The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series™
Time: 7:30 PM unless otherwise noted. 2nd Fridays are usually Open Stage/audition night. (Check the schedule for rare exceptions.)
Location: Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 21 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, NJ, a smoke & alcohol free environment. DIRECTIONS
Admission: Unless otherwise noted, $10 on your way in plus the balance of what you think the show was really worth on your way out. All exit donations go directly to the Headline Act. Vaccinated children 12 and under may attend free, but must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Until such time that children under 5 may be safely vaccinated, alas they will not be admitted.
Streaming: All Troubadour concerts may be viewed in person or live-streamed, except as noted.
For More Information: Email troubadour@folkproject.org or call 973-335-9489.
Buy Troubadour tickets online: You may purchase tickets in advance for Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series shows by clicking on the Live Tickets link in the show listing below. Online sales cease a bit before midnight on the day before the event. Tickets will still be available at the door on the day of the show unless the event is completely sold out, in which case there will be a prominent notice posted on this website. Some events accept admissions payment only at the door, with no advance sales.
Reeds, Rhythm and All That Brass is a classic 17-piece big band that plays the cream of the swing-pop repertoire – from Basie, Ellington and Goodman to Sinatra and Darin. Band members include Folk Project members Jeff Rantzer, Darrell Courtley, Henry Nerenberg, Jay Wilensky, and (frequently) Frank Sole. During its nearly 50-year existence, RRB has helped raise millions of dollars for worthy causes. The band plays for love of the music and the joy of giving back.
Grover Kemble is a local legend. Since the ’70’s when his band Za Zu Zaz toured nationally, Grover, his guitar, and distinctive approach to jazz, Latin, and American standards have wowed his Morris County neighbors. His guitar and vocal chops and consummate musicality are reinforced by a great sense of style, showmanship, and a rubber face that never fails to charm.
(If you like this short preview of Grover, you can see him do a feature set at the Troubadour on August 5th.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
“You can’t do that on a dulcimer!” Well, maybe you can’t but Sam Edelston can. Sam has taken the mountain dulcimer from its backwoods Appalachian origins to genres most players never dreamed of, from bossa nova to bluegrass to Black Sabbath. His instruments range from the traditional 3-string diatonic to fully chromatic electric with two pedalboards. He is being featured in dulcimer festivals across the country. Sam is a brilliant and innovative player, and no slouch on the hammered dulcimer or guitar either. Sam’s skewed sensibilities on what might be “appropriate” for the dulcimer extend to his music as well. Look for parodies, mash-ups, and other delightfully warped songs from this innovative musician
Joe Giacoio has an unconventional outlook to music. It manifests itself in quirky, funny, and sometimes absurd songs accompanied by an unusual 2-hands-on-the-fretboard guitar technique. Between Joe’s unconventional guitar technique and Sam’s unconventional dulcimer repertoire, this ought to be an interesting evening of music.
No streaming video for this show.
SummerSongs is back! Tonight we present the Project’s annual celebration of the music and the vibes of summer. The evening will feature performances by Folk Project members, and summer-themed refreshments and decorations. Garish summer dress is encouraged, and we’ll award prizes for the tackiest and most tasteless outfits. There’ll be swingin’, swayin’ and Projetiles playin’. And we’ll have fun, fun, fun, fun (and no one will take your T-bird away.).
Dana Cooper is known for insightful storytelling & songwriting, as well as his impressive guitar playing. And oh, that driving, relentless guitar playing! During his years as a troubadour, Dana has received many Accolades including the Nashville Music Award Nomination Best Pop Album. With his Latest CD Release “I Can Face The Truth”, Dana faces hard truths head on with humor and heartfelt expression.
Circle Round the Sun is an acoustic/Americana band comprised of vocalists Marie Trontell and Jay Wilensky, Chris Bukata and Joe Brice on guitars, and George LaVecchia on bass. This Folk Project – based quintet brings rich vocal harmonies and agile instrumentals to a mix of creative originals and well-chosen covers.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Conjuring up echoes of the Canadian group “Finest Kind”, Windborne is a harmony-driven quartet of 20-somethings who revel in the vocal traditions of the British Isles and early American folk song. To this they add vocal harmony traditions around the world from the Balkans to South Africa. They sing either acapella, or with spare accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, and percussion.
Ken & Pat Rolston (Key figures in the Folk Project favorite quartet, WSAGNBSCALRME) hark back to the founding days of the Project. Their voices blend with the ease of two natural singers who have been singing together most of their lives. Their material ranges from acapella traditional ballads to swing to Corsican field hollers Randy Newman to whatever else suits their wide-ranging musical tastes. And the charming blend of Ken’s mad-wizard personna levened by Patsy’s tolerant sanity makes them a joy to experience onstage.
Note: This show was originally scheduled on March 4, but had been canceled due to COVID
Trout Fishing in America is the long-standing, and yet seemingly unlikely musical partnership of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet. As individuals, they are about as different as one could imagine. But together, they blend seamlessly in a way that has captured audiences of all ages for over three decades. A willingness to at once make fun of our most annoying daily habits, and then to touch our hearts with tender and passionate images of family life is what makes the connection between the Trouts and their audiences so compelling and poignant.
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist with a rapier wit and a keen observational eye for the absurdities of everyday living. With a love of wordplay and some pretty fancy guitar chops, she creates songs on topics as diverse as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the ‘F’ Word. She is a longtime favorite on the Dr. Demento show, and puts on an utterly hilarious live show.
NOTE: This opening act of Carla Ulbrich is just a sneak preview of her headline appearance at the Troubadour coming up on August 26!
You may have caught a sneak preview of Grover Kemble, opening for Reeds Rhythm, and All That Brass back in June. Now he’s back for a full night of his own. Grover is a local legend. Since the ’70’s when his band Za Zu Zaz toured nationally, Grover, his guitar, and distinctive approach to jazz, Latin, and American standards have wowed his Morris County neighbors. His guitar and vocal chops and consummate musicality are reinforced by a great sense of style, showmanship, and a rubber face that never fails to charm.
Arielle Silver is a consummate storyteller whose rich, expressive voice and acoustic guitar frame expansive melodies that echo her many homes, tours, and travels across the American heartland. The daughter of a guitar-strumming architect and a bookworm religious educator, Arielle was raised in folk festival fields and synagogue pews. Her fourth album, A Thousand Tiny Torches (2020), is luminous, literate, and alive, with songs that crosscut exacting details of the seismic heartbreaks of ordinary life. Music Connection writes of her, “…a born communicator… exudes intelligence and humanity.”
