Tükrös Hungarian Folk Ensemble
Sunday, July 12
8:00pm, $10
Your Inner Vagabond
(4130 Butler Street, Lawrenceville)

Formed in 1986, this six-member band from Budapest has been instrumental in the revival of Hungarian village music. The group's line-up of violins, violas, double bass, cimbalom and vocals transports listeners into the village life of the film, Latcho Drom. The music they play comes from Hungarians, Gypsies and Romanians who celebrated any major event occurring in the village calendar. The influx of modern technology and pop has supplanted the place of music and dance in a villager's life, but in some areas of Hungary and throughout Transylvania, this tradition can still be found today. Tükrös are part of a revival of village/peasant music and dance in Hungary over the last 20 to 30 years. "There is no need to improve it," explains Tükrös' viola player Péter Árendás, "only to play it as authentically as possible. "

*Presented in conjunction with Your Inner Vagabond

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Mike Dowling
Friday, July 17
8:00pm, $15
Your Inner Vagabond
(4130 Butler Street, Lawrenceville)

Bottleneck Blues, Vintage swing, Ragtime and more played with grace, wit and dazzling dexterity.

Grammy-winning guitarist Mike Dowling draws inspiration from deep in the musical bag of American roots guitar. He's firmly grounded in authenticity and possessed of a musical soul as old as the vintage music he favors. Fluent in several styles and difficult to pigeonhole, Mike has captured the hearts of acoustic music fans around the world with his engaging voice, self-deprecating wit, and elegant interpretations of an arsenal of old blues, swing, ragtime, and original compositions.

Saturday, July 18--Mike Dowling Workshop, 11:00am, Acoustic Music Works (Squirrel Hill).

*Presented in conjunction with Acoustic Music Works

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The Horse's Ha
Monday, July 27
8:00pm, $8 (advance) / $10 (door)
Thunderbird Cafe
(4023 Butler St., Lawrenceville)
with special guest Local Honey

Freakwater could be considered the primeval "alt-country" band, as their 1989 debut album predated by a year Uncle Tupelo's No Depression, the album cited as the cornerstone of the movement. Formed in 2002, The Horse's Ha unites Freakwater vocalist Janet Beveridge Bean with British ex-pat James Elkington of The Zincs. They joined forces with stellar Chicago musicians to create a sophisticated, compelling hybrid infused with echoes of the English folk revival, lulling bossa nova rhythms and country-inflected pop. Their debut album, Of The Cathmawr Yards, is set in a fictitious graveyard mentioned in a Dylan Thomas short story, and teems with dark, fantastical themes such as talking woodcuts, walking skeletons, grave-digging divas, and at least eleven references to the moon. Peter Margasak of the Chicago Reader cited Van Morrison and Dusty Springfield as musical signposts, noting that Bean "reveals a personal vision, [expanding] the horizons of American roots music with an assurance and craftsmanship."

Advance tickets on sale at Paul's CDs, Dave's Music Mine, Caliban Books,
Acoustic Music Works, and The Exchange Squirrel Hill.

*Presented in conjunction with Thunderbird Cafe

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Holy Ghost Tent Revival
Thursday, August 20
8:00pm, $8 (advance) / $10 (door)
Thunderbird Cafe
(4023 Butler St., Lawrenceville)
with special guest The Armadillos

"Holy Ghost recalls a New Orleans jazz band rocking out, reminding us that, for a time, jazz wasn't much more than good and dirty dance music." --INDEPENDENT WEEKLY

This Greensboro, NC sextet has been called "dynamically earthy jazz," but don't spend too much
time trying to figure out a genre in which to place them. Their free-wheeling stylistic explorations occur in a coherent and exciting framework, not a gratuitous display or hodgepodge, jumbling up roots/country and bluegrass with big band, jazz and rock in a method described as explosively intoxicating - like being shot from a cannon - with their joyous and rollicking arrangements making perfect musical sense, as if euphonium and banjo were born to play together.

Advance tickets on sale at Paul's CDs, Dave's Music Mine, Caliban Books,
Acoustic Music Works, and The Exchange Squirrel Hill.

*Presented in conjunction with Thunderbird Cafe

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Pittsburgh
Songwriters Project

The Pittsburgh Songwriters Project is funded by The Allegheny Regional Asset District and is led by teaching artists Tom Breiding and Rick Malis from the Calliope School of Folk Music. The group includes student apprentices from the Calliope School.

Together, the apprentices and teachers have composed and recorded a CD entitled When We Shine: 15 Songs About Pittsburgh to celebrate Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary. The songs range in theme from historical songs about legendary Pittsburghers including composer Stephen Foster and Negro League baseball legend Josh Gibson to contemporary reflections on Pittsburgh and its people.

Copies of When We Shine are available online

When We Shine CD's and teacher guides are also available. Interested teachers should contact the Calliope office (412) 361-1915, calliope@calliopehouse.org

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Rootz: The Green City Music Festival
Thanks to all who made this event a great success!
View Photos from Rootz: The Green City Music Festival

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2007 Calliope Songwriters Circle CD
Proceeds from the sale of these CDs will benefit Calliope.
CD's are available for sale at Calliope events, and at cdbaby.com

We come together once a month in the back of Pittsburgh's Bloomfield Bridge Tavern to make ourselves heard, to support and challenge each other, and to celebrate the intoxicating joy of making music. We are the Pittsburgh Songwriters Circle, a program of Calliope: the Pittsburgh Folk Music Society. Our faces and voices and stories are as diverse as the songs on this disc, but a shared commitment to the art and craft of songwriting is our common thread.

This CD is the third collection of our work. Like its predecessors, it gives us the opportunity to present our songs to the world as we first experienced them — as a group. Each song was written and performed by a member of the Circle, often with the help of a few friends. It is a labor of love if there ever was one.

Read a Pittsburgh City Paper review of this CD!

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2006 Calliope Songwriters Circle CD
Proceeds from the sale of these CDs will benefit Calliope.
This album can be purchased at Calliope concerts, and at Threepenny Opry events.

Dan Bench
Howard Davidson
Peter Donovan
Bruce Hoffman
Nancy Deckant
George Kantor
Dennis McCurdy
David Wells
Cathasaigh
Sue Gartland
Randy Hoffman
Jack Knight
George Salamacha
Another Country with DJ Danger

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2005 Calliope Songwriters Circle CD
Proceeds from the sale of these CDs will benefit Calliope. To purchase this CD, visit cdbaby.com

1. Pennsylvania (Jonathan Ritz)
2. Last Chance Band (David Wells)
3. Bartender (Andy Tinker)
4. Thoughts of Missouri (Sue Gartland)
5. Cocaine Don't Care (Robert Wagner)
6. Sweetness (Dan Bench)
7. Naked Mole Rat (Randy Hoffman)
8. Shades of Green (Howard Davidson)
9. Richard Jewell (John Hayes)
10. Take it in Stride (George Kantor)
11. Big Time (Patti Spinner)
12. Seven or Fewer (David LaRose)
13. S.W. (Peter Donovan)
14. I'm a Walker (Jack Erdie)