4th Annual
Kickin' Country Eclectic Music
Festival and Food Drive
November 6-8
Artists in Partnership, Inc. and the Long Beach Public
Library present the 4th Annual Kickin' Country Music Festival and Food Drive for the Food and Friendship Inn at the Long Beach Public Library and other
venues, from Friday, November 6th through Sunday, November 8th. The
Long Beach Public Library is located at 111 West Park Avenue, Long
Beach, N.Y. (516) 432-7201.
Join us at the long Beach Public Library for live Country, "Alt"
Country, Americana and Bluegrass music with a special focus on the
Piedmont Country Blues. Scheduled groups include: The M.S.G.
Acoustic Blues Trio, Piedmont Bluz,
Demolition String Band Duo, Jack Grace Band, Katie Mitchell Band, Marc
Berger and RIDE, Vienna Carroll & Keith Johnston, Sean Kershaw and
New Jack Ramblers, Melody Allegra Band and Clogging and Flatfooting
dancer, Megan Downes with "City Stompers"
All events are free, but we ask that participants
bring non-perishable food and personal care items for our Long Beach Food and Friendship Inn Food Drive to
benefit local homeless/hungry citizens.
Please contact us at aip4arts@gmail.com for more information or call (516) 432-6342.
JUST ADDED-----Keeping the 4th Annual Kickin' Country Party going on Saturday night after the Library event at 9:30- Join us for Country Favorites with Long Island's own STAGECOACH at LOLA'S- 180 West Park Avenue (across from Library) HeeHaw!
and QUARTER HORSE on the WEST SIDE at LILLY'S from 8-11:45-954 West Beech St
All events
are FREE. Seating is limited to 200 in
the Library. Please consider joining Artists in Partnership, Inc. either online
at www.aip-arts.org or sign up at the event.
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Here is the lineup for the Kickin' Country Eclectic Music Festival and Food Drive:
Click on Current Events for artist bios and pictures
(PLEASE CHECK BACK, AND OFTEN, AS ALL PROGRAMS
ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
FRIDAY- 11/6
7:00- DEMOLITION STRING DUO featuring Elena Skye and Boo Reiners
8:15-JACK GRACE BAND-Experimental Country/Art/Rock
SATURDAY AFTERNOON-11/7-
Featuring Acoustic Blues, Roots and
Spirituals in the Piedmont Country Style
2:00-PIEDMONT BLUZ DUO
3:00- M.S.G. ACOUSTIC BLUES TRIO
SATURDAY EVENING-11/7
7:00- KATIE MITCHELL Band
8:00- MARC BERGER and RIDE- American Roots
SUNDAY-11/8
1:30- VIENNA CARROLL & KEITH JOHNSTON- Folk First/Black Roots Music
2:30- SEAN KERSHAW & NEW JACK RAMBLERS-High Octane Honky Tonk
3:30- MELODY ALLEGRA BAND- Bluegrass/Oldtime Music and featuring
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News Flash! MARCH
21st 2014 - OPENED FOR ROBERT CRAY
CONGRATULATIONS RESA! - Nominated for 2013 Wammie
Award - "Best Blues/Traditional R&B Female Vocalist"
Jackie Merritt / Resa Gibbs - 2010 Accepted into the Library of
Congress. "Americana Women: Roots Musicians - Women's Tales & Tunes"
MusicBox
Project
Nov. 14th: Jackie Merrit won the 2010 Alli Award for her contributions to the Arts in the Greater Hampton Roads and her accomplishments as a blues musician and artist!
PIEDMONT BLUZ
"Just when people think the old country blues of the Mid-Atlantic has
faded away, along come the wonderful husband and wife duo of Valerie and Ben
Turner who are the heirs to the Piedmont blues tradition. They are known as the
duo 'Piedmont Bluz' and play the truehearted, authentic country blues with
love. It'll warm you heart. Keep your ears on Piedmont Bluz." - Frank
Matheis, Publisher:www.thecountryblues.com,Writer:LivingBlues
The Piedmont Bluz acoustic duo
is dedicated to the preservation of
Country Blues and the Piedmont style and their mission is to help keep this
rural, east coast tradition alive by educating audiences about this unique
aspect of African American culture through musical entertainment. The husband
and wife duo are much loved wherever they go and feel that "there are
stories to tell, people to remember, and things that must be said" so, in
addition to tickling your ears with delightful music, they weave a bit of
history into the presentation of each song.
The duo have performed at such venues as the American Folk Art Museum,
ArtsWestchester, Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation, Howland Cultural
Center, The Jalopy Theatre, The Shrine,andTowneCrierCafé.