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Note: You may have seen a sneak preview of Carla Ulbrich when she opened for Trout Fishing in America at the Troubadour on July 22.
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist with a rapier wit and a keen observational eye for the absurdities of everyday living. With a love of wordplay and some pretty fancy guitar chops, she creates songs on topics as diverse as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the ‘F’ Word. She is a longtime favorite on the Dr. Demento show, and puts on an utterly hilarious live show.
Sam Robbins plays a nice mix of originals and interesting covers. He is possessed of a lovely voice, good guitar chops, and an engaging stage personna. One might call him a “Sensitive Singer-Songwriter”, but if so, he wears it well and proudly.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Happy Traum, together with his late brother Artie, raised and set the standard of finger-style guitar playing in the great heyday of the Folk Revival in the 60’s and 70’s. He has performed in virtually every major folk festival in the US and abroad, taught in every guitar camp from Swannanoa to Merlefest to the Fur Piece Ranch, and played with virtually every legendary acoustic guitarist in the world over the past 40 years, and released many instructional books and videos on the subject. He still plays great, and has some wonderful stories to tell about the era of the Great Folk Scare.
John Forster obviously fell asleep one too many times as a child to the sound of his Tom Lehrer albums. This is evidenced by his twisted sense of humor, his delightfully skewed view of the human condition, and his prodigious skills as a pianist. His songs have a knack for taking the plausible but improbable, and leading that to its implausible but inevitable conclusion by way of unlikely rhymes, horrible puns, and ironic satire. John is a very funny man.
Ken Galipeau is a storyteller, and a gleaner of good songs. He is constantly on the lookout for lesser-known material that ought to be better known. He will intersperse humor with poignency to great effect. He plays guitar, piano, and water-jug, and will sometimes sing unaccompanied. He’s also well known locally as a superb storyteller for adults as well as children.
Rescheduled from their canceled date in February
Tom Chapin‘s music spans generations from the heady Greenwich Village days when he performed with his brothers Harry, and Steve, and dad Jim, through to today. He serves up a tasty mix of story songs, ballads, comedic and political songs, family music, sing-alongs, old-time folk classics and a favorite song or two of his late brother Harry’s. With an agile fingerstyle guitar, gentle humor, audience inclusiveness, and a concern for the Earth and its resources, Tom puts on a memorable show.
Folk Project member Tina Ross is a Singer/Songwriter who combines evocative, inventive guitar playing with superb poetry that weaves colorful, emotional imagery around her beautifully sung, gorgeous melodies.
Beppe Gambetta, the Italian bluegrass flatpicking champion. Sounds like an ethnic joke, but Beppe is no joke. Early in life he was captured by the music of such greats as Doc Watson and Tony Rice, and soon got to the point where he was sharing festival stages as an equal with his heroes. Equally adroit on mandolin, he can blaze through a hot bluegrass tune or croon a lovely Italian traditional ballad. And all with an elegant continental charm that is a joy to witness.
The Fermenters Trio show every sign of having spent endless hours in their youth grooving on their Grateful Dead albums. Drawn from sources both old and new, their music offers up a heady mix of Alt folk, bluegrass, gospel, country, and eclectic originals. It’s stomp and holler with all the blended vocal harmonies of the Americana musical tradition. Their sound embraces the dynamics of bluegrass and gospel, the fire indie folk, and the passion of the blues.
Trio is Chris Lelli on guitar, Seth Mandel on fiddle and mandolin, and Larry Ghiorsi on upright bass.
Gadan is the new project created by four experienced musicians from Italy playing Celtic and Old Timey music, with the occasional departure into regional folk ballads of Northern Italy. They deliver a powerful repertoire with a sound comparable to new-trad acts such as Talisk, WeBanjo3, The East Pointers or Rura. The band explores the deep connection between emigrating people from different part of Europe, such as Ireland and Italy, to the United States, through a reinvigorating and modern musical approach. Fiddle, banjos, mandolin, bouzouki and guitar for a “strings-only” sound with a hint of electronics, and a powerful rhythmic pulse.
Some of you may remember Don White from his split-bill appearance with Christine Lavin in 2014. Don is a blue collar intellectual and a true old-school troubadour. He is a comedian-author-singer-songwriter-raconteur, whose introductions to his songs are wonderfully crafted tales that are as hilarious as the songs themselves. He is such a beloved character in his hometown of Lynn, MA that last year the mayor proclaimed an official Don White Day and gave him the key to the city.
Reeds, Rhythm and All That Brass is a classic 17-piece big band that plays the cream of the swing-pop repertoire – from Basie, Ellington and Goodman to Sinatra and Darin. Band members include Folk Project members Jeff Rantzer, Darrell Courtley, Henry Nerenberg, Jay Wilensky, and (frequently) Frank Sole. During its nearly 50-year existence, RRB has helped raise millions of dollars for worthy causes. The band plays for love of the music and the joy of giving back.
Grover Kemble is a local legend. Since the ’70’s when his band Za Zu Zaz toured nationally, Grover, his guitar, and distinctive approach to jazz, Latin, and American standards have wowed his Morris County neighbors. His guitar and vocal chops and consummate musicality are reinforced by a great sense of style, showmanship, and a rubber face that never fails to charm.
(If you like this short preview of Grover, you can see him do a feature set at the Troubadour on August 5th.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
“You can’t do that on a dulcimer!” Well, maybe you can’t but Sam Edelston can. Sam has taken the mountain dulcimer from its backwoods Appalachian origins to genres most players never dreamed of, from bossa nova to bluegrass to Black Sabbath. His instruments range from the traditional 3-string diatonic to fully chromatic electric with two pedalboards. He is being featured in dulcimer festivals across the country. Sam is a brilliant and innovative player, and no slouch on the hammered dulcimer or guitar either. Sam’s skewed sensibilities on what might be “appropriate” for the dulcimer extend to his music as well. Look for parodies, mash-ups, and other delightfully warped songs from this innovative musician
Joe Giacoio has an unconventional outlook to music. It manifests itself in quirky, funny, and sometimes absurd songs accompanied by an unusual 2-hands-on-the-fretboard guitar technique. Between Joe’s unconventional guitar technique and Sam’s unconventional dulcimer repertoire, this ought to be an interesting evening of music.
No streaming video for this show.
