Making his Rhode Island debut, Ryan Young is a traditional fiddle player from Scotland bringing fresh and inventive ideas to traditional Scottish music. Young’s traditional fiddle playing will take you on an emotional journey and lift your spirits as he’s joined tonight by guitarist Matt Heaton.
Ryan graduated with a Master of Music degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and he continues to draw drawing international attention. A 2022 MG ALBA Musician of The Year nominee, Ryan brings new and exciting ideas to traditional Scottish music. His debut was recorded with four time Grammy winner Jesse Lewis (who has worked with the likes of Bela Fleck and Yo Yo Ma) and launched at Feakle Traditional Music Festival in County Clare, accompanied by renowned guitarist, Dennis Cahill.
His fiddle playing brims with fresh melodic ideas, an uplifting rhythmic drive, and a great depth of dynamics. Ryan was twice a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards and twice a finalist in the prestigious BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of The Year. He was awarded ‘Up And Coming Artist Of The Year’ at the Scots Trad Awards in 2017 and nominated for the Horizon Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2018.
Don’t miss this amazing artist on the rise … reviews and reactions to his concerts are off the charts!
Matthew Byrne was born into a family of Newfoundland music makers and his repertoire is heavily influenced by his unique musical lineage. This tradition thrives on the song – the weaving of a great story with a beautiful melody – and Byrne’s music reminds us how satisfying traditional songs can be when stripped down to these basic elements.
Since bursting on to the trad scene in 2010 with his debut recording, “Ballads,” Matthew has swiftly earned his place as one of Canada’s most authentic and vital traditional voices, backed by his masterful guitar playing. Storytelling through song is a fundamental duty of traditional music.
Matthew’s latest recording, “Horizon Lines” is a collection of traditional material from both sides of the Atlantic; the CD won “Traditional Recording of the Year” at the 2018 Canadian Folk Music Awards. Having received this distinction for a second time, Matthew Byrne continues to establish himself as one of today’s most authentic and vital traditional voices.
Grammy®-Awarded and Emmy-nominated, Eileen Ivers continues to push the fiddling tradition boundaries from a folk music staple to a powerfully beautiful and intensely driving world stage experience. Ivers was the groundbreaking musical star of Riverdance, a founding member of Cherish the Ladies, and she is one of the most awarded All-Ireland Fiddle and Banjo champions ever. Eileen’s new album, “Scatter the Light” was originally released on March 13, 2020, at the start of the pandemic. It was re-released in 2022.
Ivers has been called “the Jimi Hendrix of the violin,” by The New York Times. Her recording credits include over 80 contemporary and traditional albums and numerous movie scores. A 9-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion, Eileen is hailed as one of the great innovators and pioneers in the Celtic and World music genres. Eileen’s band, Universal Roots, connects music, cultures, stories and emotions that tie us together …celebrating the fact that we are more alike than dissimilar.
The ensemble features Buddy Connolly (button accordion, whistles, piano, vocals), Lindsey Horner (upright and electric bass, baritone sax, vocals), Dave Barckow (lead vocals, percussion, guitar), and Colin Forhan (guitar, banjo, concertina), joining together with Ivers on fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bodhran, and live looping.
Drenched in the emotions of blues, folk and country music, roots singer-songwriter Kerri Powers uses her dramatically dark voice to mine the depths of romantic heartbreak and broken dreams in the edgy narratives of her songs. A native of rural Massachusetts, Powers sings the blues with such authentic, down-home grit that you might well think she’s from Mississippi. Besides being a consummate chronicler of disappointment and despair, she can also morph into an impishly naughty rebel with a cause, a Mark Twain-like trickster whose wry words and phrasing can also celebrate joy and hope. Says John Apice, of No Depression, “I don’t know where this young lady came from but it’s got to be a secret place. This is not the kind of singing and performing that can be easily taught. It has to be in your spirit, in your blood and the fact that she is from the Northeast is going to confound the artists down South, in the Delta, in Memphis, Clarksdale, Austin, and Nashville.” Kerri will perform plenty of great new songs from her soon-to-be-released album “Love is Why.”
With showers in the afternoon forecast we are deciding to move inside Blackstone River Theatre itself. Join us for a Shanty Sing at 4 p.m. – lyric sheets will be provided!
ADMISSION AT THE DOOR, CASH OR CHECK!
A Benefit Shanty Singalong for Blackstone River Theatre: Bully in the Alley – Tiny, Knotty Jane, Mouse, Smoky Pete, Ammo, and Syren – are a crew of singers and storytellers based in southeastern New England who have a lengthy collective history of performing at Festivals, Fairs, Seaports, parades, and historic re-enactment events across the United States and Canada. They have recently joined together to share their love of music and traditional shanties in an interactive performance, with a piratical flair, that is sure to get your toes tappin’ and hands clappin’! These shipmates invite you to bring your voice and your enthusiasm to support Blackstone River Theatre with a Shanty Singalong!
A TAKE IT OUTSIDE CONCERT. Tickets available at the gate or call in your reservations for our August 13, 4:00-5:00 p.m. concert with Goldpine to 401-725-9272. The forecast is now improving, so we will hold the concert OUTSIDE Blackstone River Theatre as originally planned!
ADMISSION AT THE DOOR, CASH OR CHECK!
