2008 - 2009 Calendar:

Saturday, August 9, 2008:
Sing-Along/Raffle Prizes/Fundraiser
for UU Church of Fort Lauderdale.

Song leaders will be on hand to coordinate, refreshments are available for sale and plenty of free parking is provided. We will be singing from the Rise Up Singing songbook (a wonderful guide compiled by SingOut Magazine with lyrics to over 1200 classic songs) as well as from our own memory (no jokes, please!) - selections will include a great mix of folk, gospel, bluegrass, jazz, contemporary, rounds, old-time. If you have a copy of Rise Up Singing, please bring it - we also plan to have copies for sale for $15 ($8 below retail) at the event. Everyone is welcome! Without you, there is no sound. :-)

Saturday, September 13, 2008:
Ellen Bukstel/Mindy Simmons.

Visit www.ellenbukstel.com and www.mindysimmons.com

Born and raised in Miami, Florida and a veteran to the stage since childhood, Ellen Bukstel studied and performed classical piano for many years only to find that her real love of music came later, as a teenager, when she taught herself to play, first the ukulele, then the guitar and discovered her voice. Her powerful songs and music videos nurture the causes she supports, affirm her love for her family and routinely bring her audiences to laughter and tears...sometimes both simultaneously. From hilariously funny to moving compositions of love, remembrance, and social awareness, her songs always hit home. She sings from the heart about her life and family...and brings all that passion to the stage.

A dose of singer/songwriter Mindy Simmons is just what the laugh doctor ordered. She combines quick wit and charm with a voice that moves from silky smooth to gutsy blues creating a memorable performance that feels like an evening with your best friend. Her tribute to the late Peggy Lee consistently receives standing ovations. Based in Sarasota, Florida, Mindy has toured nationwide for 25 years. Her repertoire is a delightful combination of originals and standards that have led to her success as an artist who has sold her "Mindy Music" to thousands of loyal fans.

Saturday, October 11, 2008:
Valerie C. Wisecracker/Bob Macdonald.

Visit www.sky-shotsinc.com/wisecracker and www.geocities.com/artist_bobmacdonald/

Valerie C. Wisecracker. Comic. Acoustic and Eclectic Performer. Irreverent but relevant. Well grounded but high strung. An earthy alto. The original "Miami Mother Folker." Singer/songwriter and guitar/banjo slinger. 2-Time Florida Old Time State Singing Champion. Somewhere in between Annie Oakley and Ethel Merman. A regular at Florida Folk festivals, concert clubs and the occasional funky watering hole, Val brings a rich background of professional experience to her music and messages. A South Florida fixture and long time Keys resident, Val offers a humorous perspective on life in the Sunshine state -- songs about its government, guests and environment.

Bob Macdonald is the winner of two top awards in the Great American Song Contest. In 2001, he won top honors in the Acoustic/Folk category. In 2002 he won first place in the Country category for his potential hit song "Jukebox Therapy." Bob lives in Boca Raton, Florida. He has two self-produced CDs available: "Minutes From Miami" and "Traffic and Weather Together."

Saturday, November 8, 2008:
Coyote Run.

Visit www.coyoterun.com

In the American Southwest, there comes a time of day when the coyotes run amok. They appear in twos, threes, or more, to yip and race and play. This display of energy and playfulness, incredible in the desert heat, is called the "Coyote Run." Filled with mischief, this animal guide leads us through his own foolishness or sometimes by helping us laugh at our own foolishness. Coyote Run's music is undeniably Celtic in influence, yet hops boundaries and stylistic borders with the ease and carefree nature of the trickster.

Saturday, December 13, 2008:
John McCutcheon.

Visit www.folkmusic.com

Wisconsin native John McCutcheon has emerged as one of our most respected and loved folksingers. As an instrumentalist, he is a master of a dozen different traditional instruments, most notably the rare and beautiful hammer dulcimer. His songwriting has been hailed by critics and singers around the globe. His thirty recordings have garnered every imaginable honor including seven Grammy nominations. His books and instructional materials have introduced budding players to the joys of their own musicality. And his commitment to grassroots political organizations has put him on the front lines of many of the issues important to communities and workers.

