Be you Islander, washashore, summer dink or weekender it’s time to rock local this Sunday night, Sept. 5 at the Katharine Cornell Theatre when Local Colors takes the stage. The band consists of Joe Keenan, Kevin Keady, Nancy Jephcote, Tristan Israel and Paul Thurlow, all familiar Island names who happen to make extraordinary music together.
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $12 at the door.
What is Summer Song? It’s a free evening of entertainment, song, music and refreshments at the Sailing Camp Park in Oak Bluffs overlooking the Lagoon on Monday, August 16, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in support of Island Theatre Workshop’s Children’s Theatre program and the Payne-Fierro Scholarship fund.
Were you that guy or gal Holding Back the Years while hoisting 99 Luftballoons at your White Wedding full of Karma Chameleons? Or maybe, instead, you were the Owner of a Lonely Heart because Sister Christian said Girls Just Want to Have Fun and then she started Dancing in the Dark with Mr. Roboto to the heat of St. Elmo’s Fire. Well, it Gives Love a Bad Name, right, all this Dancing on the Ceiling, but even if you do Blame It on the Rain, the sad fact is you miss doing the Wild Thing.
The Marafanyi beats go on, from Sunday, August 22, through Tuesday August 24: workshops where adults, children and families together can learn West African drum, dance and song will be held at the Chilmark Community Center. For details and registration, e-mail Mary Ambulos at mvmar@comcast.net or see online marafanyi.com.
Every August, Vineyarders flood the fair grounds at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Hall in West Tisbury. Every fall, we are treated to the harvest festival to celebrate the season’s bounty, and every winter we have Island artisans’ fairs, community potlucks or most recently the winter farmers’ markets. The Vineyard is a place of tradition, and the Ag Hall is a beacon of that.
Island favorite Ben Taylor and John Forte, producer/performer for the Fugees, headline a benefit concert tonight, Sept. 3, from 9 p.m. at Nectar’s with proceeds going to Martha’s Vineyard Helping Homeless Animals (MVHHA) and RockHouse Foundation of Negril, Jamaica.
For a week during the holidays this winter, Michelle Jasny left the Island for a camp in the Catskills. Armed with her accordion, she joined some 300 people at KlezKamp, a weeklong retreat for klezmer musicians. Though she’d been playing for nearly a year, and also has a background in piano and guitar, Ms. Jasny was blown away by the intensity of the repertoire, and the music. “Some of this is very fast,” she said of the traditional Yiddish music. “We were playing like nine, 10 hours a day, so it was very intense.”
Genre-blending folkster Martin Sexton will play his only Vineyard concert this summer on Wednesday, August 4, at 7:30 p.m. at the waterfront East Chop Beach Club, to benefit, Friends of mvyradio.
Vineyard old boy Danny Kortchmar produced Mr. Sexton’s 1998 major label debut on Atlantic Records, The American. Mr. Sexton formed his own label shortly after, releasing many awardwinning records including the original live album, Solo, which won last year’s Independent Music Award for Best Live Performance Album.
World musician Krishna Das will perform on the Vineyard on Thursday, August 26 as part of his new Heart as Wide as the World tour. Krishna Das is the rock star of Kirtan, an ancient call-and-response spiritual practice that has roots in Indian traditions, including Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism. He will perform at the Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs from 7 to 10 p.m.