They have also been featured in numerous festivals including Clearwater
Revival, Hampton Acoustic Blues Revival, Riverside Blues Festival, Connecticut
Folk Festival, Washington Square Park Folk Festival, Kickin' Country Music
Festival, Cedar Beach Blues Festival, and Brooklyn Folk Festival. In addition,
they have also been guests on Horses Sing
None Of It, The
Blues Break with Big Joe Fitz, and Wes Houston
Presents.
www.piedmontbluz.com
KATIE MITCHELL BAND
Katie Mitchell is a singer/songwriter whose musical roots began in Virginia at a young age. She has been writing her own songs and performing for live audiences since age 8. Her band formed in 2012 when she met drummer and harmonist John Condon at an open mic in Forest Hills. The duo later added lead guitarist John Botten and bass player Brendan Moynihan. The group has a love of harmonies and turning pop songs into country rock songs. They often perform locally in Long Beach and you can find out more about their music and shows by visiting them at
https://www.facebook.com/TheKatieMitchellBand.
MARC BERGER and RIDE
Marc’s life has been about pursuing twin passions: creating and recording his American roots songs, and exploring remote areas of the desert and mountain West. After signing his first publishing contract while in law school, he fronted rock bands and performed regularly in New York City clubs like CBGB, Wetlands, and The Knitting Factory. All through this period, he’d find ways to get into the West, picking up details from fellow wilderness junkies about off the beaten path locales and filing them away for future reference. On one of these trips, he became intrigued by the cover of THE BIG IT, a book of short stories by A.B. Guthrie he found on a revolving paperback rack in a Navajo reservation trading post. It got him thinking about using his travels to create a set of songs in the cultural tradition of writers like Guthrie and visual artists like John Ford and Frederick Remington. Marc and Co-Producer Mike Ricciardi now present RIDE, ten cinematic recordings reflecting his romantic connection to the American West and exploring the value of its myths to contemporary culture.
Marc’s performed at Austin’s South by Southwest Music Festival and The Kerrville Folk Festival and has opened shows for Bob Dylan and other national acts. His song THE LAST ONE was a staple of Richie Havens’ concerts for years, and has been quoted in the NY Times and featured on The CBS Evening News.
www.marcbergermusic.com
SEAN KERSHAW
Brooklyn-based music artist Sean
Kershaw, whose swaggering, “high-octane honky-tonk” (New York Times) has
thrilled and seduced audiences from New York to L.A. and beyond, is releasing a
long-anticipated EP, The Aussie Sessions, scheduled to drop in the
States on December 7, 2013.
Recorded in Melbourne, Australia at Hailstone Studio — an apropos recording
space for Kershaw’s roughhewn country-rockabilly that doubles as a greaser
workshop and contains a '65 Ford pickup, shovelhead chopper and collection of
vintage amps — the album comprises seven original compositions featuring a more
retro rock ‘n’ roll sound than Sean’s previous musical ventures. Recorded live,
Kershaw was backed by Justin Rudge on guitar, Sweet Felicia on bass and backup
vocals, and Scott Bennett on drums. Paulie Bignell, who was The Aussie
Sessions’ recording engineer, also contributed a guitar solo.
Kershaw is slated to embark on a promotional tour of the United Kingdom
supporting the album early next spring. However, audiences here at home can
purchase the EP and experience the new songs when Sean plays the Way Station in
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, on the December 7th date of release.
The Aussie Sessions is just the latest musical trek in the journey of
The Coney Island Cowboy (the title of Kershaw’s acclaimed debut CD).
While Kershaw’s lead vocals and rhythm guitar suggest the whisky-soaked angst
of Hank Williams Sr., a gritty brand of rockabilly that drives restless boots
straight to the dance floor. It was a writer for Playgirl magazine who,
after listening to the single “Moonlight Eyes,” Kershaw’s most popular
recording to date, observed that those same boots might sooner be kicked off
and placed under a lover’s bed. Coney Island Cowboy enjoyed regular
airplay in the U.S., Australia and Europe upon its release.
A lifelong wanderer born in Baltimore and raised in a military family, Kershaw
has lived overseas and all over the continental U.S. Early in his career,
Kershaw embraced the road by busking throughout the country. Starting out in
New Orleans, he headed west to play in Los Angeles and San Francisco, went
north up to Seattle, back across to Chicago and St. Louis, and eventually
settled in New York.
It was in Brooklyn that Kershaw became a driving force if not the face of a
growing country music scene, spurring notices in various high profile media
outlets such as the New York Post, New York magazine and Time Out New
York, and eventually becoming the cover story of a Village Voice article
dedicated to Brooklyn country.
From 1996 through 2003, Kershaw played with a band called the Blind Pharaohs.
The rockabilly group developed a plugged-in and loyal following touring up and
down the East Coast. However, by 2007, having written and continuing to hone a
host of original country and rockabilly songs, “Sean Kershaw and the New Jack
Ramblers” became Sean’s main musical vehicle.
Depending on the venue, Sean Kershaw and the New Jack Ramblers scale up or down
in players, and feature Sean on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, an upright bass,
lead guitarist, drums, pedal steel, and occasionally keyboards, banjo, fiddle
and the mandolin.
