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Firehouse CoffeehouseFirehouse Coffeehouse Past Seasons

Season 17 - 2010-2011

Les Sampou - Nov 5th
Five O'Clock Shadow (FOCS) - Dec 3rd
Bill Staines- Jan 7th
Mustard's Retreat - Feb 4th
Lori McKenna - Mar 4th

Les Sampou Les Sampou - November 5 ($18)

Les Sampou (pronounced "Less Shampoo" w/o the h) writes and sings Americana music that's full of twang and blues. Her musical career has spanned five recordings and countless listening rooms, bars, and festivals as well as over several hundred thousand miles of road.


“On her long-awaited fifth album, ‘Lonesomeville,’ Les Sampou soars over a bracing set of sly, lived-in songs about mismatched lives, hard goodbyes, and honky tonk heartbreak. With a tough and tender voice that can be every bit as stinging or sultry as her slide guitar, Sampou deftly mixes bluesy soul with country twang and down-to-earth storytelling.” – Jonathan Perry, Boston Globe “Scene & Heard” columnist



Five O'Clock Shadow - Dec 3rd ($18)

Five O'Clock Shadow (FOCS)

Five O'Clock Shadow, the all-vocal rock band from Boston, is living proof that a band without instruments can still rock! Using the same tech wizardry that guitarists have been using since the dawn of rock, Five O'Clock Shadow morph their voices into shredding guitar riffs and soaring solos right before your very ears. Meanwhile, their one-man vocal rhythm section, Stack, lays down his "beatbass": mouth beats and vocal bass thundering forth from his face, both at the same time! Yet when you take away all the speakers, amps, and microphones, these guys are still singers right down to the soul! Also known as "FOCS", Five O'Clock Shadow has vocally rocked audiences of all ages throughout the US and Japan, and in every kind of venue.  Check out the bands audio and video clips on their website.

Bill Staines - Jan 7th ($18)

Bill Staines For more than forty years, Bill Staines has traveled back and forth across North America, singing his songs and delighting audiences at festivals, folksong societies, colleges, concerts, clubs, and coffeehouses. A New England native, Bill became involved with the Boston-Cambridge folk scene in the early 1960's and for a time, emceed the Sunday Hootenanny at the legendary Club 47 in Cambridge. Bill quickly became a popular performer in the Boston area. From the time in 1971 when a reviewer from the Boston Phoenix stated that he was "simply Boston's best performer", Bill has continually appeared on folk music radio listener polls as one of the top all time favorite folk artists. Now, well into his fifth decade as a folk performer, he has gained an international reputation as a gifted songwriter and performer.




Mustard's Retreat Mustard's Retreat - Feb 4th ($18)

Everything Mustard's Retreat does on a stage is aimed at pleasing, moving and engaging their audience. Whether singing their own gentle love songs and vivid ballads, telling tall tales or offering treasures from America's vast traditional song bag, a Mustard's Retreat show always feels like it's designed for the people who have come to see them that day, in that coffeehouse, school, concert hall or festival. Audiences sense this from the moment David and Michael hit the stage, are drawn to it like hungry kids to Sunday supper and reward it the best way they know how. They come to see Mustard's Retreat again and again. And again.

Lori McKenna - Mar 4th ($18)

Lori McKenna Lori McKenna is a mother of five from Stoughton, Mass. (pop. 27,000), about 20 miles outside Boston. There, she lives quietly - well, as quietly as a house with five children can get - with her husband of 21 years, Gene, a plumber for the local gas company. For years she drove her kids to school in a 1999 Ford Windstar minivan with 150,000 miles on it. Lori McKenna is also an acclaimed singer-songwriter who was thrust into the limelight thanks to superstar Faith Hill's decision to record three of McKenna's songs for her chart-topping Fireflies album. Hill (herself a wife and mother of three) heard in McKenna's work what a steadily growing audience has been hearing since her 1998 debut, Paper Wings & Halo: an intimate understanding and honest expression of the realities of domestic life.

