Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Ivers and Immigrant Soul kick it up at Rimsky Theatre.
Rarely do fiddle players rise to headliner stature. Among the few memorable exceptions are Vanessa Mae and André Rieu, schmaltz waltz evangelist of Johann Strauss Orchestra fame. So it had been at the Landmark on Main Street until Saturday night, when innovative programming by Executive Director Sharon Maier-Kennelly brought past Riverdance veteran Eileen Ivers and a talented ensemble to town, and changed all that. Hosted by WFUV DJ Kathleen Biggins, who singled out another Port Washington landmark, prominent Irish restaurant and co-sponsor Finn MacCool’s, the show introduced Eileen Ivers’ brand of Celtic, Irish, blue grass and rock violin to an audience that grew more and more enthusiastic as the performance unfolded. Backing her was an …
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Landmark on Main Street
232 Main St, Port Washington, NY
/articles/eileen-ivers-leaves-landmark-crowd-breathless-and-reeling
38996
/locations/6912217
Monday, June 21, 2010
Female folk trio, Lucky 13, performs tight show at the Port Washington Public Library.
The three members of Lucky 13 are indeed lucky — they are talented, versatile, and clearly are doing something they love. The audience certainly lucked out too when the female folk trio came to the Port Washington Public Library to perform on Friday evening. The only thing I was a bit unhappy about was the lack of publicity regarding this concert by the library. This was a wonderful show with top-rate performers and it deserved way more attention than it got. Plus, it was competing with one of the first perfect weather Friday evenings that we've had lately. Still, no one who showed up at this concert was sorry that they spent the two hours indoors. Lucky 13 came together in 2008 when the independent record label, Sonic Underground, …
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Port Washington Public Library
1 Library Dr, Port Washington, NY
/articles/audience-members-got-lucky-with-lucky-13-show
39021
/locations/1417758
Friday, June 18, 2010
Michael Feinstein's nightclub at the Loews Regency is this Broadway actor’s next stop.
When I was in high school (many moons ago), I was in a special theater program. The program, called "theater careers" required you to spend three periods a day for two years studying theater — all aspects of theater, from acting to directing to set design. There were two types of people in this program. Most of them were like me — regular kids with a streak of hambone who thought that doing a high school production of "South Pacific" was the cat's meow. But then there was the other type — the very talented and very rare "true" theater kids. The ones who lived and breathed theater, who sang show tunes rather than pop songs, who collected Playbills instead of comic books, who watched the Tony Awards instead of the Emmys. When I saw Hunter …
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Landmark on Main Street
232 Main St, Port Washington, NY
/articles/hunter-ryan-herdlicka-previews-show-at-landmark
38996
/locations/1412984
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Together they are even greater than the sum of their parts.
Sometimes degrees of separation are even less than six. Take, for example, Saturday night's double bill of Lucy Kaplansky and Richard Shindell at Landmark on Main Street's Jeanne Rimsky Theater. Both artists had performed, separately, at the Landmark in the past. Dar Williams, who performed at Landmark a week earlier, was in a band with Shindell and Kaplansky in the late 1990s called Cry, Cry, Cry. And Landmark's Executive Director Sharon Maier-Kennelly announced that next season Kaplansky would be returning as part of yet another trio including John Gorka and Eliza Gilkyson. I had seen both Kaplansky and Shindell in their past performances at Landmark. Both were excellent performers in their own way, but together they were stellar. Each …
40.83133
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Landmark on Main Street
232 Main St, Port Washington, NY
/articles/richard-shindell-and-lucy-kaplansky-play-sold-out-show-at-landmark-on-main-street
38996
/locations/354585
Friday, April 23, 2010
Intelligent, quirky, charming and talented singer/songwriter puts on a great show.
Last Friday night's performance by Dar Williams marked her third time gracing the stage at Landmark on Main Street. I saw her all three times, so it's safe to surmise that I am, in fact, a Dar Williams fan and therefore am predisposed to enjoying her shows. That being said, this most recent show was a bit different than the past two in that she was accompanied by a young piano/keyboard player Bryn Robert. In the past, it has just been Dar and her acoustic guitar — which is why it took me two songs to get used to the different sound. She opened with "Calling the Moon," a track from her album Green World which, interestingly, was originally covered by Richard Shindell who will be performing (a sold out show) at Landmark on Saturday. This was…
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Landmark on Main Street
232 Main St, Port Washington, NY
/articles/dar-williams-brings-smart-songwriting-to-landmark
38996
/locations/348988
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Fourth Annual Jean Ritchie Folk Concert honors legendary artist at PWPL.
