Andrea Beaton and Dick Hensold are coming to Caltech at last! After having to cancel their show in January when Andrea’s visa to enter the United States didn’t come through in time (she’s got it in hand now) we’ve got them coming upSaturday, May 21 at 8:00 PM in Beckman Institute Auditorium (Little Beckman) at 8:00 PM. Andrea is an amazing Cape Breton style fiddler steeped in the music- she is cousin of Natalie MacMaster and neice of Buddy McMaster. Dick Hensold plays the Northumbrian smallpipes, reel pipes, and whistles and is known far and wide. They will be joined by guitarist, Dean Magraw and together they make wonderful music, as you can hear in a set of Cape Breton jigs. See Andrea’s web site, Dick’s site, and Dean’s site for more about them. We are excited to have this trio and we know that you are, as we’d sold a good many tickets before we had to postpone the show in January. Tickets are $20 for adults, $5 for Caltech students and children and are on sale now at the Caltech Ticket Office by calling (626) 395-4652. You can also buy tickets online or you can buy them in person at the Ticket Office, Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Winnett Student Center without a ticketing fee. Plan ahead and get your Kevin Burke (June 18) and Patrick Ball (July 16) tickets at the same time!
We don’t usually announce shows at other venues similar to ours, but our good friends, Witcher, Recupido, Levitt & Witcher, who generously performed at the birthday celebration of the late Pitt Kinsolving, will be at the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena this Saturday, May 7 at 7:00 PM. They are a fine bluegrass band and we recommend them highly. Check the May 7 listing at the Coffee Gallery Backstage web site.
You have a difficult choice next Thursday, May 12, as the Conscientious Projector film series in Old Pasadena offers A People Without a Land, a free film about the Palestinians and considerations for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Christian Cruz offers a free classical guitar show at the Crowell Public Library in San Marino. Both shows are at 7:00 PM.
Festival season is here! Make your plans now for the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest and Folk Festival, a delightful day in the country (Paramount Ranch) with music and dance in just over a week, Sunday May 15. The Claremont Folk Festival is the following week, on Sunday, May 22 and the Huck Finn Jubilee Bluegrass Festival will be June 10-12, with a great line-up. And here’s another that we haven’t mentioned, The Route 66 Bluegrass Festival out in Victorville the following week on June 16-19, with a whole different lineup of bands!
Tickets are now on sale for Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion in the final appearance in Los Angeles on Friday, July 1 as he retires from this landmark show that has been a delight and notably a tremendous national stage for folk musicians for over 40 years.