The Cuban invasion; Falcon Ridge avant-garde
By Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., May 11, 2001) - Ever since the documentary film "Buena Vista Social Club" and the recordings associated with it opened a window on Cuban jazz in the late 1990s, the music has enjoyed unprecedented popularity in this country.

Tonight, a group of musicians with roots in the actual club which gave its name to the film will bring a taste of that Havana flavor to downtown Great Barrington, where Sabor de Cuba performs two shows at Club Helsinki at 7:30 and 10. Call 528-3394 for tickets and information. Sabor de Cuba is an eight-piece ensemble featuring vocalists Pio Levya and Orestes Macias. Levya, who has previously sung at Club Helsinki, was included in the "Buena Vista Social Club" film and CD. According to Mark Goldman, the producer of Sabor de Cuba, Macias was one of the great nightclub singers of the Batista era - the heyday of the music celebrated in the film - and a regular performer at the club.

Also from the film and CD is Sabor de Cuba's trumpeter, Octavio Calderon. The ensemble also includes two female vocalists, Cascarita and Luisito. "While our band draws on the Afro-Cuban traditions reflected in the film and the CD, we add to that repertoire heavy doses of cha-cha-cha and Cuban salsa," said Goldman.

Falcon Ridge preview tour

For over a decade, the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival www.falconridgefolk.com in nearby Hillsdale, N.Y., has presented the cream of the crop of new-folk singer-songwriters to audiences numbering in the thousands. Falcon Ridge has also developed a well-deserved reputation s a launching pad for several next-big-things in folk-pop, including Shawn Colvin, The Story, Alison Krauss and Ani DiFranco.

The festival has institutionalized this aspect with its annual preview tour, featuring emerging artists from the previous year's festival selected by festivalgoers who sifted through the all-day, New Artist Showcase to select the artists they most wanted to see "graduate" to the main stage.

This year's preview tour is currently making its way from Cambridge to Washington, D.C., stopping just down the road from Falcon Ridge at Great Barrington's Club Helsinki on Sunday, May 13, at 6. The show, featuring Beth Amsel, Kevin So, Christopher Williams and Deirdre Flint, will be followed by a showcase of Helsinki's own all-stars, a sort of festival of the best performers from the club's ongoing Sunday open-mike night. Both shows are free.

With three CDs and six Boston Music Award nominations under his belt, Kevin So www.kevinso.com is poised for headlining status at folk festivals and other stages. His aptly titled "That Oriental Guy" directly confronts the oddity of being one of the only Asian-Americans on the contemporary folk scene - sort of the Chinese version of Vance Gilbert, who has himself made substantial hay as one of the only black singer-songwriters.

So's CD showcases an eclectic musical sensibility, ranging from the Steely Dan-like "There's a War Goin' On" to the Ani DiFranco-like folk-funk of "Porn Star" to the jazzy "Walking Down the Avenue" (So studied jazz at the University of Southern California in the early-'90s) to the Randy Newman-like "Middle of the Road." If the company you keep, or the other musicians you attract, is any indication of talent, then Christopher Williams has taken a great leap forward in recent years. Williams's latest album, "The Silence In Between," includes appearances by Los Lobos's David Hidalgo, singer-songwriters David Wilcox, Willy Porter, Ellis Paul, and drummer Jerry Marotta (Indigo Girls, Peter Gabriel).

A religious studies major at Bucknell University, Williams worked as a preschool teacher in Seattle before landing in Cambridge and learning percussion. Shortly thereafter he found himself on Falcon Ridge's main stage backing up David Wilcox. But soon Williams began writing and recording his own folk-pop material, which has garnered him repeat gigs at the famed Club Passim and a Boston Music Award nomination.

Beth Amsel got her first guitar in exchange for bailing a friend out of a Boulder, Colo., jail. The guitar sat in its case for two years before she finally cracked open the case and discovered her destiny. She set to writing songs and discovered her voice, a deep, expressive instrument, sort of a bluesy cross between Judy Collins and Dar Williams.

Amsel's debut album, "A Thousand Miles," earned her a best folk/acoustic debut nomination at the Boston Music Awards last year. The Long Island native by way of Colorado now calls Boston home, and is currently working on the follow-up to "A Thousand Miles" with producer Dave Chalfant (The Nields, Erin McKeown).

Deirdre Flint, winner of the Kerrville Folk Festival's new folk award last year, is also on the bill. She specializes in topical, satirical songs with titles like "Introduction to Belly Dancing" and "The Boob Fairy" in the tradition of Christine Lavin. This year's Falcon Ridge Folk Festival takes place on July 27-29, as always at the Long Hill Farm in Hillsdale, N.Y. Headliners will include Dar Williams, Gillian Welch, Jimmy LaFave, John Gorka, The Nields and Lucy Kaplansky.

Monterey blues

Monterey's Mike Erkkinen has an ongoing love affair with the acoustic blues, as he explains in the liner notes to his gorgeous solo CD, "Songs from Another Time: A Celebration of Early Blues in America." On the recording, Erkkinen, who plays tonight at Strange Brew in Lee, sings and plays old country and Delta blues by the likes of Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell and Mississippi John Hurt, alongside contemporaneous material by Scott Joplin and Elizabeth Cotton and a few modern tunes that reflect the music's influence.

Celebrating women

Tomorrow at 7, the Spencertown (N.Y.) Academy plays host to the second annual Lily Fayre. Celebrating women's contribution to traditional music, this Mother's Day weekend-inspired event features local artists Kim Buckley, Celia and the Ravin' Mavens.

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on May 11, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]