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Summer Music
Sunspot
will not have a concert until Cathie Ryan returns in July. There are a lot
of other musical events coming up between now and then that we would like
to tell you about.
First, Abigail Washburn has increased her show from a duo to a quartet, and
moved to larger venues. She'll be at Jammin' Java in Vienna on Friday, May 19, and at the Ram's Head in Annapolis on Sunday, May 21. Abby is an
amazing singer and banjo player, and the three other members of her quartet
are all exceptional musicians who could each hold a stage on his own. These
shows are not to be missed.
The summer festival season is already beginning, and we have several in our
area that always have a fantastic lineup, including the Washington Folk
Festival at Glen Echo Park and the Potomac Celtic Festival in Leesburg.
These two festivals are the high points in the folk and Celtic music
calendars each year. Both are made possible by the efforts of many
dedicated volunteers. If you have some time to help out, it's a great way
to contribute and get admission to the festivals. Nearby festivals include
the Menokin Bluegrass Festival this weekend and the Graves Mountain Music
Festival in June. See the Summer Festivals section
below for details.
There are several opportunities to attend nearby music schools or camps
with some of the best traditional musicians in the country. See the Music Schools section below for dates and locations.
The number of concerts and music events that take place in the Washington
area is astounding. While we list a few of the traditional music events
that we think Sunspot patrons might like in our newsletters and on the
Sunspot web site, there are hundreds more, many of which are free. See the Concert Lists section below for links to some of the more
comprehensive lists of area musical events.
All of this information, and much more, is available on the "Related
Links" pages of the Sunspot web site.
We hope you have fun and get out to see a lot of live music in the next few
months, and look forward to seeing you back at the Lyceum for Cathie Ryan's
show in July (yes, tickets are on sale now!). If you see us at a show or
festival, please stop and say hello.
Cathie Ryan
The
Lyceum
201 S. Washington St., Alexandria, VA
Sunday, July 16. 8 pm
 Irish-American singer Cathie Ryan returns to the Lyceum for a
summer concert.
With her crystalline vocals and insightful songwriting, Cathie is an
original and distinctive voice in Celtic music. Since her acclaimed seven
year tenure as lead singer of Cherish the Ladies, the Detroit born Ryan has
established herself as one of Celtic Music's most popular and enduring
singer-songwriters. The Boston Globe recently wrote, "Cathie Ryan is a
thrilling traditional vocalist whose honey-pure soprano is equally at home
on probing original ballads about a woman's place in the modern
world."
Cathie has released 4 critically acclaimed CDs on Shanachie Records:
"Cathie Ryan," "The Music of What Happens,"
"Somewhere Along the Road," and her latest, "The Farthest
Wave." She is featured on more than forty compilations of Celtic
Music.
Cathie is a captivating and deeply affecting performer. "There is
nothing like a live show, being with an audience, sharing the music. That
is the best part of being a singer and writing songs," she says. She
has built a loyal following throughout Europe and North America by touring
steadily and singing "songs of the heart." The Irish Echo
observed, "Cathie Ryan certainly knows how to communicate with her
audience. And what she communicates through song are the enduring values of
home, family, memory, and spirit..."
In 2003 Cathie was included in the famous Irish music collection, "A
Woman's Heart – A Decade On," placing her amongst Irish music's finest
female vocalists and songwriters. It was the first time Americans were
featured in the series and she shared the honor with Allison Krauss, Dolly
Parton and Emmylou Harris. In recent years, her original songs have been
recorded by such distinguished Irish vocalists as Frances Black and Mary
Black, among others. She was voted one of the Top 100 Irish Americans by
Irish America Magazine, Chicago's Irish American News honored her as Irish
Female Vocalist of the Decade, and the LA Times recently named her,
"One of the leading voices in Celtic music."
Visit Cathie's web site at www.cathieryan.com.
Tickets $26 advance/$28 at the door (children under 14 with adult half
price).
Tickets on sale now at the Sunspot web site.
Summer Festivals
The Menokin Bluegrass Festival, is taking place this
Saturday (May 6) in Warsaw, Virginia, from noon to 6:00 pm. The festival is
held on the historic grounds of Menokin, home of Francis Lightfoot Lee,
located on Cat Point Creek between the Potomac and Rappahanock rivers in
Virginia's Northern Neck. The festival just started a few years ago, but it
draws some of the finest bluegrass musicians in the country. This year's
lineup is Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, The Seldom Scene, Old
School Freight Train, and Bill Kelso and the Gas Money Band (when not
playing bluegrass, Bill Kelso is the Director of Archaeology with the
Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities).