But it is in live performance that John feels most at home. It is what has brought his music into the lives and homes of one of the broadest audiences any folk musician has ever enjoyed. People of every generation and background seem to feel at home in a concert hall when John McCutcheon takes the stage, with what critics describe as “little feats of magic,” “breathtaking in their ease and grace...,” and “like a conversation with an illuminating old friend.” Whether in print, on record, or on stage, few people communicate with the versatility, charm, wit or pure talent of John McCutcheon.

Saturday, January 10, 2009:
Jud Caswell/Friction Farm/Dave Potts
(the three winners of the 2008 South Florida Folk Festival songwriting competition)

Visit www.judcaswell.com, www.frictionfarm.com and www.davepotts.com

Heralded by Sing Out! magazine as "one of the leading singer- songwriters on the current scene," Jud Caswell has won eight nationally recognized songwriting contests, including the Dave Carter Memorial, Boston Folk Festival, and Kerrville New Folk contests. Jud grew up on a little farm in Morrill, Maine, picking carrots and milking goats; listening to records by Cat Stevens and the Beatles, reading Mark Twain and Kahlil Gibran. A multi-instrumentalist from an early age, he wandered through jazz bands, orchestras and medieval ensembles before finding his home on the acoustic guitar.

Friction Farm is Aidan Quinn on guitar and vocals and Christine Stay on vocals and bass. They didn't start out as a modern folk duo. The songwriters initially put together a full rock band. They released a couple of CDs and enjoyed success quickly and easily, attracting management and label attention, playing large shows, opening for big acts. But the early success brought a surprising reality: they weren't having any fun. The duo realized they had lost the things most important to them - the craft of writing good lyrics and melodies and really connecting with people through performing those songs. They recaptured their original musical spirit as an acoustic duo.

A singer/songwriter with a gift for melody and a poet's eye for detail, Dave Potts crafts contemporary folk songs with shades of country and Americana, infused with Southern charm. It is the combination of his music and humorous, poker-faced stage presence, however, that defines Dave as an artist. His engaging live shows have established him in the house concert and listening room venues of the modern folk scene where he continues to develop a loyal following throughout the country. Dave Potts is, he deadpans, a seriously funny guy.

Saturday, February 14, 2009:
The Orphan Trains / Jennings & Keller.

Visit www.theorphantrains.com & www.jenningsandkeller.com

The Orphan Trains are Dakota Rose (Amanda Birdsall) and The Masked Fantastic (Wolff). Listening to their music is like closing your eyes in a sleeper car on a westbound train & dreaming about every scene that passes as you sleep. Dreaming the stories of the unborn and the long gone, dreaming the very pulse of the unsung American heart. "The Orphan Trains' songs are poetry with wings." ~ Jon Connelly

Laurie Jennings spent her early years in New York City as a Shakespearean actress before taking up the guitar and exploring the world of folk singing and songwriting. Laurie is best known as the former proprietress of The Main Street Cafe‚, which, during its 8 « years in business, was considered the premier Acoustic music club in Florida. Dana Keller is a veteran pedal steel, dobro, and guitar player who has spent the past 25 years performing on stage or in the studio with such luminaries as Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Stevie Wonder, Larry Graham, Marvin Gaye, Dave Mason, Johnny Rodriguez and The Allen Brothers, to name a few. As a Fusion Folk Americana duo, Laurie and Dana are quickly gaining recognition around the state for their songwriting, singing and musicianship.

Saturday, March 14, 2009:
Nick Annis & Danny Schmidt.

