“I was a musician before I was a physician,” says Jay Segel, discussing the songwriting class he offers at Featherstone Center for the Arts. “My long-term goal is to create a place of creativity where songwriters have a chance to critique in a warmhearted way.”
A guitar and banjo player, Tony Furtado mixes modern music with the traditional, creating a distinctive sound.
By the age of 19, Mr. Furtado earned himself a reputation as a young banjo prodigy, winning two National Bluegrass Banjo Championships. Despite the press and praise as one of the most promising bluegrass artists, Mr. Furtado decided that one genre wasn’t enough for him. Creatively, he had something more to express. “I don’t think I could ever be happy staying in any one place musically,” he said.
A strong Vineyard contingent turned out to help warm the new House of Blues in Boston last Saturday night. It was an old-home night of sorts, with singer-songwriter Carly Simon making an unscheduled appearance to dance and belt out a number on stage with Dan Akyroyd. Judy Belushi Pisano, a Vineyard Haven resident and widow of John, one of the original Blues Brothers, was a key mover in getting the Vineyard crowd to Boston — and on its feet. But truth to tell, few Islanders need much of an excuse to get off the rock in February.
Vicious art as a warm-up for brutal sport? Super Sunday on the Vineyard offered exactly that.
As old as the Odyssey, the story of a man trying to fight his way back home is at the core of Dusty Pas’cal’s body of songs.
The 32-year-old singer songwriter from upstate New York released his second album, More, this past February, and performs tonight at the Katharine Cornell Theatre.
Jazz afficionado Leslie J. Stark is offering his popular jazz appreciation series at Featherstone Center for the Arts again this winter, with classes meeting from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesdays in February and March