The Focal Point

Tonya Gilmore!

Join us for a CD release event for this local artist’s new title (and fifth self-released album) Feed the Sea. She has an edgy, alluring and dreamlike style all her own. Like siren song, hers may seem a melodic confection served up by an angelic-voiced enchantress, but leads to the mysterious dark caverns lurking beneath. Traveling with her to the very top of the tower, you get a glimpse of a shifting landscape from which you must decide the next step. [An article about Tonya and her new CD, will appear in the May, online edition
of St. Louis Magazine.]
$10. (admission includes CD!)

www.myspace.com/tonyagilmore

The Colin Sphincter Band

Parodies R Us-- these guys can make any song ridiculous, and do it with such expertise and great musicianship that you will be impressed, in between howling with laughter. There will be a slide show; there will be goats on wheels; there will be Drooling Banjos! And, as mentioned earlier, there will be clever lyrics and some downright grooving music. $10.00.

Mark Holland and N. Scott Robinson

CD Release Concert!
Mark Holland - Native American Flutes / World Flutes and N. Scott Robinson - World
Percussion will perform in celebration of their new cd, "Wind & Fire". A colaboration of
lyrical melodies and colorful rhythms - fusing various flutes and percussion from around
the globe. Mark and Scott have scheduled tours to suppor the new cd in Oklahoma,
Texas, Oregon, California, Arizona to name a few.... Please join us for an evening of "Wind & Fire" at our Saint Louis CD Release Party.
$10 at the door.

For additional information on Wind & Fire visit: www.myspace.com/windnfire1
For information on Scott: www.nscottrobinson.com
For information on Mark: www.autumnschild.com

Brewer and Shipley!

Focal Point favorites, the iconic folk-rock duo will be here to help celebrate the Memorial Day weekend. Their accomplished musicianship, deliciously simmered melodies, and undiminished harmonies provide ever-relevant song and entertainment. They’ll tell some stories to illuminate past and present too. Tickets go fast! Tickets go on sale March 21.
$16 in advance; $20 at the door.

www.brewerandshipley.com/

Sam Lee!

“You will be dumbfounded by Sam Lee with duck-egg eyes, a horseshoe smile and an honest, confiding baritone” The Guardian

“I think what put shivers down my back when I heard Sam sing was his attention to the detail of decoration and the style of all those old singers. It was like hearing the past and the future of traditional song all rolled into one voice” Ali Burns

Sam is a singer, promoter, teacher, researcher and confessed die-hard enthusiast of the folk arts. Swapping his many careers including visual artist, teacher of wilderness survival and performer on the burlesque cabaret circuit to work in folk music, he has become one of the current leading lights of the folk revival taking traditional song into a new direction and onto new platforms. Not just a singer, Sam is also the creative force behind The Magpie’s Nest, which has been hailed as “the torch bearing folk club for the new generation”. He works part-time for the English Folk Dance and Song Society as the London Links officer at Cecil Sharp house. Sam is apprenticed to the legendary Scottish Traveller singer and storyteller Stanley Robertson, who is passing onto Sam his vast and unique repertoire of ballads and songs. He teaches song across the country including The Royal College of Music and is a tutor on the Newcastle Traditional Music Degree.

www.themagpiesnest.co.uk/about-magpies-nest

Switchback!

Our favorite Celtic Rockabilly duo from Chicago returns to celebrate with us. Brian Fitzgerald and Marty McCormack continue to be driven by their mission to create and bring music to far-flung places and unlikely audiences. Showcasing a repertoire ranging from sentimental ballads to blistering rockers, the duo deliver a powerful sound. While their musical paths have taken them to a variety of genres, we can’t wait to hear the latest musical journey. A new honor - Irish Music Association named Switchback the 2008 Top Duo in a Pub, Festival or Concert! Come join us and celebrate!
$12 in advance; $14 at the door.

www.waygoodmusic.com/switchback_new/

Leroy Pierson!

Our old friend and St Louis's own.
As A.J. Cabanellas wrote in an Artist Profile for the St Louis Post-Dispatch:
"St. Louis is fortunate to have in its homebase an artist with as many talents as Leroy Pierson. Not only is he a gifted performer with special talents on guitar and vocals, but is also a noted scholar of early black music history, both blues and Carribean-based reggae music. If that wasn't enough, Leroy's skills as a record producer and radio announcer clearly point to a musical Renaissance man. It's been too long since we had a Leroy Pierson night here at Focal Point; and it will most likely be something strange and wonderful. Leroy has used our venue in the past to explore little-known side roads to the blues and related music; people familiar with his work in the clubs around town will likely hear something different! $15.00.

Coming soon to a Focal Point near you!

Focal Point usually takes a rest in July and August, to refinish the floors, do any repairs or painting, give the volunteers a rest-- but we will be back in September with some wonderful stuff:

9-12: Jim Malcolm
9-25 Anne Hills
10-3: Brian McNeill
10-10: graduates from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
10-17: Bob Bovee and Gail Heil
10-24 Wil Maring
10-31: Paddy Keenan

Donate for Katrina Survivors

Donate a musical instrument and keep the music playing! Music for Lifelong Achievement will give you a tax deduction for its value and get the instrument to disadvantaged students in New Orleans or displaced Gulf Coast students in St. Louis schools.

New Orleans Musicians Clinic (NOMC)

This is a fantastic hands-on organization that has the names and addresses of so many great musicians because they have them all coming to their FREE health clinic all these years and now. They are the ones who are tracking down the local musicians and finding them shelter. The New Orleans Musicians Clinic is determined to keep Louisiana Music Alive! It is our beacon to soothe our souls. We want to relocate our New Orleans musicians into the Lafayette/ Acadiana community where they can remain a life force! But most of them have lost everything... we must help them rebuild their lives. They can't access any of their NOMC accounts. They desperately need money to fund these efforts.
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They can be contacted at musiciank@swlahec.com
Contact: Kathy Richard directly at 337-989-0001

Send donations to:
NOMC Emergency Fund
funds will be distributed by:
SW LA Area Health Education Center Foundation, Inc.
103 Independence Blvd.
Lafayette, LA 70506
desk: 337-989-0001
fax: 337-989-1401
e-mail: finance@swlahec.com
http://www.swlahec.com/