SummerSongs is back! Tonight we present the Project’s annual celebration of the music and the vibes of summer. The evening will feature performances by Folk Project members, and summer-themed refreshments and decorations. Garish summer dress is encouraged, and we’ll award prizes for the tackiest and most tasteless outfits. There’ll be swingin’, swayin’ and Projetiles playin’. And we’ll have fun, fun, fun, fun (and no one will take your T-bird away.).
Dana Cooper is known for insightful storytelling & songwriting, as well as his impressive guitar playing. And oh, that driving, relentless guitar playing! During his years as a troubadour, Dana has received many Accolades including the Nashville Music Award Nomination Best Pop Album. With his Latest CD Release “I Can Face The Truth”, Dana faces hard truths head on with humor and heartfelt expression.
Circle Round the Sun is an acoustic/Americana band comprised of vocalists Marie Trontell and Jay Wilensky, Chris Bukata and Joe Brice on guitars, and George LaVecchia on bass. This Folk Project – based quintet brings rich vocal harmonies and agile instrumentals to a mix of creative originals and well-chosen covers.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Conjuring up echoes of the Canadian group “Finest Kind”, Windborne is a harmony-driven quartet of 20-somethings who revel in the vocal traditions of the British Isles and early American folk song. To this they add vocal harmony traditions around the world from the Balkans to South Africa. They sing either acapella, or with spare accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, and percussion.
Ken & Pat Rolston (Key figures in the Folk Project favorite quartet, WSAGNBSCALRME) hark back to the founding days of the Project. Their voices blend with the ease of two natural singers who have been singing together most of their lives. Their material ranges from acapella traditional ballads to swing to Corsican field hollers Randy Newman to whatever else suits their wide-ranging musical tastes. And the charming blend of Ken’s mad-wizard personna levened by Patsy’s tolerant sanity makes them a joy to experience onstage.
Note: This show was originally scheduled on March 4, but had been canceled due to COVID
Trout Fishing in America is the long-standing, and yet seemingly unlikely musical partnership of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet. As individuals, they are about as different as one could imagine. But together, they blend seamlessly in a way that has captured audiences of all ages for over three decades. A willingness to at once make fun of our most annoying daily habits, and then to touch our hearts with tender and passionate images of family life is what makes the connection between the Trouts and their audiences so compelling and poignant.
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist with a rapier wit and a keen observational eye for the absurdities of everyday living. With a love of wordplay and some pretty fancy guitar chops, she creates songs on topics as diverse as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the ‘F’ Word. She is a longtime favorite on the Dr. Demento show, and puts on an utterly hilarious live show.
NOTE: This opening act of Carla Ulbrich is just a sneak preview of her headline appearance at the Troubadour coming up on August 26!
You may have caught a sneak preview of Grover Kemble, opening for Reeds Rhythm, and All That Brass back in June. Now he’s back for a full night of his own. Grover is a local legend. Since the ’70’s when his band Za Zu Zaz toured nationally, Grover, his guitar, and distinctive approach to jazz, Latin, and American standards have wowed his Morris County neighbors. His guitar and vocal chops and consummate musicality are reinforced by a great sense of style, showmanship, and a rubber face that never fails to charm.
Arielle Silver is a consummate storyteller whose rich, expressive voice and acoustic guitar frame expansive melodies that echo her many homes, tours, and travels across the American heartland. The daughter of a guitar-strumming architect and a bookworm religious educator, Arielle was raised in folk festival fields and synagogue pews. Her fourth album, A Thousand Tiny Torches (2020), is luminous, literate, and alive, with songs that crosscut exacting details of the seismic heartbreaks of ordinary life. Music Connection writes of her, “…a born communicator… exudes intelligence and humanity.”
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Note: You may have seen a sneak preview of Carla Ulbrich when she opened for Trout Fishing in America at the Troubadour on July 22.
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist with a rapier wit and a keen observational eye for the absurdities of everyday living. With a love of wordplay and some pretty fancy guitar chops, she creates songs on topics as diverse as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the ‘F’ Word. She is a longtime favorite on the Dr. Demento show, and puts on an utterly hilarious live show.
Sam Robbins plays a nice mix of originals and interesting covers. He is possessed of a lovely voice, good guitar chops, and an engaging stage personna. One might call him a “Sensitive Singer-Songwriter”, but if so, he wears it well and proudly.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Happy Traum, together with his late brother Artie, raised and set the standard of finger-style guitar playing in the great heyday of the Folk Revival in the 60’s and 70’s. He has performed in virtually every major folk festival in the US and abroad, taught in every guitar camp from Swannanoa to Merlefest to the Fur Piece Ranch, and played with virtually every legendary acoustic guitarist in the world over the past 40 years, and released many instructional books and videos on the subject. He still plays great, and has some wonderful stories to tell about the era of the Great Folk Scare.
John Forster obviously fell asleep one too many times as a child to the sound of his Tom Lehrer albums. This is evidenced by his twisted sense of humor, his delightfully skewed view of the human condition, and his prodigious skills as a pianist. His songs have a knack for taking the plausible but improbable, and leading that to its implausible but inevitable conclusion by way of unlikely rhymes, horrible puns, and ironic satire. John is a very funny man.
Ken Galipeau is a storyteller, and a gleaner of good songs. He is constantly on the lookout for lesser-known material that ought to be better known. He will intersperse humor with poignency to great effect. He plays guitar, piano, and water-jug, and will sometimes sing unaccompanied. He’s also well known locally as a superb storyteller for adults as well as children.
Rescheduled from their canceled date in February
Tom Chapin‘s music spans generations from the heady Greenwich Village days when he performed with his brothers Harry, and Steve, and dad Jim, through to today. He serves up a tasty mix of story songs, ballads, comedic and political songs, family music, sing-alongs, old-time folk classics and a favorite song or two of his late brother Harry’s. With an agile fingerstyle guitar, gentle humor, audience inclusiveness, and a concern for the Earth and its resources, Tom puts on a memorable show.
Folk Project member Tina Ross is a Singer/Songwriter who combines evocative, inventive guitar playing with superb poetry that weaves colorful, emotional imagery around her beautifully sung, gorgeous melodies.
Beppe Gambetta, the Italian bluegrass flatpicking champion. Sounds like an ethnic joke, but Beppe is no joke. Early in life he was captured by the music of such greats as Doc Watson and Tony Rice, and soon got to the point where he was sharing festival stages as an equal with his heroes. Equally adroit on mandolin, he can blaze through a hot bluegrass tune or croon a lovely Italian traditional ballad. And all with an elegant continental charm that is a joy to witness.
