Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Thursday, October 13, 1994 Page: 7C
Chicory House sets new concert on Friday
Enthusiasts of old-time-music and first-timers alike can expect to be
spellbound by the haunting beauty of a great traditional American art form as
practiced by two of its creative masters when Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin
appear in concert at the Chicory House in Wilkes-Barre on Friday, Oct. 14, at
8 p.mThey are very simply the best at what they do, and the best has
universal appeal: Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin are practitioners of the art
of old-time country music and bluegrass whose luminous vocal harmonies and
string virtuosity have earned them the admiration of fans, critics and
musicians the world over. Recording artists on the Rounder label, their album
“Our Town” won them a Grammy Award nomination for best traditional folk album
in 1994.
The nonprofit, volunteer-operated Chicory House, Northeastern
Pennsylvania’s only venue dedicated to presenting folk music and dance, holds
its coffeehouse concerts in the Community Room of Saint Stephen’s Episcopal
Church, South Franklin Street across from Boscov’s, in downtown Wilkes-Barre.
Doors will open for the Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin concert at 7:30 p.m.
Stecher and Brislin capture the heart and soul of Appalachian and early
bluegrass music in their compelling duet vocals enhanced by lively and
inventive guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle.
Their work ranges, as they perform, through a variety of moods and
expression from poignant understatement to humor to disarming brilliance.
Brooklyn-born Stecher, an adopted northern Californian, approaches
traditional American music with a sensibility developed through his
exploration of a range of musical traditions over several decades. Starting in
bluegrass as a pre-teen, learning guitar and fretless banjo he became, in
time, an accomplished interpreter of blues, Cajun, Irish, Scottish, and
Bahamian, as well as old-time, music. A devotee of the arts of the fiddle, he
is also, notably, a dedicated student of Indian classical music who has
studied with Ali Akbar Khan and Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, and recorded with the
renowned sitarist Krishna Bhatt.
Brislin, from California, has made a reputation for herself as perhaps the
West Coast’s finest traditional singer, noted for her lyricism, phrasing and
pitch. She’s a natural born vocalist who began singing with her many sisters;
her mother, who sang on the radio in Virginia, reports that at age three Kate
would stand up on the back scat of the family car and joyfully bellow out the
latest tunes along with the radio.
After more than a decade of musical friendship, Stecher and Brislin formed
their duo in 1985, and were married less than two years later. They’re
regulars on the concert and festival circuit, and since 1989 they’ve been
releasing a string of beautifully recorded and critically acclaimed albums of
their music on the Rounder label. Their second album together, “Blue
Lightning,” won a prestigious “Indie” award nomination from the National
Association of Independent Record Dealers (NAIRD) and, in 1994, “Our Town” was
honored as a Grammy Award finalist. Albums by Stecher and Brislin will be
available at their Oct. 14 Chicory House concert.
Admission to Stecher and Brislin’s Chicory House concert will be $7 at the
door. There are no advance sales or reserved seats; table and other seating
will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Desserts and beverages will be
available for purchase throughout the evening.
For more information on the concert and future Chicory House presentations,
call 825-8772.