Dick Hensold will play Empty Sea on Saturday, February 4^th. He is one of the most sought-after Northumbrian smallpipers performing today, and a multi-instrumentalist specializing in myriad musical forms: early music; Nordic folk music; the traditional music of Scotland, Ireland, and Northumberland; and Cambodian traditional music. We invited Dick to share a bit about the unique sounds he’ll bring to the Empty Sea stage.

Most newcomers to your music are likely familiar with Scottish bagpipes, also called Great Highland Bagpipes. What are some significant differences between that instrument and the Northumbrian smallpipes?

Northumbrian smallpipes are a lot quieter, about the same volume as a violin, and have a sweet sound that is sort of a cross between a clarinet and an oboe – but with drones!  The Northumbrian smallpipes also have a wider range and have more notes available. They have a 2-octave chromatic range, compared to the 9 notes available on Highland pipes. So they are very versatile and can play many different types of music. On highland pipes, the sound coming from the chanter (melody pipe) is continuous, so repeating notes is accomplished with ornamentation. On Northumbrian smallpipes, you can separate notes with ornaments, but you can also make the chanter completely silent between notes, similar to “tonguing” on a wind instrument. The staccato style that results from this technique is the basis for traditional Northumbrian smallpiping.  So you have many more choices on how to play.

Do you ever mix instruments and genres? For instance, have you experimented with combining Northumbrian smallpipes and Cambodian traditional music?

Oh yes, there is one Cambodian tune on my solo album, “Big Music for Northumbrian smallpipes,” and I have another CD, released in 2003, which is entirely Cambodian music, with several tracks played on the Northumbrian smallpipes. The 1987 release of my band The New International Trio combined Cambodian music, Irish music, early music and jazz. On that CD we did a cover of “In the Mood” arranged for Northumbrian smallpipes, Cambodian tro u (a traditional Cambodian fiddle), and harpsichord. It always went over very well!

Of the many instruments you play, which is your favorite, and why?

It depends what I’m in the mood for! I play seven instruments on this program, and I like the contrasts between the rich, raw, energetic sounds of the reel pipes and the pibgorn, the sweet reedy tones of the Swedish and Northumbrian bagpipes, the warm tone of the low whistle and the delicate, ethereal sound of the seljefløyte. For me it’s about using sound, melody and rhythm to convey everything the human soul is capable of — sometimes less is better, but sometimes you want the richest palette available!

What music do you most enjoy listening to? What are some of your foremost musical inspirations?

At this point, I think I’ve put the most energy into studying Cape Breton music, which is a very traditional form of Scottish highland music. The beat and the energy in this music just send chills up my spine. Also, it has a clear, punchy rhythm which I think translates very well to the Northumbrian smallpipes.  I also studied early music (many years ago), and my playing and composition is still very influenced by 18th-century practice. In fact, the quickest way to describe my compositional style is: a cross between traditional Scottish and 18th-century baroque music. I love the melodies of the Scots, and the counterpoint of Bach!

Note: a 9PM show (8.45 PM doors) has been added to accomodate demand!)

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Trina Willard is a third generation folk singer from Missouri, her musical roots grounded both in the Southern Baptist music shegrew up with and the traditional Appalachian songs her grandparents brought to her from the coal mines.  During her early years in St. Louis, she performed with St. Louis Opera Theater as well as the Repertory Theater of St. Louis.  Upon moving to the Northwest her folk roots were nurtured by our region’s vibrant folk music scene.

She has performed with the Seattle Peace Chorus, which also commissioned her work as a composer, debuting one of her pieces at the International Choral Festival in Santiago de Cuba.  Trina directed the vocal trio, Trillium, writing unique harmonies for traditional and original spirituals, folk songs, and a cappella works.  She has performed her uplifting, socially conscious music across the country at conferences, protests, and gatherings, anywhere people want to sing their hopes, dreams, questions, and passion for life.

“One of the purest voices mixed with a soul from heaven leaves us with a musical experience not to be forgotten.”

