No shows scheduled yet, but we’re looking into possibly having our first in-person live show in January, 2022, and possibly an online show before that.

Get on our Mailing List to stay informed!

Here’s our most recent mailing, sent in the wee hours of June 11/12, 2021:

Maybe the Pasadena Folk Music Society is starting to see the way out of this year and a half of pandemic.  We’re zeroing in on a possible show in January, 2022, so we hope that the virus continues to subside.  We are also looking at a possible online show before the end of the year, but we will have to work on that a bit.  We will keep you posted!

You may remember that we were looking for new volunteers right before everything shut down?  We are getting ready to resume that effort and we will be checking in with those of you who showed interest in volunteering a year and a half ago.  And we will also be giving others a chance to get involved too, so you will hear more about that.

We are greatly encouraged to hear that the folks that put on the Topanga Banjo/ Fiddle Contest and Folk Festival are not only gearing up to celebrate their 60th Anniversary next year on Sunday, May 15, 2022, but they will be co-hosting a special fundraiser musical event along with Tiny Porch Concerts and the Santa Monica Mountains Fund on Saturday, October 9, 2021.  Paramount Ranch has been the setting for this wonderful event, with musicians of all ages playing music and singing in the beautiful natural setting of the Santa Monica Mountains, and the old Parmount Ranch movie sets, which were badly burned in the Woolsey Fire.  The natural setting is recovering, and the National Parks Service is managing the restoration of the Ranch.  They say tickets will go on sale in July, so we will try to let you know when that happens.

Coming up next Wednesday, June 16, the Library of Congress will present a couple of great online shows (both Facebook and Youtube) with extraordinary American singers/intrumenalists, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin    at 9:00 AM, followed by Martin Carthy,    a master of British folk music at 9:45 AM.  Both Jody and Martin have performed in our series.  If you watch the live programs on Facebook, you can interact and ask questions following the show.  If you miss the the original shows, they will be available from the Library of Congress archives afterwards.  You will find some other fine shows listed there as well.  You can also see and hear Cambalache, who did a special show of son jarocho music for us at the Pasadena Public Library a couple of years ago on Wednesday, September 29 at 9:30 AM.  Click on the above links to learn more about the artists and how to hear the shows.

Another free online show, hosted by Suzie Glaze and presented by Far West is part of the Woodshed Sessions and features Brad Colerick, Iona FyfeLauren Sheehan, and Rick Shea on Monday, June 21 at 7:00 PM   Suzie, Brad, and Lauren have all played our series, and you just might see Iona and Rick perform here some time in the future.

Here’s a free live show in Newbury Park, next to the city of Thousand Oaks, featuring the Jonathan McEuen Band and the Tom Corbett Band on June 26 at 7:00 PM.  The show is at the Stagecoach Inn Museum Lawn- bring a folding chair and a blanket.  Find out all about it here.

If you like slack key Hawaiian music and other guitar stylings, Jim “Kimo” West and Aolani Kaeka-Preuss will perform at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center, known affectionately as “The Muck, in Fullerton on July 1.

Los Lobos will be at the Pacifica Amphitheater in Costa Mesa on  August 1 and Dwight Yoakam, along with Big Sandy and his Flyrite Boys will be there on Friday, August 13

Carlene Carter and the Lucky Ones, along with special guests, Emmylou HarrisRodney Crowell and others will present an online show on June 17 and June 14.  Find information here.

Willie Nelson is back on the road again with the Outlaw Music Festival, with California appearances in Irvine (Oct. 16), and San Diego (Oct. 17) with the Avett Brothers and Ida Mae.  Lucinda Williams and Gov’t Mulewill will also be featured at the Irvine show.

Tomorrow, Evie Ladin (who has performed for us at Caltech) will do a clawhammer banjo workshop online tomorrow, June 12 at 10 AM.

Radio station KPFK, 90.7 FM and KPFK.org, the last bastion of folk music on the radio waves, are done with the fund drive, so the listening is better than ever.  FolkScene (Sunday nights, 6:00  to 8:00 PM), Roots Music and Beyond (Saturday mornings, 6:00 to 8:00 AM, and Global Village (Monday to Friday, 11AM to 1:00PM). Even during the fund drive, they have been playing some great music.  FolkScene aired a very satisfying interview/music session with Peggy Seeger on May 18 that was just recorded in April, a fantastic show, and then they broadcast some vintage Mary McCaslin and Jim Ringer live performances a couple of weeks ago.  You can hear the guest portions of those shows at FolkScene’s Apple podcasts site or FolkScene’s Soundcloud site (scroll down just a bit to find the performer you want.)   All music shows can be heard online in their entirety for 14 days at the KPFK Audio Archives.  Just look them up by date and by time. Allen and Kat will be having Richard Thompson in coming weeks.   [The Richard Thompson show was just broadcast Sunday, June 13 between 6 and 8 PM!   It is an excellent interview, with some great recorded songs and a couple of live ones as well.  You can hear it at the links above.  Highly recommended!]

Only night owls and earlybirds will see this tip in time, but Mary Katherine Aldin will be doing her Alive and Picking version of Roots Music and Beyond tomorrow morning [6/12/2021], Saturday at 6:00 AM.  The show is worth getting up early for, but you can also listen to it for two weeks on the KPFK Audio Archives.  Mary Katherine has also brought back the show, Preaching the Blues for a month or two on Sunday nights, 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM, showing that she is just as knowledgeable about blues as folk.  Incidentally, KPFK has quite a few other exceptional music shows, such as Bill Gardner’s Rhapsody in Black, every Saturday from 2:00 to 4:00 PM.  Great oldies songs that you just don’t hear anywhere else.

At the FolkWorks web site, Ross Altman wrote about Joan Baez and Bob Dylan on their 80th birthdays this year.  And check out the Acoustic Americana Music Guide website for the next update of concerts and news.