We have some great music for you at our April meeting on Monday April 9, 2018 at 7 pm! Irish music is the theme: we have Rich McGeehan and Amelie Harris-McGeehan on fiddle and bodhran, respectively, Bruce Rosen on guitar and previous SJARMS performer Tom Kingston on Irish whistle and various stringed instruments. 
These four immensely talented musicians play Irish music regularly at The Treehouse Cafe on Merchant Street in Audubon, NJ and have been playing music together for years.  

https://www.facebook.com/TheTreehouseCoffeeShopCafe/videos/10155153315931220/
The place is Medford Memorial Community Center, 21 South Main Street, Medford NJ. Park behind the center in the gravel lot. Enter via the rear door at the back porch. 
$10 for guests and visitors. Free for current SJARMS members. For more information on membership see www.sjarms.comand click on the Membership tab.
As usual there is an all level jam after the performance until about 9:25 pm. 

For more information call 609-280-4926.

Solo photo below of Rich McGeehan playing violin is by Freddie Patane.

South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society (SJARMS) presents cowboy/western, country, prairie, and railroad song singer/performer (banjo, guitar, autoharp, harmonica) Bob Bovee on Monday, March 12, 2018 at 7:00 pm at the Medford Memorial Community Center, 21 South Main Street, Medford, NJ (on the block with The Pop Shop and Braddock’s Tavern- parking is directly behind the Community Center in the Public Parking spaces- please enter the building via the back door off the back porch.) Doors open at 6:45 pm. Admission $10 at the door for guests and visitors (free admission to current SJARMS members.)

More info: 609-280-4926. For information on membership please see the membership tab above. Please also see our Facebook page: South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society.

As always we will have an intermission and light refreshments after the performance where attendees can greet the performer and an acoustic jam will follow for about 60 to 75 minutes, ending promptly at 9:25 pm. We have use of the entire downstairs of the Community Center so jammers can break off into jams for different genres of music: bluegrass pickers, old-timey, and songs with lyrics.  Performance attendees are welcome to stay and listen to or participate in the jam if they bring their acoustic instruments. 

About Bob:

Bob is a Nebraska native whose family sang and played the old-time songs. Many of the western and railroad songs he does were learned from his grandmother. He plays banjo and autoharp, sings and yodels, and can drive a dance band with his guitar and harmonica. Bob is well known and loved for his dry and witty stage humor. He has published numerous articles and reviews for The Old-Time Herald and Inside Bluegrass and been an instructor for a course called “The History of Country Music” for the Honors Division at the University of Minnesota.

Since 1971 Bob has traveled the country taking old time music to audiences of all ages at festivals, fairs, concerts, dances, schools, libraries, music camps, radio and TV programs, including Prairie Home Companion and Mountain Stage. This is rural music as played in homes, at dances and for earlier entertainments such as minstrel shows and country radio.

Along with a repertoire including dance tunes, ballads, cowboy songs, humorous and sentimental numbers, blues and rags, he spices his shows with stories, history and folklore.

Bob is performing for us at SJARMS on the last night of a 10 day tour of the North East from Vermont to Delaware then back to his home in Minnesota.

Please click on the link below: Here is a YouTube video of Bob performing with his friend Pop Wagner on Prairie Public Broadcasting TV program, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpVWCeFAKnQ

Cancelling SJARMS January meeting, Monday 1/8/18, due to predicted freezing rain and sleet.

Hope to see you in February, 2018 if the weather cooperates!

South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society (SJARMS) welcomes minstrel, humorist and storyteller, Mike Agranoff to our December, 2017 meeting on Monday, December 11, 2017 at the Medford Memorial Community Center, 21 South Main Street, Medford.
Doors open at 6:45 pm. The performance is free for SJARMS members and $10 for guests and non-members. As always, there will be an acoustic jam (all levels) following the performance.

For more information: 609-280-4926.

MIKE AGRANOFF is one of those folk performers that steadfastly defies categorization, and yet amasses stalwart fans from folk aficionados of all categories. He draws his material from sources as diverse as traditional ballads and fiddle tunes, Tin Pan Alley, contemporaries in the Folk World, and his own witty pen. He delivers it with a skilled hand on guitar, piano, and concertina, an almost telepathic transmittal of the essence of the song, and occasionally sly twinkle in the eye in anticipation of some of the most horrible parodies ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting audience. A signature feature of Mike’s performances are his inclusion of some heart-stopping spoken word pieces that rivet the listener to unforgettable stories.

www.MikeAgranoff.com

SJARMS (South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society) is very excited to announce that we will be having Joe Newberry perform for our November, 2017 SJARMS meeting on Monday, November 13, 2017 at 7:00 pm at the Medford Memorial Community Center, 21 South Main Street, Medford, NJ.
After the performance there is an all-level acoustic jam until 9:20 pm that performance attendees are welcome to stay and listen to or participate in if they bring their acoustic instruments.

