Don White is a singer and story-teller who has been a folk-scene fixture in Massachusetts for more years than anyone cares to count. His songs and tales of growing up in working-class neighborhoods are renowned for reducing audiences to side-splitting laughter. “I’m From Lynn, What Can I Say” perhaps his best-known number, is an uproarious recounting of life in one of the rougher suburbs of Boston. He toured for years with Christine Lavin, and he has released 6 CDs, though he’s not really sure what an MP3 is.

“A younger, funnier, hipper Bill Cosby.” – Boston Herald

We will be closed March 24 to celebrate WOMR’s 30th Birthday with the Blind Boys of Alabama, at Provincetown Town Hall. womr.org

Louise Taylor and Ray Bonneville are old friends, frequent collaborators in music, and perennial favorites at First Encounter Coffee House. The two share a style that is relaxed, smoky and sultry. Louise’s home state is Vermont, but she now lives in Hawaii, and her songs reflect her travels and life experiences many places in between. She is touring in support of her latest CD, Tangerine, which just came out in May. Ray, born in French Canada and raised in the US, writes from his experience as an immigrant, Vietnam War vet, taxi driver and bush pilot, drawing inspiration from the many places he has called home—Montreal, New Orleans, Colorado, Arkansas, Alaska, Boston, Seattle and Paris, France. His release Goin’ By Feel was named one of the best CDs of 2008 and featured “I Am the Big Easy,” which was the most-played song on folk radio that year and won the Folk Alliance Award for Song of the Year. His latest, Bad Man’s Blood, came out in August 2011.

Saskatchewan-born, Brooklyn-based folk troubadour Ana Egge isn’t your run-of-the-mill alternative-country singer. Using unique production and rock-based chord progressions, Egge has made a name for herself as a Gillian Welch figure with a rocker attitude.

Ana’s newest album, Bad Blood was released August 23, 2011 via Ammal records. The 12-song set was produced by Steve Earle and recorded at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY. Earle stated, “Ana Egge’s songs are low and lonesome, big square-stare noir ballads which she plays on a guitar she built with her own two hands and sings like she’s telling us her deepest, darkest secrets.”

Bad Blood conveys compassion and hope for redemption. With Earle’s driving production and Egge’s lilting melodies, the songs belie the dark undercurrent of the subject matter.

Ana Egge was born in Saskatchewan and grew up in Ambrose, North Dakota, population 50. At 12, the family relocated to Silver City, New Mexico, where her parents established a school by the name of Down To Earth. Her astrology teacher, Don Musser, was an accomplished luthier and the summer before she turned 17, Musser invited Ana to apprentice with the intention of helping her build her own guitar. She drove to his house once a week for seven months until the guitar was completed and it is the main guitar she continues to play today. After living in Austin, TX for five years in the 90s while working on her music, Ana returned to Silver City and began building her own house on her sister’s land just outside of town. While she still maintains the home and visits often, she has called Brooklyn, NY her primary home since 2002.

Ana Egge has toured and shared the stage with Lucinda Williams, Ralph Stanley, John Prine, Ron Sexsmith, Shawn Colvin, Joan Armatrading, Iris Dement, Richard Thompson, George Jones, and many more.

anaegge.com

Aztec Two-Step was formed in 1971 when Rex Fowler met Neal Shulman at an open mic at the Stone Phoenix, a Boston coffee house. Taking the band’s name from a poem by beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in 1972 they released their debut album, which became a staple of progressive FM and college radio and helped to bring the folk/rock music of the 1960s into the 70s and beyond. In 1987 their album Living in America received the New York Music Award for Best Folk Album and was named in Billboard’s year-end critic’s poll. They have been praised in countless major US newspapers and magazines, including Rolling Stone, and have appeared on the David Letterman Show, the King Biscuit Flour Hour, World Café Live and many other TV and radio. In 1999 they were the subjects of the PBS documentary, “No Hit Wonder.” Earlier this year, to commemorate their 40th anniversary year, Fowler & Shulman released “Cause & Effect,” a collection of songs of social significance.

“In the midst of pure as silk harmonies and tight pop-rock-folk arrangements, Fowler’s songs are biting commentaries of contemporary society.”
Boston Globe

This will be a special event for First Encounter Coffee House. The concert will be on a Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. Doors will open at 4pm.

Advance tickets $18.00
Tickets for Aztec Two Step are available now at Main St. Books in Orleans, or mail self-addressed stamped envelope with check to
First Encounter Coffeehouse
P.O. Box 490
N. Eastham, Ma. 02651

To keep things in order, requests by mail must be postmarked by March 23. After that, you can get your tickets at Main St. Books, until they are sold out. We expect to sell out, and that no tickets will be available at the door.

Together as a duo for more than thirty years- longer than most marriages- Guy and Billy have performed  in concerts, clubs and festivals all over North America and Europe. You also may have heard them as frequent guests of the Prairie Home Companion show, NPR’s All Things Considered, or on one of the numerous film and television soundtracks they have been featured on.

And like a good marriage, their music has wed together two perfectly suited musical personalities. Their music is based around Guy’s innovative finger-style guitar wizardry, and his uncanny ability to play bass lines, chords and melodies all at the same time. With his  daring imagination, breathtaking technique,  and his  wonderful  musicality, Guy has become an inspiration for guitarists all over the world.