There are three things that I learned from the Jean Ritchie Folk Concert at the Port Washington Public Library featuring Dave Sear and Peter Pickow. 1) A great deal of folk music is written about trains. 2) Banjos need a lot of tuning, especially that evil fifth string that has a tuning peg halfway down the neck. 3) Port Washington has been very fortunate to have Jean Ritchie, the folk icon, living in our midst. Ritchie, the youngest of 14 children growing up in the Eastern Kentucky Mountains, grew up singing, and brought traditional folk music into the New York City scene. She was responsible for launching a revival of traditional dulcimer music, and an interest in Appalachian folk music. Ritchie has been called "the mother of folk music…
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Port Washington Public Library
1 Library Dr, Port Washington, NY
/articles/dave-sear-and-peter-pickow-appeal-to-port-folk
39021
/locations/344318
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Legendary musicians give their all for an enthusiastic audience at the Landmark.
Landmark on Main Street is having a smoking hot 2009-10 season. There has not been one show this season (that I've seen anyway) that has been less than outstanding. Saturday night's performance by the legendary Holmes Brothers was no exception. I was a little concerned when they took the stage. These are no youngsters. The veteran musicians have been playing together for 30 years, and playing, in general, for 50. They look like what they probably are … grandfathers. But wow, could they rock. The band is made up of two actual Holmes brothers, Wendell (guitar, piano, vocals) and Sherman (bass, vocals) and their "brother in spirit" Popsy Dixon on drums and vocals. Wendell takes most of the lead singing, but the other two each had their share …
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Landmark on Main Street
232 Main St, Port Washington, NY
/articles/holmes-brothers-breathe-soul-into-landmark
38996
/locations/339052
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
From Radiohead to Broadway, this concert at the Landmark on Main Street had it all.
When I mentioned to people that I was going to see Duncan Sheik at the Landmark, I got one of three responses: 1) "Who?" 2) "Oh yeah, that guy who did 'Barely Breathing' in the '90s" or 3) "Wow! We loved Spring Awakening on Broadway!" This led me to believe that Duncan Sheik was: 1) not well enough known, 2) a pop star, or 3) a Broadway song writer. It turns out that all three are true. I, myself, only knew Sheik through his 1996 hit single, "Barely Breathing," which spent 55 weeks on the Billboard charts and is one of those songs that gets stuck in your head and just won't get out. But I was unfamiliar with what Sheik had been up to since, and I ended up being completely blown away by his talent and versatility. An opening act started the…
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Landmark on Main Street
232 Main St, Port Washington, NY
/articles/duncan-sheik-captivates-landmark-audience
38996
/locations/322873
Monday, March 22, 2010
Former Strawbs bass player demonstrates versatility and style.
I thought that I knew every long-haired musician in town, all two of them, but apparently I was wrong. I was unaware that living in our midst is John Ford — singer, songwriter, musician, and long-haired Port Washington resident. Ford was part of the British folk/progressive rock band The Strawbs, who achieved success in the 1960s and 70s. In addition to his work with The Strawbs, Ford had several bands of his own as well solo work, and projects with other musicians, such as Ritchie Blackmore (of Deep Purple and Rainbow). Before I talk about Ford's performance, I feel compelled to offer kudos to the Port Washington Public Library for launching a new series (Live @ PWPL) designed to reach a different demographic. This was, without a doubt, …
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Port Washington Public Library
1 Library Dr, Port Washington, NY
/articles/john-ford-rocks-the-library
39021
/locations/321032
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Justin Townes Earle and Carrie Rodriguez share an exhilarating double bill.
The crowd at Landmark on Main Street got more than their money's worth with the Saturday night Roots Rock double bill of Carrie Rodriguez and Justin Townes Earle. Roots Rock describes the influences of folk, blues and country on rock music, and this year Landmark on Main Street has teamed up with WFUV to create a Roots Rock series. This concert was the first in the series. (The next is The Holmes Brothers on April 10). Rodriguez and Earle, who were only playing this one show as a double bill, have what I call the Townes Van Zandt connection. Van Zandt (1944-97), a country-folk singer-songwriter, influenced countless musicians including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Lyle Lovett, Norah Jones, and many others. Earle's father, the well-known country …
40.83133
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Landmark on Main Street
232 Main St, Port Washington, NY
/articles/roots-rock-begins-with-a-bang-at-landmark
38996
/locations/268491
Joan Buckley
2:15 pm on Wednesday, May 2, 2012
My foot is a-tapping and my hands are a-clapping just reading this great review. more ›