Opening Night Show Friday, February 12, 2010 Freight & Salvage 2020 Addison Street Berkeley, CA map thefreight.org/ Show 8:00 pm
Red Molly consistently brings concert goers to their feet with stunning three-part harmonies, crisp musicianship and a warm, engaging stage presence. They have earned a devoted and ever-widening fan base and have begun to tour nationally. Laurie MacAllister (vocals, banjo, bass, guitar), Abbie Gardner (vocals, Dobro, guitar) and Carolann Solebello (vocals, guitar, bass, mandolin) have a lot of fun on stage, and it's contagious. The Boston Globe says: "Everything Red Molly sings is delivered with tick-tight arrangements, crystalline vocals, and caramel harmonies. But what is most striking is the ardor they bring to everything they do, whether snuggling into the sweet parochialism of an old spiritual, or the gritty pathos of a Gillian Welch tune. They come on less like stars strutting for their minions than pals sharing their favorite songs. In the friendly world of the coffeehouse, that remains a star-making quality."
Driving stringband music, sweet country harmonies, and red-hot buckdancing: the Stairwell Sisters offer all this and more when they bring their passion for old-time country songs and rowdy fiddle tunes to the Freight for a wild, good-time show. Energetic musicianship and tight vocal arrangements are the order of the hour when Lisa Berman (dobro), Stephanie Prausnitz (fiddle), Evie Ladin (clawhammer banjo and clogging), Martha Hawthorne (bass), and Sue Sandlin (guitar and tiple) take the stage with their fiddle tunes from Alabama to Scotland, old songs of trains, boats and possums, and new songs of trial and work, loss and love, and all-night parties.