“A voice like Baez with poetry that rivals Emily Saliers.”

Joe Jencks is an international touring performer, songwriter, entertainer, and educator.  From venues like Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, to coffee houses, festivals, spiritual communities, and schools, Joe Jencks has spent the last nine years touring full time. His songs have traveled to every continent via radio, CDs, web casts, and other musicians. He is noted for his unique merging of musical beauty, social consciousness, and spiritual exploration. Jencks weaves a diverse web of stories with brilliant musical skill, ensnaring even the most rigid of hearts, inviting them to open. His songs invite us to live inside of our passions and our beliefs.

Jencks applies his conservatory training to a contemporary genre, and offers the listener the best of both worlds. Drawing on his Irish heritage (dual U.S./Irish Citizen), Jencks uses his lush and lyrical voice to enchant, heal, and inspire. Jencks has won numerous songwriting awards and is also highly regarded as a song interpreter. Joe’s latest release, Links In A Chain, highlights this aspect of his work.

Links In A Chain is Jencks’ 7th CD, and his finest work to date.  The recording features six new original compositions and six songs written by some of Jencks’ mentors and influences. Included are songs by folk legends Phil Ochs and Bob Gibson, as well as a vivid rendition of the American classic, Joe Hill. In his original compositions, Jencks explores a wide range of topics, including family history, staying in love, and a brand new piece in the Irish tradition called “On Eireann’s Shore.”  This beautifully lilting love song genuinely honors his heritage, and sounds as if it could have been written a century ago.  A Grammy winning team of engineers and supporting musicians contribute to make the recording an exceptional piece of work from start to finish. Guests include: Jon Carroll (Mary Chapin Carpenter’s pianist) on keyboards, Pat Wictor on slide-guitars, Jim Robeson (Bass & recording engineer) and Charlie Pilzer (mixing and mastering engineer).

Joe’s recent release The Candle And The Flame gained international acclaim and made it to the top of the Folk charts in the US.  Links In A Chain is expected to do the same. This recording combines many facets of Joe’s diverse musical background and weaves them all together in an aural tapestry that is warm and exquisite. Jencks has the passion of Gospel singer, the knowledge of a classical vocalist, and the soul of an Irish Tenor. And at the center of Joe’s music is an abiding love for humanity that transcends the everyday and boarders on the mystical.

Seattle singer/songwriter Wes Weddell (www.wesweddell.com) has toured the Northwest and many points beyond for the last ten years
, becoming a champion of the local scene through his own performances, myriad sideman appearances, and his work founding and running the community live-music non-profit Puget’s Sound Productions (www.livelocalmusic.org).  His 2010 CD, By the Side of the Lake, hung around the various national folk/roots charts for much of the year, and he has recently compiled his literature-inspired offerings written for performances with The Bushwick Book Club (www.thebushwickbookclubseattle.com) into a digital-only release.

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Tucson-based songwriter Namoli Brennet has been touring the country with her own brand of moody and inspiring folk since releasing her first CD in 2002. Since then she’s played over 900 shows and logged over 250,000 miles on her still-running 87 Volvo station wagon. (“I have a great mechanic”,she says.) Touching on often poignant themes, her music and lyrics ultimately paint a vivid and redemptive portrait. She’s a breathtaking and moving performer, and her sweet, road-weary voice is as quick to deliver her wit and humor as it is a turn of phrase. She’s been described as across between Lucinda Williams, Patty Griffin and Sheryl Crow, and Zocalo magazine called her music, “Gorgeous and introspective.”

Brennet was given her first guitar at age 8, and after picking it up quickly the ADD songstress started playing drums, piano and saxophone. By the time she graduated from college with a degree in music composition she was waiting tables while writing songs on the side and playing in bar bands. She didn’t start singing until her 20s, because, as she says, “I was surrounded by golden-throated sisters and wasn’t really considered the singer in my family. My voice was always…different.”