Admission is no charge for current SJARMS members and $10 at the door for visitors. More info 609-280-4926. Info on SJARMS membership: www.sjarms.com.

About Joe Newberry
Known around the world for his exquisite clawhammer banjo playing, Joe Newberry is also a powerful guitarist, singer and songwriter. The Gibson Brothers’ version of his song “Singing As We Rise,” featuring guest vocalist Ricky Skaggs, won the 2012 IBMA “Gospel Recorded Performance” Award. With Eric Gibson, he shared the 2013 IBMA “Song of the Year” Award for “They Called It Music.”
A frequent guest on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, he was a featured singer on the Transatlantic Sessions 2016 tour of the United Kingdom with fiddler Aly Bain and Dobro master Jerry Douglas, and at the Transatlantic Session’s debut at Merlefest in 2017.  In addition to performing solo, Joe plays in a duo with mandolin icon Mike Compton, sits in the banjo chair with old-time music legends Mike Craver, Bill Hicks, and Jim Watson, and performs with the dynamic fiddler and step-dancer April Verch.  

Joe has taught banjo, guitar, singing, and songwriting at numerous camps and festivals, including Ashokan, Midwest Banjo Camp, American Banjo Camp, the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Targhee Music Camp, the Swannanoa Gathering, Centrum Voice Works, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Pinewoods Camp, Vocal Week, Bluegrass Week, and Old-Time Week at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV, the Australia National Folk Festival, the Blue Ridge Old-Time Music Week, and the Bluff Country Gathering. He was for many years the coordinator of Old-Time Week at the Augusta Heritage Center.

Video Clips

Piney Mountains

Missouri Borderlands

I Know Whose Tears

Last Chance

Quotes
“A musician like Joe embodies the true South. You can’t have too many of these people.” — Garrison Keillor

“His lyrics read like a cross between Longfellow and Johnny Cash. The muse is sometimes gentle and other times rough. But she never strays too far from Joe Newberry’s side.”  — Independent Weekly

“Most contemporary old-time artists get their inspiration from recordings either commercial or field made.  Most of the time the artists spend their energy trying to copy the sound of their source.  Joe Newberry goes one step further… He takes the music and makes it his own, and always respectfully.” — SingOut!

Transatlantic Sessions review… “Appalachian veteran Joe Newberry allied his trenchant, raw-boned holler with lickety-split banjo picking.” — The Scotsman Newspaper

JOE NEWBERRY 
Banjo, Guitar, Fiddle & Song
joenewberry.me

South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society (SJARMS) is thrilled to be featuring local musician Nancy Longenecker and her band Medford Station ( Joe Wills, Carl Haslett, and Al Suiter) on Monday, October 9, 2017  at 7:00 pm at the Medford Memorial Community Center, 21 South Main Street, Medford, NJ.  The music they play is mostly bluegrass, folk, Irish, and traditional tunes.

After the performance there is an all-level acoustic jam until 9:20 pm that performance attendees are welcome to stay and listen to or participate in if they bring their acoustic instruments.

Admission is no charge for current SJARMS members and $10 at the door for visitors. More info 609-280-4926. Info on SJARMS membership: www.sjarms.com.

Bio for  Nancy Longenecker:

Nancy Longenecker has played with Medford Station at many festivals and events in Medford and the South Jersey area and also played regularly at Albert Music Hall in Waretown, NJ.  Two of Nancy’s most memorable gigs were the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences and Wind Gap Bluegrass Festival with the Outskirts band.

From 1995 to 2008 Nancy co-hosted the Burlington County Bluegrass radio show with Joe Wills.  This show is still on the air on 88.9 FM on Saturday mornings from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM broadcast from Rowan College at Burlington County.

Nancy’s articles on bluegrass music have been published in Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine and Bluegrass Now.

She provides an opportunity for other musicians to join in at the Gazebo jams in Medford on Tuesday evenings during the summer months.

Nancy has studied traditional Irish fiddle with Kathy DeAngelo and can be seen at the Treehouse Coffeehouse in Audubon NJ playing Irish and Old Time music and also with the  group Fiddlin’ Around.

