PLEASE NOTE: There was a typo in our August 5 eNote. Bill Staines' concert is on Saturday October 3 at 8 p.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.
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**Take advantage of advance ticket prices, as they go up the day of the show!** ADV: $15/$12 MEM; DOS: $18/$15 MEM
Anyone not familiar with the music of Bill Staines is in for a special treat. For more than 35 years, he 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, Staines became involved with the Boston-Cambridge folk scene in the early 1960s, and, for a time, emceed the Sunday hootenanny at the renowned Club 47 in Cambridge. He quickly became a popular performer in the Boston area. In 1971, after one of his performances, a reviewer for The Phoenix stated that Staines was “simply Boston’s best performer.” A decade later, both in 1980 and 1981, the annual Reader’s Poll of The Boston Globe selected him as a favorite performer.
In 1991, Staines entered his forth decade as a folk performer with an international reputation as an artist. Singing mostly his own songs, he has become one of the most popular singers on the folk music circuit today and averages around 200 concert dates a year. He weaves a magical blend of wit and gentle humor into his performances, and, as one reviewer wrote, “he has a sense of timing to match the best stand-up comic.” His music is a slice of Americana, reflecting his feelings about the prairie people of the Midwest or the adventurers of the Yukon.
Interspersed between original songs, he also includes songs ranging from traditional folk tunes to more contemporary country ballads and delights in having the audience participate in many of the numbers. He may even do a yodeling tune or two, having won the National Yodeling Championship in 1975 at the Kerrville Folk Festival.
Kerry Grombacher, who plays guitar and mandolin and writes contemporary folk and Western songs, as well as country songs and ballads, will open the show.