Although she’s a little shy and reluctant to talk about it, Brennet also carries another secret: she was not born female. “I transitioned in my late 20s because I had just reached this state of unhappiness that was pretty unbearable.” And athough the themes of identity and freedom weave their way subtly through her songs, being transgender is not the focus of her music: “I know it’s kind of a quirky and interesting part of my story, but as a human being I’m interested in life, spirituality, meaning, social issues, justice, compassion…and these are the things I write about.”

Namoli is currently working on her 9th self-released CD, Rise, which is scheduled for an October release on Flaming Dame records.You’ll often find this prodigious musician in the studio dividing her time between engineering, producing and playing most if not all of the instruments on her recordings. She’s also recorded and produced CDs for other artists, most notably Eric Himan’s 2011 release, Supposed Unknown, which is currently being featured on Sirius XM radio.

A 4-time Outmusic award nominee, Namoli has also won the Tucson Folk Festival Songwriting Award and was a finalist in the ISC songwriting competition. Her recent release Black Crow garnered critical acclaim and was named one of KXCI FM’s top albums of 2010. Her music has been featured on NPR, PBS and in films including the Emmy-award winning documentary “Out in the Silence”, which details the struggle of a gay teen growing up in rural Pennsylvania.

As a solo performer, Aimée Ringle has been lauded for her “caramel” voice, intricate guitar work, and rejuvenating lyrics. She has sung, played guitar and arranged music for most of her life. She has worked with fellow musicians, dancers, painters, photographers, actors, farmers, elders, children, and families- composing music for weddings, rites of passage ceremonies, dance, theatre, and film.

Her newest album Bowl of Stones was performed and recorded with Michael Connolly at Empty Sea Studios during July of this year and released in September. Hard copies and digital downloads of this shiny new album are available on iTunes, and on CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com/cd/aimeeringle2).

This show will be webcast live. Click here for more information.

Sorry, all tickets have sold out for both shows!  No tickets will be released at the door.

However, the show will be webcast live – click here for more info!

Please join us for this unprecedented opportunity to appreciate Grammy award winner Amy Ray and local powerhouse Lindsay Fuller as they collaborate on an acoustic show in our 40-seat room.

Two shows will be presented, one at 7PM (6.30 doors) and one at 9.30 PM (9.00 doors.)

“I love how everything works in the underground community and I wanted to participate in it,” says Amy Ray, founder of the indie label Daemon Records, one half of the Indigo Girls, and solo artist in her own right.  When she founded Daemon in 1990, her mission was to support local musicians, both in putting out their music and teaching them how to sustain their careers.  But that grassroots, independent way of life extended to Ray’s own career, too; after almost a decade of putting out other people’s music, she decided to put out some of her own solo records, too.

So she traveled around the southeast writing, rehearsing, and recording for much of 2000.  ”I loved the simplicity of it,” she says.  ”Driving myself around, loading my own gear.  You roll down windows of the van, listen to music with your band.  It’s the way music should be.”

Her debut solo album, Stag, was a manifesto, more overtly political and punk influenced than her Indigo Girls output.  VH1.com called Stag “One of those rare albums that fuses agression, good music, and institutional critique without sounding strident or stiff.” David Peisner at Rolling Stone – whose founder Amy mocks on that album’s “Lucystoners” – couldn’t help but like it, calling it “Angry, bold, pointed, and eclectic as hell.” “Amy is getting in touch with her inner punk rocker,” wrote Jennifer Perkins in Venus Zine.  ”For the scores of people who know little more about Amy Ray than ‘Closer to Fine,’ well, Ray is sure to win their hearts.”

Lindsay Fuller is an Alabama bred, Seattle-based songwriter who has been described as “Flannery O’Connor with a telecaster” (Twang Nation) on account of her gritty, haunting storytelling. Her most recen album The Last Light I See , a follow up to her debut Lindsay Fuller and The Cheap Dates, was released in June 2010.

