AN INTRODUCTION TO SLOFOLKS
SLOfolks, a non profit organization, brings you live music from Appalachia to Mali, a diversity reflecting the cultural history and expression of the people's music played on a variety of instruments. You will hear sea shanties, ballads, work songs, gypsy music, West African Kora, Celtic Bluegrass as well as French Musettes and Brazilian instrumentalists.

"Let this be my epitaph:The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music"
Kurt Vonnegut

Boulder Acoustic Society at Castoro Cellars, April 26,2008
(Top right photo) Photographer, Paul McCloskey

On August 9, 2007, SLOfolks received our tax exempt status from the IRS. We are now a public charity, exempt from federal taxes as a 501(c)(3) corporation. All contributions to SLOfolks are deductible under section 170 of the code. Any bequests, transfers or gifts are tax deductible.

Folk music has been with us forever...in every country of the world. It is the musical expression of many people; it takes us back to our roots and allows us to participate in that rich tradition.

When times are hard and people are suffering, folk music is the voice of our conscience to awaken compassion and understanding. It moves us, makes us laugh, cry and best of all, brings us together.

Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Peter Paul and Mary, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan were major influences for many of us. Now new voices continue to inspire us, artists like Lucy Kaplansky, Eliza Gilkyson, Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen, James Talley, Alice Stuart, Chuck Brodsky and Chris Smither to name a few .

SLOfolks brings us a variety of voices and instruments... artists like Rahim AlHaj from Baghdad, who uses his music to communicate compassion, love and peace. "The responsibility of the listener is to understand the message. This message is the secret of life." Rahim AlHaj

To find out more about our musicians, check our Artists page.

Please visit our Events page to get more information about upcoming concerts.

Our News, page will let you know about other local concerts and Press articles.

For Ticket Reservation, please check our Ticket page.



SLOFOLKS CONCERTS 2008
Pierre Bensusan completed his 40 day tour at Castoro Cellars to a SOLD OUT crowd. He played a longer than usual second set and treated us to a beautiful piece from his Intuite CD, after a couple of standing ovations. In Steve Vai's words:
""Listening to Pierre's music is rejuvenating. Beside his extraordinary touch and tone, the notes and melody appeal directly to the tender side of our human nature."

We are pleased to let you know that Pierre Bensusan just won the 2008 Guitar Player Readers choice award ! It will be in the May 2008 issue. Look on the magazine front page and Pierre's picture is in the awards section. Please check our Events page to check our 2008 Concert Calendar.

Photograph of Pierre Bensusan playing at Castoro Cellars, March 29, 2008 by Paul McCloskey



PAUL McCLOSKEY PHOTOGRAPHY
We are pleased to announce a new addition to the SLOFolks website. Please visit the "SLOFolks Presents...Concert Galleries," with photographs by Paul J. McCloskey from recent SLOFolks shows at Castoro Cellars.
Paul is a local photographer/graphic artist who has volunteered to photograph the SLOFolks concerts because of his passion for music, in addition to capturing the ambiance of these musical events in his photography.
SLOfolks Presents

http://web.mac.com/paul_mccloskey/



Photo on the right: Houston Jones at Castoro Cellars, Feb.16, 2008
ERIC TAYLOR
May 9, Coalesce Bookstore - 7:00PM - $15 -
Ticket Reservation:772-2880

May l0, SLO Art Center, 1010 Broad St, SLO (Main entrance off the Mission Plaza side of the building).
Tickets - Boo Boo Records - $15(Plus handling fee:$1.50)
Doors will open at 6:30PM - Tickets at the door $18 (Limited Seating)

Sonnie Brown will interview Eric Taylor on The Minstrel Song Show on KCBX. 9O.1FM, Saturday, May 10, between 2 and 4PM

"Eric Taylor is both quietly and intensely one of our best singer-songwriter-performers, a cerebral poet with a clear creative course accompanied by solid, never-hurried acoustic guitar licks capable of drawing listeners into the quiet places between the notes. . . [Hollywood Pocketknife is] a consistently listenable CD, as fine as an evening reading a good book at a warm hearth while the wind howls outside."
Charlie Hunter, Flying Under Radar Productions

"I’m always the opening act when I’m around Eric. I love his voice, and he has a great narrative quality and sense of detail. He sort of takes you out of your own reality and into the reality of his songs. It’s good writing no matter how you cut it.
Lyle Lovett

