Joan Osborne

City Winery is scheduled to open in Tribeca on New Year’s Eve with a performance by Joan Osborne. [Billboard]

Folk music mavens wring their hands about the graying folk audiences, but judging from the latest Northeastern Regional Folk Alliance conference last weekend, youth will have its day. Not that it wasn’t a pleasure hearing veterans like John McCutcheon, Anne Hills, Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen, and James Lee Stanley, but it’s exciting when you discover a bunch of new voices in their 20s.

Anthony DaCosta, the phenom from Pleasantville, isn’t even 18 yet, and he had the honor of closing the second formal showcase. He also sat in with Lindsay Mac, the lovely and talented 20-something singer-songwriter who plays the cello strapped on like a guitar (and who, along with Anthony, was one of winning emerging artistsof the 2007 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival). Another young talent doing a formal showcase was Nathan Rogers, son of the late Stan Rogers (and nephew of Garnet Rogers), who’s part of the booming Winnipeg music scene.

Backstage with Anthony and Lindsay

A lot of folks were buzzing about another Canadian act, Dala, an adorable duo from Toronto, with great harmonies and the look of young Indigo Girls. Cape Cod’s five Parkington Sisters, between 17 and 29 in age, are also adorable, not to mention accomplished musicians - they have 3 violins, one cello, one guitar and the kind of harmonies that come from singing together your whole life. Other impressive young women were Kelleigh McKenzie, from Rockland County, who’s looks elegant playing the banjo, but sings down to earth, kind of dark songs, and Bettysoo, from Austin, who claims she’s “never the pretty girl,” but is an engaging and witty performer.

Tena Moyer isn’t exactly a newcomer, but being based in Arizona, she doesn’t get east very often. Which is too bad, because she writes smart and sophisticated songs, worthy of the American popular songbook. Danny Schmidt, based in Austin, on the other hand, writes dark, bluesy songs with great guitar accompaniment. More people will get to know him when Red House releases his next CD nationally.

The biggest buzz at NERFA had to be about the Creaking Tree String Quartet from Canada. They’ve got the conventional bluegrass configuration (guitar, mandolin, bass, and fiddle), but take it totally unexpected places with virtuoso playing.  Molly’s Revenge, from Santa Cruz, CA, is another group with great players and also good vocals; in their case, they push the edge of Celtic music. Another young Celtic group to watch is Philadelphia-based RUNA, led by an amazing vocalist, Shannon Lambert-Ryan.

Shannon also sings with Guy Mendilow, who’s lived in Israel and South Africa, but is now based in Boston. One of my favorite hours at NERFA was spent in a “guerilla” showcase hosted by Acousticmusicscene.com. (NERFA has three levels of showcases - large formal showcases in the main showroom, midlevel “tri-centric” showcases in meeting rooms, and late night “guerilla” showcases in people’s bedrooms.) This one was was on Saturday afternoon, featuring the Guy Mendilow Band with their hybrid folk/world music, Long Island’s Joe Iadanza with his well-crafted songs and a tight band, and Gathering Time, a trio from Long Island with fabulous harmonies. They took turns singing their own songs and backing each other up. It was a great example of the folk community in action.

Now if I can just catch up on my sleep and all the CDs I picked up along the way…

Today is the Great American Smoke Out.  We are putting together a smokin’ set.  Add your suggestions to the list.

Jim Fusilli (always a good read in the Wall Street Journal) has raised an interesting issue.

Should older established singer-songwriters spend more time recording songs by relatively unknown performers, rather than just doing another Covers collection?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122696707696335397.html?mod=article-outset-box

What do you think?

Odetta, a true folk/blues icon and one of music’s great voices, is in the hospital. She went in for a check up the weekend before last and on Sunday evening went into kidney failure. The next 24 hours were touch and go. She pulled through that emergency, but as of this writing is still in intensive care.

According to her manager, she believes she’s going to sing at Obama’s inauguration, so that may be what’s keeping her alive. She’s been a fighter for great causes all her life, but none more important than this. She’s also been a good friend of FUV (she even recorded her CD “Gonna Let It Shine” at a concert for our members), so let’s send some love and prayers her way. Here’s the address:

Ms. Odetta Gordon

Room 719, 7th Floor ICU

Lenox Hill Hospital

100 East 79th St.

New York, NY 10021

Odetta at WFUV with me and Mark Carpentieri of MC Records

Kathleen Edwards and John Doe stopped by WFUV before their performance at Zankel Hall on November 7th. The duo performed “Golden State” live on 90.7FM  Enjoy!

On the Anniversary of Nixon’s speech in which he proclaimed, “I am not a crook!” we are asking for song suggestions about crooks, presidents or both!

Should smoking bans be waived for performers on stage? Not if you ask authorities in Southend, England who issued a warning to the venue where Paul Weller lit up on Saturday night. The former frontman of The Jam and The Style Council was not cited in this incident, but he was warned for smoking during other shows last week according to the BBC. Makes you wonder…how does Snoop Dogg get through a show without smoking?

Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons perform “Please Wait” as part of CMJ 2008 at the Bowery Ballroom. Check out his new E.P. entitled “Cabin Ghosts” out now on Black Seal.