Season 16 - 2009-2010

Five O'Clock Shadow - Nov 6th ($18)

Five O'Clock Shadow (FOCS)

Five O'Clock Shadow, the all-vocal rock band from Boston, is living proof that a band without instruments can still rock! Using the same tech wizardry that guitarists have been using since the dawn of rock, Dan, Oren, Paul, and Caleb morph their voices into shredding guitar riffs and soaring solos right before your very ears. Meanwhile, their one-man vocal rhythm section, Stack, lays down his "beatbass": mouth beats and vocal bass thundering forth from his face, both at the same time! Yet when you take away all the speakers, amps, and microphones, these guys are still singers right down to the soul! Also known as "FOCS", Five O'Clock Shadow has vocally rocked audiences of all ages throughout the US and Japan, and in every kind of venue.  Check out the bands audio and video clips on their website.


Rani Arbo & Daisy MayhemRani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem - December 4 ($18)

So, what's a daisy mayhem?

Wicked grooves, sublime lead singing, great harmonies, sparkling original songs, and a deep repertoire that spans 200 years of American music. Rani Arbo & Daisy Mahem are four people who share an irresistible chemistry on stage. An unusually gleeful string band that celebrates both tradition and improvisation and that stumps the categorizers. (Are they an agnostic gospel band? A homeopathic bluegrass band? Are they crazy?). Worth seeing...

What does it sound like?

Start with a fiddle, a guitar, and a standup bass. Add a cardboard box with a suitcase bass drum and tin can cymbals, played by an ex-rock and zydeco drummer. Over that fine groove, hang Rani Arbo's expressive alto, seamless four-part harmonies, and a splash of banjo and ukulele, and you have it.

Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem Group Photo


Carrie Newcomer - Jan 8th ($18)

Carrie Newcomer For singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer, beauty is discovered in the midst of the ordinary. In a world that encourages us to move faster and think bigger, Newcomer invites the listener to slow down and reflect on the small things that make life worthwhile. As Rolling Stone wrote, “Newcomer asks all the right questions and refuses to settle for easy answers.” On another level, the listener hears a skillfully arranged and performed collection of folk roots tracks, with Appalachian and classical influences. Newcomer’s style is straightforward and accessible. Overall, she is not afraid to take on serious subjects, and does so with a healthy measure of good humor and self-awareness. For her, “songwriting is not about being clever, flashy or fancy—it is about telling a compelling story in language and music with elegance and clarity.” The result is a resonant soundtrack for a world that is both sacred and ordinary.

The KennedysThe Kennedys - Feb 5th ($18)

The Kennedys, a husband-and-wife folk-pop team, have been tearing up the scene since their 1995 debut. Their jangly guitars, tight harmonies, positive energy, and smart lyrics bring an aire of sweet reverance to their performances. If you're a regular Firehouse Coffeehouse groupee - do you remember the Beetles singalong finale from last time?



Aztec Two Step - Mar 5th ($18)

Aztec Two Step Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman have spent a lifetime making music together as the folk/rock duo Aztec Two-Step . The Boston Globe said “fans of the duo’s harmony-driven tunes and easygoing acoustic guitar riffs will recognize their James Taylor-meets-Simon & Garfunkel sound.” Today Aztec Two-Step continues to impress audiences with intelligent songwriting, dazzling acoustic lead guitar, and inspiring harmonies. They are one of acoustic music’s most popular and enduring acts.





emma's revolutionemma's revolution - Apr 2nd ($18 adv/ $20 door)

Dancing on the edge of folk and pop there's a revolution: emma's revolution. "Bold, profound, moving, hilarious and transformative," emma's revolution is the duo of award-winning, activist musicians, Pat Humphries & Sandy O, who write songs that become traditions. In the spirit of Emma Goldman's famous attribution, "If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution", emma's revolution brings their uprising of truth, hope and a dash of healthy irreverance to concerts and peace & justice events across the US and internationally.