"He’s the real deal. Eric Taylor was one my heroes and teachers when I started playing around Houston in the early 1970s."
Steve Earle

Eric Taylor came on stage at the Maze in Nottingham without any ceremony. He started a little blues riff on his blond acoustic guitar (a beautiful-sounding, handmade 'Ross-Kinscherff'). He played for his audience but never to the crowd. He didn't look for cliched climaxes or manufactured endings. It was always an intimate gig, a reflective affair, an evening for devotees...I went with a couple of players, guys who know the mysteries of dadgad, who understand a little about the merits of a B string dropped down to A and the quiet craft of a good song well written. They stood either side of me and looked mean if they thought I was going to be critical in any way. They kept pointing out things, making sure I understood; they wanted the man looked after. Eric Taylor seems to inspire that sort of devotion, that sort of affection, that sort of regard; like he is an endangered species -- maybe he is."
Maverick magazine (UK)

"I think Eric Taylor is one of the best writers working today. He has his own voice and his own vision. His arrange-ments on Resurrect are beautifully sparse, only what’s needed is there. His lyrics are equally spare and right to the point. He is Texas, but he doesn’t drag the whole state behind him or wave it like a banner. My girlfriend made the mistake of lending me Resurrect and now she know’s she’ll never get it back."
Bill Morrissey

"Eric Taylor’s work always garners praise from me. Resurrect is 11 stars for 11 songs of marvelous integrity in timeless storytelling. If you miss an opportunity to hear Eric Taylor in concert you have missed a chance to hear a voice I consider the William Faulkner of songwriting in our current time, and you will miss the rare opportunity to watch the hands of one of America’s most unusual guitarists, with lyrics that will nail your heart to your ear and mind. For me to say that Eric Taylor is one of the finest writers of our time is an understatement."
Nanci Griffith

Eric Taylor
PRINCE DIABATE
The accompanying acoustic group will be: Ken Rosser on acoustic guitar; Linda Albertano on bolon (trad. contra-bass) and gongoman (trad. thumb piano

May 23, Coalesce Bookstore, 7pm $20
May 24, Castoro Cellars, 7:30pm $20>

Sonnie Brown will interview Prince Diabate on The Minstrel Song Show on KCBX. 9O.1FM, Saturday, May 24, between 2 and 4PM

PRINCE DIABATE a Masterful Kora Player
"Guinean musician Prince Diabate has been described as the prince (as in royalty, not the rock star) of the kora, as well as the Jimi Hendrix of the instrument. In his performance at the Getty Center's Harold M. Williams Auditorium on Saturday, the former description was more applicable than the latter.

The colorfully garbed instrumentalist and singer, a descendant of a long line of Malinke djelis, is clearly a masterful kora player with the capacity to extract an astonishing array of sounds and melodies from his utterly unique instrument. The kora combines elements of the harp and the lute, and in Diabate's hands it was especially effective when he was using its multi-stringed sounds to accompany his singing of spirited traditional songs..."
Don Heckman, Special to The Times

Mr Diabaté, a virtuosic kora player, reared in Guinea, was a clear audience favorite."
New York Times, September 18, 2002

"Draped like a Guinean pope, the charismatic Diabaté was the cock of the walk."
LA Weekly, CA, September 20, 2002

"L'un des plus brillants virtuoses de la cora d'Afrique de l'Ouest."
La Presse, Montréal, Canada, December 19, 2002 "It was an amazing evening, worth repeating."
Music Connection Magazine,CA, February, 2003

"Prince Diabaté and his band turned in a regal performance."
Hi Desert Post, CA, July, 2003

"Un reél coup de coeur." (a real shot from the heart)
Francofolies de Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Aug 2003

Prince Diabate
KATE BROWN & STEVE EINHORN
June 6, Coalesce Bookstore - 7PM - $15 Tickets: (805) 772-2880

Sonnie Brown will interview Kate Power & Steve Einhorn on The Minstrel Song Show on KCBX. 9O.1FM, Saturday, June 7, between 2 and 4PM

Kate Power & Steve Einhorn are two musicians who have defined folk music in Portland, Oregon over the past 30 years. A rare combination, their music promotes community and romance simultaneously. Unique and original, the songs of Power & Einhorn personify harmony an musicial communion.

