Yeppers, Pasadena is still there

[kayshapero]

Come share a great evening of bluegrass/old time music as Mother's Boys performs an evening of Carter Family songs, along with some of the band members' great original and favorite classic songs in 9 days,  Saturday AUGUST 4 in Beckman Institute Auditorium ("Little Beckman") at 8:00 PM.  We first heard this group on the radio with a few songs from their recording, Home Among the Hills: a Musical Tribute to the Carter Family  and we were delighted to hear this gathering of extremely talented musicians and singers playing familiar and lesser-known songs of the Carters.   It was a chance to hear the seldom-seen, but very fine singer and guitarist, Rick Cunha, who spends most of his time in the studio recording other performers these days, joined by our friend, Peter Feldmann, singer, yodeler, and masterful mandolin and guitar player.  These guys sing some great harmonies and then you have David Jackson, playing upright bass, as well as singing bass, and David Dawson playing autoharp and singing.  Once we got a copy of the album, which incidentally includes talented friends, Laurie Lewis, Moira Smiley, Fred Sokolow, Susie Glaze, and Aubrey Richmond, we knew we wanted to present them in our series.   As we mentioned last week, the group doesn't have a video trail, but we can lead you to a few audio clips, Rick singing lead on I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes and Peter Feldmann's lead on Oh Take Me Back, plus the previously mentioned You've Been a Friend to Me.

We got a chance to hear Mother's Boys as a trio at the Coffee Gallery a few weeks ago, and they were all we hoped they would be live.  They clearly love the old Carter songs, and the members step up one at a time to lead their favorite songs, with superb instrumental backing from the others.  Rick Cunha pulled out his Weissenborn steel guitar for a song or two, and we found David Jackson to be a pretty funny guy.  Peter passes on a bit of information about the Carter Family, but the focus is on the songs.    We look forward to hearing David Dawson, coming in special from Colorado just for this show.   If you want to know more about the Carter Family, you can read about them in Wikipedia or watch a great video about them narrated by Robert DuVall, The Carter Family: Will the Circle Be Unbroken (careful, it is 90 minutes long!), but you don't need to do this.  This show is really about the songs. The group gets together sparingly, so don't miss this opportunity to hear them.  The hot weather is expected to continue, but Beckman Institute Auditorium is air conditioned!

Tickets for this show are $20 for adults, $5 for children and Caltech students.  You can purchase tickets at the Caltech Ticket Office, 1200 E. California Blvd (southeast corner of Wilson Avenue and California Blvd)  between 10AM and 4:30 PM Monday- Friday, or by phone with a service charge at (626) 395-4652.   You can buy them online (also with a fee) here until the end of Thursday, Aug. 2.  They will also be available at the door on the night of the show and you can pay there by cash or check. 

Parking for the Saturday show:
If you haven't been to one of our shows for awhile, since the parking locations changed a bit, read the 4th paragraph on our web page here.   The easiest parking is behind Beckman Auditorium (Big Beckman) at the end of Michigan Avenue, just south of Del Mar Boulevard.  The campus should be pretty quiet on this night, so there may be plenty of room here for everyone on the night of the show.  There will also be ample free parking in the structures on Wilson Avenue.  If you have GPS, put in either of the following addresses to be led right to them, 405 South Wilson Avenue., Pasadena or 341 South Wilson Avenue, Pasadena.  Again, click on the above link for further information, including a link to a campus map.  Remember that you can park in any space, even those that have individual names.  If you need help with handicapped access, call (626) 616-4559 and we'll try to help.

Remember that we have another fine August show, the New World String Project with Stuart Mason, John Weed, Lisa Lynne and Aryeh Frankfurter on Saturday, August 25.  You may have heard Stuart and John play in our series with the fine Celtic band, Molly's Revenge, and you could have heard Lisa and Aryeh perform with harpist, Patrick Ball, a time or two.  You will hear the Swedish nyckelharpa, Celtic harp, fiddle, guitar, cittern, bouzouki, singing, and more in this exciting show.  These are some great musicians.  Here's a sample of their music.  Get it on your calendar!  And then on September 15 we will have Scotland's Tannahill Weavers!  We just received an advance copy of their upcoming studio album, Orach, their first in quite awhile, and it is outstanding!  They will be on their 50 year anniversary tour, and the CD shows them to be in great form!    

See the remaining festivals and summer series information at the bottom of our home page.   Summergrass bluegrass festival, down near San Diego in Vista, has a strong line-up for August 17-19.   FolkScene on KPFK will probably feature an archived show with guest David Olney this Sunday from 6 to 8 PM at 90.7 FM or on the KPFK Audio Archives after Sunday night, July 29.  They have some great guest interview/performances posted at the FolkScene Soundcloud site, currently including recent shows with Tom Russell, Eric Anderson, John Gorka, Dan Navarro, and Chris Smither, along with past years' shows with Natalie McMaster, Louden Wainright III, Old Blind Dogs, and others.

If the hot weather and raging fires have you concerned about climate change, there is a talk ($3 donation requested), Some Like it Hot- Global Warming: Causes, Impacts and Solutions  this Saturday, July 28 in the auditorium at Eaton Canyon Nature Center, 1750 Altadena Drive in Pasadena.  The speaker will be Robert Haw, employed by  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.