PFS Presents The Maes

CLICK HERE TO GET TICKETS TO THE MAES

Thursday, September 5, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

$12 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $15 Not-Yet-Members | $18 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THE MAES

After a SOLD OUT standing room only House Concert two years ago, PFS is THRILLED to welcome the stunningly talented The Maes back to Philadelphia in our venue!

About The Maes

Multi-award-winning Melbourne contemporary folk outfit, The Maes (formerly The Mae Trio) is the brainchild of sisters Maggie and Elsie Rigby. Born into the arms of the Folk music community in Australia, both sisters were side of stage at their first folk festival when they were four weeks old and have been absorbing and exploring folk music since that time.

The Maes’ latest, self-titled record set (released May 2019) is a return to the sisters’ folk music roots. Gentle, intimate and conversational, the album is an unadorned showcase of Maggie and Elsie’s superb songwriting as well as honest, relaxed and stunning vocal and instrumental performances.

The album was born on a two-month tour of Europe and North America in 2018 shortly after the band changed its name from The Mae Trio to The Maes after the departure of founding member Anita Hillman. The sisters started the tour with a recording session in Canada, intending to make a four track EP. Fired up by the changes in the band, inspired and bursting with new music they kept looking for new recording opportunities as the tour progressed. By the end of the tour they had two tracks from Nova Scotia, Canada, two songs from the Isle of Mull in Scotland, two songs from different studios in Ireland and four songs recorded in their hometown of Melbourne.

The album features production from top roots music producers from around the world including, Daniel Ledwell (Oh Pep!, Jenn Grant, Good Lovelies), John Fitzgerald (Christy Moore, Crooked Still, Lisa Hannigan) and Brendon Love (Teskey Brothers). The album also features cello and harmony vocals by award-winning Brisbane musician, Monique Clare who regularly tours with The Maes.

“This is the album we never really intended to make” says Maggie (banjo, guitar, vocals) “we were struck by the ease and serendipity with which it came together, like it was just ready to come out of us. I love this record, I’ve never made anything that feels so comfortable and honest. I also reckon it’s our strongest collection of songs to date”.

“We were deep into making this album before we knew we were making an album. There is a beautiful absence of pressure and self-consciousness that happened as a result; like the opposite of having a camera pointing at you while you arrange your face into a ‘normal and happy expression’. We were truly playing in the studio. In a few senses.” ~ Elsie (mandolin, violin, vocals)

Their latest release follows on from their sophomore album, Take Care Take Cover, which was recorded in Nashville by Grammy nominated producer/engineer Erick Jaskowiak (The Waifs, Crooked Still, Darrell Scott) and featuring some of that music town’s finest roots musicians. The record won them the Age, Music Victoria Folk/Roots Album of the Year in 2017 as well as rave reviews in Australia and overseas.

Since 2014, The Maes have been full time touring in Australia and overseas, winning over audiences with their striking songwriting, intricate instrumental arrangements and stunning vocal harmonies. The band’s touring history includes a list of some of the worlds largest and most prestigious music festivals such as, the Woodford and Port Fairy Folk Festivals in Australia, The Edmonton and Vancouver Folk Festivals in Canada, Cambridge Folk and Celtic Connections festivals in the UK and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in the USA.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE MAES ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MAES

Andy Antipin Album Release Concert with Andy Cohen, Rolly Brown, Mara Levine, Boaz Kim, and others

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Friday, September 6, 2019
Doors 7 pm | Music 7:30 pm

For more information, contact andyblue@comcast.net.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF ANDY ANTIPIN

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO ANDY ANTIPIN

PFS Presents The Levins CD Release Concert with Katherine Rondeau

Saturday, September 7, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

$10 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $12 Not-Yet-Members | $15 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

About The Levins
The Levins are a harmony-driven acoustic duo known for their sun-splashed, peace infused songwriting that connects on a universal level and celebrates our common humanity. These award winners (Indie Acoustic, Empower Music, CTFolk, S.Florida Festival, MASC) were 2017 SERFA and 2016 NERFA Formal Showcase Artists and 2014 Falcon Ridge Emerging Artists. In addition to performing/presenting at the Parliament of World Religions in Toronto, The Levins rounded out 2018 in San Francisco with the multiple show production of My “Friend Hafiz”, a theatrical circus directed by Broadway director Mindy Cooper, featuring the live music of their 2013 recording. Unique harmonies and tightly blended unison vocals, along with their guitar and piano interplay, reflect the couples own compatible musical/personal relationship which began after meeting at an open mic at The Freight and Salvage in Berkeley CA. Their My Friend Hafiz CD debuted in the top 20 on Folk DJ & their latest, TRUST, in the top 10. (Top 10 song/2015, J.Platt, WFUV) and “underscores the positive messages of love, peace and self-awareness. Each tune serves as another stepping stone toward a better day & a richer life.” Tom Staudter. Their newest recording, Caravan of Dawn came out in 2019!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THE LEVINS

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE LEVINS ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE LEVINS

About Katherine Rondeau:

PFS Presents Che Apalache

Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

$12 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $15 Not-Yet-Members | $18 Doors

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CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK 

About Che Apalache

Immigration is a powerful topic for Che Apalache bandleader Joe Troop. A polymath, polyglot, and world traveller, Troop left home at a young age, emigrating from this country in search of a better life. Raised in the North Carolina Piedmont, in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, Troop came of age to the music of bluegrass and all-night jam sessions at festivals, but being a young, queer man in the South, at a certain point he no longer felt welcome in his own home region.

