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Trio Sefardi

Carroll Café hosts fabulous local, national, and international performers,
mostly in the roots and folk traditions, on the second Friday of each month, October through June. It all happens at Seekers Church in Takoma DC. Check out Upcoming Shows for the full schedule.

Reserve your seat now for Trio Sefardi, Saturday, April 13

Join TRIO SEFARDI to celebrate the release of their newest CD, La Yave d’Espanya (The Key from Spain). Susan Gaeta, Tina Chancey and Howard Bass will perform music from Turkey and the Balkans, old and new Sephardic favorites on the customary topics of love and courtship, holiday fun, and, in particular, life’s journeys. They’ll feature one of their mentor Flory Jagoda’s most important songs, Sviraj Harmoniku (Play Your Accordion), composed when teen-age Flory fled Zagreb in 1941 in the wake of the Nazi occupation; she brought this song to light more than 60 years later, and this is its premier recording. The title song relates the story of how the Sephardim, exiled from Spain in 1492, took the keys from their homes and passed them through the generations, in hopes of someday returning.

Trio Sefardi is a confluence of three performers who share a love of and wide-ranging experience with Sephardic music, playing with La Rondinella, the Western Wind, and National Heritage Fellowship honoree Flory Jagoda. Washington Post chief music critic Ann Midgette praised the group’s “lovely and luminous performance of Sephardic songs” and vocalist Susan Gaeta’s voice as “compelling” in a review of a recent performance at the Kennedy Center with the Post-Classical Ensemble. Group members combine a respect for tradition with a creative approach to arranging and scoring dedicated to bringing the vibrant past into the living present. Trio Sefardi’s first public performance was at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in November 2010. Since then the group has performed at the Washington Folk Festival, the Takoma Park Folk Festival, the National Gallery of Art, Southern Methodist University, the residence of the Spanish Ambassador, and many other local venues. In December 2011 they were featured performers in the Washington Revels production, “Andalusian Treasures,” at Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C.

Reserve your seat now

$18 online • $20 at the door

Doors open at 7:00

We invite you to enjoy delicious refreshments from the Café at Carroll Café available before the show and at the intermission. A changing choice of savories enough for a light meal, topped off with fabulous desserts and beverages, will add to the happiness of the concert experience! Always vegetarian, with some vegan and gluten-free options most months, all lovingly provided by Sandra and Okima.

Thank you for your support of Carroll Café.

Tret Fure

Carroll Café hosts fabulous local, national, and international performers,
mostly in the roots and folk traditions, on the second Friday of each month, October through June. It all happens at Seekers Church in Takoma DC. Check out Upcoming Shows for the full schedule.

Reserve your seat now for our next show, March 8

TRET FURE began her career at the age of 16, singing in coffeehouses and campuses in the Midwest. At 19, she moved to LA in hopes of obtaining a record deal. Within a year she was performing as guitarist and vocalist for Spencer Davis, touring with him and penning the single for his album “Mousetrap.” She went on to record her own album in 1973 on MCA/UNI Records, with the late Lowell George of Little Feat as her producer. With the success of that release, she opened for such bands as Yes, Poco, and the J. Geils Band.

A prolific artist in the contemporary singer-songwriter arena, Tret has released 16 albums and CDs over the course of her 48-year career. In addition to being a gifted songwriter, she has engineered and produced countless recordings by a variety of artists, including her own work.

In the early ’80s, Tret moved to the independent side of the industry, discovering the blossoming genre known as Women’s Music. She recorded with and produced some of the best of women’s music, including the legendary “Meg & Cris at Carnegie Hall” (1983). She worked as a duo with Cris Williamson throughout the ’90s, producing, engineering and releasing 3 CDs together.

Now after eight acoustic releases on her own label, Tomboy girl Records, she has re-established herself in the folk world, winning the South Florida Folk Festival Singer/Songwriter Competition in two out of three categories (Best Overall and Best Up-Tempo Song), as well as the prestigious Jane Schliessman Award for Outstanding Contributions to Women’s Music. In 2009, Tret was voted “Pride In The Arts Favorite Female/Lesbian Musician”. In the same year she received the Janine C Rae Award for her work in Women’s Music. She is also the #1 folk artist for Reverbnation in Newport News, VA. In 2017, Tret took 2nd place in the Musicians United to Protect Bristol Bay songwriting contest for her song “The Fishermen of Bristol Bay.”

