The next KALW On-Air Folk Festival is happening on Saturday November 23rd from 2 to 7 pm (PST)! It’s five hours of continuous live music by some of the Bay Area’s finest talent, hosted by JoAnn Mar, Peter Thompson, and Kevin Vance. Join us on the radio at 91.7 or listen on-line https://www.kalw.org/ Here’s the line-up:
2:00 pm Wake The Dead: The world’s only Celticized Grateful Dead jam band returns to the KALW studios in all their glory, ready to bring the house down! We’re excited to have them back after a long absence! Among the members are Danny Carnahan on cittern, Sylvia Herold on lead vocals, Paul Kotapish on mandolin, Cindy Browne on bass, and Brian Rice on percussion, and Valerie Rose on fiddle.
3:15 pm Solstice: The all female a cappella ensemble is also returning to KALW after an extended hiatus! Their repertoire covers music from around the world—eleven countries in nine languages. Members include Becca Burrington, Emily Bender, Krista Enos, Sara Webb-Schmitz, Christina Bogiages, and KALW’s own Sheryl Kaskowitz (recent graduate of the KALW Audio Academy).
4:00 pm Bean Creek has won numerous awards from the Northern California Bluegrass Society. Founding members Billy Pitrone (guitar, vocals), Sarah Eblen (bass, vocals), and Rob Horgan (banjo) are now (since the passing of Peter Hicks) joined by Ella Warde (fiddle, vocals) and Henry Warde (mandolin, vocals) to play original and powerful traditional bluegrass.
4:45 pm Plaid Strangers — Karen Celia Heil (fiddle, guitar) and Maxine Gerber (banjo, guitar) — create music that is more than the sum of its parts. Concentrating on banjo-fiddle duets, their music is of the past yet of the moment, driving and delicate, accurate plus out of control, serious but salty, steeped in the mysteries and creativity of the old-time genre.
5:30 pm Erin Ruth & Kyle Alden: Both musicians are part of the Bay Area’s Celtic music community. Singer Erin Ruth specializes in Irish folk and traditional songs. Guitarist Kyle Alden accompanies Erin and will perform a few of his own original songs inspired by the famed Irish poet William Butler Yeats.