He took refuge abroad, traveling Europe and immersing himself in his two great loves: music and language. He studied Spanish in Spain, spent summers in Morocco, and eventually moved to Japan to teach English. He carried his music and his fiddle with him always, picking up elements of flamenco, jazz manouche, and swing. In 2010, Joe immigrated to Argentina, and, looking to make friends and build a scene, he began teaching bluegrass.

Nine years later, Che Apalache, led by Troop, features three powerhouse Latin American musicians – two from Argentina, Franco Martino (guitar), Martin Bobrik (mandolin), and Pau Barjau (banjo) from Mexico – and has been taking audiences by storm with their fusion of Latin and American roots music. Famed banjo player and cross-genre trailblazer Béla Fleck was so taken with the band that he signed on to produce their new album, Rearrange My Heart, coming August 9, 2019 on Free Dirt Records.

“I love to work with music that intrigues, excites and inspires me,” Fleck explains, “and that describes Che Apalache to a T! We first met at my Blue Ridge Banjo Camp last year. They had come from Buenos Aires and asked to play for me. I was blown away and they blew away the crowd a few days later. It’s been a blast to get to know them in the creative environment; together we’ve come up with what I believe is a truly striking album. I hope you’ll enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed producing.”

With Béla Fleck as producer and a new album on its way, Che Apalache is a success story, but Troop hasn’t returned to the States after over a decade abroad to comfort listeners. He’s here to challenge the narrative, to speak directly on what American policies and perspectives are doing to the world. “We’re trying to take our message to the people who most need to hear it.”

Troop explains. “We want to have respectful dialogue with people that aren’t coming from the same place we are, and we want to challenge their way of thinking.” Opening with a traditional greeting in the Uruguayan murga style before segueing into the song “María,” which has touches of candombe, flamenco and Spanish Sephardic Jewish music, Che Apalache’s global sensibilities are clear.

The heart of the album, though, lies with the powerful song “The Dreamer,” written about Troop’s friend Moises Serrano. A queer North Carolinian immigrant from Mexico and a DACA recipient, Serrano was raised in the same region as Troop. “The Dreamer” states Che Apalache’s mission: subvert the narrative from within. “We’re reeling people in with music they understand,” Troop explains, “but then we give them a twist. This is all intentional, I’ve had years living outside this country to think about how to do this.”

The power of the subversion lies in how well Troop understands Appalachian and Southern audiences, and also in an honest love for the music. The band spent years perfecting Stanley Brothers-style harmonies, trying to get the sound just right. They then married that sound with brutally honest lyrics lamenting Trump’s rhetoric for “The Wall.” This level of subversion brings its own risks though.

They sang the song at a famous Virginia fiddler’s convention the same day that Nazis marched in the streets of nearby Charlottesville, and had to drop everything and run for safety when an enraged audience member stormed the backstage to attack them.

Che Apalache was formed to enjoy music, to honor it, and to bridge the gap between North and South America, creating a vision of a truly “American” music. Through the controversy and the political fire that fuels Che Apalache’s music, Troop hasn’t lost sight of what first inspired him, the first moment he fell in love with the music.

At just fourteen years old, in a small diner in Boone, North Carolina, he heard a humble man playing with his friends and family. That man was Doc Watson. For Troop and Che Apalache to come full circle and to create a new album with another legend of bluegrass, Béla Fleck, that’s the American dream that Che Apalache embodies.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF CHE APALACHE 

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO CHE APALACHE

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CHE APALACHE

PFS Presents Songs From The Road Band

Thursday, September 12, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

Get your tickets here!

$10 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $12 Not-Yet-Members | $15 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

About Songs From The Road Band

Songs From The Road Band is Charles Humphrey III (bass), Mark Schimick (mandolin), Sam Wharton (guitar), and James Schlender (fiddle). These veteran acoustic musicians have collectively received top accolades in the bluegrass, Americana, and jazz genres. Once primarily an album recording band, Songs From The Road Band has emerged as one of the heaviest touring bands in the country since March 2018. They are currently touring in support of their number one Americana, Bluegrass, and Classic Country chart-topping album Road To Nowhere. They are proud to call both Asheville, NC and Nashville, TN home.

Humphrey, a member of the NC Music Hall of Fame and a Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, received the International Bluegrass Music Association’s entertainer of the year award in 2011. Schimick’s signature high harmonies and energetic mandolin licks have pushed him to the top of the progressive and jamgrass scene alongside legends Larry Keel, Vassar Clements, and Tony Rice. Wharton is an award-winning singer and guitar picker who honed his chops in Telluride, CO Schlender, a two-time National fiddle award recipient, is one of the top five string fiddlers in the world, with a background in contest, classical, and jazz.

The Road Band delivers a one-of-a-kind show, featuring original songs from their four studio albums and crowd favorites from all musical genres. The band is known for their improvisational jams and light show, providing an engaging, high-energy experience for audiences around the country.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND

Friday, September 20, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

Get your tickets here!