The Fermenters Trio show every sign of having spent endless hours in their youth grooving on their Grateful Dead albums. Drawn from sources both old and new, their music offers up a heady mix of Alt folk, bluegrass, gospel, country, and eclectic originals. It’s stomp and holler with all the blended vocal harmonies of the Americana musical tradition. Their sound embraces the dynamics of bluegrass and gospel, the fire indie folk, and the passion of the blues.
Trio is Chris Lelli on guitar, Seth Mandel on fiddle and mandolin, and Larry Ghiorsi on upright bass.
Gadan is the new project created by four experienced musicians from Italy playing Celtic and Old Timey music, with the occasional departure into regional folk ballads of Northern Italy. They deliver a powerful repertoire with a sound comparable to new-trad acts such as Talisk, WeBanjo3, The East Pointers or Rura. The band explores the deep connection between emigrating people from different part of Europe, such as Ireland and Italy, to the United States, through a reinvigorating and modern musical approach. Fiddle, banjos, mandolin, bouzouki and guitar for a “strings-only” sound with a hint of electronics, and a powerful rhythmic pulse.
Some of you may remember Don White from his split-bill appearance with Christine Lavin in 2014. Don is a blue collar intellectual and a true old-school troubadour. He is a comedian-author-singer-songwriter-raconteur, whose introductions to his songs are wonderfully crafted tales that are as hilarious as the songs themselves. He is such a beloved character in his hometown of Lynn, MA that last year the mayor proclaimed an official Don White Day and gave him the key to the city.
Reeds, Rhythm and All That Brass is a classic 17-piece big band that plays the cream of the swing-pop repertoire – from Basie, Ellington and Goodman to Sinatra and Darin. Band members include Folk Project members Jeff Rantzer, Darrell Courtley, Henry Nerenberg, Jay Wilensky, and (frequently) Frank Sole. During its nearly 50-year existence, RRB has helped raise millions of dollars for worthy causes. The band plays for love of the music and the joy of giving back.
Grover Kemble is a local legend. Since the ’70’s when his band Za Zu Zaz toured nationally, Grover, his guitar, and distinctive approach to jazz, Latin, and American standards have wowed his Morris County neighbors. His guitar and vocal chops and consummate musicality are reinforced by a great sense of style, showmanship, and a rubber face that never fails to charm.
(If you like this short preview of Grover, you can see him do a feature set at the Troubadour on August 5th.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
“You can’t do that on a dulcimer!” Well, maybe you can’t but Sam Edelston can. Sam has taken the mountain dulcimer from its backwoods Appalachian origins to genres most players never dreamed of, from bossa nova to bluegrass to Black Sabbath. His instruments range from the traditional 3-string diatonic to fully chromatic electric with two pedalboards. He is being featured in dulcimer festivals across the country. Sam is a brilliant and innovative player, and no slouch on the hammered dulcimer or guitar either. Sam’s skewed sensibilities on what might be “appropriate” for the dulcimer extend to his music as well. Look for parodies, mash-ups, and other delightfully warped songs from this innovative musician
Joe Giacoio has an unconventional outlook to music. It manifests itself in quirky, funny, and sometimes absurd songs accompanied by an unusual 2-hands-on-the-fretboard guitar technique. Between Joe’s unconventional guitar technique and Sam’s unconventional dulcimer repertoire, this ought to be an interesting evening of music.
No streaming video for this show.
SummerSongs is back! Tonight we present the Project’s annual celebration of the music and the vibes of summer. The evening will feature performances by Folk Project members, and summer-themed refreshments and decorations. Garish summer dress is encouraged, and we’ll award prizes for the tackiest and most tasteless outfits. There’ll be swingin’, swayin’ and Projetiles playin’. And we’ll have fun, fun, fun, fun (and no one will take your T-bird away.).
Dana Cooper is known for insightful storytelling & songwriting, as well as his impressive guitar playing. And oh, that driving, relentless guitar playing! During his years as a troubadour, Dana has received many Accolades including the Nashville Music Award Nomination Best Pop Album. With his Latest CD Release “I Can Face The Truth”, Dana faces hard truths head on with humor and heartfelt expression.
Circle Round the Sun is an acoustic/Americana band comprised of vocalists Marie Trontell and Jay Wilensky, Chris Bukata and Joe Brice on guitars, and George LaVecchia on bass. This Folk Project – based quintet brings rich vocal harmonies and agile instrumentals to a mix of creative originals and well-chosen covers.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Conjuring up echoes of the Canadian group “Finest Kind”, Windborne is a harmony-driven quartet of 20-somethings who revel in the vocal traditions of the British Isles and early American folk song. To this they add vocal harmony traditions around the world from the Balkans to South Africa. They sing either acapella, or with spare accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, and percussion.
Ken & Pat Rolston (Key figures in the Folk Project favorite quartet, WSAGNBSCALRME) hark back to the founding days of the Project. Their voices blend with the ease of two natural singers who have been singing together most of their lives. Their material ranges from acapella traditional ballads to swing to Corsican field hollers Randy Newman to whatever else suits their wide-ranging musical tastes. And the charming blend of Ken’s mad-wizard personna levened by Patsy’s tolerant sanity makes them a joy to experience onstage.
Note: This show was originally scheduled on March 4, but had been canceled due to COVID
Trout Fishing in America is the long-standing, and yet seemingly unlikely musical partnership of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet. As individuals, they are about as different as one could imagine. But together, they blend seamlessly in a way that has captured audiences of all ages for over three decades. A willingness to at once make fun of our most annoying daily habits, and then to touch our hearts with tender and passionate images of family life is what makes the connection between the Trouts and their audiences so compelling and poignant.
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist with a rapier wit and a keen observational eye for the absurdities of everyday living. With a love of wordplay and some pretty fancy guitar chops, she creates songs on topics as diverse as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the ‘F’ Word. She is a longtime favorite on the Dr. Demento show, and puts on an utterly hilarious live show.
NOTE: This opening act of Carla Ulbrich is just a sneak preview of her headline appearance at the Troubadour coming up on August 26!
You may have caught a sneak preview of Grover Kemble, opening for Reeds Rhythm, and All That Brass back in June. Now he’s back for a full night of his own. Grover is a local legend. Since the ’70’s when his band Za Zu Zaz toured nationally, Grover, his guitar, and distinctive approach to jazz, Latin, and American standards have wowed his Morris County neighbors. His guitar and vocal chops and consummate musicality are reinforced by a great sense of style, showmanship, and a rubber face that never fails to charm.
