Bluegrass

The Ridgewood Boys

No Admission Fee

Building on riveting father-son harmonies and a sound way bigger than two instruments should be able to make, the Ridgewood Boys make music that conjures up an Appalachian Sunday afternoon spent sitting on the front porch with friends and family. Chris and Rick Saenz love the old gospel songs, the ones you've known forever and the ones you haven't heard yet. Listening to the Ridgewood Boys sing is sure to lift your spirit and put a song in your own heart.

Newfound Road

$12

One of the most exciting new bands to emerge on the national bluegrass scene in the new millennium, NewFound Road specializes in a powerfully streamlined sound delivered with heartfelt honesty and passion. The bands' three equally capable, yet distinct vocalists, who are also formidable instrumentalists and songwriters, ensure that each song is executed with both emotion and precision- be it a bluesy solo vocal, soaring three part harmony or a solemn a cappella gospel treatment. Instrumentally, NFR is a role model for the modern self-contained bluegrass ensemble, providing both sympathetic accompaniment and thrilling, hard-driving solos. NewFound Road is contemporary bluegrass at its most soulful and sincere.

Missy Raines and the New Hip

$18

It’s sometimes said that great bass playing vanishes, supporting the music without drawing attention to itself. But history also shows us that when the best bass players step forward as bandleaders, remarkable things can happen. That’s why it’s time to pay heed to Missy Raines and the New Hip. Missy, a trailblazer in her field for as long as she’s been playing music, formed this dynamic quintet to bridge the musical worlds of newgrass, jazz, singer/songwriter and any others they take a notion to explore.

David Grier

$10

Born in Washington, D.C. in 1961, a family move to Nashville at age 3 fully immersed David Grier into the bluegrass music world, and at age 6, he began playing the guitar. Today, he is regarded as one of the premier acoustic guitarists in the world, along with his early influences, Doc Watson, Tony Rice, and family friend Clarence White.

Recognized by Acoustic Guitar Magazine in 2000 as one of the Artists of the Decade, and named Guitar Player of the Year three times by the International Bluegrass Music Association, Grier has played on four Grammy Award-winning albums (True Life Blues: A Tribute to Bill Monroe; The Great Dobro Sessions; Alison Brown’s Fairweather; and Amazing Grace 2: A Country Salute to Gospel).

Benefit for Path to Freedom, with Brother Duets by The Ridgewood Boys

All donations go to the Path to Freedom project

In the mid-1980s, the Dervaes family set out to do the impossible: live a self-sufficient, low-impact life in the heart of a California city. Their ordinary urban lot in Pasadena, called Path to Freedom, is now an organic permaculture garden that supplies nearly all their food. Jules, Justin, Anais and Jordanne now power their home with alternative energies, brew their own bio-diesel, keep farm animals, use secondhand goods in place of new, and employ many back-to-basics skills.

The nonprofit Dervaes Institute works to document and share this hard-won knowledge through lectures, films, and their extensive website pathtofreedom.com.

Building on riveting father-son harmonies and a sound way bigger than two instruments should be able to make, the Ridgewood Boys make music that conjures up an Appalachian Sunday afternoon spent sitting on the front porch with friends and family. Chris and Rick Saenz love the old gospel songs, the ones you've known forever and the ones you haven't heard yet. Listening to the Ridgewood Boys sing is sure to lift your spirit and put a song in your own heart.

Downtown County Band

$5

Get ready for a good time! The Downtown County Band will change your idea of old time music. This young five-piece ensemble returns to the place they got their start, Downtown Frankfort. They have played countless venues across several states, and gained a reputation for artistic excellence. The Downtown County Band plays Memphis blues, appalachian, and jug band music, along with originals written in the old-time tradition. WARNING: THIS IS NOT A BLUEGRASS SHOW!!!!

Robinella

$12

Online reservations are closed. Please call the cafe at 502-875-3009 for availability.

Jeri Katherine Howell will open the evening with her clear, warm, story-telling lyrical singing.

"Robinella's voice is so versatile - so utterly loose, carefree, and expressive no matter what the material is - that she glides into every tune..." - iTunes review

Robinella’s career began with a sort of luck that rarely comes to most artists within their lifetime. What started out as a simple husband-and-wife duo fresh out of college quickly grew to a full-fledged band that blended Bluegrass, Country and Jazz. The combination of Robinella's honey-sweet vocals with violin, mandolin, bass, drums and piano captivated audiences, thus creating the ever popular Robinella & the CC Stringband.

First Friday with NewFound Road, poets Fred Smock and Jared Smith

$12

The evening will start at 7:30 with poetry readings by Jared Smith and Fred Smock. At 8 pm, Newfound Road will then take the stage. After the first set of music, we will enjoy additional readings by Jared Smith and Fred Smock. The evening will then end with a second set of music by Newfound Road.

More about the artists:

"Frederick Smock is a smart, sensible, and witty guide who will lead you into the house of poetry and describe its many rooms. He is an insider, a poet himself, and a therapist who specializes in relieving the symptoms of poetry-phobia."
— Billy Collins

Frederick Smock is a poet-in-residence at Bellarmine University, Louisville, where he received the Wyatt Faculty Award in 2005. He has published three books of poetry with Larkspur Press, with individual poems in The Iowa Review, The Southern Review, Shenandoah, and many others. He is the recipient of the Leadingham Poetry Prize and the Jim Wayne Miller Prize for Poetry. Mr. Smock is married to the writer Olga-Maria Cruz.

Jared Smith is a prominent figure in contemporary poetry, technology research, and professional continuing education. Having earned his BA cum laude and his MA in English and American Literature from New York University, he spent many years in industry and research. Starting in 1976, he rose to Vice President of The Energy Bureau, Inc. in New York; relocated to Illinois, where he became Associate Director of both Education and Research for an international not-for-profit research laboratory (IGT); advised several White House Commissions on technology and policy under the Clinton Administration; and left industry in 2001, after serving as Special Appointee to Argonne National Laboratory.

One of the most exciting new bands to emerge on the national bluegrass scene in the new millennium, NewFound Road specializes in a powerfully streamlined sound delivered with heartfelt honesty and passion. The bands' three equally capable, yet distinct vocalists, who are also formidable instrumentalists and songwriters, ensure that each song is executed with both emotion and precision- be it a bluesy solo vocal, soaring three part harmony or a solemn a cappella gospel treatment. Instrumentally, NFR is a role model for the modern self-contained bluegrass ensemble, providing both sympathetic accompaniment and thrilling, hard-driving solos. NewFound Road is contemporary bluegrass at its most soulful and sincere.

The Nedski and Mojo Show

$12

"Hearing these two makes my heart stand still. They've got that rare thing: the nuclear bluegrass core sound, and it sounds like ten guys carving it out." Darol Anger

The Nedski and Mojo duo comprised of Stephen Mougin (of the Sam Bush Band) and Ned Luberecki (Chris Jones & the Night Drivers, and SiriusXm radio) are sharing their blend of Newgrass / Bluegrass music with a healthy dose of original material, topped off with a few bluegrass classics.

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