Novick’s ever-inventive and soulful clarinet playing  provides the ideal complement to Guy’s guitar. With his vast knowledge of the classic jazz era, his dazzling improvising skills, and his entertaining vocals, Novick is able to both add a melodic and dynamic spark to Guy’s guitar . Their music sounds fresh and original, yet is also deeply rooted in the rich legacy of the classic jazz age. The duo can play any piece from their huge repertoire-  an obscure Ellington tune, a  Gershwin classic, a complex Jelly Roll Morton arrangement, or perhaps one of the their originals- and immediately have it sound their own.

http://billynovick.com/

Since her last visit to First Encounter, singer-songwriter Antje Duvekot has released a new CD, “New Siberia,” as well as a live CD. Originally from Heidelberg, Germany,  Antje moved to the US when she was 14. Now, having migrated to Somerville from the hills of Vermont, she has built a fan base in Boston and nationwide, regularly selling out venues such as Club Passim and Johnny D’s. Irish supergoup Solas covered two of Antje’s songs, “the Poisonjester’s Mask” and ‘‘Black Annis’’ on their album The Edge of Silence; Billboard magazine called the latter “the highpoint of a powerful record.”

The lyrics of her prizewinning songs reflect an outsider’s arm’s-length view of American life, vulnerable, yet uplifting and uncompromisingly truthful, while her voice is reminiscent of The Story or Dar Williams. Antje’s recent CD, “The Near Demise of the High Wire Dancer,” reached No. 1 on WGBH’s 2010 ranking of folk releases. Her previous album, “Big Dream Boulevard,” was voted “#1 Folk Release of 2006″ by the Boston Globe and one of the “Top10 Releases of the Year” by National Public Radio’s Folk Alley.

“Antje Duvekot’s provocative, dark-eyed ballads are becoming the talk of the folk world. Duvekot has gotten hotter, faster than any local songwriter in recent memory.” – Boston Globe

Singer/songwriter Sloan Wainwright defies standard categorization, consistently demonstrating her easy command of a variety of American musical styles — pop, folk, jazz and blues — held together by the melodious tone of her rich contralto. The end result, a unique and soulful hybrid.

Sloan belongs to a musical dynasty of impossibly gifted singer-songwriters. Her family tree (brother and folk-music luminary Loudon Wainwright, sister-in-law Kate McGarrigle, nephew Rufus Wainwright, nieces Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche) reads like a who’s who of contemporary folk music. Sloan’s incredible gift is not only her unique songwriting ability but her dramatically voiced rendition of her original songs.

With a solid and impressive discography of 8 original CD releases to her credit, Sloan continues to write, sing and perform live.

In addition, Sloan has written numerous musical compositions for theater and dance and teaches at many of the best-known master songwriter series and workshops. Sloan’s open spirit and first-hand experience is welcome –year after year– in the musical classrooms of such prestigious song camps as The Swannanoa Gathering, Summersongs, Wintersongs, WUMB Radio’s Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW) and Lamb’s Retreat.

“Celebrating a new album, Upside Down & Under My Heart, Wainwright is always a pleasure to behold live. The way her voice rumbles like thunder on a mountaintop will make you a believer. ” The Boston Globe

” …earth mother voice that she pours into unexpectedly sensitive blends of folk, jazz, blues and funk.” The New York Times

http://sloanwainwright.com/

Almost four decades as a touring professional have found Michigan native Claudia Schmidt traversing North America as well as Europe in venues ranging from intimate clubs to 4,000 seat theatres, and festival stages in front of 25,000 rapt listeners. She has recorded fourteen albums of mostly original songs, exploring folk,blues, and jazz idioms featuring her acclaimed 12-string guitar and mountain dulcimer playing.

Sally Rogers plays guitar, banjo, and dulcimer and specializes in traditional folk, old-timey and (most recently) children’s music. She plays both traditional and original pieces and has been recognized by numerous awards including Best Folk Album of 1982 (Circle of the Sun), Best Children’s Recording of 1992 (What Can one Little Person Do?) and again in 1993 (At Quiet O’Clock). She has made frequent radio appearances on “A Prairie Home Companion” and the nationally syndicated “Mountain Stage.” She lives outside Hartford Connecticut with husband and two daughters.

http://www.sallyrogers.com/

Zoe Lewis is a band in a body! She plays jazz, jump jive, Latin grooves, swing, international folk, funk originals on anything from the piano to the spoons! Troubadour/vaudevillian/storyteller/singer-songwriter/piece of work!

Winner of the Colorado Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Troubadour Award in 2003, New Folk Winner 2002 at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas and 2001 Falconridge Folk Festival Audience Favorite and now she’s getting booked to play many of the main stages with virtuoso jazz recorder player Roxanne Layton (from Mannheim Steamroller).

Her song Small Is Tremendous received much commercial success and can be heard on ads for Mini Pringles and TJ Maax. Another of her songs, Sheep, was part of a Putumayo compilation and became #1 in the children’s satellite radio charts. She’s also written the soundtrack for a new documentary on the Vagina Monologues.

Zoe has performed with a whole host of incredible musicians including Julie Wolf (Ani DiFranco, Bruce Cockburn), Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie), Paul Piercy (Dixie Chicks), Freebo (Bonnie Raitt) and has toured with Judy Collins and Nanci Griffith.

Originally from England, she now resides in Provincetown on Cape Cod, MA, where she performs every summer. Her music is upbeat, amusing and perfect for young and old alike. She’s traveled all over the globe picking up worldbeat grooves and stories on the way; jumping box cars, riding on freight boats and has even played music with an elephant orchestra in Thailand. She’s a mixture of swing, acoustic funk, latin jazz and folk. Her fast-paced lyrics poke fun at modern society and praise the rambling delights of childhood, secret worlds, and wandering love.

ZoË has released 6 recordings:
A CURE FOR THE HICCUPS (2008)
SMALL IS TREMENDOUS (2005)
FISHBONE, WISHBONE, FUNNYBONE (2001)
SHEEP (1998)
FULL OF FARAWAY (1996)
LITTLE PIECE OF SKY (1994)

http://www.zoelewis.com/