob – make a wish for a potato

Proudly sponsored by:

2011 also marks the 50th anniversary of the 1961 “Washington Square Folk Music Riot” when the City tried to revoke the permit for folk musicians to play and sing on Sundays in the park.  They needed to clear undesirable people out so that they could  satisfy local real estate interests and I heard possibly enact a crazy plan to extend 5th ave. through the park!  Luckily folkies resisted the attempt by the police to kick them out of their public space, resulting in the “riot,” and the planned extension of 5th ave never materialized. There’s been a film made about the “riot” and the film will be screened at the festival.

Coverage of the so called riot has been offered by The Indypendent and NPR.

Details:
Friday August 3rd
Showtime: 8pm
$10
Tickets: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/351/1343862000000

Dear friends,

On Saturday July 14th I will be hosting, “Woody Guthrie at 100 – A Tribute Concert at the Jalopy Theatre.”

Songwriter, poet, political activist and Coney Island resident Woody Guthrie, born July 14th, 1912 would have turned 100 years old this year.  Best known for his composition “This Land Is Your Land,” a song known as a second national anthem and sung by school children nationwide, Guthrie was a native of Oklahoma who moved to Brooklyn in 1940 and lived here basically for the rest of his life.

On Saturday July 14th, Woody’s 100th birthday, the Jalopy Theatre will present a tribute concert to Guthrie featuring a number of New York City and Brooklyn’s best folk music performers, including people that knew Guthrie personally and can speak about him.

The event will feature a number of performers including John Cohen (of the New Lost City Ramblers), Eli Smith, Mamie Minch, Ernie Vega, Geoff Wiley, Jesse Lenat, Elizabeth Butters, Stephanie Jenkins, Bob Malenky, Jaime Longhi and others performing Woody’s songs.  Smith and Cohen will also be reading brief selections from Guthrie’s works of poetry and goof-offs and Longhi will read from his father’s memoir of serving with Guthrie during WWII.  The film “To Hear Your Banjo Play,” the only footage of Guthrie in his prime, will also be screened.

Details:

Jalopy Theatre
315 Columbia St.
Brooklyn, NY
11231
(718) 395-3214

Saturday July 14th
Showtime: 9pm

Gonna be a great show.
Hope to see you there!

P.S.  Don’t forget to check out:

Woody Guthrie on live on WNYC with Leadbelly in 1940

The program was produced in 1940 by Down Home Radio co-founder Henrietta Yurchenco for WNYC and the recording was discovered in I believe in 2006.  Down Home Radio rebroadcast it for the first time in 67 year in 2007 with commentary by Yurchenco.

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