AcousticMusicScene.com

Hundreds of folk music aficionados – including performers, presenters and promoters – are expected to converge on Kutsher’s in Monticello, New York over the Veteran’s Day weekend for the annual Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) Conference.  The once venerable Catskills resort that was part of the borscht-belt circuit during its heyday will be transformed into a veritable folk Mecca.

AcousticMusicScene.com’s creators will not only be there for three jam-packed days and nights of music, informative panel discussions and workshops, a large trade show-like exhibit hall, and lots of informal conversation and networking, they will be playing a major role as well.

Following a series of formal and tricentric showcases — in which dozens of pre-selected artists from throughout the U.S. and Canada are afforded 20-minute performance slots each evening — so-called late-night ‘guerilla showcases’ take place in a number of hotel rooms until the wee hours of the morning, while other musicians stake out corners of the lobby for fun, informal jam sessions that often last until 5 a.m.

Creators to Host Guerilla Showcases and a Midnight Hoot

AcousticMusicScene.com Showcases are slated for both Friday and Saturday nights, while founders Michael Kornfeld and Glen Roethel also will host a very special AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot on Thursday — following what’s known as the Folk DJs’ Choice  showcase.  For the past several years, a number of folk radio DJs have come to the annual conference a day early and have presented artists who they consider to be worthy of more attention for the listening enjoyment of other  early-arrivers.  Playing off that, AcousticMusicScene.com will give four folk DJs who also have recorded albums a chance to raise their voices in song.  Barbara and Graham Dean of WBCR in Great Barrington, Massachusetts; Wanda Fischer of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio in New York’s capital region, and Larry Hoyt of  WAER in Syracuse, New York will each perform a couple of original numbers. 

Afterwards, a number of artists from the U.S. and Canada have been invited to perform one song each during a round-robin song swap in which spontaneous accompaniment is encouraged.  The Midnight Hoot is designed to be like a late-night song circle around a campfire during a festival, only without a fire and in the cozier confines of a hotel room.   “It’s a “Hoot” because we encourage performers to connect with each other and back each other up,” says Roethel.  “It’ll be another great place to be seen and to build community – that’s what AcousticMusicScene.com is all about.”

Artists slated to participate in the Midnight Hoot include Danny Bakan, Beaucoup Blue, Kim Beggs, Jud Caswell, Joe Crookston, Natalie Edelson, Emily Elbert, Freebo, Spook Handy, Joe Iadanza, Joe Jencks & Helena Nash, Stuart Markus, Deidre McCalla, Phil Minissale, Danielle Miraglia, Penny Nichols, Chris O’Brien, James O’Malley, Cheryl Prashker, A.J. Roach, Glen Roethel, Roethel, Marcus & Foxsong, Erin Sax-Seymour, Eric Schwartz, Roger Silverberg, Bob Sima, Tannis Slimmon, Betty Soo, Hank Stone, Twilight Hotel, Victoria Vox, Randall Williams and Brad Yoder.

Wines from Palmer Vineyards on Long Island’s North Fork also will be showcased.

The November 9 and 10 AcousticMusicScene.com Showcase lineups follow:
 

Friday Night, Nov. 9

11:30               Freebo

11:50               Arlon Bennett

12:10               Joe Jencks & Helena Nash

12:30               Amy Speace and the Tearjerks

12:50               Anthony da Costa, Lara Herscovitch, Hope Machine

1:30                 Patti DeRosa, Karyn Oliver, Bonnie Lee Panda

2:15                 Danny Bakan

2:30                 Marc Douglas Berardo, Steve Chizmadia, Emily Elbert,

                         Chris O’Brien

Saturday Night, Nov. 10

11:30               Roethel, Markus & Foxsong

11:50               Twilight Hotel

12:10               Jud Caswell

12:30               James O’Malley

12:45               Glen Roethel

1:00                 Beaucoup Blue, Greg Klyma, Phil Minissale

1:30                 Randall Williams

1:45                 Jack’s Waterfall

2:00                 Victoria Vox and  Terry Kitchen

2:30                 Open Song Swap
 

In addition to co-hosting the AcousticMusicScene.com Showcases, singer-songwriter Glen Roethel — whose sophomore release, Smaller Things, is in production — will participate in guerilla showcases hosted by Tribes Hill and fellow New York singer-songwriters James O’Malley and Stuart Markus.  Editor & Publisher Michael Kornfeld will moderate a Saturday afternoon panel discussion-workshop for small venues and house concert presenters and will be among the panelists in a two-hour Friday afternoon session  on PR, press and promotion for performers and presenters.  He also will be formally welcomed as the newest member of NERFA’s board of directors.

As part of the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance (Folk Alliance), NERFA (www.nerfa.org) aims to foster and promote multicultural, traditional and contemporary folk music, while strengthening and advancing organizational and individual initiatives in folk music and dance through education, networking, advocacy, and professional and field development.

Folk Alliance’s annual conference takes place next February in Memphis, Tennessee.  Information on it, as well as on other regional conference that took place this fall, appears in an article that was posted on the home page on July 9 and is now archived below.  AcousticMusicScene.com will bring you more details on the conference in coming weeks.

Comments are closed.