The Pit Stop refuses to go gently into that good night. This Sunday, Jan. 27, at 7 p.m. the place will be rocking, thanks to three-time All-Ireland fiddle champion, Dylan Foley.
Mr. Foley was a student of the great Rose Flanagan. You remember her, of course
The Pit Stop, the music and performing arts space in Oak Bluffs with a gritty, coffee-house atmosphere that has attracted a large following in the past year, will go up for sale, the owner announced this week.
“We had a lot of fun. A lot of people were brought together. Many personal, musical, artistic and professional relationships were kindled. Some found people to share their art with and some found soul mates to share their lives with,” wrote owner Don Muckerheide in an email newsletter that went out on Tuesday to fans of the Pit Stop Workshop.
After clown school shut down unexpectedly, May Oskan was a little lost and rather bitter.
“The floor went out from under me... I didn’t have my community, teachers or classmates,” said Ms. Oskan of her time at the San Francisco Circus Center. “I didn’t have my tightrope or anything to juggle. I was a clown with no circus.”
Always one to be involved in a project, Ms. Oskan knew she had to do something big.
“And I knew I didn’t want it to be funny,” she added with a laugh.
The Pit Stop is launching a fundraiser to add a café and reading room to the popular music destination. The moniker “destination” is not meant to confuse or be vague. It’s just that the Pit Stop is hard to categorize.
The Pit Stop is located inside an inconspicuous garage across the street from Tony’s Market in Oak Bluffs and is hard to find even when you’re looking right at it. A small marquee out front advertises the night’s musical entertainment and a white hand-painted sign directs visitors around an old trailer to the entrance at the back of the building.
Willy Mason on drums? I have never seen that before. The headliner of Vineyard musicians who fills houses across our nation and in Europe played back-up all night. But Willy was appropriately humble in this company — a gathering of the best of the best of Island musicians. Rob Myers, aka Jellybone Rivers had invited Nina Violet (viola), Brad Tucker (standup bass), Marciana Jones (ukelele), Michelle Jones (electric guitar), Adam Lipsky (piano), Charlie Esposito (clarinet), Slim Bob Berosh (electric guitar) and Elisha Wiesner (electric guitar).
