Mandomorphosis: Orville Johnson, Matt Sircely, Scott Schaffer and Michael Connolly
Tickets: $13 advance, $15 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
In 2009, producer and musician Scott Schaffer brought together seven mandolin players from across the United States to create a record of creative mandolin music. The resulting project, called Mandomorphosis, is a genre-spanning tour through jazz, bluegrass, folk, and free-spirited improvisation. Please join us for the project’s West Coast CD release of its debut album, 2010.
In attendance will be the Western component of the Mandomorphosis project: Orville Johnson, Matt Sircely, Michael Connolly and Scott Schaffer. Expect a high-energy evening of improvised instrumental music focused on mandolin, but also featuring dobro, fiddle, tenor guitar, and more!
“Intricate… energetic… intriguing… brilliant… I highly recommend 2010 for its varied musical styles and approaches, creativity and overall sound. 4 Stars (out of 5)”
-Wildy Haskell, Wildy’s World (Nov 16, 2009)
“These cats rock right in the pocket. Progressive bluegrass ala the Bela Fleck ilk with energy and good vibes for all that just keep coming… This is certainly a winner for adult ears on the prowl for something new and different… Hot stuff that just doesn’t wear out its welcome.”
-Chris Spector, Midwest Record (Nov 13, 2009)
The Players
Orville Johnson was born in 1953 in Edwardsville, Illinois and came up on the St. Louis, Missouri music scene, where he was exposed to and participated in a variety of blues, bluegrass and American roots music. He began singing in his Pentecostal church as a young boy, in rock bands in middle school, then took up the guitar at 17,with early influences from Doc Watson, Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, and Chuck Berry. In the early 1970’s, Orville spent several seasons playing bluegrass on the SS Julia Belle Swain, a period-piece Mississippi river steamboat plying the inland waterways, with his group the Steamboat Ramblers.
Johnson, known for his dobro and slide guitar stylings and vocal acrobatics, has played on over 100 albums. He has appeared on Garrison Keilor’s Prairie Home Companion, Jay Leno’s Tonight Show and was featured in the 1997 film Georgia with Mare Winningham. His musical expertise can also be heard on the Microsoft CD-ROMs Musical Instruments of the World and the Complete Encyclopedia of Baseball. He teaches as well at the International Guitar Seminar, Pt. Townsend Country Blues Week and Puget Sound Guitar Workshop.
Johnson released 4 recordings in the 1990’s: The World According to Orville (1990) Blueprint for the Blues (1998) Slide & Joy (1999) an all-instrumental dobro tour de force and Kings of Mongrel Folk (1997) with Mark Graham. He also appeared on 4 discs with the File’ Gumbo Zydeco Band and produced Whose World Is This (1997) for Jim Page and Inner Life (1999) for Mark Graham. In the 21st century, he has released Freehand, a new Kings of Mongrel Folk disc, Still Goin’ Strong, and been featured in the soundtracks of PBS’ Frontier House and the Peter Fonda flick The Wooly Boys as well as the compilation CD Legends of the Incredible Lap Steel Guitar.
Matt Sircely is a creative mandolinist, songwriter and independent journalist living in Port Townsend, Washington. Sircely improvises fluently, composes 
prolifically and is familiar with a diversity of musical traditions.
At the age of 32, versatility with the mandolin has earned Matt Sircely gigs and guest appearances with some of the finest acoustic musicians on the continent. In late 2008, Sircely performed in the debut of bass legend Buell Neidlinger’s Prairie Ramblers in Washington State, and recorded electric mandolin with Kelley Breidling’s classic country group Kelley and the Cowboys in a session produced by Joel Savoy in Louisiana, featuring an all-star lineup from around the country.
In 2000, he joined Hot Club Sandwich, a young band of creative individuals who shared a love of Django Reinhardt’s music and the Gypsy jazz it spawned. Operating as a collective, Hot Club Sandwich also incorporates other influences that members bring into the mix, including Latin American folkloric traditions. Within two years, the group was performing at some of the early Gypsy jazz festivals to appear on the West Coast.
