On Monday, November 11th, classical guitarist Loren Fortna will be playing for the SJARMS community at the Medford Arts Center. Loren is a wonderful guitarist who is on faculty in the Montclair State University School of Music. Doors open at 7pm and the concert is free to active SJARMS members. The cost is $10 for visitors.

Award winning guitarist, banjo player, and songwriter Molly Tuttle (of The Tuttles) and fiddle/mandolin player and songwriter John Mailander will perform at the Medford Friends Meetinghouse, 14 Union St., Medford, NJ on Saturday, November 2, 2013 at 7:00pm. The concert is sponsored by South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society (SJARMS) www.sjarms.com

Advance tickets can be purchased between now and October 31st HERE for $15 (for current SJARMS members) and $18 (for non-members). If you are not a member of SJARMS, but want to pay the reduced member price, please consider joining as a member HERE. Tickets can also be purchased at the door for $20 (for both members and non-members). Email us at southjerseyarms@gmail.com or call 609-217-1388 with questions.

Molly and John will also be available for some limited private lessons earlier in the day on Saturday, November 2nd. If you are interested in taking a guitar lesson with Molly or a fiddle lesson with John, please contact us at southjerseyarms@gmail.com for pricing and availability.

About Molly Tuttle:
With nearly two million viewers on YouTube and features in Bluegrass Now, Flatpicking Guitar and Acoustic Guitar magazines, Molly Tuttle is making a name for herself in the acoustic music scene. A virtuoso multi-instrumentalist and award winning songwriter with a distinctive voice, Molly has turned the heads of even the most seasoned industry professionals. In just 2012 alone, she was awarded music and composition Merit Scholarships to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, the Hazel Dickens Memorial Scholarship award from the Foundation for Bluegrass Music in Nashville, Best Female Vocalist and Best Guitar Player by the Northern California Bluegrass Society and 1st place in the prestigious Merlefest’s Chris Austin Songwriting Competition.

Molly has been performing on stage since she was 11 and recorded her first album at age 13. She has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, The Strawberry Music Festival, The Freight and Salvage, and countless other festivals and venues across the country. She now balances her classes at the Berklee College of Music with an active performance schedule across the U.S. and Canada.  

About John Mailander:
John Mailander is a San Diego based musician and graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. He is in demand throughout the Southern California and Boston areas for performance, session work and instruction. Playing in a variety of styles on the fiddle, mandolin and various other stringed instruments, he has become known for his soulful voice as a soloist, improviser and writer.

John has shared the stage with acclaimed artists including the Alison Brown Quartet, Victor Wooten, Tim O’Brien and Christopher Guest. John was one of sixteen musicians selected to participate in the Savannah Music Festival’s prestigious Acoustic Music Seminar in both 2012 and 2013. He recorded with IBMA winner Rob Ickes on his upcoming instructional DVD Fiddle Tunes for the Dobro, and has performed at events including the San Diego Symphony Summer Pops and Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. John maintains a busy performance schedule with artists including Tony Trischka & Territory, Chris Stuart & Backcountry, Molly Tuttle, Darol Anger & the Furies and others.

At Berklee, John studied under the instruction of John McGann, Darol Anger and Julian Lage.  
“John Mailander is a wonderful fiddler, with great improvisatory and compositional skills. He’s rooted in tradition but can stretch in many other areas. He’s diligent and focused and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. I can’t say enough good things about John Mailander.” – Tony Trischka

Here are some examples of Molly and John playing:

On Monday, September 9th,  Nashville-based singer/songwriter multi-instrumentalist (vocals, guitar, banjo, violin, viola,  mandolin, bass, keys, saxophone, trumpet, dulcimer, castanets & percussion) Mean Mary James (www.meanmary.com) will be performing for SJARMS.