Reserve your seat now

$18 online • $20 at the door

Doors open at 7:00

We invite you to enjoy delicious refreshments from the Café at Carroll Café available before the show and at the intermission. A changing choice of savories enough for a light meal, topped off with fabulous desserts and beverages, will add to the happiness of the concert experience! Always vegetarian, with some vegan and gluten-free options most months, all lovingly provided by Sandra.

Thank you for your support of Carroll Café.

Deeper Than the Skin: Reggie Harris & Greg Greenway

Reserve your seat now for our next show, February 8

A Musical Presentation on Race

This is not just another evening of talk.

This is not just a concert of entertaining songs. 


DEEPER THAN THE SKIN is a experience of singing and listening … of experiencing a connection so deep that it makes you laugh, smile, cry and reconsider what you know about our history. It’s an invitation to open your heart and mind to a story of shared humanity that resonates with your own.
Two friends … one Black, one White … one from the North … one from the South. Musicians, storytellers, students of history and world travelers … born three days apart! Two separate narratives forged into one powerful friendship aimed at finding common ground and helping others to do the same.

Deeper Than the Skin brings together a remarkable journey that started 30 years ago and is now offering hope to people all over the nation. It’s a presentation that ends with an open dialogue that moves the audience from emotion into action … that gives voice and direction to the question “What can I do?”

Deeper Than the Skin is an interactive, engaging invitation to take a step into a new reality. It’s an affirmation of the notion that a more perfect union begins …. with us!      

   

“Greg and Reggie are two of the most engaging performers you’d want to enjoy on a concert evening. To be invited into their lives to share their deepest concerns and memories is a rare privilege in a very memorable evening.”

–Thea Hagepanos, 
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Wilmington, NC

Reserve your seat now

$18 online • $20 at the door
Doors open at 7:00

We invite you to enjoy delicious refreshments from the Café at Carroll Café available before the show and at the intermission. A changing choice of savories enough for a light meal, topped off with fabulous desserts and beverages, will add to the happiness of the concert experience! Always vegetarian, with some vegan and gluten-free options most months, all lovingly provided by Sandra.

Thank you for your support of Carroll Café.

Richie and Rosie

January 18, 2019

Reserve your seat now

With the fated combination of unique skill, varied musical influence, and honest storytelling, RICHIE AND ROSIE play music that people can connect with.

Richie Stearns and Rosie Newton grew up 150 miles and a few decades apart. Having originally met at Saratoga Springs’ Flurry festival, the two reunited in the Ithaca old-time scene, where Richie grew up and Rosie had moved for college. During Rosie’s freshman year, they began touring together regionally as members of the Evil City String Band and eventually decided to pursue a more intimate project as a duo. In 2013 the duo released their first album, Tractor Beam, a 12-track mix of originals and classics, designed to mirror the experience of a live performance.

Before joining forces, both members were well established within the old-time community. Rosie has toured with multiple bands, including an appearance while she was in high school with folk-rock band The Mammals. In 2010, she released a self-titled album as part of the duo The Pearly Snaps. In addition to two solo albums, Richie’s discography includes collaborations with Natalie Merchant, Jim Lauderdale, Donna the Buffalo, and Carrie Rodriguez. He has performed internationally with Bela Fleck, Pete Seeger, David Byrne, Billy Bragg & Wilco, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Joan Baez. He is president of the iconic GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance.

As musicians in two very different parts of life, Richie and Rosie are proof of two things: the power and magic of two people making music, and that the universal messages that lie within their songs remain timeless.

Phil Wiggins — National Heritage Fellow

PHIL WIGGINS with THE CHESAPEAKE SHEIKS
December 14, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.


PHIL WIGGINS
 is a versatile traditional harmonica player, continuing the Piedmont blues tradition, a gentle and melodic blues style of the mid-Atlantic region. He plays the diatonic ten-hole harmonica in the country blues style, cupping both hands around the instrument and playing acoustically. His sound is not shaped by the gear, the microphone or amplifier when performing on stage, instead by his complex syncopated patterns, breath-control and rhythm, stylistic virtuosity and fiery solo runs.
A Takoma Park, Maryland, resident, blues musician, teacher and artistic director, two-time winner of the prestigious WC Handy Blues Foundation awards, Phil is only the third harmonica player to receive the lifetime honor of an NEA National Heritage Fellowship. Today he is the only living player of the instrument to hold the prestigious honor of being a “Master of Traditional Arts.” Often referred to by its unofficial designation as “Living Cultural Treasure” award, the fellowship honors and preserves the diverse cultural heritage in the United States. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) annually awards one-time-only NEA National Heritage Fellowships to master folk and traditional artists, to recognize lifetime achievement, artistic excellence, and contributions to our nation’s traditional arts heritage.
Phil is joined by the Chesapeake SheiksMatt Kelly on guitar, Marcus Moore on violin, Ian Walters on piano, and Steve Wolf on bass—playing blues from the Piedmont and Delta as well as the music of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, Louis Jordan, Slim and Slam, and  originals.

