This is our last chance to remind you about our special show featuring Jenny & Billy with the Big Picnic Band, this Saturday night, November 15 at 8:00 p.m. in Beckman Institute Auditorium (Little Beckman).  They will be singing a good many of the songs from their new CD, Picnic in the Sky, along with some of their old favorites. Jeni & Billy’s harmonies, guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fine songs will be backed by Craig Eastman on fiddle, lap steel, and mandolin, Dillon O’Brian on keyboards and harmony vocals, Denny Weston Jr on percussion, and Dave Way (who produced the recording) on percussion and guitar.  With a group of this caliber, who seldom perform together in this configuration, you can expect a spontaneous spirit of freshness and fun that adds greatly to the evening.  Combined with all this are Jeni’s introductory stories that give their songs a fuller context, deepening the experience.  Don’t miss this opportunity!

As we’ve mentioned before, Jeni & Billy perform almost exclusively as a duo, so we can’t offer you any performance examples of the sound you will hear Saturday night, but we can give you links to examples of their fine original songs, their vocals, and their own fine musicianship.  Listen to their performance of Tazewell Beauty Queen at the storied Merlefest of 2010 down in North Carolina. A couple more that we shared in earlier messages that you might not have listened to yet are Panting for Heaven and If I Ever Get Five Dollars. Check their web site at http://jeniandbilly.com.

Tickets for the show are $15 for adults, and $5 for Caltech students and children.  They will be available for cash at the door or in advance by visiting the Ticket Office in person (no service charge) or by calling them (for a fee) at (626) 395-4652.  Online sales end today at http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?pid=7883458.  There are plenty of tickets as of a couple of days ago, but following their performance at McCabe’s last week, there could be a good many last minute purchases and sales at the door.  We never know for sure.  If you haven’t bought tickets by the time the Ticket Office closes on Friday night (they’re open 9:00 to 4:00), try calling (626) 616-4559 on Saturday to find out where things stand.

KPFK, 90.7 FM is finally out of fundraising mode and Folk Scene will be playing a 2 hour live recording broadcast from the archives, featuring two musicians who are no longer with us, Utah Philips and Kate Wolf.  If you don’t know who these two people are, you owe it to yourself to listen on the radio at 6:00 p.m. this Sunday or on the KPFK archives in the following two weeks at http://archive.kpfk.org.  Utah Philips graced our stage a few times with his “long memory” and fine songs and humor, certainly among the great highlights in our 31 years.  Kate Wolf never appeared at Caltech, but she was and continues to be a huge influence on folk music with her songwriting and singing.  Already in the archives is Roz Larman’s Folk Scene show from last Saturday, November 9, a recently recorded program featuring Phil and Dave Alvin.

Tonight (Thursday, 11/13) at 7:00 p.m., Conscientious Projector features a free screening of the movie, Pay to Play at the Armory Center for the Arts, 145 North Raymond in Old Pasadena.  The film discusses the timely subject of big money in elections and will be followed by a discussion, led by filmmaker, John Wellington Ennis and executive producer Holly Mosher.  See http://conscientiousprojector.wordpress.com for more information

Finally, to see something something incredibly amazing (and yes, cute) check out the surprise baby hippo at the LA Zoo, born on Halloween.