Arielle Silver is a consummate storyteller whose rich, expressive voice and acoustic guitar frame expansive melodies that echo her many homes, tours, and travels across the American heartland. The daughter of a guitar-strumming architect and a bookworm religious educator, Arielle was raised in folk festival fields and synagogue pews. Her fourth album, A Thousand Tiny Torches (2020), is luminous, literate, and alive, with songs that crosscut exacting details of the seismic heartbreaks of ordinary life. Music Connection writes of her, “…a born communicator… exudes intelligence and humanity.”
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Note: You may have seen a sneak preview of Carla Ulbrich when she opened for Trout Fishing in America at the Troubadour on July 22.
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist with a rapier wit and a keen observational eye for the absurdities of everyday living. With a love of wordplay and some pretty fancy guitar chops, she creates songs on topics as diverse as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the ‘F’ Word. She is a longtime favorite on the Dr. Demento show, and puts on an utterly hilarious live show.
Sam Robbins plays a nice mix of originals and interesting covers. He is possessed of a lovely voice, good guitar chops, and an engaging stage personna. One might call him a “Sensitive Singer-Songwriter”, but if so, he wears it well and proudly.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Happy Traum, together with his late brother Artie, raised and set the standard of finger-style guitar playing in the great heyday of the Folk Revival in the 60’s and 70’s. He has performed in virtually every major folk festival in the US and abroad, taught in every guitar camp from Swannanoa to Merlefest to the Fur Piece Ranch, and played with virtually every legendary acoustic guitarist in the world over the past 40 years, and released many instructional books and videos on the subject. He still plays great, and has some wonderful stories to tell about the era of the Great Folk Scare.
John Forster obviously fell asleep one too many times as a child to the sound of his Tom Lehrer albums. This is evidenced by his twisted sense of humor, his delightfully skewed view of the human condition, and his prodigious skills as a pianist. His songs have a knack for taking the plausible but improbable, and leading that to its implausible but inevitable conclusion by way of unlikely rhymes, horrible puns, and ironic satire. John is a very funny man.
Ken Galipeau is a storyteller, and a gleaner of good songs. He is constantly on the lookout for lesser-known material that ought to be better known. He will intersperse humor with poignency to great effect. He plays guitar, piano, and water-jug, and will sometimes sing unaccompanied. He’s also well known locally as a superb storyteller for adults as well as children.
Rescheduled from their canceled date in February
Tom Chapin‘s music spans generations from the heady Greenwich Village days when he performed with his brothers Harry, and Steve, and dad Jim, through to today. He serves up a tasty mix of story songs, ballads, comedic and political songs, family music, sing-alongs, old-time folk classics and a favorite song or two of his late brother Harry’s. With an agile fingerstyle guitar, gentle humor, audience inclusiveness, and a concern for the Earth and its resources, Tom puts on a memorable show.
Folk Project member Tina Ross is a Singer/Songwriter who combines evocative, inventive guitar playing with superb poetry that weaves colorful, emotional imagery around her beautifully sung, gorgeous melodies.
Beppe Gambetta, the Italian bluegrass flatpicking champion. Sounds like an ethnic joke, but Beppe is no joke. Early in life he was captured by the music of such greats as Doc Watson and Tony Rice, and soon got to the point where he was sharing festival stages as an equal with his heroes. Equally adroit on mandolin, he can blaze through a hot bluegrass tune or croon a lovely Italian traditional ballad. And all with an elegant continental charm that is a joy to witness.
The Fermenters Trio show every sign of having spent endless hours in their youth grooving on their Grateful Dead albums. Drawn from sources both old and new, their music offers up a heady mix of Alt folk, bluegrass, gospel, country, and eclectic originals. It’s stomp and holler with all the blended vocal harmonies of the Americana musical tradition. Their sound embraces the dynamics of bluegrass and gospel, the fire indie folk, and the passion of the blues.
Trio is Chris Lelli on guitar, Seth Mandel on fiddle and mandolin, and Larry Ghiorsi on upright bass.
Gadan is the new project created by four experienced musicians from Italy playing Celtic and Old Timey music, with the occasional departure into regional folk ballads of Northern Italy. They deliver a powerful repertoire with a sound comparable to new-trad acts such as Talisk, WeBanjo3, The East Pointers or Rura. The band explores the deep connection between emigrating people from different part of Europe, such as Ireland and Italy, to the United States, through a reinvigorating and modern musical approach. Fiddle, banjos, mandolin, bouzouki and guitar for a “strings-only” sound with a hint of electronics, and a powerful rhythmic pulse.
Some of you may remember Don White from his split-bill appearance with Christine Lavin in 2014. Don is a blue collar intellectual and a true old-school troubadour. He is a comedian-author-singer-songwriter-raconteur, whose introductions to his songs are wonderfully crafted tales that are as hilarious as the songs themselves. He is such a beloved character in his hometown of Lynn, MA that last year the mayor proclaimed an official Don White Day and gave him the key to the city.
Rupert Wates is a transplanted Englishman who writes, sings, and plays witty wordy and quirky songs on unlikely subjects. A writer who makes you think while he entertains.
Reeds, Rhythm and All That Brass is a classic 17-piece big band that plays the cream of the swing-pop repertoire – from Basie, Ellington and Goodman to Sinatra and Darin. Band members include Folk Project members Jeff Rantzer, Darrell Courtley, Henry Nerenberg, Jay Wilensky, and (frequently) Frank Sole. During its nearly 50-year existence, RRB has helped raise millions of dollars for worthy causes. The band plays for love of the music and the joy of giving back.
Grover Kemble is a local legend. Since the ’70’s when his band Za Zu Zaz toured nationally, Grover, his guitar, and distinctive approach to jazz, Latin, and American standards have wowed his Morris County neighbors. His guitar and vocal chops and consummate musicality are reinforced by a great sense of style, showmanship, and a rubber face that never fails to charm.
