Concerts and Events
2024-2025 Concert Season
If you have questions about events, send email to concerts@fssgb.org or call Lynn at (781) 227-7500.
Upcoming FSSGB Concerts and Events:
- Saturday, October 26: FSSGB Fall Music Gathering
- Sunday, November 3: Lorraine and Bennett Hammond House Concert
- Sunday, December 15: FSSGB Holiday Singing Party (online)
- Sunday, March 16: Viewing of "Singing for Justice" (Faith Petric documentary) and singalong (date changed!)
- Sunday, April 6: Old-time music with Jane Rothfield and Allan Carr
Here's what we presented earlier this season:
- Friday, August 23, 2024: Martin and Eliza Carthy
- Sunday, September 15, 2024: "Love, Spread Your Wings":A Celebration of the Life of Ellen Schmidt
- Sunday, September 22, 2024: Martha Burns House Concert
Martin and Eliza Carthy
Friday, August 23, 2024, 7pm ET
Directions and parking
Admission:
- General admission: $25
- FSSGB members: $20 through August 10, $25 after August 10
- Students: $10
- 17 and under free
For more than 50 years Martin Carthy has been one of folk music's greatest innovators, one of its best loved, most enthusiastic and, at times, most quietly controversial of figures. His skill, stage presence and natural charm have won him many admirers, not only from within the folk scene, but also far beyond it. Trailblazing musical partnerships with, amongst others, Steeleye Span, Dave Swarbrick and his award-winning wife (Norma Waterson) and daughter Eliza Carthy have resulted in more than 40 albums, but Martin has only recorded 10 solo albums, of which the much anticipated Waiting for Angels (Topic TSCD527) was the latest. Whether in the folk clubs (which he continues to champion), on the concert stage or making TV appearances (he was the subject of the acclaimed Originals music documentary strand on BBC 2) – there are few roles that Martin Carthy hasn't played.
Eliza Carthy is undoubtedly one of the most impressive and engaging performers of her generation. Twice nominated for the Mercury Prize and winner of innumerable other accolades over a 20 year career, Eliza has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists including, Paul Weller, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Patrick Wolf and Bob Neuwirth. More than most, Eliza Carthy has revitalised folk music and captured the most hardened of dissenters with intelligent, charismatic and boundary-crossing performance.
FSSGB is honored to be able to bring you this concert, which Martin and Eliza are fitting in before they head off to be on staff at TradMaD Camp in Plymouth, MA.
Many of you have heard the sad news of the death of Ellen Schmidt in January. Ellen was a life-long performer, song writer, community builder, and supporter of musicians, poets and storytellers. She had a remarkably positive impact on the New England music community, so it is fitting to honor her life at …
Love Spread Your Wings
A Celebration of the Life of Ellen Schmidt
Sunday, September, 15th, from 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
First Parish in Waltham, 50 Church St., Waltham MA 02452
Parking guidance (print this out and bring it with you!)
(Also, you can see the livestream at https://tinyurl.com/EllenSchmidtTribute)
We strongly recommend you reserve a seat if you are attending in person. DO NOT RESERVE A SEAT IF YOU WILL VIEW THE LIVE STREAM:
http://tinyurl.com/EllenSchmidtReservation
This is a free concert, however if you would like to honor Ellen’s memory with a financial contribution, please consider donating to The Ellen Farber Schmidt Fund for Cancer Research and Patient Treatment, set up by her family to honor Ellen.
http://danafarber.jimmyfund.org/goto/EllenFarberSchmidt
Concert Organizers:
Lori Fassman, John Ferullo, Cheryl Perreault, Howie Rashba, Tom Smith, Dan Tappan
Co-sponsored by Ellen's family and The Folk Song Society of Greater Boston
Martha Burns House Concert
Sunday, September 22, 3pm ET (note early start time!)Cambridge, MA
General admission: $20
$5 for students
Reservations required: email HouseConcerts@fssgb.org for
reservations and directions.
Martha grew up in Greenwich Village in the 1950s and sixties, during the height of the Folk Revival. The New Lost City Ramblers and the Friends of Old-Time Music were first bringing the greats of early country music to national attention. Harry Smith’s pioneering Anthology of American Folk Music, the first major re-issue of early folk music 78s, came out the year she was born—the New Lost City Ramblers Songbook, when Martha was twelve. Martha gained much of her education in folk music on Sunday afternoons in Washington Square Park. When Doc Watson played at the tiny Gaslight Café on Macdougal Street, Martha was there—with her mother.
Martha has since lived in many parts of the U.S.—Ann Arbor, Seattle, Philadelphia, Boston, Providence, and on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, where she's presently based. Her first move was in 1970 to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she went for college and stayed for a decade. Some of the songs on her 2014 album Old-Time Songs, she first began singing at the Ark Coffeehouse, then a celebrated hub for traditional music in the Midwest, and her own musical home through those years. During that period, she also played in the Argo Pond String Band. Others in the group included David Cahn and Bill Meyer, now both prominent west-coast musicians, and Craig Johnson, later revered for songs like “New Harmony,” that he wrote in Ann Arbor.
She began performing in the early 1970s, first regionally and then nationally. By the mid-eighties, she had played the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Pinewoods Folk Music Camp, and myriad folk clubs. In 1984 she completed a six-week British tour, which included a memorable concert on the Island of Guernsey.