$12 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $15 Not-Yet-Members | $18 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF ANA EGGE

About Ana Egge

Ana Egge grabbed hold of her life as a musician early on – as a teenager, she built her own guitar and moved to Austin, TX to observe, absorb and take risks. The striking depth and unusual maturity of her singing, playing, and songwriting got her noticed, and she recorded her first album, River Under the Road (1997) with the legendary western swing band, Asleep At The Wheel. The Austin Music Awards named her  “Best Singer/Songwriter” and “Best Folk Artist.” Over the ensuing years and 9 subsequent CDs, Ana has made good on that promising debut. She has worked with producers Martin Terefe, Jason Mercer, Joel Plaskett, Steve Earle, and Stewart Lerman, and recorded full albums with The Stray Birds and The Sentimentals. Ana’s last single, “We Are One,” co-written with Gary Nicholson, has gathered over five million Spotify spins. RnR called her last album, White Tiger, “wonderful” and No Depression deemed it “nothing less than a balm for the soul.” Now, in 2019, she has released Is It the Kiss, her eleventh album, a new batch of Egge originals of such singularly articulate and affecting honesty and sensitivity, as to once again deserve USA Today’s accolade, “[Ana] can write and sing rings around” her contemporaries.

Ana Egge grew up with parents who “dropped out,” choosing to raise four girls in a lovingly cobbled together combination of a small farmhouse on the North Dakota plains, a bus on the California Coast, and a hot springs commune in rural New Mexico, scraping together dimes and hand-me-downs. Ana learned that her life was truly hers to create. “We were always the outsiders,” she says. “I was taught how to shoot a gun and how to enjoy alfalfa sprouts and tofu. I ran around barefoot and learned to ride a motorcycle when I was 5. I grew up with all the time and space in the world.” Given her unconventional upraising, it’s not surprising that Ana has since been plotting her own journey, confident, fearless, and uncompromising. She’s been around the horn of life’s experiences, having forsaken the Great Plains for Sunset Park in Brooklyn, where she lives with her wife, Amy, and their 5-year old daughter, but she’s never lost touch with the free-spirited childhood and the Western landscape that formed her.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO ANA EGGE ON SPOTIFY

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PFS Presents Gina Chavez

Saturday, September 21, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

$14 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $17 Not-Yet-Members | $20 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

About Gina Chavez

Austin musician Gina Chavez never thought she’d see the day when two women could marry in Texas. Then again, she never thought she would marry a woman.

“Heaven Knows,” the first single off her upcoming five-song EP, Lightbeam, is the musical journey of twelve years in love; a love Chavez never thought she would experience.

“I was 24, staunchly Catholic and I’d had great, healthy relationships. But I’d never been in love,” Chavez said. “Then I met this girl with a smile that made me question everything I thought I knew.”

Lightbeam, set to release on Friday, September 14, 2018, is a sonic departure for Chavez who is known for her signature style of bilingual Latin folk-pop that topped the iTunes and Amazon Latin charts with her award-winning album, Up.Rooted. The 2015 Austin Musician of the Year traded her acoustic guitar for the smooth tones of a Gibson hollow body, and called upon producer Dwight A. Baker (MISSIO, Alpha Rev, The Wind and The Wave, Josh Abbott Band) to lay down five soulful and diverse songs, that expand upon her previous work with same lively and sophisticated spirit that her fans have grown to love.

Lightbeam boasts intensely personal lyrics — heaven knows our souls, our story / the shape of your heart when you hold me / wouldn’t tear us apart or disown me” — strong melodic hooks and a pop aesthetic that showcase Chavez’s versatility as an artist.

“These are songs my heart has been wanting to sing for so long,” Chavez said. “To shout from the rooftops that I am in love! To tell the world about this incredible woman who lights me up and calls me to my best self, and show that our love is more than tolerable. It’s the kind of love we’re made for.”

Recorded in eight days at Matchbox Studios in Austin, Texas, the EP features some of Austin’s finest — Dave Boyle (keys), Conrad Choucroun (drums), and Steve Terebecki (bass) — on five unapologetically personal tracks that explore longing, faith, beauty, and sacrifice.

“I took some time to allow myself to write,” Chavez said. “No boundaries, no genres, just me and my guitar, and I was pretty surprised when these soul-tinged songs bubbled up. But this is the story my heart wanted to tell; the story what it means to be a Catholic Latina and fall in love with a woman; the story of what it means to live your heart no matter what the world says.”

Chavez and her wife, Jodi Granado, met at the University Catholic Center at UT Austin. The next decade would see the couple through the ups and downs of a long-distance relationship, coming out to friends and family, hiding their love while volunteering in El Salvador, and building a life together in Austin. Last year, Chavez and Granado, still practicing Catholics, tied the knot at Tiny T Ranch just east of Austin — two years after marriage equality became legal in Texas.

With 10 Austin Music Awards, an NPR Tiny Desk with more than half a million views, frequent tours as a cultural ambassador with the U.S. State Department, being named an official 2018 SXSW artist for the fifth year in a row with her six-piece band and a trip to Kyrgyzstan in April 2018, Chavez and her wife, Jodi, have embarked on a European mini-tour that kicks off the couple’s honeymoon and the release of “Lightbeam.”