“Audiences that respond to mainstream country music will readily hear the
influences of Johnny Cash, jump blues and western swing in the New Jack
Ramblers,” stated Sean Kershaw. “But it’s the remnants of my background as a
punk rocker, and the strange, unexpected tales our songs tell that subvert
country purists’ expectations and appeal to an even broader, often younger
audience. The new set of songs from The Aussie Sessions brings yet
another dimension to our sound,” continued Kershaw.
www.seankershaw.com
MELODY ALLEGRA
Award winning fiddler Melody
Allegra Berger has been playing violin since the age of five and is
classically trained in both violin and voice. She fell in love with
bluegrass/old time music around 9 years ago and has been raising a ruckus
in the NYC area ever since, branching out into all manner of folk genres. You
can hear Melody's fiddling on Season 2 Episode 5 of House of Cards, in a scene
where she also coached an actor to look like he was playing.
In addition to regularly performing at regional favorites, Melody has rocked out at the top of Rockefeller Center, the Lincoln Center Atrium, Joe's Pub, The Bell House, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco and Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival (where she played the main stage and dance tent this past summer as the newest member of bluegrass/hip hop superstars Gangstagrass, Emmy-nominated for their theme song on the hit show Justifed).
Melody loves to work as an actor/musician and has recently originated roles in Prospect Theater's GOLDEN BOY OF THE BLUE RIDGE and Depot Theater's CARELESS LOVE: A Down Home Musical.
www.melodyallegra.com
MEGAN DOWNES
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR City Stompers
Megan Downes has been involved with percussive dance all her life. As a child she studied Irish step dancing with National Heritage Fellow Donny Golden in New York City, and went on to teach Irish social dancing in New York and at regional festivals. She taught for fourteen years at Midsummer Night Swing held every summer at Lincoln Center, was a principal dancer with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble for 16 years, and has taught flatfooting and clogging at the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia. Columbia Pictures hired Megan to teach Brad Pitt authentic Irish dance moves in preparation for his performance in the 1997 film The Devil’s Own. The City Stompers benefit from Megan’s broad experience in percussive dance traditions, her passion for dance, dedication to teaching, and her infectious enthusiasm.
VIENNA CARROLL and KEITH JOHNSTON
Vienna Carroll is a singer, playwright, actor, historian and herbalist.
She learned music from the Black Ladies of her youth, including her fearsome great grandmother who played country & western guitar to Minnie Pearl on Saturday night radio and proper Pentecostal chords in church on Sunday. Ms Carroll received a BA in African American Studies and Political Science at Yale University.
She wrote and starred in Singin Wid A Sword In Ma Han, a
musical docudrama about a family escaping slavery, which features rare
spirituals and won the International NYC Fringe Festival’s Audience
Favorite Award. Singin’s other venues include the PA Goodrich
Underground Railroad Museum, Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture, Newark Museum, Medgar Evers College CUNY and the West
Harlem Library Series. Ms. Carroll also produced a CD of spirituals and
performed selections at the Schomburg’s Emancipation Proclamation event. singinwidasword.com
Ms. Carroll conceived of and produced the First Annual NYC Underground Railroad Festival Juneteenth Celebration. With the assistance of the Brooklyn Borough President’s office, she partnered with The Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, a nationally certified Underground Railroad site; the Brooklyn Historical Society; the Weeksville Heritage Society; and the American Theatre of Harlem. The Festival, a sold-out event, was recorded and broadcast by WBGO-FM, the tri-state area’s premier jazz station. undergroundrailroadfestival.org
Folk First: Black Roots Music is Ms Carroll’s latest project which presents early African American work songs, prison songs, and spirituals – music that preceded jazz, blues and gospel – and their direct music relationships to contemporary artists like Biggie Smalls and Pharrell Williams. Folk First features Ms Carroll on vocals and a peerless old time band consisting of Newman Taylor Baker on washboard, Henrique Prince on fiddle, and Keith Johnston on guitar.
The Vienna Carroll Trio delivers an eclectic mix of folk, blues, jazz standards and jazz versions of country & western, pop and other favorites. Ms. Carroll has worked with Leon Thomas, and studied with Olu Dara, Barry Harris, Walter Bishop Jr, Nanette Natal and Opera Ebony’s Wayne Sanders. At college she sang in a jazz band that included Nat Adderley Jr, Jay Hoggard and Pheeroan Aklaff.
Ms. Carroll has appeared in film, video (Black Folk Don’t), television, commercials and theater including the critically acclaimed “Deepest Man.”
Keith Johnston – Guitar / Music Director. Music
Director, RUINED, Denver Center. Music Director, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam.
Artistic Director, American Theatre of Harlem. Co-founder, Back-A-Yard
Theater. Director BET 30 Anniversary Upfront!