In 2005, David Grisman asked him to compile the liner notes for his Tone Poets project, a historic assembly of 42 musicians, each playing Grisman’s mandolin or guitar. In the same year, Sircely began contributing to the Fretboard Journal and Strings, finding deep inspiration in researching the lives and work of some his musical heroes like Wade Mainer, Andy Statman and Juan Reynoso.
In 2008, Sircely contributed an original composition to Galen Garwood’s short film Ed & Ed, which first appeared at the Port Townsend Film Festival. Two of his compositions, written to accompany the poetry of the beloved James Broughton, were included in ‘Letters from James,’ a film by Garwood and Rowan James which was the first film to appear at the first PTFF. Entering into 2009, Sircely is continuing to hone his solo material in anticipation of his first solo release.
Scott Schaffer’s 30-year career in music defines eclecticism. He has played bass, guitar, mandolin and a variety of other instruments in bands and genres ranging from jazz, to punk rock, to traditional folk, to experimental music. He has produced a dozen CDs and two movie soundtracks, and specializes in bringing together musicians of different backgrounds to a common purpose. In this vein, his most recent project is MandoMorphosis, a creative collaboration of seven mandolinists.
Through the 1990s, Scott co-led quirky and undefinable Pennsylvania-based string band Bala Hounds. He later produced three critically acclaimed records as a member of improvisational group Edge City Collective. More recently, he recorded a soundtrack of original music for the feature film Port of Angels, which premiered at the 2009 Idaho Film Festival.
A versatile multi-instrumentalist, performer, and teacher, Michael Connolly has been steeped in acoustic music since his childhood in Memphis, Tennessee. While his most called-for instruments are fiddle, mandolin, and accordion, Michael also performs and records on Hammond organ, piano, uilleann pipes, tinwhistle, harp, and guitar.
Michael’s familiarity with a range of genres from classical to jazz, Irish to old-time has landed him in a number of performance situations from recording with the University of Michigan Symphony to playing celidh dances in Saint Paul pubs to sharing the stage with the Indigo Girls. As a sideman, Michael has backed musicians such as Coyote Grace, Korby Lenker, Captain Gravel, Amber Darland, The Starlings, Kate Graves and others.
Ali Marcus, Trina Willard and Michael Connolly
Tickets: $13 advance, $15 at the door
Sorry – this show has sold out!
Please join us for this “in-the-round” style show as Ali Marcus, Trina Willard, and Michael Connolly share the Empty Sea stage for a night of tight harmonies, singing strings, and general merriment.
Ali Marcus is a Seattle-based songwriter who tours the country singing songs for people. She has sang at festivals around America, including CMJ, Northwest Folklife Festival, and Noise for the Needy. She has sang in lots of awesome joints, like the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, IOTA Cafe in Virginia, the Evening Muse in Charlotte, the Starry Plough in Berkeley, the Experience Music Project in Seattle. She runs her own label and produces her own music and books her own tours. She also writes her own press releases, and talks about herself in the third person.
In the past year, Ali has toured in 15 states, including NYC’s CMJ, Nashville’s Bluebird Café, DC’s IOTA Café, Cambridge’s Lizard Lounge, Berkeley’s Starry Plough, and Seattle’s Experience Music Project. She has recently wrapped up a four-month tour of the Pacific Northwest with a trip to Oregon and California, hitting up places like the Makeout Room in San Francisco, the East Village in Monterey, and the redwoods along the way.
Trina Willard is a third generation folk singer from Missouri, her musical roots grounded both in the Southern Baptist music she
grew 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.”
A versatile multi-instrumentalist, performer, and teacher, Michael Connolly has been steeped in acoustic music since his childhood in Memphis, Tennessee. While his most called-for instruments are fiddle, mandolin, and accordion, Michael also performs and records on Hammond organ, piano, uilleann pipes, tinwhistle, harp, and guitar.
Michael’s familiarity with a range of genres from classical to jazz, Irish to old-time has landed him in a number of performance situations from recording with the University of Michigan Symphony to playing celidh dances in Saint Paul pubs to sharing the stage with the Indigo Girls. As a sideman, Michael has backed musicians such as Coyote Grace, Korby Lenker, Captain Gravel, Amber Darland, The Starlings, Kate Graves and others.
