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Concert Schedule
Hors d'ouevres sodas & coffee provided; BYO Favorites. There are small dogs at the Dawson house
For Reservations and Directions, Call: (301) 949-1888, or E-mail: dawsonconcerts@aol.com
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Please see artist photos and bios below concert schedule
DATE | TIME | ARTIST | SUGGESTED DONATION |
Saturday February 11 |
8 PM | Cletus
Kennelly & Lori Kelley (26 WAMMIE nominations and 7 WAMMIE awards including Songwriter of the Year, song of the Year and Best Folk Duo!)
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$15.00 |
Saturday
April 15 |
8 PM | Mary
Sue Twohy & Ina May Wool
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$15.00 |
Cletus Kennelly & Lori Kelley http://www.lorikelley.com/LKandCK.html Award-winning
singer-songwriters as solo artists, Cletus Kennelly & Lori Kelley
combined their artistries into a duo, developing a style and a sense for
each other’s voices that is magical. “I haven’t heard
harmonies this tight since Simon & Garfunkel” (Gene Dawson, Dawson
Concerts). Their work has earned them 26 WAMMIE nominations
and seven WAMMIE Awards (Washington Area Music Awards)
between them, including the 2004 WAMMIE Award for BEST
CONTEMPORARY FOLK DUO/GROUP. Both approach their writing
from a lyrical, melodic place with songs that speak to the heart.
The wit and depth each adds to the other’s songs makes for an engaging
show. “Cletus and Lori are two standout performers whose voices
blend beautifully.” (Scott Moore, Moore House Concerts) As solo
artists, both Cletus & Lori were honored to be selected to perform
at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center. Their much anticipated duo
CD, Lotus, was released in September 2005. Mike Joyce of The
Washington Post writes, “In addition to sharing close harmonies on
their new CD, Lotus, Cletus and Lori alternately
contribute tunes that tend to fall gracefully between folk and pop.
In fact, so consistent is the song quality that it’s sometimes hard to
tell who wrote what.” Richard Harrington of The Washington Post
writes, “What's better than a good singer-songwriter? Two
singer-songwriters whose meshed voices seem built for close harmony.
That's the case for Lori Kelley and Cletus Kennelly.” (Richard
Harrington, Washington Post, 3-18-05) CLETUS KENNELLY
is a five-time WAMMIE-winner, including BEST NEW ARTIST,
SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR, and BEST CONTEMPORARY
FOLK VOCALIST . He’s earned a total of 36 songwriting
awards, including 15 WAMMIE nominations. Ray Ruskin of the
Kensington Coffee House Concert Series remarks, “What makes Cletus
great is Cletus. He has a way of connecting to the audience
directly, and the rich quality of his voice is so effective, he
doesn’t need a band behind him. Chris Slattery of the Gazette
Newspapers writes, “Cletus Kennelly has a way with words.
[He] takes only the finest words--the most honest and expressive.
He painstakingly crafts them into finely wrought phrases, and coaxes
them into verse.” “[He] is able to pan for nuggets of lyrical
gold.” Says Eric Brace of the Washington Post, “Cletus
Kennelly wields a mean 12-string acoustic and writes a moving tune…the
earnest and true kind.” |
LORI KELLEY is a three-time WAMMIE-winnner in the categories of: SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR and SONG OF THE YEAR, and has earned 12 WAMMIE nominations overall. She wields a four-octave range, and her songs have been voted #1 by Northern Virginia Rhythm Magazine among all genres, and she was recently the overall GRAND PRIZE-winner in the 2003 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest. Lori’s last solo release, Like Sea Glass, earned an astounding seven WAMMIE nominations for 2003. Michael Jaworek of The Birchmere Club states that her CD is “excellent on all accounts”. Sing Out Magazine agrees: “Lori takes her writing seriously. The lyrics are carefully crafted and the songs tell stories with ending that are not always predictable. Lori has you listening for what comes next”.
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Mary Sue Twohy
“Mary
Sue Twohy's airy soprano is well suited to material that straddles the
fine line between traditional and contemporary folk; on the latter
front, she's like a graceful, guitar-strumming Sarah McLachlan.”
–Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 2005 |
Ina May Wool
"I stood in a
tent near the hospital in Exeter, NH, on a rainy day in June 2002.
Thirty people were singing my songs along with me. 'J'ai Gagne (I Won)'
and 'January Thaw' were favorites of the cancer survivors' support group
there; a social worker had found my music on the Internet. It was such a
visceral feeling of triumph over suffering and a joy at being alive and
together - that day gave me fuel for months, " recalls Ina May
Wool. Ina May Wool has
garnered her share of affirmation and acclaim since the release of her
debut CD, "Moon Over 97th Street" in 1999. The Edinburgh Folk
Festival invited her to play, and she toured the UK as well as in
Europe. Representatives from BMI and ASCAP chose one of her songs for a
CD of the 15 best unsigned acoustic artists worldwide, and she's been a
finalist in the New Jersey Folk Festival songwriter contest and the
Plowshares Songwriting Competition. The Just Plain Folks Music Awards
named "Elephant Learning to Dance" the best song by a female
singer/songwriter and placed "Moon Over 97th Street" in the
top five albums worldwide. Suzanne Vega included one of her tunes on the
Vigil CD, a collection by New York songwriters after 9/11 also featuring
Vega, Christine Lavin, Richard Julian, and Jack Hardy. |
![]() "We were riding in the car listening over and over to this new CD - and it dawned on me that there is a theme I hadn't planned at all coming through all these songs. It's all about survival with joy intact, with rebirth and renewal." Wool's come to this new place in her life and writing from an eclectic apprenticeship - from bar bands to opening concerts in her native New England to New York's off off Broadway and r & b and jazz singing. She's found her way back to an intimate and personal blend of early acoustic folk guitar and vocal influences with the jazz, rock, and soul she's also loved over the years. Since the release of "Moon Over 97th Street" in 1999, Ina May has toured from Maine to D.C. to Chicago and shared stages with Leo Kottke, Sloan Wainwright, David Massengill, Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, and Richard Thompson. "Writing the songs for this CD I tried to let it come -- whatever it sounded like at 5 in the morning when I was writing a song in my kitchen. Maybe it was blues or bluegrass - I didn't know - but I had to stop worrying about those distinctions and just let it go." |
contact: dawsonconcerts@aol.com
Institute of Musical Traditions
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Washington Area Music Association
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