Mary is somewhat of a musical prodigy—she could read music before she could read words and co-wrote songs at age five. By age seven she was proficient on the guitar, banjo, & violin, and entertained audiences across the US with her vocal and instrumental skills.  Her life has been one long road show interspersed with TV, radio, and film. She has recorded 12 CDs and performed on more than 500 live TV shows and over 4,000 road shows—including national festivals, fairs, cruises, colleges, theatres, clubs and house concerts.

Mary will be performing her unique blend of original and traditional music in the intimate and totally acoustic setting of the Medford Arts Center, 18 North Main St., Medford, NJ. Doors open at 7pm.  Cost is $10 (free to SJARMS members!)

Coffee and light refreshments will be available.  As always, an acoustic jam will follow the performance and refreshments.

The Brothers Yares will be performing at the Medford Arts Center, 18 N. Main St., Medford, NJ on Monday, August 12, 2013. Doors open at 7:00pm.

Admission is $10 for the general public (but free to South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society members- a great advantage to joining SJARMS!)

 About the Brothers Yares: 

 Ami and Gavri-Tov Yares are talented musicians, as well as brothers, that lived in Cherry Hill and both graduated from Cherry Hill East High School.

This Summer, musicians, social activists, and educators AMI YARES & GAVRI-TOV YARES will be performing their “multicultural sharing of sounds” (SING OUT! Folk Magazine) in the United States. 

Separated by an ocean, THE BROTHERS YARES reunite again to bring their love of life and heritage to communities all over the country.

THE BROTHERS YARES (www.reverbnation.com/thebrothersyares)‎ merge the influence of a pastoral New Jersey childhood with the intensity of life in Israel and the Middle East (where Ami currently lives).

Their music’s juxtaposition of past and present provide a soundtrack and springboard for a better present and future.

Over the past year, both the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and US Consulate General have sponsored performances by Ami via his program FocUS Music while he continues to work with Arab and Jewish youth via Heartbeat: the Palestinian and Israeli Youth Music Projects and various other non-profits dedicated to social change and youth empowerment through the arts.

Gavri-Tov is a music teacher working with youth around Washington, DC. He currently teaches at the Charles E. Smith Day School and lectures/performs music from the Jewish tradition and beyond.

Music Clips: 

• Where Are You Going My Love
• Jerusalem
• The Highlands
• FocUS Music: Making Meaning out of American Music – Sponsored by US State Department

Ong’s Hat Band (www.ongshatmusic.com) will be performing at the July SJARMS meeting on Monday, July 8, 2013 at the Medford Arts Center, 18 N. Main St., Medford, NJ.  Doors open at 7:00pm. Concert is free for SJARMS members/ $10 for non-members. As always, there will be refreshments after the performance and a jam.

About Ong’s Hat Band:

Out of the old time tradition of dance music infused with spontaneity, wit and unexpected musical turns, The Ong’s Hat  Band was organized by a disparate group of acoustic musicians that quickly melded their various sensibilities into an audience-friendly and accomplished ensemble.
Steeped in American Traditional Music with side trips to Jazz, Classical, Rock  and Pop, the members of the band put a new face on traditional music–Acoustic Roots Music On A Tangent.

The award winning guitar player and teacher, Rolly Brown, will lead a workshop on fingerstyle blues and ragtime guitar on Friday, March 22, 2013 from 7pm to 10pm at the Medford Arts Center, 18 N. Main St., Medford NJ.

(This may include styles ranging from the primitive playing of Lightnin’ Hopkins to the sophisticated playing of Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Blake, and Big Bill Broonzy, among others.
Sponsored by South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society (SJARMS).
Cost is $65 for the workshop/ $60 for SJARMS members. Info 609-217-1388