KidsAcoustic: Shulamit Kleinerman & Bill McJohn
Tickets: $9.00 for each child or adult. Babes in arms (not yet walking) are welcome for free. Space is limited, so please buy ahead.
To keep from crowding the venue, we offer two separate seatings.
11.00 AM: All kids welcome up to age 11. Infants (not yet walking) are welcome for free.
1.00 PM: For kids aged 5-12. Younger siblings are welcome to come too; we just want to make sure that the big kids have a chance to engage with this music in a comfortable peer group!
Click here to purchase tickets to either seating.
Some kinds of music are inherently age-inclusive. KidsAcoustic presents real music that parents can enjoy for its own sake, while the lively tunes and wonderful instruments draw kids in naturally.
For each concert, teacher and early string performer Shulamit Kleinerman joins forces with a duo partner from a folk or early music tradition. A personable forty-five minute program is followed by a hands-on opportunity for all the kids to try out our menagerie of instruments.
For the season’s second program, Shula invites Bill McJohn to share his harp and voice on a collection of musical stories that stand the test of seven or eight centuries. A performer of everything from chant to baroque continuo, Bill sings about the changing of the seasons, a man who eats too much, and a rustic dance party gone comically wrong. Shula plays medieval fiddle and percussion. Tap your toes to some lively instrumental dances and set your imagination alight. Learn what itinerant medieval musicians thought about when autumn came! If you’ve never heard a buzzing medieval bray harp, come check it out here.
Shulamit Kleinerman first added family house concerts to her offerings for children in 2007, and the audience quickly outgrew her teaching studio. The new space at Empty Sea is still welcoming, relaxed, and intimate enough for kids to scootch right upto the musicians’ feet… but now there’s also room to dance! Shula is passionate about bringing the arts of earlier ages alive for kids. From Mozart operas to baroque minuets to Shakespeare skits to medieval songs, her historical arts workshops connect kids with the sparkle of the past. More information about her performances and classes for kids and adults can be found at shulamitk.net.
Sarah Sample & Kate Graves w/ Michael Connolly
Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Sarah Sample dishes up a plate of acoustic folk rock that is salty and sweet. In an era littered with shoegazing introverts, tragically detached hipsters, and overly stylized pop tarts, she stands out like a big, beautiful sore thumb. She lets the audience in by witnessing to what is known and felt by most of us. And wrapping it up in a way we may never have heard- or felt- it before. Engaging, witty, real. The songs and the moment become everyone’s. Just ask audiences from Austin, Texas to Logan, Utah where Sarah has played coffeehouses, concert halls, amphitheaters, and street corners with artists like Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart, Peter Breinholt, Julie Hill, and Colors.
The last thing Sarah Sample wanted to make was just another folkie -girl-with-acoustic-guitar album. Sure, the songs were born as just an acoustic guitar and a voice. And, in the folk tradition she loves and respects so much, would likely be taken across America that way. But she didn’t want to document them that way. At least not this time. Enter Scott Wiley (Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman, Elliott Smith) and a new sonic palette. With plenty of reverence for the songs– because, after all, it’s all about the songs– they set out to take Sarah’s music into new territory. The album Never Close Enough is to Sarah Sample as “Flaming Red” is to Patty Griffin: a marked departure from a promising, acoustic debut but never too far away from her soulful folk roots.
Kate Graves writes little songs….little songs that are raw. She tries to spread them around like wildflower seeds. She likes wildflowers. If she could be a plant, she would be a thistle branch. She sometimes worries that by saying she would be a thistle branch, she is saying that she symbolically pricks things, but she still picks the thistle branch as her flower totem.
Kate Graves is neurotic. She’s okay with this term and generally uses it as a term of endearment…or when somebody is really bugging her.
Kate Graves likes kissing. And singing. And trying to explain to the world that her chihuahua is just scared and not really cold-hearted.