Through a chance encounter in Nashville back in 2006, Benjamin and Kassie Wilson were sure of each other from the start. “Kassie knew she was going to marry me from the first time she saw me… and she was right,” Ben gloats. Formerly known as ‘My One and Only’ the duo has reimagined their “southern-soul,” “curious-grit” and emotionally honest lyrics into the duo Goldpine. Goldpine is folksy and falls within the Americana genre but their musical arrangements are very innovative and eclectic. Touring since 2016, they have been lessening the gap between music and the audience by disclosing their stories behind the lyrics at every venue along the way. Recent winners of the 2022 Rocky Mountain Songwriter Contest and finalists in the Kerrville Folk Fest 2021 New Folk Competition, the duo’s bold harmonies are clearly a channel for their highly charged songwriting. This will be their Rhode Island debut!
A TAKE IT OUTSIDE CONCERT! Call in your reservations for our July 23, 4:00-5:00 p.m. concert with Allysen Callery to 401-725-9272. This will be our second of four OUTDOOR CONCERTS held on Sundays behind the theatre building – chairs provided!
BUY TICKETS ONLINE VIA SQUARE!
Allysen Callery is a self-taught singer songwriter from Bristol, R.I., whose delicate, mesmerizing sound has been compared to classic British folk artists like Sandy Denny and Nick Drake. A favorite on the Rhode Island folk scene, her music has found its way overseas and has been embraced by listeners in the UK and Europe. 2020 saw the release of “Ghost Folk” an album which made Folk Radio UK’s coveted Top Albums of the year, and Austria’s Guteshoerenistwichtig named it “album of the year saying: “Somehow she seems to come from somewhere else. Traveled through the clouds or gone through the stones. Her music is neither spooky nor eerie, but rather surrounded by a kind of positive mysticism and a familiar strangeness, radiating charm and a generous flair.” Allysen is Winner of 2023 and 2022 Motif Magazine RI Favorite Folk Act, 2022 and 2019 Winner of the Motif Music awards for Best Female Vocalist – Americana.
A TAKE IT OUTSIDE CONCERT! Call in your reservations for our June 25, 4:00-5:00 p.m. concert with CHORO das 3 to 401-725-9272. This will be the first of four OUTDOOR CONCERTS held on Sundays behind the theatre building – chairs provided! We move inside Blackstone River Theatre in the event of rain!
BUY TICKETS ONLINE VIA SQUARE!
Choro das 3 is a family-based trio formed by sisters Corina (flute), Lia (7 string guitar) and Elisa (mandolin, clarinet, banjo, accordion) in 2002. Eduardo, the father of the three sisters, tragically lost his life to Covid early in the pandemic, before vaccines were available in Brazil. Eduardo was the band’s percussionist from its founding. The sisters have resolved to continue as Choro das 3 and they play every song in their father’s memory. The music they play is Brazilian instrumental music called Choro which is a form of urban jazz native to Brazil that shares a similar feel with New Orleans jazz or ragtime or bluegrass. Choro das 3’s mission is to revive the Choro tradition in Brazil, where they join several other young people in rediscovering this music. They have released 11 albums and have been touring in North America, Europe and Brazil for the past 21 years. Choro (”cry” or ”lament” in English), in spite of the name, often has a fast and happy rhythm, characterized by virtuosity and improvisation. Like the Jazz in USA, Choro had influenced all the Brazilians genres, including Samba, Forró and Bossa Nova. Choro also has some characteristics of Baroque music, with its extremely creative and melodic counterpoints. Since 2013 Choro das 3 has yearly played in the USA. Their appearances at Mike Marshall and David Grisman’s Mandolin Symposium led Marshall to say that Choro das 3 plays “. . . some of the most inspired and inspiring music . . . the highest level of musicianship and presentation . . . the highest quality of Brazilian Choro music that can be heard any place today.”
Online ticket sales for this event are closed.
TICKETS STILL REMAIN! … but we have had to take our credit card processor offline. Please call in your reservations for our March 26, 7:00 p.m. concert with Väsen to 401-725-9272.
After 30 years Väsen has moved into a new phase. Olov Johansson and Mikael Marin continue as Väsen, but now as a duo with exciting new material. With Roger Tallroth choosing to leave the band for new projects, Mikael and Olov have refined their sound and their stage presence to the extent that today they are quite unique. With their playful and perfect interplay, they seem to have telepathic communication as musicians, now touring and recording exclusively as a duo. Olov Johansson plays nykelharpa, a bowed, 16-string instrument related to both the hurdy-gurdy and the fiddle and unique to Sweden. In 1990, Olov became world champion of both the modern chromatic and older historical nyckelharpas at the first-ever Nyckelharpa World Championships at Österbybruk, Sweden. He is an inspiration for numerous young performers who have taken up the instrument in the last decade. As always, Mikael Marin’s five-string viola adds richness to every tune. The word väsen has several meanings – spirit, essence, noise. This talented Swedish duo conveys the essence of Swedish traditional music with a joyful noise that is designed to raise your spirits.
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT as of 6/14. Thank you! Gather for BRT’s after-festival music session Saturday evening, 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. at Blackstone River Theatre itself, featuring almost all of the performers from the 2023 Blackstone River Theatre Summer Solstice Festival! The intimate setting lets you relax with food and your favorite beverage while Festival performers unwind and begin an evening of music and conversation that will make your Festival experience all the more memorable. The atmosphere is designed to create a casual environment of friendly banter just like that found in a local pub. Complimentary light fare will be available as part of the ticket price. A cash bar will also be available.
Doors will not open for the session until 8:15 P.M.
NOTE: This is a CLOSED session featuring only performers from the 2023 Solstice Festival.
Blackstone River Theatre is located at 549 Broad Street, Cumberland, R.I. • (401) 725-9272