Minstel Coffeehouse Founders' Concert

to celebrate the

30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MINSTREL COFFEEHOUSE

Friday, July 22, 8:30 PM at the Minstrel

Located at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, 21 Normandy Hts. Rd, Morristown, NJ

Admission: $15.00

On Friday July 25, 1975, a bunch of local folk musicians got together in the basement of a French restaurant called L'Auberge Provinçal on main street in Chester NJ to put on a concert. These were members of informal group called Project 21, which had been getting together to play music socially with each other for a number of years at what were called "Evenings of Music." This was to be the group's first presentation to the public. It was to be the first in a series of weekly concerts with the unlikely title of "Good, Though" (the punch line of a Utah Phillips shaggy-dog story). Chairs were gleaned from sidewalks on garbage day, and tables were discarded cable reels with plastic checkered tablecloths decorated with the inevitable wine bottle candle holders. We could maybe fit 20 people in the room if the Fire Marshall wasn't watching, and of course there was no sound system.

Thirty years later, Project 21 has become the Folk Project, an organization of 600+ members, still holding weekly concerts and Evenings of Music, but also with a Contra Dance series, 2 Festivals a year, a Cable TV show, a Storytelling Festival, and still a social organization for many of its members. "Good Though" has morphed into the Minstrel Coffeehouse, one of the most respected folk concert series in the country. And those 20-something hippie musicians in the basement of L'Auberge Provinçal that night are still out there making music. And some of them are coming back to perform again where it all began.

LAURIE (BROWNSCOMBE) RILEY is 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.) She has become internationally known in the harper's community, specializing in the rare and difficult Double-Strung harp.

Songwriter and extraordinary singer, RON HEACOCK currently resides in Pulaski TN, not far from Nashville. His soaring tenor and soulful songs put one in mind of the early James Taylor. He and Laurie for a time performed together in the local "supergroup" Frostwater, touring extensively at clubs and festivals in the Northeast.

PAT AND KEN ROLSTON are still active in the Folk Project. (Pat is Treasurer.) They are known for their wonderful harmonies and eclectic musical taste. With fellow musicians HEN3RY NERENBERG and current Folk Project president CHRIS RIEMER (who will be joining them on stage this evening) they comprise the vocal quartet WSAGNBSCALRME. (Don't ask!) Their singing is accompanied by guitar, dulcimer, and sometimes no instruments at all.

JEAN FARNWORTH (neé Kanerva) is a singer, and plays 12-sting guitar and harp. She is known for her striking alto voice that can sometimes dip into the upper baritone range. She will be doing a retrospective of her music since the founding days, from the Mitchell/Baez/Collins repertoire that was popular at the time to more traditional Celtic and blues and originals that she performs today.

Concert Information: , 973-335-9489

Click
	for maps to the concert location, the Minstrel Coffeehouse
	for information about all our 30th Anniversary events

Back to the Folk Project Home Page

Click to send comments about these pages to the Folk Project webmaster.