Visit www.nickannis.com and www.dannyschmidt.com

Nick Annis is an award-winning songwriter, but he is also admired by folk fans for the storytelling talent that makes his performances so memorable. Audiences return time after time to hear him deliver spoken word pieces in the style of brilliant songwriter/storytellers like Gamble Rogers, John McCutcheon, and Dave Carter. Nick's insights are drawn from widely varied careers (including selling ice cream from a truck, running a small bakery, and drilling for oil in the Midwest), but also from his upbringing in a large Greek family. Drawing on this diverse background, Nick crafts "true" stories and timeless accounts of humanity.

Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter Danny Schmidt is a writer's writer, with a lyrical depth drawing comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt, and Dave Carter. Upon winning the prestigious Kerrville New Folk award in 2007, Sing Out Magazine tagged Schmidt "the best new songwriter we've heard in 15 years." Just one man sitting alone on stage with his acoustic guitar and his poetry, in the timeless troubadour tradition, his musical influences draw from deeply-rooted Appalachian mountain gospel to haunted English balladry, from syncopated Piedmont country blues to vagabond 60's protest folk- stumpery. But it all boils down to just great songwriting, in a singular style all his own. Not to be missed.

Saturday, April 11, 2009:
Amy Carol Webb and Denice Franke.

Visit www.amycarolwebb.com and www.denicefranke.com

With four popular and critically acclaimed independent CDs of original music, and the fifth in production, Amy Carol Webb is frequently on the road from celebrated concert halls and festival stages to spiritual gatherings and intimate house concerts, sharing stages with many whose work inspires her own. Her joy is infectious, her courage inspiring, her songs gifts of literate, humorous, often profound poems of one woman's remarkable journey from precious child to woman to mother... to "Songweaver."

Denice Franke's career is rooted firmly in her gift for singing, and an intuition for penning songs that get under the skin. She accompanies herself on the guitar with grace, and skill, and a repertoire of rhythms that rock listeners gently in place as they take in the 'movie' each song projects. Life as a touring artist began for Denice in 1978. Franke (pronounced "Frankie" - the name she answers to as readily as her first) will tell you straight out she's grateful for the distances traveled, and for the water under the bridge. It's what informs her music these days. What makes her dive more deeply into her own stories, and those of the characters who find their way to her songs.

Saturday, May 9, 2009:
Rod MacDonald and Michael McNevin.

Visit www.rodmacdonald.net and www.michaelmcnevin.com

Throughout a 30-year performing career, Rod MacDonald has been entertaining audiences worldwide with his timeless ballads, modern folk songs, and his musical versatility. Possessing the heart of a troubadour, the soul of a poet and the voice of a virtuoso, he is as distinctive an entertainer as he is a songwriter. Known for his passionate interest in the events that shape our world's societies, Rod is a prolific and poignant communicator who is regarded as "one of the most politically and socially aware lyricists of our time." (All Music Guide)

A tireless traveler and troubadour, Singer Songwriter Michael McNevin plays clubs and festivals across the U.S., penning numerous and poignant tales of the people and towns he comes across, highlighting a seasoned voice, unique guitar work, and a vivid brand of storytelling. In addition to his music, McNevin has carved himself a niche in the art world as well, doing impossible drawings on the Etch A Sketch (not kidding - check out the CD Cover art to "Sketch"). He is also a published author - segments he calls "Napkin Literature - Stories From The Road" appear regularly in the Harbinger Magazine - episodes ranging from his being caught in the Nashville Tornado, to chasing down a robber in Carbondale Illinois.

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Suggested donation $15 plus non-perishable item for our local Cooperative Feeding Program

Advance reservations $12 with check received at the UU Church office (address below) no later than Wednesday before Saturday show. We also offer a special season pass for $100, which includes all nine shows ($10 each) plus a Labyrinth Cafe T-shirt. It's a wonderful way to support the UU church, our performers and the continuation of live, original music!

Reservations: Susan at OzWoman321@aol.com or 954-478-8637 Info day of concert: (954) 478-8637

Unitarian Universalist Church of Ft Lauderdale 3970 NW 21st Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309 See Map. 

I-95 to Oakland Park Blvd, west exit. Go to light at NW 21 Ave & turn right. Just past the first light, church will be on the right.