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF GINA CHAVEZ

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO GINA CHAVEZ ON SPOTIFY

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September Monthly Concert with Amanda Rheaume

Sunday, September 22, 2019
Doors 2:30pm | Music 3pm

Get your tickets here!

FREE for Members *While Supplies Last* | $10 Not-Yet-Members | $15 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF AMANDA RHEAUME

About Amanda Rheaume

The fifth album from Ottawa-raised, Toronto-based singer/songwriter Amanda Rheaume, The Skin I’m In presents a compellingly portrait of an artist fully comfortable in her own skin, personally and musically.

Produced by Colin Cripps (Blue Rodeo, Junkhouse) at The Tragically Hip’s famed Bathouse Studio, it sports a full-blooded band sound, thanks to the contributions of an A-list musical supporting cast.

Rheaume’s supple and expressive vocals fit neatly in the centre of the sonic landscape, while her eloquent and well-crafted songs were written with such noted collaborators as Jason Blaine, Melanie Brulée, Jim Bryson, Justin Glasco, and Tim Bovaconti.

One of Rheaume’s great gifts as a songwriter is her ability to take the personal and make it universal, drawing upon her own experience to deliver messages with a wide resonance. She digs deep on The Skin I’m In, reflecting upon her Metis heritage, as on the profoundly moving title track and “Return To The Water,” and addressing issues of identity and mental health.

Her earlier albums met with widespread critical acclaim. 2013’s Keep A Fireearned her a 2014 Canadian Folk Music Award for Aboriginal Songwriter of The Year as well as a Juno Award nomination for Aboriginal Album of the Year, while 2016’s Holding Patterns received a Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination.

An engaging performer, Rheaume has developed a following across Canada and in Europe, where she tours regularly.

She has long employed her music as a force for good, as shown by three trips to Afghanistan to perform for Canadian military personnel, plus visits to the Alert base in Canada’s far north and the troubled Indigenous community of Attawapiskat.

Rheaume co-founded Babes4Breasts, an initiative that, through concerts and recording projects, raised money for breast cancer charities across Canada over a 10-year period.

This is an artist with a heart as big as her talent.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AMANDA RHEAUME ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT AMANDA RHEAUME

**Ticketing Policy**

The Philadelphia Folksong Society is proud to offer its’ members one or two free tickets (depending on membership level) to our selected Monthly Member Concert and Monthly House Concert every month. Due to the large number of members and limited seating, we ask that members reserve tickets when they know they can attend. If a member has reserved a ticket and cannot make it to the member concert of their choosing, they must contact the PFS office by phone or email prior to the event to cancel. Failure to do so will result in an inability to reserve your free member ticket to the following member concert.

If you arrive at a PFS member concert and have not reserved a ticket, you will only be seated ten minutes before show time if seats are still available.

If a member concert is listed as “sold out,” please contact Katie Kresz at kkresz@pfs.org to secure your spot atop the waitlist. You will be notified prior to the concert if seats become available.

PFS asks that all members show respect to their fellow members and the Society through following this policy.

PFS Presents Jonathan Byrd & The Pickup Boys

Friday, September 27, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

Get your tickets here!

$12 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $15 Not-Yet-Members | $18 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

About Jonathan Byrd

Jonathan Byrd and The Pickup Cowboys are musical gunslingers, vaudevillian hucksters, and old-fashioned tent revivalists. Between heartbreaking ballads and heart-lifting sing-alongs, the Cowboys entertain and get audiences involved in the show.

Byrd is a preacher’s son, a Gulf War veteran, and an award-winning songwriter from Chapel Hill, NC, known for literary, outsider songs that have become campfire favorites. The Chicago Tribune called Byrd “one of the top 50 songwriters of the past 50 years.”

Joined on drums by Austin McCall (Kaira Ba, Violet Bell), and musical renaissance man Johnny Waken on guitar, saw, and mandolin, Byrd shares the often-missed, always poignant tales of the small people that make the world such a big place.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF JONATHAN BYRD

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO JONATHAN BYRD ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JONATHAN BYRD

PFS Presents Talisk

Saturday, September 28, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

Click here to get your tickets!

$15 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $18 Not-Yet-Members | $21 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF TALISK

About Talisk

In their five years, Scottish firebrands Talisk have stacked up several major awards for their explosively energetic yet artfully woven sound, including 2018’s Belhaven Bursary for Innovation & 2017’s Folk Band of the Year both at the BBC Alba Scots Trad Music Awards, and a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award.

Mohsen Amini – the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards’ Musician of the Year 2018, Hayley Keenan and Graeme Armstrong seamlessly meld concertina, fiddle and guitar to produce a multi-layered, enthralling signature that has effortlessly captivated audiences from the USA to Australia, and throughout the UK.

Appearances at world-leading festivals – including the Cambridge Folk Festival, Denmark’s Tønder, WOMAD UK and Las Palmas, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Celtic Colours, Milwaukee Irish Festival and five successive outings at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections – have amassed a die-hard following, whilst the world’s folk and world music media have also lauded high credits upon the trio. The release of their hotly anticipated second album, Beyond, in October 2018 was met with a five-star ‘Top of the World’ review in Songlines, praising the band as “incredibly infectious and endearing… fresh, invigorating, accomplished and playfully frisky.”