Appearing with Kate is Empty Sea’s own Michael Connolly, a versatile southern-born multi-instrumentalist whose fiddle, mandolin, and accordion have shared the stage with Coyote Grace, Captain Gravel, Korby Lenker, the Barbed Wire Cutters, and the Indigo Girls.
Kate and Michael share tight harmonies, beautifully understated phrasing, and the love of a good novelty song.
Courtney Robbins w/ Jeremy Serwer, Kate Graves
Tickets: $8.00 advance, $10.00 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Courtney Robbins’ music is a little bit folk, a little bit rock, and whole lot of awesome. From percussive guitar rhythms reminiscent of train engines to the mellow, heartbreaking vocals of her ballads, this Tucson-based independent singer-songwriter spans several genres. Her energetic performance, hard- hitting riffs, and smart lyrics have established a powerful connection with her fast growing fan-base and earned her such descriptions as ““Powerful… [one] of Tucson’s best singer-songwriters” – Tucsonscene.com.
Known to “play the shit out of [the guitar],” Courtney’s blistering guitar style often leaves her fingers bleeding; her straightforward songwriting skills are a figurative match. She has landed both a finalist spot in the 2008 Tucson Folk Festival Songwriting Competition, and the praise of critics. Dramanonymous.com’s Anna Pulley cheers: “Robbins’ muscular rhythms and melodic grace are impossible not to tap along to. Infused with raw nostalgia and emotional urgency, Robbins’ music artfully blends the taut intimacy of an acoustic affair with galloping riffs and a fragile, folk sensibility.”
Courtney has not only established herself as a rising star in Arizona, but is also garnering the admiration of folk fans nationwide. Her dichotomy of personal experience and broad-spectrum emotion draws crowds, and she is finding a loyal audience as she winds a path of live shows across the country performing solo and warming up the stage for artists like Melissa Ferrick, Lucy Kaplansky, Catie Curtis, Edie Carey, Meghan Toohey, Eddie from Ohio, and Dar Williams.
“Bittersweet ballads from the nether world,” states Angela Yeager of Salem Oregon’s Statesman Journal, a description as good as any other for the sound of Jeremy Serwer. Jeremy’s songs are a meandering journey through Americana, angst, sorrow and disenchantment with US social policy.
KINK Radio in Portland says, “His songs run the gamut from emotionally charged heartbreakers to pointed political statements. His ability to generate emotion in an audience is testament to his songwriting expertise and a powerful bluesy expressive delivery.” Jeremy is no stranger to the road, having embarked on several jaunts about the US and has also performed around South Korea. Jeremy has been active in bands including Rich Man’s Burden, Acoustic Minds and Thistle. He has accompanied songwriter/performer veteran Anne Weiss and worked in recording and live performances with Eric Pollard (Low, Retribution Gospel Choir, Sun Kil Moon), Skip Von Kuske (Portland Cello Project, M. Ward, Vagabond Opera), Jimi Cooper (Dukes of Hubbard, No Wait Wait, The Fractals) and many others.
Jeremy’s latest release FM is a portrait of a nine year existence in Portland’s ebb and flow musical aura. Jeremy currently resides in Tucson, AZ and is very active with his new band Seashell Radio. Jeremy is now working on his second solo release with producer/bandmate Fen Ikner.
Kate Graves writes little songs. She tries to spread them around like wildflower seeds.
Kate Graves likes wildflowers. If she could be a flower, she would be a thistle branch. She sometimes worries that by saying she would be a thistle branch, she is saying that she symbolically pricks things, but she still picks the thistle branch.
Kate Graves just went off on a tangent while writing her bio…
Kate Graves writes little songs. Sometimes they are sparse…sometimes filled with lots of words.
Often they are written about things like tasting sweet orange on your lips and wanting to kiss someone, so that they can experience tasting sweet orange on their lips.
Kate Graves likes kissing. And singing. And trying to explain to the world that her chihuahua is just scared and not really cold hearted.
Kate Graves hopes that you will forgive her for writing her name 7 times over in this little bio. She hopes very much so that you will listen to her songs.