  

Season 15 - 2008-2009

Jim Scott   - November 7
John McCutcheon - December 5
Cheryl Wheeler - January 9 *  (SOLD OUT)
Richie Havens - February 6 (SOLD OUT)
Carlene Carter - March 6
Firehouse Band and Kenny White - April 3

Jim Scott - Nov 7th ($15)

Jim Scott

Jim has long been active in the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church. and has visited over 300 UU churches across the country, leading services, presenting concerts, and offering workshops. Three of Jim's songs are included in the new Unitarian Universalist Hymnbook, and "Gather The Spirit," has become a favorite across the denomination. Jim has served on the board of the UU Musicians Network and was Co-Chair of the ecological/spiritual activist group the UU "Seventh Principle Project." Their "Green Sanctuary” program for church congregations to become more environmentally conscious is described in the Ecology section.



John McCutcheonJohn McCutcheon - December 5 ($20)

From such inauspicious beginnings, John McCutcheon has emerged as one of our most respected and loved folksingers. As an instrumentalist, he is a master of a dozen different traditional instruments, most notably the rare and beautiful hammer dulcimer. His songwriting has been hailed by critics and singers around the globe. His twenty-four recordings have garnered every imaginable honor, including five Grammy nominations. He has produced over twenty albums of other artists, from traditional fiddlers to contemporary singer-songwriters to educational and documentary works. His books and instructional materials have introduced budding players to the joys of their own musicality. And his commitment to grassroots political organizations has put him on the front lines of many of the issues important to communities and workers.


Cheryl Wheeler - January 9 ($25) (SOLD OUT)

Cheryl Wheeler

Cheryl Wheeler has to be seen to be appreciated. Nothing you read and nothing you hear from her album prepares you for how good a performer she is. From her albums you can tell that she is a gifted songwriter with a beautiful voice. From other people's comments about her you can learn that she is a natural story teller with a fantastic sense of humor. But until you see her in person, you never really believe what you've been told about her. Besides, almost half of the songs she does during her shows haven't been recorded!










Richie HavensRichie Havens - February 6 ($25) (SOLD OUT)

Richie Havens is gifted with one of the most recognizable voices in popular music. His fiery, poignant, always soulful singing style has remained unique and ageless since he first emerged from the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960’s. It’s a voice that has inspired and electrified audiences from the Woodstock Music & Arts Fair in 1969, to the Clinton Presidential Inauguration in 1993 -coming full circle with the 30th Woodstock Anniversary celebration, "A Day In The Garden", in 1999.



Carlene Carter - March 6 ($25)

Carlene Carter

Daughter of the legendary June Carter Cash and Country Music Hall-of-Famer Carl Smith, and stepdaughter of the enduring Johnny Cash, CARLENE CARTER is heir to one of the richest musical legacies of all time. The GRAMMY-nominated Carter freely straddles the line between rock and country, and enjoys broad appeal across both genres. "Carlene Carter ... fluctuates between the sassy country-rock of her past and reflective acoustic-country tunes about her present." - Associated Press



Kenny WhiteFirehouse Band with Kenny White - April 3 ($15)

As a six-year-old boy, Kenny White would hear songs on the radio and play back what he'd just heard. His father, already having a brother planted firmly in the Borscht Belt circuit, was troubled. College, he thought…please…college…maybe med school? Not to be – piano lessons it was. Quickly growing impatient of being told that “yes, all the notes” were required in the Mozart pieces, and that changing them was not, indeed, making the music better, he gently pushes his teacher off the bench. Kenny decided then that he was going to play the piano....his way.  Well know guitarist Duke Levine will be joining  Kenny.


Firehouse Band

FCU's own Firehouse Band always thrills the  home crowd!   Covering songs of well known folk artists, the band is sure to tug at your emotional heart-strings.






More Artists From Past Seasons