The lines sprang into Jemima James’ head, complete with melody, sometime in the 1970s: “Raised in a home, his back got no bone.” The rest of the song, Billy Baloo, soon followed.
“I just liked the way it sounded,” she said, sitting in the wind outside the Scottish Bakehouse in Vineyard Haven this week. Though the story didn’t pair with reality, she found that changing the words messed with the tune. And she trusts the songs that arrive this way.
The Martha’s Vineyard Museum will present the second in their summer Free at Five series on Wednesday, July 23, at the East Chop Lighthouse in Oak Bluffs.
The lighthouse will be open free of charge to the public beginning at 5 p.m., followed by a performance by the Jim Thomas Spiritual Choir at 6 p.m.
It’s time for old-time fiddle music tonight, when The Flying Elbows Fiddle Band performs at 8 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre.
Known to deliver light-hearted, high-energy performances, the Flying Elbows will present both original and traditional songs with humor and three-part harmony in addition to their familiar fiddle material.
After logging many long hours on the couch and mindlessly devouring one too many buttery bags of popcorn, the votes are in. No, not for the Oscars, but for the official selections of the eighth annual Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival. The brains behind the wintertime event are so excited about the roster they have decided to host a special kick-off screening more than a week before the festival officially begins.
Kathy and Paul Domitrivich of Lola’s Southern Seafood are hosting a summer solstice fundraiser for Penelope Dickens on Sunday, June 22. Penelope is in her third year of cancer treatments and needs help meeting her basic living costs.
Che’s Lounge hosts an eclectic Poetry and Music Jam on Monday, August 4. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and features the Hot Words Collective — Justen Ahren (Jen Brown’s Brother), Samantha Barrow, Linda Black, Richard C. Skidmore, Michael West and Ben Williams.
Entrain is back — not that the high-voltage global rhythm percussion band (you really can’t pin it down to one genre) actually disappeared. Just that, having veered away from producing new albums, Entrain is back with an album of all new songs, a new lead singer, new take on old philosophies, and new phase of what band founder Tom Major calls “prolific creativity.” Released in March by Dolphin Safe Records, Just A Matter of Time is the first album of new songs Entrain has put out in seven years.
The Island Community Chorus will open the 2008 season of programs at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs with a concert at 8 p.m. this Saturday, July 5.
The chorus of more than 100 voices, under the direction of Peter Boak and accompanied by L. Garrett Brown at the Tabernacle’s nine-foot Steinway piano, will present a program of music designed for the holiday weekend, music whose variety pays tribute to the richness of the American experience.
Steve Gorn’s Luminous Ragas, a concert of Indian classical music on the bansuri bamboo flute, will take place on Thursday, August 14, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Che’s Lounge on Main street in Vineyard Haven. Tickets are $15.
Mr. Gorn will guide the audience through the beauty and intricacies of this music with words.
Folksinger, storyteller and all-around funny guy Rabbi David Shneyer gave a coffeehouse performance Monday evening at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center. Fingerpicking his Guild guitar, accompanying his tunes on harmonica too, donning different hats — literally a cowboy hat or yarmulke or Greek sailor’s cap as the song demanded — the rabbi demonstrated for Islanders just how he has drawn a following within and well beyond the Jewish community.
