ST. CLAIR PRODUCTIONS BRINGS AN ECLECTIC MIX OF MUSIC TO ASHLAND Unless otherwise indicated, all shows take place at the Unitarian Center, 87 4th St., Ashland. Shows begin at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7 p.m. Tickets are available on-line at www.stclairevents.com, by sending a check to St. Clair Productions, PO Box 835, Ashland, OR 97520, or at the Music Coop in the A-Street Marketplace one month before each show. For more information, call 541-535-3562. The Eclectic Music and More series starts off on Friday, September 26 with Ashland’s favorite bass player/singer/songwriter Laura Love. Love is bringing her newest band Harpers Ferry, so get ready to dance. More info
Friday, October 3 brilliant
singer/songwriter Tracy Grammer. "Tracy Grammer has that elusive quality
of being able to speak directly to another person's heart - instantly
bypassing all of the usual infrastructure - the moment she starts
singing.” (Richard Shindell) Grammer performs music of her late husband
Dave Carter as well as her own.
Shows take place at the Unitarian Center, 87 4th St., Ashland. Shows begin at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7 p.m. Tickets are available on-line at www.stclairevents.com, by sending a check to St. Clair Productions, PO Box 835, Ashland, OR 97520, or at the Music Coop in the A-Street Marketplace one month before each show. For more information, call 541-535-3562.
St. Clair Productions presents: Saturday, November 1, Comedian Swami Beyondananda makes his
almost yearly Ashland appearance. The name of Swami’s website
wakeuplaughing.com describes his message perfectly. During the last
Presidential campaign, Swami formed the Right-to-Laugh Party and
launched the “Swami for Precedent” campaign to “heal the body politic
and cure electile dysfunction.” He is now campaigning to form a
“Heartland Security Department.” Swami’s alter-ego Steve Bhaerman
presents a workshop “Humor in Everyday Life” on Sunday, November 2, 2-4
p.m.
Shows take place at the Unitarian Center, 87 4th St., Ashland. Shows begin at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7 p.m. Tickets are available on-line at www.stclairevents.com, by sending a check to St. Clair Productions, PO Box 835, Ashland, OR 97520, or at the Music Coop in the A-Street Marketplace one month before each show. For more information, call 541-535-3562.
On Friday, November 14, St. Clair Productions presents Lucy
Kaplansky in her first Ashland appearance. Kaplansky’s last visit to
this area was a few years ago as part of the trio Cry Cry Cry (Dar
Williams and Richard Shindell) at the Britt Festival in Jacksonville.
Just barely out of high school, Kaplansky headed to New York City where
she became everyone’s favorite singing partner, often singing as a duo
with Shawn Colvin. Convinced her calling was in another direction,
Kaplansky earned a doctorate in Psychology and performed mainly in the
studio. However, with the release of her first CD on Red House Records
in 1994, Kaplansky began touring so much that she gave up her psychology
practice. Her rising popularity led to appearances of the CBS Morning
Show, NPR’s Weekend and Morning Editions, Mountain Stage, West Coast
Live and Acoustic Café.
Come see Christine Lavin on Saturday, December
13. Lavin performs her mostly original, mostly irreverent holiday
songs. In 2003, Lavin released her first holiday CD The Runaway
Christmas Tree. In making the recording, Lavin, set aside her customary
focus on interpersonal relationships in the bewildering modern era to
create a characteristic mixture of irreverent and genuine winter holiday
songs. Lamenting that she "just couldn't find a good
Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Chanukah/ Ramadan/Boxing Day album," Lavin
rounded up seven other vocalists, a sack-full of humorous, offbeat and
sometimes moving seasonal songs, a couple of original stories, and
created a lighthearted a cappella alternative to the usual cloying
Christmas-season songbook. The CD contains tales of Christmas wishes
gone wrong ("Polkadot Pancakes"), choral complaints and celebrations
regarding seasonal food ("Scalloped Potatoes" and "Tacobel Canon,"
respectively), and a snippet of what sounds like munchkins on helium
("Elves"). The title track is a bedtime story Lavin wrote to explain why
people decorate their Christmas trees (to weight them down so they won't
escape, of course). Interspersed are a handful of more conventional
hymns to the peace and joy of December - "Dona Nobis Pacem," "A New
Year's Round," "Lamb and Lion," and "Allelujah/Amen."
Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend and get rid of the “winter blahs” at the 9th Annual Rogue Valley Blues Festival. Main events for the festival are at the Historic Ashland Armory, 208 Oak St. Friday evening’s acoustic concert features headliner Harry Manx, a unique songwriter who performs a combination of Mississippi Blues and classical Indian Ragas on guitar, banjo and Mohan Veena; Mac Potts, keyboardist for the Ben Rice Blues Band; and Songs-in-the-Round with Pete Herzog, Jerry Zyback, and Rick Di Dia and Aireene Espiratu. Saturday’s dance features Too Slim and the Taildraggers from Seattle, WA; The Insomniacs from Portland; and Karen Lovely, Ashland’s favorite blues singer. Sunday evening will feature under 21 musicians and bands. Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m. the headliners offer hands-on workshops. 12-4 p.m. In addition, Standing Stone Restaurant, Alex’s Restaurant, Hardware Café, and Avalon Bar and Grill feature performances by local groups from 12-4 p.m.
March begins St. Clair Productions’ foray into music from other traditions. On Wednesday, March 11, Battlefield Band travels to Ashland from Scotland. Inspired by their rich heritage of Celtic music and fired by the strength and vibrancy of today's Scottish cultural scene, Battlefield Band has been at the forefront of a great revival in Scottish music. Refusing to be limited musically by suffocating antiquarianism, or the music business' fashions, they have mixed the old songs and music with a new self-penned repertoire, all played on a fusion of ancient and modern instruments - bagpipes, fiddle, synthesizer, guitar, flutes, bodhran and accordion. Named after the Glasgow suburb of Battlefield, where the group was formed by four student friends, Battlefield Band has been on the road for over 30 years, distilling their own unique form of the Scottish spirit and bottling it in concert and onto disc - Germany, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Syria, Jordan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, U.S.A., Canada, Uzbekistan and the U.K.
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Tuesday, March 24, the Andy Statman Trio performs at Havurah
Shir Hadash, 185 N. Main St., Ashland. Statman, one of his generation's
premier mandolinists and clarinetists, thinks of his compositions as "a
spontaneous, American-roots form of very personal, prayerful Hasidic
music, by way of avant-garde jazz." "There are those who know Andy
Statman as the virtuoso klezmer clarinetist - violinist Itzhak Perlman,
for instance, who chose Statman to lead his klezmer album. There are
those who know Andy Statman as the down-home mandolin player with a
stack of straight-up bluegrass albums to his credit. (I)n Statman's
versatile hands is a music that's full of surprises, sophisticated and
completely accessible at once.” (New York Daily News) Statman performs
with bassist Jim Whitney and percussionist Larry Eagle.
Performing on Friday, April 17 is Scottish fiddler Alasdair
Fraser and cellist Natalie Haas. Fraser’s richly expressive playing
transports listeners across a broad musical spectrum, ranging from
haunting laments from the Gaelic tradition to classically-styled airs,
raucous dance tunes, and improvisations based on traditional themes. His
vast repertoire spans several centuries of Scottish music and includes
his own compositions, which blend a profound understanding of the
Scottish tradition with cutting-edge musical explorations. He weaves
through his performances a warm and witty narrative, drawing from a deep
well of stories and lore surrounding Scotland's musical heritage. A
graduate of the Juilliard School in New York City, Haas discovered the
cello at age nine. Her musical journey found purpose when she fell in
love with Celtic music at Fraser’s Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling
School at age 11. Inspired and encouraged by director Fraser, she began
to investigate the cello's potential for rhythmic accompaniment to
fiddle tunes. Fraser and Haas each present a master-class on Saturday,
April 18.
St. Clair Productions’ final concert on Saturday, May 9 is the On Ensemble. With Japanese drums at the foundation of its world fusion mix, On Ensemble takes the ancient instruments of taiko into new realms. Infusing the powerful rhythms of ensemble Japanese drumming with influences ranging from hip-hop and electronica to Tuvan throat singing, On Ensemble's unique sound has been praised as "completely original and brilliantly conceived." Modern Drummer magazine calls On Ensemble "an exciting taiko ensemble looking at new ways to apply traditional Japanese drums." The On Ensemble will present a Taiko workshop on Sunday, May 10.
More Events Coming!