The Graves Mountain Festival hosts three days of
bluegrass and old-time performances in Syria, Virginia. This year's
festival, June 1 through June 3, includes the Stringdusters, Uncle Earl,
The Grascals, Mountain Heart, the Cherryholmes, The Seldom Scene, Peter
Rowan and Tony Rice, and Rhonda Vincent.
The Washington Folk Festival is held the first weekend
in June at Glen Echo Park. It features musicians from the Washington area
who cover the entire spectrum of folk and traditional music. They also need
volunteers to help set up and run the festival!
The Potomac Celtic Festival is Northern Virginia's
annual Celtic festival, with each year dedicated to a particular Celtic
nation. Held each June in Leesburg, the 2006 festival will be on June 17
and 18.
Performers at this years festival include: Chulrua, Coyote Run, Grada, Matt
and Shannon Heaton with Laura Cortese, Iona, Le Vent du Nord, Tommy Sands,
Tinsmith, the Blue Ridge Irish Music School, Maggie's Music, Moch Pryderi
and harpist Lily Neil. The night festival will feature The Prodigals and
Scythian.
The Potomac Celtic Festival is organized and run by volunteers, and they need
a lot of help to present this wonderful festival. (Among other needs,
they're looking for someone to run the performer check-in this year.)
Please check out the Participation page on their web site and consider
helping them before the festival weekend or during the festival.
Summer Music Schools
The Baltimore Irish Arts Center (BIAC) will be offering
Irish music lessons for four Saturdays in May, beginning on May 6. The
classes being offered are button accordian (Billy McComiskey), fiddle (Jim
Eagan), flute/whistle (Laura Byrne), bodhran (Myron Bretholz), guitar (Andy
Thurston), and banjo/mandolin (Peter Fitzgerald). Contact Laura Bryne for
information (lqbyrne@yahoo.com) or go to the BIAC website to register.
The Blue Ridge Irish Music School BRIMS is a nonprofit
organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia, that offers regular
classes in Irish traditional dance and music on various instruments, and
presents educational workshops, social events, and ceilis. They sponsor
master classes and field trips and actively support the local session
scene. They will be performing at the Potomac Celtic Festival this summer.
Common Ground on the Hill. Common Ground on the Hill
offers two separate weeks of classes, workshops, concerts and events in
July, capped with a two-day Amerrican Music and Arts Festival. It's
impossible to describe the range of subjects, so take a look for yourself.
The Washington/Baltimore area is also home to some great year-round
schools:
Members of the fabulous Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble teach throughout
the area. Dance forms include clogging, Irish step, jazz, tap and ballet.
The Thistle Dancers is a group of talented young
dancers who perform the traditional dances of Scotland. Their founder,
director and instructor is Susan W. Hyams, who many know from her dancing with
the pan-celtic band Iona. Classes are offered in Burke, VA, Alexandria, VA
and Lusby, MD.
The Teelin School of Irish dance offers
lessons in four Maryland locations: Columbia, Gaithersburg, Roland Park and
Annapolis. In addition to Irish dance, the Columbia and Gaithersburg
locations also offer clogging, dance team, lyrical and hip hop lessons. The
Teelin School was founded by Maureen Berry from Footworks.
The Dudney School of Irish Dance teaches Irish dance at
Studio One in Springfield, Virginia on Friday nights and at Four Green
Fields Irish Pub in Washington, D.C., on Saturday afternoons. Jordan Dudney
instructs.
The Culkin School of Irish Dance, founded by Sean
Culkin in 1997, currently enrolls more than 400 students. Classes are
offered at seven locations in Maryland and the District. Sean and his
students are frequently seen on-stage with many of the nationally touring
Irish musicians who come to the area.
Concert Lists
Mary Cliff keeps everyone up to date on upcoming
concerts and musical events in the Washington area during her weekly
Saturday night radio show, Traditions, on WETA. She also posts her Who's
Where listings on her web site.
Wayne Kahn's Right on Rhythm List. Wayne keeps a
comprehensive list of performances in the DC area, including free events,
open mikes and benefit shows. If you subscribe to his list, you get a
weekly email covering all the upcoming events.
DC Celtic Events Yahoo Group. Neal Emerald maintains
this calendar of Celtic-related music events in the Washington area. It's
based in a Yahoo group, and sends reminders for each performance on the
calendar.
Dirty Linen magazine has an extensive national guide to
tour dates.
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