Her unique voice has been described as a “burnished, soulful trill that sounds like the frame of a beautiful old church that’s about to collapse on itself” (The Examiner) and “a delicious combo platter of soulfulness and vibrato that grabs you by the shoulders and gives you a good shake” (Spectrum Culture). She recently had the opportunity to open some shows for national acts including the Indigo Girls and The Civil Wars. She and her band (The Cheap dates) are currently working on a new record that they plan to release in late 2011.

Sorry, this show is completely sold out!  No Tickets will be released at the door.

Antje Duvekot (AN-tyuh DOO-va-kot) is a German-born, American-raised singer-songwriter who has risen to the top of the competitive Boston singer-songwriter scene. In 2006 Antje began attracting national attention with the release of her debut studio CD Big Dream Boulevard.
In a feature article before Antje’s Newport Folk Festival debut, The Boston Globe mentions, “Duvekot’s first studio CD Big Dream Boulevard, produced by Solas founder Seamus Egan, marks the most convincing debut by any local songwriter since Dar Williams’ Honesty Room in 1993. Duvekot’s songs feel at once fresh-faced and firmly rooted, driven by the whispery sensuality of her voice.

Like Williams, she believes in the redemptive power of the shared secret; and she is utterly unafraid to mine the darkest corners of her life for songs that turn fear into resilience, and isolation into community.”
In December of 2007, Bank of America featured Antje’s song “Merry Go Round” in a national TV advertising campaign seen by millions, including a Super Bowl audience.

Duvekot released her second album The Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer in the year of 2009. She chose one of her favorite songwriters, Richard Shindell, to produce the album. In addition to Shindell himself, the album features other “folk royalty” such as Lucy Kaplansky, John Gorka and Mark Erelli among others.

“What a blessing to have worked with someone as talented as Antje. With a voice like hers, and songs as good as these, a producer(especially a first-time producer!) just tries to get out of the way, to do no harm, and to let the artist speak for herself.” – Richard Shindell

With her signing to Fleming Artists; one of the premier booking agencies in the country, Antje will continue her non-stop ajtour. Her performances have won over audiences at clubs, church basement coffeehouses, and festivals such as Newport, Philadelphia, Mountain Stage, Great Waters, WXPN, and Falcon Ridge. After Antje rose to the #1 played artist at both of Boston’s two top folk stations,WERS and WUMB, radio stations and media outlets nationwide have come on board. The buzz about Antje’s music continues on XM and Sirius satellite radio, Fox, ABC, NECN TV, and National Public Radio; and countless radio stations across the country have done features on Antje.

Sirius radio DJ and former Rolling Stone music editor Dave Marsh went on record to say “This is a brilliant, brilliant record. As far as I can tell, Antje’s the whole package. I’ve had this reaction once in the past 10 years, and that was the first time I heard Patty Griffin. And the reasons are very similar: that package of a terrific writer and singer, with the instincts to do things right, over and over and over.”

The Next Gen Folk Series is jointly presented by Hearth Music, Victory Music and Empty Sea Studios.

Tickets: $12 in advance, $15 at the door
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Northern Departure use the same time-honored tools of the bluegrass trade – guitar, upright bass,banjo, mandolin and fiddle coupled with flawless picking, earnest harmonies, and an unsullied Northwest
perspective. These four “old souls” are igniting sparks in the bluegrass tradition with their fierce and infectious musical stylin’s. Even the most reserved hipster will be looking to head down to Appalachia.

The band formed in October 2008, and has not looked back since. Highly requested in the Northwest music scene, this young band has already graced the stages of Seattle’s Moore and Paramount Theaters, and has played several well known bluegrass festivals on the west coast.

Playing a mix of Original, Contemporary, and Bluegrass favorites, a live show is bound to leave you both exhausted and energized! Something not to be missed.

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Yellow Dog Records recording artist Mary Flower is renowned for a
uniquely personal vision of roots music that blends ragtime, acoustic blues,
and folk – technically dazzling yet grounded in the down-to-earth simplicity
of early 20th century American music.