(If you like this short preview of Grover, you can see him do a feature set at the Troubadour on August 5th.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
“You can’t do that on a dulcimer!” Well, maybe you can’t but Sam Edelston can. Sam has taken the mountain dulcimer from its backwoods Appalachian origins to genres most players never dreamed of, from bossa nova to bluegrass to Black Sabbath. His instruments range from the traditional 3-string diatonic to fully chromatic electric with two pedalboards. He is being featured in dulcimer festivals across the country. Sam is a brilliant and innovative player, and no slouch on the hammered dulcimer or guitar either. Sam’s skewed sensibilities on what might be “appropriate” for the dulcimer extend to his music as well. Look for parodies, mash-ups, and other delightfully warped songs from this innovative musician
Joe Giacoio has an unconventional outlook to music. It manifests itself in quirky, funny, and sometimes absurd songs accompanied by an unusual 2-hands-on-the-fretboard guitar technique. Between Joe’s unconventional guitar technique and Sam’s unconventional dulcimer repertoire, this ought to be an interesting evening of music.
No streaming video for this show.
SummerSongs is back! Tonight we present the Project’s annual celebration of the music and the vibes of summer. The evening will feature performances by Folk Project members, and summer-themed refreshments and decorations. Garish summer dress is encouraged, and we’ll award prizes for the tackiest and most tasteless outfits. There’ll be swingin’, swayin’ and Projetiles playin’. And we’ll have fun, fun, fun, fun (and no one will take your T-bird away.).
Dana Cooper is known for insightful storytelling & songwriting, as well as his impressive guitar playing. And oh, that driving, relentless guitar playing! During his years as a troubadour, Dana has received many Accolades including the Nashville Music Award Nomination Best Pop Album. With his Latest CD Release “I Can Face The Truth”, Dana faces hard truths head on with humor and heartfelt expression.
Circle Round the Sun is an acoustic/Americana band comprised of vocalists Marie Trontell and Jay Wilensky, Chris Bukata and Joe Brice on guitars, and George LaVecchia on bass. This Folk Project – based quintet brings rich vocal harmonies and agile instrumentals to a mix of creative originals and well-chosen covers.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Conjuring up echoes of the Canadian group “Finest Kind”, Windborne is a harmony-driven quartet of 20-somethings who revel in the vocal traditions of the British Isles and early American folk song. To this they add vocal harmony traditions around the world from the Balkans to South Africa. They sing either acapella, or with spare accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, and percussion.
Ken & Pat Rolston (Key figures in the Folk Project favorite quartet, WSAGNBSCALRME) hark back to the founding days of the Project. Their voices blend with the ease of two natural singers who have been singing together most of their lives. Their material ranges from acapella traditional ballads to swing to Corsican field hollers Randy Newman to whatever else suits their wide-ranging musical tastes. And the charming blend of Ken’s mad-wizard personna levened by Patsy’s tolerant sanity makes them a joy to experience onstage.
Note: This show was originally scheduled on March 4, but had been canceled due to COVID
Trout Fishing in America is the long-standing, and yet seemingly unlikely musical partnership of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet. As individuals, they are about as different as one could imagine. But together, they blend seamlessly in a way that has captured audiences of all ages for over three decades. A willingness to at once make fun of our most annoying daily habits, and then to touch our hearts with tender and passionate images of family life is what makes the connection between the Trouts and their audiences so compelling and poignant.
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist with a rapier wit and a keen observational eye for the absurdities of everyday living. With a love of wordplay and some pretty fancy guitar chops, she creates songs on topics as diverse as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the ‘F’ Word. She is a longtime favorite on the Dr. Demento show, and puts on an utterly hilarious live show.
NOTE: This opening act of Carla Ulbrich is just a sneak preview of her headline appearance at the Troubadour coming up on August 26!
You may have caught a sneak preview of Grover Kemble, opening for Reeds Rhythm, and All That Brass back in June. Now he’s back for a full night of his own. Grover is a local legend. Since the ’70’s when his band Za Zu Zaz toured nationally, Grover, his guitar, and distinctive approach to jazz, Latin, and American standards have wowed his Morris County neighbors. His guitar and vocal chops and consummate musicality are reinforced by a great sense of style, showmanship, and a rubber face that never fails to charm.
Arielle Silver is a consummate storyteller whose rich, expressive voice and acoustic guitar frame expansive melodies that echo her many homes, tours, and travels across the American heartland. The daughter of a guitar-strumming architect and a bookworm religious educator, Arielle was raised in folk festival fields and synagogue pews. Her fourth album, A Thousand Tiny Torches (2020), is luminous, literate, and alive, with songs that crosscut exacting details of the seismic heartbreaks of ordinary life. Music Connection writes of her, “…a born communicator… exudes intelligence and humanity.”
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Note: You may have seen a sneak preview of Carla Ulbrich when she opened for Trout Fishing in America at the Troubadour on July 22.
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist with a rapier wit and a keen observational eye for the absurdities of everyday living. With a love of wordplay and some pretty fancy guitar chops, she creates songs on topics as diverse as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the ‘F’ Word. She is a longtime favorite on the Dr. Demento show, and puts on an utterly hilarious live show.
Sam Robbins plays a nice mix of originals and interesting covers. He is possessed of a lovely voice, good guitar chops, and an engaging stage personna. One might call him a “Sensitive Singer-Songwriter”, but if so, he wears it well and proudly.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Happy Traum, together with his late brother Artie, raised and set the standard of finger-style guitar playing in the great heyday of the Folk Revival in the 60’s and 70’s. He has performed in virtually every major folk festival in the US and abroad, taught in every guitar camp from Swannanoa to Merlefest to the Fur Piece Ranch, and played with virtually every legendary acoustic guitarist in the world over the past 40 years, and released many instructional books and videos on the subject. He still plays great, and has some wonderful stories to tell about the era of the Great Folk Scare.
John Forster obviously fell asleep one too many times as a child to the sound of his Tom Lehrer albums. This is evidenced by his twisted sense of humor, his delightfully skewed view of the human condition, and his prodigious skills as a pianist. His songs have a knack for taking the plausible but improbable, and leading that to its implausible but inevitable conclusion by way of unlikely rhymes, horrible puns, and ironic satire. John is a very funny man.
Ken Galipeau is a storyteller, and a gleaner of good songs. He is constantly on the lookout for lesser-known material that ought to be better known. He will intersperse humor with poignency to great effect. He plays guitar, piano, and water-jug, and will sometimes sing unaccompanied. He’s also well known locally as a superb storyteller for adults as well as children.
Rescheduled from their canceled date in February
Tom Chapin‘s music spans generations from the heady Greenwich Village days when he performed with his brothers Harry, and Steve, and dad Jim, through to today. He serves up a tasty mix of story songs, ballads, comedic and political songs, family music, sing-alongs, old-time folk classics and a favorite song or two of his late brother Harry’s. With an agile fingerstyle guitar, gentle humor, audience inclusiveness, and a concern for the Earth and its resources, Tom puts on a memorable show.
