Angela draws from her experience of music
gathered from over 30 years running college
folk venues in the late 70's, running the
Speak Easy in Greenwich Village through the
early 80's, and her involvement with the
production of the Fast Folk Musical Magazine.
Oneonta's "Side Track Cafe"
At Oneonta Angela booked Stan
Rogers in his first U.S. tour. Other
artists to frequent the venue: Eric
Frandsen, Robin and Linda Williams, The
Roches, Lew London, and Jack Hardy. She
always looked out for the next great talent,
and brought them to the public's ears.
Oneonta had the biggest roundhouse in the
nation, so she named the cafe to reflect
that, decorating it with train memorabilia.
Staff of first national coffee house
conference
On the staff for Jeri
Goldstein who ran the first coffee
house festival on the campus of Oneonta
State College. It was held in 1976.
Greenwich Village's "Speak Easy"
After moving to the village in
1978 Angela began noticing the few
venues for folk were not every night
and began searching for a club to
house folk music every night. Mike Porco
had left Folk City for Florida and left a
void for
a hang out space for singer songwriters,
traditional and blues lovers hoping for an
every night folk experience.
"In the
summer of 1981 Vinny Vok and I had found a felafel place on MacDougal
Street that was a disco and willing to
change.
By the fall I had negotiated press and a
framework for musician involvement in the
form of a steering committee to run its
operations. The
Speak Easy, every night folk club,
opened in the fall of 1981 with Lucy
Kaplansky, Suzanne Vega, Rod MacDonald and
others in the first
club poster, and press from New
York Post.
Hoots,
popular around the corner at Folk City in
the days Mike Porco ran it, were
re-labelled dollar nights. These were
the best of the open mike nights. Ed
McCurdy, Paul Kaplan, David Massengill were
just some of the hosts. Having looked
over the books I kept at the time, those
dollar nights would average an amount from
no money, to 20 something dollars, meaning
that was the number in attendance, but of
course those nights were not about the
cooperative's income.
Bored with
normal booking, nights took on themes:
Tall night, Italian night, girls with
glasses, new songs, and erotic song night
judged by Dave Van Ronk and NJ
Librarians.
Another
judging evening was the Bob Dlylan
imitator's contest in August of 1892, with major
network coverage and rumors of Dylan himself
offering a guitar. It began because I was annoyed
that most of the hooters seemed to simply be
trying to emulate Bob Dylan.
Judges
were Cynthia Gooding, Mike Porco [who
booked Dylan at Folk City, and Geoffrey
Stokes of the Village Voice, and Larry
Sloman."
Nightly, at
the Speak Easy one could hear who was active
in the folk world at the time. Before Speak
Easy many
musician's wrote and played, but few
regularly performed, or sang on, other
performers tune's. After the opening
of Speak Easy, this changed.
Staff for "Fast Folk Musical Magazine"
The magazine
began six months after the opening of the
Speak Easy. It was a magazine and a full
LP. Jack Hardy created this idea with
photographer/musician Brian Rose. We put the
magazine together in our tiny Greenwich
Village apartment.
What ended up
on the record was a representation of a what
was happening in the village at the time.
Some of the
issues revolved around themes at times
(Humor April 83, Women Oct 84) and then the
issues began to expand from the Greenwich
village crowd to include tributes to Cafe
Lena, the Toronto or the Boston scene.
On the air with Folk Plus since 1993.
Folk Plus is
a blend of music from the contemporary folk
scene. Angela began hosting Folk Plus at
hydro-powered, vounteer run WJFF in
Jeffersonville, NY. Since that time she has
expanded to have her specials air on Sirius
radio and other stations nationally. She
routinely airs on the stations mentioned in
the STATIONS link.
Currently she
creates Folk Plus at home, due to extreme
chemical sensitivities.
Staff reviewer for "Sing Out!"
Angela has
reviewed several artists in Sing Out!
Magazine: The festival in a magazine form
out of Bethlehem, PA . www.singout.org
Showcase judge for "N.E.R.F.A."
Angela has been a North East
Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA)
showcase judge for the Formals, Tri -Centric
and Quad Showcases listening to hundreds of
songs and casting votes on the final line ups.
At one point Angela
performed herself, but with the onset of
chemical illness, this is not possible any
longer.
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