The Carroll Café committee and volunteers want to thank all of you who make Carroll Café possible for this season just passed. Without an audience of music lovers we wouldn’t be here, and we hope that you will come out for the next season.

The concerts we presented this past season were Magpie, Phil Wiggins and The Chesapeake Sheiks, Richie and Rosie, Deeper than the Skin, Tret Fure, Trio Sefardi, Ocean Celtic Quartet, and Reunion Road. They were all too wonderful for words, and our deep gratitude and well wishes go out to each and every one of them.

For the 2019/20 season we will present:

October 11, 2019 – Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer
November 8, 2019 – Greg Greenway
December 13, 2019 – Crys Matthews
January 10, 2020 – Victoria Vox
February 14, 2020 – Tom Prasada-Rao
March 13, 2020 – In Process
April 10, 2020 – Pierce Pettis and David Webb
May 8, 2020 – IONA Music
June 12, 2020 Scott Ainslie

We really do hope to see you all as we continue to bring you the best musicians making the world a better place.
Have a great summer.

Our Call

We believe:

• that music is a gift that brings a deeper understanding and experience of the Creator and ourselves in a way different from any other discipline;
• that music is a gift for everyone, and everyone’s own music can be good and useful;
• that music from other places, cultures, and times can be important for everyone to bring us to mutual understanding;
• that music can promote cooperation, compassion, empathy, and friendship amongst all people;
• that roots music is a living tradition that grows out of the relationships between an artist and an audience.

We are called:

• to offer excellent music to the community at the nexus of Takoma Park, Montgomery County, and the Greater DC area for education, inspiration, enlightenment, and joy so everyone can receive the gifts that music offers;
• to provide a venue for musicians to present their music and thought; where they can be paid a fair wage for their skill and dedication;
• to help visitors learn more about, and experience the hospitality of, Seekers Church;
• to use music to create a world of equality, fellowship, and justice.

For more information, please write us at info@carrollcafe.org or call Sandra at 240-350-1769 during daytime hours or 202-829-9882 the night of the show.

Sincerely, 

Sandra
info@carrollcafe.org

CD Release: Short Time to Be Here
June 14, 2019 • Last show of the season!

As REUNION ROAD, Carol Hausner and Eleanor Ellis mix and match their rich, emotive blend of voice and guitar with songs in the bluegrass and folk roots traditions. The two first met and began singing together in the musical haven of Takoma Park Maryland during the 1980s, in the early days of the Takoma Park Folk Festival. When festival founder Sammie Abbott was mayor he and his wife Ruth hosted many musical parties where members of this vibrant community met and exchanged songs and ideas. The black and white photo of Carol and Eleanor was taken at one of these parties.

Eleanor was raised around New Orleans and, entranced by the local sounds, sang and played guitar in formal and informal settings, weaving together and exploring many melodic roots and genres. As well as solo gigs on Bourbon Street and various uptown venues, she played bluegrass and country with Luke Thompson and the Green Valley Cutups and with Dr. Bill Malone and the Hill Country Ramblers, and performed as a duo with Hazel Schlueter. Upon moving to Maryland and meeting local blues legends like John Jackson and Archie Edwards, she gravitated toward blues, while always keeping in touch with the variety of music and song which brought her there. Eleanor says, “Although I’m more known now for playing blues, I’ve always been drawn to many styles of music and I love to sing these songs with Carol from my folk and bluegrass days.”

Carol’s home was filled with music. Her mother sang and her father was drawn to the folk and traditional music scene in Greenwich Village which he brought home with his guitar, records and the radio. He gave Carol her first guitar when she was seven and taught her how to play and they often played and sang together at home. She began performing while in high school when she joined a bluegrass band started by her history teacher, an accomplished bluegrass musician. In addition to performing, she has been a songwriter throughout. She had the honor of winning first place in the Bluegrass category of the annual Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest in 2009 for her original song “Love Gone By,” co-written with Colin McCaffrey. Carol and Eleanor performed the winning song together there.

In this production, the two women trade high and low leads and harmonies to excellent effect on numbers well-crafted to match their distinct voices and lyrical styles. Their repertoire ranges from the bittersweet Flame in My Heart to Kate Wolf’s somber, symbolic journey Across the Great Divide, the beautifully phrased Going to the West, the Carter family’s tale of enduring friendship You’ve Been A Friend to Me and the evocative Hausner and McCaffrey original On My Mind.

This recording brings Eleanor and Carol full circle on their journey from the first Takoma Park days to this reunion in song. Eleanor and Carol say “Our name REUNION ROAD comes from the fact that, even though we don’t live in the same place anymore, we still share friends and memories, and we still continue to sing together every chance we get.”

Reserve your seat now!

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!