Folk Project member Tina Ross is a Singer/Songwriter who combines evocative, inventive guitar playing with superb poetry that weaves colorful, emotional imagery around her beautifully sung, gorgeous melodies.
Beppe Gambetta, the Italian bluegrass flatpicking champion. Sounds like an ethnic joke, but Beppe is no joke. Early in life he was captured by the music of such greats as Doc Watson and Tony Rice, and soon got to the point where he was sharing festival stages as an equal with his heroes. Equally adroit on mandolin, he can blaze through a hot bluegrass tune or croon a lovely Italian traditional ballad. And all with an elegant continental charm that is a joy to witness.
The Fermenters Trio show every sign of having spent endless hours in their youth grooving on their Grateful Dead albums. Drawn from sources both old and new, their music offers up a heady mix of Alt folk, bluegrass, gospel, country, and eclectic originals. It’s stomp and holler with all the blended vocal harmonies of the Americana musical tradition. Their sound embraces the dynamics of bluegrass and gospel, the fire indie folk, and the passion of the blues.
Trio is Chris Lelli on guitar, Seth Mandel on fiddle and mandolin, and Larry Ghiorsi on upright bass.
Gadan is the new project created by four experienced musicians from Italy playing Celtic and Old Timey music, with the occasional departure into regional folk ballads of Northern Italy. They deliver a powerful repertoire with a sound comparable to new-trad acts such as Talisk, WeBanjo3, The East Pointers or Rura. The band explores the deep connection between emigrating people from different part of Europe, such as Ireland and Italy, to the United States, through a reinvigorating and modern musical approach. Fiddle, banjos, mandolin, bouzouki and guitar for a “strings-only” sound with a hint of electronics, and a powerful rhythmic pulse.
Some of you may remember Don White from his split-bill appearance with Christine Lavin in 2014. Don is a blue collar intellectual and a true old-school troubadour. He is a comedian-author-singer-songwriter-raconteur, whose introductions to his songs are wonderfully crafted tales that are as hilarious as the songs themselves. He is such a beloved character in his hometown of Lynn, MA that last year the mayor proclaimed an official Don White Day and gave him the key to the city.
Rupert Wates is a transplanted Englishman who writes, sings, and plays witty wordy and quirky songs on unlikely subjects. A writer who makes you think while he entertains.
Reeds, Rhythm and All That Brass is a classic 17-piece big band that plays the cream of the swing-pop repertoire – from Basie, Ellington and Goodman to Sinatra and Darin. Band members include Folk Project members Jeff Rantzer, Darrell Courtley, Henry Nerenberg, Jay Wilensky, and (frequently) Frank Sole. During its nearly 50-year existence, RRB has helped raise millions of dollars for worthy causes. The band plays for love of the music and the joy of giving back.
Grover Kemble is a local legend. Since the ’70’s when his band Za Zu Zaz toured nationally, Grover, his guitar, and distinctive approach to jazz, Latin, and American standards have wowed his Morris County neighbors. His guitar and vocal chops and consummate musicality are reinforced by a great sense of style, showmanship, and a rubber face that never fails to charm.
(If you like this short preview of Grover, you can see him do a feature set at the Troubadour on August 5th.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
“You can’t do that on a dulcimer!” Well, maybe you can’t but Sam Edelston can. Sam has taken the mountain dulcimer from its backwoods Appalachian origins to genres most players never dreamed of, from bossa nova to bluegrass to Black Sabbath. His instruments range from the traditional 3-string diatonic to fully chromatic electric with two pedalboards. He is being featured in dulcimer festivals across the country. Sam is a brilliant and innovative player, and no slouch on the hammered dulcimer or guitar either. Sam’s skewed sensibilities on what might be “appropriate” for the dulcimer extend to his music as well. Look for parodies, mash-ups, and other delightfully warped songs from this innovative musician
Joe Giacoio has an unconventional outlook to music. It manifests itself in quirky, funny, and sometimes absurd songs accompanied by an unusual 2-hands-on-the-fretboard guitar technique. Between Joe’s unconventional guitar technique and Sam’s unconventional dulcimer repertoire, this ought to be an interesting evening of music.
No streaming video for this show.
SummerSongs is back! Tonight we present the Project’s annual celebration of the music and the vibes of summer. The evening will feature performances by Folk Project members, and summer-themed refreshments and decorations. Garish summer dress is encouraged, and we’ll award prizes for the tackiest and most tasteless outfits. There’ll be swingin’, swayin’ and Projetiles playin’. And we’ll have fun, fun, fun, fun (and no one will take your T-bird away.).
Dana Cooper is known for insightful storytelling & songwriting, as well as his impressive guitar playing. And oh, that driving, relentless guitar playing! During his years as a troubadour, Dana has received many Accolades including the Nashville Music Award Nomination Best Pop Album. With his Latest CD Release “I Can Face The Truth”, Dana faces hard truths head on with humor and heartfelt expression.
Circle Round the Sun is an acoustic/Americana band comprised of vocalists Marie Trontell and Jay Wilensky, Chris Bukata and Joe Brice on guitars, and George LaVecchia on bass. This Folk Project – based quintet brings rich vocal harmonies and agile instrumentals to a mix of creative originals and well-chosen covers.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Conjuring up echoes of the Canadian group “Finest Kind”, Windborne is a harmony-driven quartet of 20-somethings who revel in the vocal traditions of the British Isles and early American folk song. To this they add vocal harmony traditions around the world from the Balkans to South Africa. They sing either acapella, or with spare accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, and percussion.
Ken & Pat Rolston (Key figures in the Folk Project favorite quartet, WSAGNBSCALRME) hark back to the founding days of the Project. Their voices blend with the ease of two natural singers who have been singing together most of their lives. Their material ranges from acapella traditional ballads to swing to Corsican field hollers Randy Newman to whatever else suits their wide-ranging musical tastes. And the charming blend of Ken’s mad-wizard personna levened by Patsy’s tolerant sanity makes them a joy to experience onstage.
Note: This show was originally scheduled on March 4, but had been canceled due to COVID
Trout Fishing in America is the long-standing, and yet seemingly unlikely musical partnership of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet. As individuals, they are about as different as one could imagine. But together, they blend seamlessly in a way that has captured audiences of all ages for over three decades. A willingness to at once make fun of our most annoying daily habits, and then to touch our hearts with tender and passionate images of family life is what makes the connection between the Trouts and their audiences so compelling and poignant.