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO TALISK ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TALISK

PFS Presents Roanoke

Friday, October 4, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

Get your tickets here!

$8 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $10 Not-Yet-Members | $15 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

About Roanoke

Roanoke is a rising Folk/Americana band based out of Nashville, TN. Lead by Joey Beesley and Taylor Dupuis, the two come together to create rich harmonies and unforgettable songs of love, heartbreak, and exploration. Joined by band members Zach Nowak, and Kyle Breese. Roanoke uses their undeniable musical chemistry to create a unique and captivating sound full of cultural influences, roots instrumentation, and catchy, memorable melodies. Their self-titled debut album Roanoke is an invigoratingly classic Americana album filled with modern yet vintage tunes that make the audience sit and listen to a back-porch tale in true Americana fashion. Roanoke has struck a balance between the narrative songwriting of folk, the ear candy appeal of pop, and the roots authenticity of country music. With their growing fan base, and energetic live show, they are set to shake the alternative Americana Folk scene in no time. 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF ROANOKE

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO ROANOKE ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ROANOKE

PFS Presents Irish Mythen with Andrea Nardello

Saturday, November 16, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

Get your tickets here!

$14 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $17 Not-Yet-Members | $20 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

About Irish Mythen

Irish Mythen was born in Ireland and now resides in Charlottetown Prince Edward Island Canada.

“This Island creates music and musicians, art and artists. I found a shift to take things more seriously when I moved here.” And she did just that. Her latest release, the self titled Irish Mythen, gained her recognition around the globe with nominations and wins coming from Music PEI, East Coast Music Association, Folk Alliance International and Socan. Write-ups in Australian Guitar Magazine, the Rolling Stone, and a plethora of online publications world wide have helped plant Irish firmly on the map of ‘Must See Artists’.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF IRISH MYTHEN

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO IRISH MYTHEN ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IRISH MYTHEN

OPENING ACT: ANDREA NARDELLO

Philly’s Andrea Nardello has garnered favorable comparisons to Melissa Etheridge and Shawn Colvin for melding pop songwriting smarts with a confessional and literate songwriting style, exploring relationships, romance, and her out family life. Nardello’s refined accessibility draws from folk, pop, rock, and even the swagger of hip-hop. She can tug at your heartstrings with her softer tunes and get you dancing on your feet with her upbeat songs and powerful voice. Fans ride an unforgettable emotional roller coaster during her live shows.

Nardello has been busy touring and has opened for well known artists like Colbie Caillat, Brandi Carlile, Tony Lucca, Gabe Dixon, Ron Pope, Emerson Hart of Tonic Fame, and Tim Reynolds of The Dave Matthews Band. After releasing ECHO, Nardello won the prestigious Philadelphia Songwriter’s Project Contest and won Tri-State Indie’s “Acoustic Artist Of The Year.” Her songs, “Leave The Light On” and “Home To Me” each won WSTW’s Award for Folk Song Of The Year.

Nardello also spends time fundraising for important causes like The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and The MILE (Music Is Love Exchange). Nardello completed two service trips to Guatemala in support of the MILE. The MILE is a network of artists, musicians, and music lovers that bring positivity and change to the lives of disadvantaged and underserved children, strengthening families and communities both in the U.S. and abroad. Nardello is always willing to help, offer her time and believes that music is a universal language that helps heal and connects us all.

Nardello teamed up with long time friend and collaborator, Matt Duke, to produce her new EP, Human, which was released on Noble Steed Music, last year. This beautifully haunting EP was recorded in Nardello’s home. She is excited to share it with her fans and expects to tour in the fall.

“For me, “Human” is a collection of songs that explores vulnerable topics. Loving someone when they are broken. Striving to challenge yourself when you are stuck. The final stages of life and all that is unknown. It is truly a soundtrack of my life and the people in it. I always get nervous before releasing new music and my only hope is that anyone who listens can connect to these songs in some special way.”

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF ANDREA NARDELLO

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CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ANDREA NARDELLO

PFS Presents The Maes

CLICK HERE TO GET TICKETS TO THE MAES

Thursday, September 5, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

$12 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $15 Not-Yet-Members | $18 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THE MAES

After a SOLD OUT standing room only House Concert two years ago, PFS is THRILLED to welcome the stunningly talented The Maes back to Philadelphia in our venue!

About The Maes

Multi-award-winning Melbourne contemporary folk outfit, The Maes (formerly The Mae Trio) is the brainchild of sisters Maggie and Elsie Rigby. Born into the arms of the Folk music community in Australia, both sisters were side of stage at their first folk festival when they were four weeks old and have been absorbing and exploring folk music since that time.

The Maes’ latest, self-titled record set (released May 2019) is a return to the sisters’ folk music roots. Gentle, intimate and conversational, the album is an unadorned showcase of Maggie and Elsie’s superb songwriting as well as honest, relaxed and stunning vocal and instrumental performances.