In 1985 she paired up with fiddler Allan Block, now remembered for the Allan Block Sandal Shop in Greenwich Village, where he hosted legendary jam sessions throughout the 1960s. When Allan and she began performing together, she was living in Boston. Allan had since moved to New Hampshire and was a central figure in the New England folk music scene. Together Allan and she recorded an album on the Marimac label. Sadly, the unexpected death of Marimac’s president prevented its release.
Allan and she continued to play together through the early 1990s. Toward the end of that time, she scaled back on performing for a two-decades-long foray into academia. her field was American history, and she have published on subjects ranging from early American hymnody to female piano teachers before the Civil War.
Her return to music was consummated in 2014 with the release of "Old-Time Songs". Her first solo album, it was funded through a highly successful Kickstarter campaign—Kickstarter made the project a "Staff Pick" and featured it on the Kickstarter Blog. You can preview or purchase Old-TIme Songs here.
FSSGB Fall Music Gathering
Saturday, October 26, 2024, 10am-5pm ETRegistration and continental breakfast start at 9:30am
First Parish in Waltham, 50 Church St, Waltham
Parking guidance: the neighborhood can be tricky! Print this out and bring it with you if you can.
Registration:
- General admission: $75
- FSSGB members through Oct 11: $60
- FSSGB members after Oct 11: $70
- Ages 9 through 17: $40
- Ages 8 and under free, no ticket required
Join us for a wonderful day full of workshops, jams and concerts. A continental breakfast will be served in the morning, and lunch will also be included. (Let us know if you have dietary restrictions.)
Staff:
The Vox Hunters (Flannery Brown, Benedict Gagliardi and Armand Aromin) are on staff for this event. Flannery Brown plays cello, sings songs, writes tunes, and infuses the trio’s music with an infectious energy. Hailing from the great state of Rhode Island, Armand Aromin and Benedict Gagliardi are seekers and singers of old songs, cultivators of local music, and chronic multi-instrumentalists. They are touted as strong tradition-bearers in their generation, and their genuine affinity for the music is evident in the emotion they draw from it. With a pair of oft-harmonizing voices tastefully garnished with fiddle, free-reeds, and tenor guitar, The Vox Hunters offer an all-natural connection to the living tradition of folk music.
Program:
Here's a tentative schedule for the day (subject to change). If there's a worshop you'd like to lead or attend, contact us at info@fssgb.org and we'll see what we can do!
Register now!
- You can change the quantity of each ticket type in the shopping cart.
- To order different ticket types, select one type, click "Add to Cart", and then come BACK to this page to add additional ticket types to your shopping cart.
Lorraine and Bennett Hammond House Concert
Sunday, November 3, 2024, 12pm (potluck brunch at 11:30am)Cambridge, MA
General admission: $20
$5 for students
Reservations required: email HouseConcerts@fssgb.org for
reservations and directions.
Lorraine, renowned master of the Appalachian dulcimer, also plays banjo, mandolin and Celtic harp and is an expressive singer and songwriter. Bennett, a superb finger-style guitarist and recent convert to the five string banjo, names "the three Bs", Bach, the blues and Buddy Holly, as major influences.
Together, The Hammonds are versatile musicians and engaging entertainers. Their warm stage presence is punctuated with wry humor, and their command of their instruments and musical genres is without flaw. The Boston Globe calls them "a dazzling, witty, eclectic, delightful duo." The duo's repertoire ranges in style from classical through Celtic, blues and contemporary. They sing both traditional and original songs and can be heard on over thirty recordings as featured artists, or enhancing the work of performers including Archie Fisher, Lui Collins and Bob Franke. Christine Lavin and Heidi Mueller are among the artists who have covered Hammond originals.
The couple live in Brookline, Massachusetts and their most recent releases, all on the independent folk label Snowy Egret Music are Jingalo Gypsy featuring the duo, Bennett’s Rockafolky Banjo Tapes and Lorraine’s Muddy River Suite.
Feel free to bring something for the potluck brunch at 11:30am!
Holiday Singing Party on Zoom
Sunday, December 15, 2024, 7pm
You can either:
- Join us on Zoom
- or watch on Facebook Live (you don't have to have a Facebook account to watch).
Join us for a holiday themed singing party on Zoom! Some FSSGB song leaders will get us started, and then we'll open up the floor for anyone to do a song.
Singing for Justice: Viewing of the Faith Petric Documentary (and singalong)
Sunday, March 16, 2025, 11am ETNote that the date changed!
Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St., Boston
Free! (Donations gratefully accepted)
This event is co-sponsored by the Community Church of Boston and FSSGB
Learn about the musical and political history of Faith Petric and the role of folk music in progressive politics in 20th and 21st-century America. Faith Petric (1915-2013) proudly called herself a radical, and she chose folk music as her vehicle for creating a more just world.
A student peace activist in her 20s, she continued to protest war as a Raging Granny in her 80s. She aided migrant workers in California during the Great Depression, built Liberty Ships during World War II, faced Cold War-era FBI surveillance, and marched for racial justice in Selma, AL. A single working mother, Faith retired in 1970 at age 55 and reinvented herself as a traveling folk singer, performing nationally and internationally into her 90s.
Singing for Justice is produced and directed by award-winning Stanford historian Estelle Freedman and award-winning documentary filmmaker Christie Herring. Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist John McCutcheon is the Composer and Musical Supervisor.
Old-time Weekend with Jane Rothfield and Allan Carr
Sunday, April 6, 2025Location and details TBA
More info to come! This weekend will likely feature a house concert with Jane and Allan, an old-time workshop (possibly with breakout sessions for different instruments) and a jam.