She was awarded the distinction of “Citizen of the Year” in Medford, NJ in 2012 for her work in promoting folk, bluegrass and traditional roots music to the people of South Jersey and beyond.

Bio for Joe Wills:

Joe is well known for his banjo and dobro playing in addition to other instruments. He has performed in numerous bands over the years: Cedar Crick, Murphy’s Law, Lonnie Lacour, Timber Creek, Warm Hearted Country and with Heidi Olsen in THE NIGHT.

Currently, Joe is performing in the band  BMW Highway with Mary Lutton and  Bill Doerge as well as his main band BAD DOGZ  which performs regularly at local South Jersey venues.

He is in his 23rd year of hosting the Burlington County Bluegrass Radio program on FM station 88.9 and has been a member of the Acoustic Musicians Guild for over 20 years.

Bio for Carl Haslett:

Carl Haslett has performed with several groups over the last 20+ years, beginning with the Termites of Tonality and their 1993 appearance at the Wreck of the Old 97 Festival in Danville VA.  He is featured on vocals, guitar, and bass on their debut album “Out of the Woodwork.”

More recently, Carl has been the bassist in South Jersey for Medford Station (bluegrass), Homemade Jam (Classic country), and Ebenezer’s Elixir (Old Timey), and can often be seen at acoustic jams at the Treehouse in Audubon and Albert Hall in Waretown.

Bio for Al Suiter:

Al Suiter has played with various musicians and at many festivals in the South Jersey area.  He is a regular mandolin player at Albert Music Hall and is sought out by many musicians to play with them when they perform at Albert Hall.

Al also plays  at the Tuckerton Seaport Museum and at the Gazebo Jams in Medford NJ on Tuesday evenings during the summer months.

Sanctuary Poster 8-11-17South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society (SJARMS) will be featuring the acoustic band Sanctuary on Monday, September 11, 2017 at 7:00 pm at the Medford Memorial Community Center, 21 South Main Street, Medford, NJ.  After the performance there is an all-level acoustic jam until 9:20 pm that performance attendees are welcome to stay and listen to or participate in if they bring their acoustic instruments.

Admission is no charge for current SJARMS members and $10 at the door for visitors. More info 609-280-4926. Info on SJARMS membership: www.sjarms.com.

Sanctuary bio:

Beth Anne, John and Vince of Sanctuary combine decades of professional experience along with a passion for jazz, folk, classic, as well as original music that has cross- generational appeal.  Their set lists include tunes by artists such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, as well as original compositions and songs from the American Songbook. Their sound is a combination of careful orchestration and carefree improvisation.  Sanctuary is a safe place for the enjoyment of creative and uplifting music.

They most recently opened for the Cintron Orchestra at the Burlington County Summer Concert series at BCIT in Westampton.Sanctuary Poster 8-11-17

South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society (SJARMS) will be featuring the local performer, singer/guitarist/ penny whistle player Tom Kingston for our May meeting on Monday, May 8, 2017 at 7:00 pm at the Medford Memorial Community Center, 21 South Main Street, Medford, NJ.

Tom said he will play some Beatles tunes, some Irish tunes and a little of everything in between.

Admission is $10 at the door. More info 609-280-4926. Info on SJARMS membership: www.sjarms.com.

Tom’s bio:

Tom Kingston has been performing for over 45 years in the South Jersey and Philadelphia area.  A Williamstown, NJ native, he earned a degree in music as a classical guitarist from Glassboro State College (Now Rowan University) but has extensive experience in other musical traditions, including rock, folk, jazz and traditional Irish, becoming proficient on several instruments as well as expanding his vocal abilities.  His passion for music also led him to an eight year stint as the musical director and MC of The Circlewood Coffeehouse at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill where he presented such legends as Chris Smither, Richie Havens, John Hartford and Livingston Taylor in concert while also promoting the finest in local talent.

In addition to occasional solo performances, for over 25 years he has been a member of the Irish vocal group The Baloney Brothers, and for the past 15 years he served as a founding member of The Beatles musical tribute, The Rubber Souls, where he supplied guitar, keyboards, bass, percussion and vocals as well as being the primary arranger.  Not just a Beatles reenactment, The Rubber Souls delved into the catalogue, performing and recording up to 80% of the Beatles recorded work.  Tom’s deep knowledge of The Beatles music will take us into the songs, where secrets of their songwriting will be revealed!