The album was born on a two-month tour of Europe and North America in 2018 shortly after the band changed its name from The Mae Trio to The Maes after the departure of founding member Anita Hillman. The sisters started the tour with a recording session in Canada, intending to make a four track EP. Fired up by the changes in the band, inspired and bursting with new music they kept looking for new recording opportunities as the tour progressed. By the end of the tour they had two tracks from Nova Scotia, Canada, two songs from the Isle of Mull in Scotland, two songs from different studios in Ireland and four songs recorded in their hometown of Melbourne.

The album features production from top roots music producers from around the world including, Daniel Ledwell (Oh Pep!, Jenn Grant, Good Lovelies), John Fitzgerald (Christy Moore, Crooked Still, Lisa Hannigan) and Brendon Love (Teskey Brothers). The album also features cello and harmony vocals by award-winning Brisbane musician, Monique Clare who regularly tours with The Maes.

“This is the album we never really intended to make” says Maggie (banjo, guitar, vocals) “we were struck by the ease and serendipity with which it came together, like it was just ready to come out of us. I love this record, I’ve never made anything that feels so comfortable and honest. I also reckon it’s our strongest collection of songs to date”.

“We were deep into making this album before we knew we were making an album. There is a beautiful absence of pressure and self-consciousness that happened as a result; like the opposite of having a camera pointing at you while you arrange your face into a ‘normal and happy expression’. We were truly playing in the studio. In a few senses.” ~ Elsie (mandolin, violin, vocals)

Their latest release follows on from their sophomore album, Take Care Take Cover, which was recorded in Nashville by Grammy nominated producer/engineer Erick Jaskowiak (The Waifs, Crooked Still, Darrell Scott) and featuring some of that music town’s finest roots musicians. The record won them the Age, Music Victoria Folk/Roots Album of the Year in 2017 as well as rave reviews in Australia and overseas.

Since 2014, The Maes have been full time touring in Australia and overseas, winning over audiences with their striking songwriting, intricate instrumental arrangements and stunning vocal harmonies. The band’s touring history includes a list of some of the worlds largest and most prestigious music festivals such as, the Woodford and Port Fairy Folk Festivals in Australia, The Edmonton and Vancouver Folk Festivals in Canada, Cambridge Folk and Celtic Connections festivals in the UK and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in the USA.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE MAES ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MAES

PFS Presents The Levins CD Release Concert with Katherine Rondeau

Saturday, September 7, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

$10 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $12 Not-Yet-Members | $15 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

About The Levins
The Levins are a harmony-driven acoustic duo known for their sun-splashed, peace infused songwriting that connects on a universal level and celebrates our common humanity. These award winners (Indie Acoustic, Empower Music, CTFolk, S.Florida Festival, MASC) were 2017 SERFA and 2016 NERFA Formal Showcase Artists and 2014 Falcon Ridge Emerging Artists. In addition to performing/presenting at the Parliament of World Religions in Toronto, The Levins rounded out 2018 in San Francisco with the multiple show production of My “Friend Hafiz”, a theatrical circus directed by Broadway director Mindy Cooper, featuring the live music of their 2013 recording. Unique harmonies and tightly blended unison vocals, along with their guitar and piano interplay, reflect the couples own compatible musical/personal relationship which began after meeting at an open mic at The Freight and Salvage in Berkeley CA. Their My Friend Hafiz CD debuted in the top 20 on Folk DJ & their latest, TRUST, in the top 10. (Top 10 song/2015, J.Platt, WFUV) and “underscores the positive messages of love, peace and self-awareness. Each tune serves as another stepping stone toward a better day & a richer life.” Tom Staudter. Their newest recording, Caravan of Dawn came out in 2019!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THE LEVINS

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE LEVINS ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE LEVINS

About Katherine Rondeau:

PFS Presents Che Apalache

Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

$12 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $15 Not-Yet-Members | $18 Doors

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A TICKET

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK 

About Che Apalache

Immigration is a powerful topic for Che Apalache bandleader Joe Troop. A polymath, polyglot, and world traveller, Troop left home at a young age, emigrating from this country in search of a better life. Raised in the North Carolina Piedmont, in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, Troop came of age to the music of bluegrass and all-night jam sessions at festivals, but being a young, queer man in the South, at a certain point he no longer felt welcome in his own home region.

He took refuge abroad, traveling Europe and immersing himself in his two great loves: music and language. He studied Spanish in Spain, spent summers in Morocco, and eventually moved to Japan to teach English. He carried his music and his fiddle with him always, picking up elements of flamenco, jazz manouche, and swing. In 2010, Joe immigrated to Argentina, and, looking to make friends and build a scene, he began teaching bluegrass.

Nine years later, Che Apalache, led by Troop, features three powerhouse Latin American musicians – two from Argentina, Franco Martino (guitar), Martin Bobrik (mandolin), and Pau Barjau (banjo) from Mexico – and has been taking audiences by storm with their fusion of Latin and American roots music. Famed banjo player and cross-genre trailblazer Béla Fleck was so taken with the band that he signed on to produce their new album, Rearrange My Heart, coming August 9, 2019 on Free Dirt Records.

