Minstrel 30th Anniversary Events
Minstrel 30th Anniversary Events
July 25th the Folk Project will mark the 30th anniversary of the opening of the concert series that was to become the Minstrel Coffeehouse. When it opened, it was called "Good, Though" (the punchline of a Utah Phillips shaggy-dog story) and held in the basement of a no longer extant French restaurant in Chester. We could seat maybe 20 if everyone was real friendly. The entertainment was comprised almost exclusively of members of the Project and other local musicians. In the intervening years, we have grown, occupied 7 different venues, gone on to book internationally known folk artists (while still featuring our own members in rotation), become a fixture in the community, and one of the more respected folk venues in the nation, Throughout this time we have continued to produce a concert almost every Friday evening. That's over 1400 concerts so far, and still going!
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This will be a concert featuring 4 acts who were around and involved in the founding of the Minstrel. The feature will be Laurie (Brownscombe) Riley, the woman who was responsible for the creation of the Folk Project as an organization and a community, and many of its activities including the Coffeehouse, the Festival, and Evenings of Music. Laurie will be coming in from Arizona for the concert. She sings and plays Celtic Harp (although at the founding her instruments were banjo and 12-string guitar.) Also appearing will be songwriter and extraordinary singer, Ron Heacock who currently resides in Nashville. The other two acts still reside in New Jersey: Pat and Ken Rolston are still active in the Project. (Pat is Treasurer.) They are known for their wonderful harmonies and eclectic musical taste. Jean Farnworth (neé Kanerva) is a singer, and plays guitar and harp.
Tickets for this special edition of the Minstrel will be $15.00. |
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Laurie Riley, Mike Agranoff, and other founding members will lead a carpool tour of all the sites that have housed the Minstrel in chronological order. We will gather at our current site, the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, 21 Normandy Hgts. Rd. at 10:30 AM, we will carpool, combining into as few cars as we can, and leave at 11:00, stopping at each venue, reminisce, tell stories, and give some sort of feel for how it was at various points of our history. Bring a picnic lunch, and we'll stop to eat somewhere along the way. Admission to this event is free, but we ask you to register in advance so we can have some idea how many people will be along on the tour.
Don't miss this piece of living history of folk music in New Jersey. Contact Mike Agranoff at |
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Laurie's set on Friday will likely feature music she was doing at the time of the founding. This concert will focus on the harp music she's doing today, both traditional Irish and original, played on the unusual double-strung harp. The concert will take place in a large home in Rockaway which will comfortably seat 75 - 80.
Click here to download and display a PDF file of directions to this concert.
Tickets will be $15.00. Contact Mike Agranoff at |
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This is an annual event featuring the Folk Project member musicians celebrating our anniversary in song. There are upwards of 70 FP members who perform. The Birthday Show is a series of performances by groups composed of these members combined in randomly-chosen duos and trios. Although the individual members of the groups may be of varying skill levels, different musical genres, different instrumentation; their common denominator is that they are members of the Folk Project, enjoy making music, and want to take part in this celebration of who we are.
The groups are selected several weeks prior to the date of the Birthday Show. Member musicians put their names in a hat, and the names are drawn and combined into randomly selected groups. Each group then has the next month to work out one number for the show on the 29th. The result is invariably eclectic and interesting, sometimes inspiring, and always a truckload of fun. |
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