The Vineyard Playhouse will transform into Spoon in the Moon Coffeehouse on Friday, April 2, with the assistance of a musical trio whose harmonies and arrangements inject new life into familiar traditional songs.
Cindy Kallet, Ellen Epstein and Michael Cicone perform both a cappella and with simple accompaniment from guitar and hammered dulcimer. The material is drawn from both contemporary and traditional works from America and the British Isles, with an occasional sea shanty thrown in. Their live performances are engaging for audiences of all ages.
Calling kids aged 8 to 18 who can sing and/or act: it’s audition time for the Imp production of Bittersweet, a musical that includes many singing some non-singing roles. Bittersweet is written by Ross Mihalko and Donna Swift, with lyrics by Ross Mihalko and music by Brian Weiland — the creators of Bears Beware, Goldilocks Is in Your Town; Waking Beauty; Bluebeard; and The Tall Tale Trilogy.
Kevin Crawford and Cillian Vallely of the group Lunasa return to the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven on Saturday, March 13, at 7:30 p.m.
Their new album, On Common Ground, was named one of the top 10 albums of 2009 by the Irish Echo, which called it “a pinnacle performance from Cillian Vallely and Kevin Crawford, two uncommonly gifted Irish traditional musicians.”
Band to Sizzle Tonight
Tonight, Friday, March 5, Papa Tuck will cook steak sandwiches alongside The Tripping Lily Band, from 6 p.m. at the Portuguese American Club on Vineyard avenue in Oak Bluffs. Music begins at 7 p.m. All proceeds benefit Island charities. Tickets are $20, available in advance at the P.A. Club, Jim’s Package Store in Oak Bluffs; and Al’s Package Store and the Dock Street Diner in Edgartown.
For a week during the holidays this winter, Michelle Jasny left the Island for a camp in the Catskills. Armed with her accordion, she joined some 300 people at KlezKamp, a weeklong retreat for klezmer musicians. Though she’d been playing for nearly a year, and also has a background in piano and guitar, Ms. Jasny was blown away by the intensity of the repertoire, and the music. “Some of this is very fast,” she said of the traditional Yiddish music. “We were playing like nine, 10 hours a day, so it was very intense.”
The crowd at Che’s Lounge sang along Saturday night, as brothers Dave and Rob Myers brought a cornucopia of music and nostalgia to the underground coffee shop in the alley off Main street in Vineyard Haven.
Many of the Island’s seasoned musicians showed up at Che’s; for them, it was a step back to the 1990s and a time when the Island was home to a number of vibrant live bands that played regularly enough that audiences became fans, buying locally-produced albums and memorizing lyrics.