“I love to work with music that intrigues, excites and inspires me,” Fleck explains, “and that describes Che Apalache to a T! We first met at my Blue Ridge Banjo Camp last year. They had come from Buenos Aires and asked to play for me. I was blown away and they blew away the crowd a few days later. It’s been a blast to get to know them in the creative environment; together we’ve come up with what I believe is a truly striking album. I hope you’ll enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed producing.”

With Béla Fleck as producer and a new album on its way, Che Apalache is a success story, but Troop hasn’t returned to the States after over a decade abroad to comfort listeners. He’s here to challenge the narrative, to speak directly on what American policies and perspectives are doing to the world. “We’re trying to take our message to the people who most need to hear it.”

Troop explains. “We want to have respectful dialogue with people that aren’t coming from the same place we are, and we want to challenge their way of thinking.” Opening with a traditional greeting in the Uruguayan murga style before segueing into the song “María,” which has touches of candombe, flamenco and Spanish Sephardic Jewish music, Che Apalache’s global sensibilities are clear.

The heart of the album, though, lies with the powerful song “The Dreamer,” written about Troop’s friend Moises Serrano. A queer North Carolinian immigrant from Mexico and a DACA recipient, Serrano was raised in the same region as Troop. “The Dreamer” states Che Apalache’s mission: subvert the narrative from within. “We’re reeling people in with music they understand,” Troop explains, “but then we give them a twist. This is all intentional, I’ve had years living outside this country to think about how to do this.”

The power of the subversion lies in how well Troop understands Appalachian and Southern audiences, and also in an honest love for the music. The band spent years perfecting Stanley Brothers-style harmonies, trying to get the sound just right. They then married that sound with brutally honest lyrics lamenting Trump’s rhetoric for “The Wall.” This level of subversion brings its own risks though.

They sang the song at a famous Virginia fiddler’s convention the same day that Nazis marched in the streets of nearby Charlottesville, and had to drop everything and run for safety when an enraged audience member stormed the backstage to attack them.

Che Apalache was formed to enjoy music, to honor it, and to bridge the gap between North and South America, creating a vision of a truly “American” music. Through the controversy and the political fire that fuels Che Apalache’s music, Troop hasn’t lost sight of what first inspired him, the first moment he fell in love with the music.

At just fourteen years old, in a small diner in Boone, North Carolina, he heard a humble man playing with his friends and family. That man was Doc Watson. For Troop and Che Apalache to come full circle and to create a new album with another legend of bluegrass, Béla Fleck, that’s the American dream that Che Apalache embodies.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF CHE APALACHE 

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO CHE APALACHE

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CHE APALACHE

PFS Presents Songs From The Road Band

Thursday, September 12, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

Get your tickets here!

$10 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $12 Not-Yet-Members | $15 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

About Songs From The Road Band

Songs From The Road Band is Charles Humphrey III (bass), Mark Schimick (mandolin), Sam Wharton (guitar), and James Schlender (fiddle). These veteran acoustic musicians have collectively received top accolades in the bluegrass, Americana, and jazz genres. Once primarily an album recording band, Songs From The Road Band has emerged as one of the heaviest touring bands in the country since March 2018. They are currently touring in support of their number one Americana, Bluegrass, and Classic Country chart-topping album Road To Nowhere. They are proud to call both Asheville, NC and Nashville, TN home.

Humphrey, a member of the NC Music Hall of Fame and a Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, received the International Bluegrass Music Association’s entertainer of the year award in 2011. Schimick’s signature high harmonies and energetic mandolin licks have pushed him to the top of the progressive and jamgrass scene alongside legends Larry Keel, Vassar Clements, and Tony Rice. Wharton is an award-winning singer and guitar picker who honed his chops in Telluride, CO Schlender, a two-time National fiddle award recipient, is one of the top five string fiddlers in the world, with a background in contest, classical, and jazz.

The Road Band delivers a one-of-a-kind show, featuring original songs from their four studio albums and crowd favorites from all musical genres. The band is known for their improvisational jams and light show, providing an engaging, high-energy experience for audiences around the country.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND

September Monthly Concert with Amanda Rheaume

Sunday, September 22, 2019
Doors 2:30pm | Music 3pm

Get your tickets here!

FREE for Members *While Supplies Last* | $10 Not-Yet-Members | $15 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF AMANDA RHEAUME

About Amanda Rheaume

The fifth album from Ottawa-raised, Toronto-based singer/songwriter Amanda Rheaume, The Skin I’m In presents a compellingly portrait of an artist fully comfortable in her own skin, personally and musically.

Produced by Colin Cripps (Blue Rodeo, Junkhouse) at The Tragically Hip’s famed Bathouse Studio, it sports a full-blooded band sound, thanks to the contributions of an A-list musical supporting cast.

Rheaume’s supple and expressive vocals fit neatly in the centre of the sonic landscape, while her eloquent and well-crafted songs were written with such noted collaborators as Jason Blaine, Melanie Brulée, Jim Bryson, Justin Glasco, and Tim Bovaconti.

One of Rheaume’s great gifts as a songwriter is her ability to take the personal and make it universal, drawing upon her own experience to deliver messages with a wide resonance. She digs deep on The Skin I’m In, reflecting upon her Metis heritage, as on the profoundly moving title track and “Return To The Water,” and addressing issues of identity and mental health.