“Phil is among a very small handful of virtuosos whose command of his instrument takes my breath away. His talent rivals that of any artist I’ve encountered in my career in Classical music, in my view placing him in the company of the Yo-Yo Mas and the Joshua Bells of the world.”

– Scott Freck, Vice President for Artistic Operations & General Manager North Carolina Symphony

Thank you for your support of Carroll Café.

In Process… A Capella Magic

Reserve your seat now!

NOVEMBER 9, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.

IN PROCESS…, an African American women’s a cappella ensemble, originated in the DC Metropolitan Area from a Sweet Honey workshop. For over 30 years the rhythmic, harmonic, consciousness-raising music messages of In Process… have been heard locally and in venues from Arizona to West Virginia. Her blended repertoire includes spirituals, gospel, jazz, blues, and historic and original contemporary songs of love, freedom, peace and justice. In Process… has two CDs, IN PROCESS… and MISSION: LOVE and her original music is featured in the Anacostia Watershed Society’s documentary “The Anacostia: Restoring the People’s River.” More than 50 women have passed through In Process…, which today features Nketia Agyeman, Pam Rogers, Paula Pree, and Tiya!

Reserve your seat now!

$18 online • $20 at the door
Doors open at 7:00

 

OCEAN Celtic Quartet—The Lusty Month of May!

Songs of Love, Lust, and the Arrival of Spring
May 10, 2019

The ancient Irish festival of Beltane (May Day) signaled the end of winter and the coming of summer. Come hear Washington, D.C.’s award-winning Celtic ensemble the OCEAN Celtic Quartet in a program of traditional and original music celebrating the return of the sun and the greening of the land. OCEAN’s soaring vocals, fiery fiddle tunes, and rollicking button accordion will have your heart swelling and your toes tapping, while you sing along with songs that stretch back for centuries . . . songs of love, lust, and everything in between. In addition to seasonal music, enjoy dramatic readings of May poetry from the Middle Ages up through the 1800s . . . even a special guest appearance by the ancient Green Man, also known as Jack-in-the-Green!

OCEAN’s members are bandleader/multi-instrumentalist Jennifer Cutting (a Washington Area Music Association Musician of the Year); mesmerizing vocalist Chris Noyes (formerly of the maritime music group Crab Alley); champion Scottish fiddler Andrew Dodds; and traditional singer/Ph.D. folklorist Stephen Winick.

“Nothing short of spellbinding.”
The Washington Post

Join us for this joyful celebration to mark the end of the cold and dark and the return of the light and warmth. If you don’t have spring fever when you come, you’ll definitely catch it by the time this concert is over!

Reserve your seat now!

Magpie 45th DC Anniversary Concert

October 12, 2018 

MAGPIE (Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner) have been playing music together since 1973, and this concert marks their incredible 45th anniversary of playing in D.C. Since their last appearance at Carroll Café they have released a new CD–When We Stand Together: Songs of Joe Hill, the IWW and Fellow Workers.

A gifted singer of jazz and blues in the tradition of Connie Boswell and Billie Holiday Terry is equally comfortable with the subtle beauty of traditional folk and contemporary songs and has an uncanny ability to find the perfect harmony line. She is also an excellent player of the harmonica, mandolin, fretted dulcimer, and rhythm guitar.

Greg is an outstanding guitarist whose fingerpicking forms the solid basis of Magpie’s sound, providing whatever is called for, from slow Scots airs and plaintive ballads to rollicking ragtime blues and infectious swing. His high baritone voice has equal range, and his captivating interpretation gives power and beauty to the full spectrum, from growling blues, to a Chilean lament, to a sweet croon.

From the beginning Terry and Greg’s interests in various musical styles have led them to be eclectic in their repertoire. Internationally known for their musical work in the environmental movement, Magpie is also well known for their performances of hard-hitting topical songs and are regular performers on Phil Ochs Song Nights, organized by Phil’s sister, Sonny Ochs.

Magpie has been on hiatus since early June, so come help welcome them back to the stage!