About Rolly:
Rolly Brown began the guitar in 1964, at age 15, and has since been a lifelong student of the instrument. In 1970, he spent a couple life-changing days with the Rev. Gary Davis, and subsequently concentrated on blues, ragtime blues, and classical ragtime for several years. In 1980, Rolly won the prestigious National Fingerpicking Championship at Winfield KS, and subsequently began a study of jazz guitar including stints with Steve Giordano, Joseph Federico, and John Carlini, and another life-changing couple days in the company of George Van Eps. In 1995, he got serious about flatpicking, and, with help from his old friend Mark Cosgrove, and tutelage from Nashville super-picker Bryan Sutton, has attained a reasonable level of proficiency. In 2006 and 2008, he visited with the enigmatic blues/jazz savant Steve Mann in California, gleaning insight into Steve’s remarkable playing and arranging skills.
Rolly has been a sought-after teacher at several guitar camps, including the Swannanoa Gathering, Summer Acoustic Music Week in New Hampshire, and Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp. He has released five CDs, and Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop is currently preparing to release five DVD instructional videos.

On Monday, March 11, 2013, noted folk singer, Mike Agranoff, will be playing in the intimate setting of the Medford Arts Center.

If you’ve been around the folk scene, you couldn’t miss seeing Mike. Tall, red beard, and always around where the music is. He’s been on the scene for many many years, listening to the fine details of what makes this genre of music so special to the soul, so able to make us laugh and cry and think. And lucky for us all, he got serious about having fun at it.

Equally at home in the contemporary and traditional camps of the Folk world, he is a fine musician and storyteller. His prime instrument is the guitar, upon which he shines with intricate fingerstyle arrangements of anything from Tin Pan Alley tunes of the ’20s to fiddle tunes to his own music. He also plays concertina, piano, banjo, or sings acapella. He can be uproariously funny, contempletive, and powerfully emotional in the space of a few minutes. The man will capture your attention, and then your heart.

Not only a performer, Mike is involved in presenting folk music as well. He is one of the prime movers of The Folk Project, New Jersey’s oldest and strongest folk music organization. For over two decades he has been chairman of that organization’s Minstrel Coffeehouse, one of the longest lived and most respected folk venues in the country.

Agranoff will be performing in the intimate and totally acoustic setting of the Medford Arts Center. As always, an acoustic jam will follow the performance. Coffee and light refreshments will be served.

The MAC is located at 18 North Main Street, in beautiful, historic Medford, NJ. Doors open at 7pm. The performance is free to current SJARMS members and $10 for non-members.

On Monday, January 14, jazz guitarist Dave Birmingham will be playing for the SJARMS community in our first concert of the year.

Dave Bermingham picked up his older brother’s guitar at the age of 8 and seemingly has not put it down since then. Dave is a graduate of Temple University with a degree in jazz guitar performance where he studied with local jazz luminaries Larry McKenna, Dennis DiBlasio and Tom Giacabetti among others. After college Dave went on to play guitar for many local bands including the Joe Luca Orchestra and Cornerstone, a touring contemporary Christian band. Dave currently writes original jazz tunes and performs them with his group, M-Town Jazz Jam.

Besides playing and writing music, Dave is the president of South Jersey Music Education Partnership (SJMEP), a recently founded non-profit organization that supports music education in our local community. SJMEP gives performance opportunities to students through participation at M-Town Jazz Jam rehearsals and concerts. Just this past year M-Town Jazz Jam and SJMEP have been featured on the NBC 10! Show, KYW Newsradio 1060 and the CBS 3 Philadelphia evening news and a story in South Jersey Magazine has already been written and will be published in early 2013.

In March of 2013 M-Town Jazz Jam will be releasing their first CD that features many of Dave’s original songs as well as some jazz standards. The CD will also feature many of the students that play with M-Town Jazz Jam on a regular basis. 100% of the profits from CD sales will go to fund the music education scholarships SJMEP plans to start offering in 2013.

Dave is excited to be playing for SJARMS in the intimate and totally acoustic setting of the Medford Arts Center. As always, an acoustic jam will follow the performance. Coffee and light refreshments will be served.

The MAC is located at 18 North Main Street, in beautiful, historic Medford, NJ. Doors open at 7pm. The performance is free to current SJARMS members and $10 for non-members.