Her earlier albums met with widespread critical acclaim. 2013’s Keep A Fireearned her a 2014 Canadian Folk Music Award for Aboriginal Songwriter of The Year as well as a Juno Award nomination for Aboriginal Album of the Year, while 2016’s Holding Patterns received a Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination.

An engaging performer, Rheaume has developed a following across Canada and in Europe, where she tours regularly.

She has long employed her music as a force for good, as shown by three trips to Afghanistan to perform for Canadian military personnel, plus visits to the Alert base in Canada’s far north and the troubled Indigenous community of Attawapiskat.

Rheaume co-founded Babes4Breasts, an initiative that, through concerts and recording projects, raised money for breast cancer charities across Canada over a 10-year period.

This is an artist with a heart as big as her talent.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AMANDA RHEAUME ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT AMANDA RHEAUME

**Ticketing Policy**

The Philadelphia Folksong Society is proud to offer its’ members one or two free tickets (depending on membership level) to our selected Monthly Member Concert and Monthly House Concert every month. Due to the large number of members and limited seating, we ask that members reserve tickets when they know they can attend. If a member has reserved a ticket and cannot make it to the member concert of their choosing, they must contact the PFS office by phone or email prior to the event to cancel. Failure to do so will result in an inability to reserve your free member ticket to the following member concert.

If you arrive at a PFS member concert and have not reserved a ticket, you will only be seated ten minutes before show time if seats are still available.

If a member concert is listed as “sold out,” please contact Katie Kresz at kkresz@pfs.org to secure your spot atop the waitlist. You will be notified prior to the concert if seats become available.

PFS asks that all members show respect to their fellow members and the Society through following this policy.

PFS Presents Jonathan Byrd & The Pickup Boys

Friday, September 27, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

Get your tickets here!

$12 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $15 Not-Yet-Members | $18 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

About Jonathan Byrd

Jonathan Byrd and The Pickup Cowboys are musical gunslingers, vaudevillian hucksters, and old-fashioned tent revivalists. Between heartbreaking ballads and heart-lifting sing-alongs, the Cowboys entertain and get audiences involved in the show.

Byrd is a preacher’s son, a Gulf War veteran, and an award-winning songwriter from Chapel Hill, NC, known for literary, outsider songs that have become campfire favorites. The Chicago Tribune called Byrd “one of the top 50 songwriters of the past 50 years.”

Joined on drums by Austin McCall (Kaira Ba, Violet Bell), and musical renaissance man Johnny Waken on guitar, saw, and mandolin, Byrd shares the often-missed, always poignant tales of the small people that make the world such a big place.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF JONATHAN BYRD

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO JONATHAN BYRD ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JONATHAN BYRD

PFS Presents Talisk

Saturday, September 28, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

Click here to get your tickets!

$15 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $18 Not-Yet-Members | $21 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF TALISK

About Talisk

In their five years, Scottish firebrands Talisk have stacked up several major awards for their explosively energetic yet artfully woven sound, including 2018’s Belhaven Bursary for Innovation & 2017’s Folk Band of the Year both at the BBC Alba Scots Trad Music Awards, and a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award.

Mohsen Amini – the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards’ Musician of the Year 2018, Hayley Keenan and Graeme Armstrong seamlessly meld concertina, fiddle and guitar to produce a multi-layered, enthralling signature that has effortlessly captivated audiences from the USA to Australia, and throughout the UK.

Appearances at world-leading festivals – including the Cambridge Folk Festival, Denmark’s Tønder, WOMAD UK and Las Palmas, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Celtic Colours, Milwaukee Irish Festival and five successive outings at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections – have amassed a die-hard following, whilst the world’s folk and world music media have also lauded high credits upon the trio. The release of their hotly anticipated second album, Beyond, in October 2018 was met with a five-star ‘Top of the World’ review in Songlines, praising the band as “incredibly infectious and endearing… fresh, invigorating, accomplished and playfully frisky.”

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO TALISK ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TALISK

PFS Presents Roanoke

Friday, October 4, 2019
Doors 7:30pm | Music 8pm

Get your tickets here!

$8 for Members *While Supplies Last* | $10 Not-Yet-Members | $15 Doors

CLICK HERE TO RSVP ON FACEBOOK

About Roanoke

Roanoke is a rising Folk/Americana band based out of Nashville, TN. Lead by Joey Beesley and Taylor Dupuis, the two come together to create rich harmonies and unforgettable songs of love, heartbreak, and exploration. Joined by band members Zach Nowak, and Kyle Breese. Roanoke uses their undeniable musical chemistry to create a unique and captivating sound full of cultural influences, roots instrumentation, and catchy, memorable melodies. Their self-titled debut album Roanoke is an invigoratingly classic Americana album filled with modern yet vintage tunes that make the audience sit and listen to a back-porch tale in true Americana fashion. Roanoke has struck a balance between the narrative songwriting of folk, the ear candy appeal of pop, and the roots authenticity of country music. With their growing fan base, and energetic live show, they are set to shake the alternative Americana Folk scene in no time. 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF ROANOKE

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO ROANOKE ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ROANOKE