With eight albums under her belt, Flower has earned rave reviews from
critics and audiences alike for her unassuming vocals, but it’s her
instrumental skill – a mastery of the difficult Piedmont blues guitar that
takes most players a lifetime to hone – for which Flower is most celebrated.

Her fingerpicking forms the basis of a heavily syncopated, ragtime-based
style wherein the thumb plucks a strong rhythmic base as the fingers etch
out the melody. Mary also excels at lap slide guitar, allowing her to infuse
songs with a supremely delicate, plaintive sound that’s hers alone while
recalling the blues giants of the past.

Flower performs and teaches internationally, and has released several
instructional DVDs, including a few for highly regarded Homespun Tapes.

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Fortune Jean Giordano was born in Nice, France in the late fall of 1924. Growing up the youngest of three, he came of age under German and Italian occupation of the South of France during World War II. In the spring of 1944 Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Forces arrived in Nice as part of the liberation. Having grown tired of the dwindling availability of work, the threat of Nazi work camps and life under the Occupation, he lied about his age, kissed his family goodbye and joined them, taking up the fight for liberation. Following the war, returning to a nation in ruin and with no prospect for work, he set sail for Coney Island and a new life.

The story of his journey – the pain and the triumph, the love and the loss – remained largely untold until his grandson, Benjamin Doerr, started asking questions and recording answers. Originally focused as a side-recording project to tell part of this story through a three-song EP (When Our Boys Have Been Buried, 2010) – St. Paul de Vence soon took shape as full band with a much bigger musical message to share.

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Authentic, Joyous Irish Music…. traditional with a touch of chamber music and music hall, Colcannon plays Irish music with panache, warmth and wit. Timeless songs and great musicianship transport the audience to another time and place. Colcannon is equally at home on the stage at a folk music festival or performing with a symphony orchestra.

Colcannon has developed a distinctive, inventive, and contemporary musical style while still keeping in firm touch with the heart and essence of traditional Irish music. Colcannon’s concerts are renowned for their energy, for singer/frontman Mick Bolger’s irrepressible sense of humor and sly wit, and, of course, for the music; music that expresses flights of joy, deep sorrows, and an unquenchable zest for life.

The band formed in 1984 in Boulder Colorado, USA, and their reputation has grown steadily over the years with the release of eight CDs on the Oxford Road Records label. The band’s recent CD The Pooka and the Fiddler received a Parent’s Choice Award for its artful interweaving or music and storytelling. The Emmy®-award winning PBS special, “Colcannon in Concert,” filmed at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts has aired nationwide.

Colcannon was named ensemble-in-residence at The Colorado College, the first non-classical musical group to be awarded this position.

Colcannon has also been part of many collaborative projects — they were featured on John McEuen’s soundtrack for the television mini-series “The Wild West”, as well as on the Western Heritage Award winning album of the same name and The Nashville Network Television special “The Music of the Wild West”. The group has provided music for an audio project “Secrets of the World — The Good People” featuring Irish master storyteller and folklorist Eddie Lenihan.

Other projects include the development of ‘Lusanna’ a work for Colcannon and chamber orchestra, written by Colcannon bassist Mike Fitzmaurice, with text and lyrics in Irish and English by vocalist Mick Bolger.

Earlier collaborations with orchestra featured Fitzmaurice’s ‘The Red Kite’, a three movement concerto for Colcannon and orchestra, as well as symphonic arrangements of some of Colcannon’s original compositions.

Colcannon’s appeal crosses lines of age, gender and ethnic background. For while the musical focus is on the beautiful wealth of traditional Irish music — all acoustic instrumentation, traditional as well as original tunes and songs, with some of the songs in Mick’s native Irish language — Colcannon’s true message is the story of the resilient and joyous human spirit.

Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at the door.

Sorry, this show is completely sold out!  No tickets will be released at the door.