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist with a rapier wit and a keen observational eye for the absurdities of everyday living. With a love of wordplay and some pretty fancy guitar chops, she creates songs on topics as diverse as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the ‘F’ Word. She is a longtime favorite on the Dr. Demento show, and puts on an utterly hilarious live show.
NOTE: This opening act of Carla Ulbrich is just a sneak preview of her headline appearance at the Troubadour coming up on August 26!
You may have caught a sneak preview of Grover Kemble, opening for Reeds Rhythm, and All That Brass back in June. Now he’s back for a full night of his own. Grover is a local legend. Since the ’70’s when his band Za Zu Zaz toured nationally, Grover, his guitar, and distinctive approach to jazz, Latin, and American standards have wowed his Morris County neighbors. His guitar and vocal chops and consummate musicality are reinforced by a great sense of style, showmanship, and a rubber face that never fails to charm.
Arielle Silver is a consummate storyteller whose rich, expressive voice and acoustic guitar frame expansive melodies that echo her many homes, tours, and travels across the American heartland. The daughter of a guitar-strumming architect and a bookworm religious educator, Arielle was raised in folk festival fields and synagogue pews. Her fourth album, A Thousand Tiny Torches (2020), is luminous, literate, and alive, with songs that crosscut exacting details of the seismic heartbreaks of ordinary life. Music Connection writes of her, “…a born communicator… exudes intelligence and humanity.”
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Note: You may have seen a sneak preview of Carla Ulbrich when she opened for Trout Fishing in America at the Troubadour on July 22.
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist with a rapier wit and a keen observational eye for the absurdities of everyday living. With a love of wordplay and some pretty fancy guitar chops, she creates songs on topics as diverse as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the ‘F’ Word. She is a longtime favorite on the Dr. Demento show, and puts on an utterly hilarious live show.
Sam Robbins plays a nice mix of originals and interesting covers. He is possessed of a lovely voice, good guitar chops, and an engaging stage personna. One might call him a “Sensitive Singer-Songwriter”, but if so, he wears it well and proudly.
The Folk Project Open Stage, North Jersey’s premier open stage, is back live on the second Friday of every month. The Main Stage features two-song (or ten minutes, whichever is shorter) sign-up slots for our audience. To sign up to perform email Chairman Todd at openstage@folkproject.org.
Admission: $5 at the door only (tickets for the live show not available online.) Vaccinated children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by parent or guardian.
Happy Traum, together with his late brother Artie, raised and set the standard of finger-style guitar playing in the great heyday of the Folk Revival in the 60’s and 70’s. He has performed in virtually every major folk festival in the US and abroad, taught in every guitar camp from Swannanoa to Merlefest to the Fur Piece Ranch, and played with virtually every legendary acoustic guitarist in the world over the past 40 years, and released many instructional books and videos on the subject. He still plays great, and has some wonderful stories to tell about the era of the Great Folk Scare.
John Forster obviously fell asleep one too many times as a child to the sound of his Tom Lehrer albums. This is evidenced by his twisted sense of humor, his delightfully skewed view of the human condition, and his prodigious skills as a pianist. His songs have a knack for taking the plausible but improbable, and leading that to its implausible but inevitable conclusion by way of unlikely rhymes, horrible puns, and ironic satire. John is a very funny man.
Ken Galipeau is a storyteller, and a gleaner of good songs. He is constantly on the lookout for lesser-known material that ought to be better known. He will intersperse humor with poignency to great effect. He plays guitar, piano, and water-jug, and will sometimes sing unaccompanied. He’s also well known locally as a superb storyteller for adults as well as children.
Rescheduled from their canceled date in February
Tom Chapin‘s music spans generations from the heady Greenwich Village days when he performed with his brothers Harry, and Steve, and dad Jim, through to today. He serves up a tasty mix of story songs, ballads, comedic and political songs, family music, sing-alongs, old-time folk classics and a favorite song or two of his late brother Harry’s. With an agile fingerstyle guitar, gentle humor, audience inclusiveness, and a concern for the Earth and its resources, Tom puts on a memorable show.
Folk Project member Tina Ross is a Singer/Songwriter who combines evocative, inventive guitar playing with superb poetry that weaves colorful, emotional imagery around her beautifully sung, gorgeous melodies.
Beppe Gambetta, the Italian bluegrass flatpicking champion. Sounds like an ethnic joke, but Beppe is no joke. Early in life he was captured by the music of such greats as Doc Watson and Tony Rice, and soon got to the point where he was sharing festival stages as an equal with his heroes. Equally adroit on mandolin, he can blaze through a hot bluegrass tune or croon a lovely Italian traditional ballad. And all with an elegant continental charm that is a joy to witness.
The Fermenters Trio show every sign of having spent endless hours in their youth grooving on their Grateful Dead albums. Drawn from sources both old and new, their music offers up a heady mix of Alt folk, bluegrass, gospel, country, and eclectic originals. It’s stomp and holler with all the blended vocal harmonies of the Americana musical tradition. Their sound embraces the dynamics of bluegrass and gospel, the fire indie folk, and the passion of the blues.
Trio is Chris Lelli on guitar, Seth Mandel on fiddle and mandolin, and Larry Ghiorsi on upright bass.
Gadan is the new project created by four experienced musicians from Italy playing Celtic and Old Timey music, with the occasional departure into regional folk ballads of Northern Italy. They deliver a powerful repertoire with a sound comparable to new-trad acts such as Talisk, WeBanjo3, The East Pointers or Rura. The band explores the deep connection between emigrating people from different part of Europe, such as Ireland and Italy, to the United States, through a reinvigorating and modern musical approach. Fiddle, banjos, mandolin, bouzouki and guitar for a “strings-only” sound with a hint of electronics, and a powerful rhythmic pulse.
Some of you may remember Don White from his split-bill appearance with Christine Lavin in 2014. Don is a blue collar intellectual and a true old-school troubadour. He is a comedian-author-singer-songwriter-raconteur, whose introductions to his songs are wonderfully crafted tales that are as hilarious as the songs themselves. He is such a beloved character in his hometown of Lynn, MA that last year the mayor proclaimed an official Don White Day and gave him the key to the city.
Rupert Wates is a transplanted Englishman who writes, sings, and plays witty wordy and quirky songs on unlikely subjects. A writer who makes you think while he entertains.