There has been a lot of press about us over the years. Between decades of serving up folk music at Artichoke Music, winning a Grand Prize at Kerrville for a song from a lost boy, community activism like setting the Guinness World Record with the world's largest guitar band singing "This Land is Your Land" to allay hunger in Portland, playing A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor when he came to Oregon with his road show, letters from Pete Seeger letting us know how much he loves our music and getting to share letters and friendship with the real hero of our lives or giving an unknown Zimbabwean boy a great guitar to play after he built his first one out of an oil can, raw wood and stripped bicycle brake cables; there have been a lot of stories to tell. Here are just a few kernals on the ear of corn but this section gives a few bites of the tasty stories from the adventures of Artichoke Folk. There are a lot more where these came from...we love what we do and we love sharing it with you. Here are a few reasons why... About Kate & Steve - News & Media (Jan 16, 2007)

Pete Seeger wrote: " I finally got to listen to your CD pearls . It's wonderful!"

"Hearing Kate & Steve sing is like having two friends in your backyard when it's grown too dark to see but not to lisen and they're singing songs you've loved for years. Then they sing some songs you've never heard and you know you'll want to hear them too, for years to come.
Tom Paxton

Kate Power & Steve Einhorn
KATE POWER & STEVE EINHORN & BLIND WILLIES
A DOUBLE BILL

June 7 - Wilson Hall, First Presbyterian Church, corner of Marsh and Morro, San Luis Obispo. 7PM
Tickets at Boo Boo Records, $20 + $1.50 Service charge

BLIND WILLIES

Sonnie Brown will interview Blind Willies on The Minstrel Song Show on KCBX. 9O.1FM, Saturday, June 7, between 2 and 4PM

"If the Devil went down to San Francisco where Blind Willies are located and challenged Annie to a fiddlin' contest it would be no contest because you cannot fiddle like this without divine intervention. Blind Willies prove once again that traditionally styled folk music can sound aggressively modern."
jill no jack
Heart of the Night podcast 1/31/08
indieheart.com

Blind Willies is Annie Staninec, multi-genre fiddler, and Alexei Wajchman, guitarist/singer/songwriter. They met and began playing together at San Francisco School of the Arts.

Annie has been playing bluegrass/old time fiddle for more than a decade. She's also a consummate gypsy jazz violinist. In 2006, she toured with David Grisman and the Gypsy Caravan. The highlight of those performances was a full orchestra playing David Grisman's “Gypsy Medley” from his soundtrack recording for the film, King of the Gypsies. As the featured fiddler, Annie electrified audiences in solos that honored the late Stéphane Grappelli who originally recorded the piece with David. She has also played with Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Stephane Wrembel, and Crooked Still.

Annie was Djangofest Northwest's 2006 recipient of the Dudley Hill Award for exceptional young artist. In 2008 she was named Fiddler of the Year at the inaugural Northern California Bluegrass Awards.

Alexei grew up in San Francisco's Mission District. After learning to play clarinet and sax, he taught himself to play guitar and began writing songs at 15. He was awarded the Blue Bear Celebrity Scholarship to study guitar and voice in 2002 and 2003, and he was a 2003 California Arts Scholar in sax. His early influences included Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Velvet Underground, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Hank Williams, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors. His music is a soulful mix of folk, country, rock, and blues, and his lyrics are an intimate exploration of America's psycho/social landscapes.

Writing in the popular online zine Delusions of Adequacy, editor Jennifer Patton wrote "Blind Willies play incredibly wonderful music. Alexei is a remarkable songwriter."

Blind Willies made their professional debut at San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in 2004. They've played Berkeley's legendary Freight and Salvage, SF's Great American Music Hall, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Zeum, and the SF Folk Festival. In 2007 they performed with Peter Stampfel(The Holy Modal Rounders, The Fugs) in New York, and opened for Penelope Houston(Avengers) in San Francisco.

Their debut album, The Unkindness of Ravens, was recorded and mixed by Lemon DeGeorge(Jolie Holland, film Genghis Blues) at Crib Nebula in San Francisco, and mastered by Paul Carlsen(Nirvana's Nevermind) at the Russian River.

Blind Willies' new CD, Everybody's Looking for a Meal, is available now.

Blind Willies