Johnson, Miller,& Dermody have played together for over a decade and have been one of the Pacific Northwest’s best-kept secrets until now. All three have busy solo careers but have found time to gather together to play this rootsy, bluesy, soulful music that they love. Finally they sat down at David Lange’s studio and played the music found on Deceiving Blues all together in the same room, in real time, no headphones, no studio gimmicks, and no attempts to fix things later. Honest, immediate, heartfelt and real, in the tradition of the artists and music that inspired them.

They first played as a trio when all three were on staff at the Centrum Blues Workshop in Port Townsend, WA. They are known among aficionados of country blues as three of the finest teachers as well as players. With the release of this CD the rest of the world should soon find out what a select group already knows…these artists are three of the finest interpreters and creators of acoustic blues working today.

Orville Johnson was born and raised in the southern Illinois heartland. He acquired his love of singing as a youth in the fundamentalist Pentecostal church he attended and, when he later began playing guitar and dobro, responded to the roots music that surrounded him by learning to play the blues, bluegrass, rockabilly, and country music that are all part of the mosaic that characterizes his own mongrel music.

He is a singer, instrumentalist, record producer, songwriter, session player, teacher, and, above all, an instinctive and sensitive musician. As his entry in the Encyclopedia of Northwest Music (Sasquatch Press 1999) states, he has become a vital figure on the NW music scene in the twenty-some years he’s lived there, appearing on over 200 CDs, movie and video soundtracks (most recently the film “The Wooly Boys” with Peter Fonda and the PBS series “Frontier House”), commercials, producing 15 CDs for other artists, hosting a roots music radio show, and appearing in the 1997 film Georgia with Jennifer Jason-Leigh and Mare Winningham, on the Prairie Home Companion radio show and on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show.

Orville is also known as a patient and insightful teacher of music and has taught often at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop as well as the International Guitar Seminar, Pt. Townsend Blues Workshop, Sound Acoustic Music Camp, Greater Yellowstone Music Camp, B.C. Bluegrass Workshop and others. He has several instructional DVDs and CDs of his own music available including Blueprint for the Blues, Slide & Joy, Freehand, and others.

John Miller has enjoyed a varied career as a professional guitarist, composer and teacher since he started 35 years ago.  John recorded five solo albums while still in his twenties, focusing first of all on country blues in his releases on Blue Goose records, First Degree Blues, How About Me, and Let’s Go Riding, and transitioning to jazz standards for Safe Sweet Home and Biding My Time, a collection of George Gershwin songs, both released on Rounder Records.

John has a reputation as an excellent teacher, having founded two music camps and produced 6 instructional DVDs on country blues guitar for Stefan Grossman’s Vestapol Videos, focusing on the music of Mississippi John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotten, Robert Wilkins, Furry Lewis and Bo Carter.

In recent years, John has recorded collaborative CDs with the acoustic jazz trio, Catwalk, the French cabaret ensemble, Rouge, and in duos with vocalist Rebecca Kilgore, mandolinist John Reischman and violinist Ruthie Dornfeld. John recently released his first solo recording in twenty-five years, Hey There, which is a collection of jazz standards.

Grant Dermody (pronounced DER muh dee) is a harmonica player and singer known for his rich tone, tasteful solos, and solid rhythmic playing. Grant moves through a variety of musical styles while maintaining his own distinctive sound.

A sought after accompanist, Grant has appeared on several Jim Page recordings, plays on Dan Crary’s new album, Renaissance of the Steel String Guitar; and has also recorded with Robin Dale Ford, Scott Law, MichaelGrey (of Pearl Django) and Michael Gettel. Grant has performed with Cephas & Wiggins, Big Joe Duskin, JohnDee Holeman, Robert Lowrey, and Honeyboy Edwards. He was a featured artist with Orchestra Seattle playing the harmonica part in Huntley Beyer’s Symphony, Romantic Lines. He is a member of the blues influenced old-time band, The Improbabillies, whose self-titled CD on the Yodel-A-Hee label is a fine example of Grant’s innovative playing and recently released his first solo CD, Crossing That River.

Grant teaches harmonica at the annual Port Townsend Country Blues Festival and at The Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins , West Virginia.