Old-Time without Borders

The Stairwell Sisters and Cascada de Flores, two of the Bay Area’s most beloved groups explore the similarities (and differences) of Old-Time: north & south of the border.

$2 off adv ticket price for kids, seniors & students with I.D. (At the door or online only)

Yes, there is free PARKING! at the Blood Centers of the Pacific (BCP) lot, located at Turk and Masonic. On-street parking is often available on Turk or on Nido, the small local street north of Turk Street one block west of Cyprian’s.

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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.

Cascada de Flores celebrates the diversity of Mexican and Caribbean folk music and excels in the sound of the early 1900s when the golden age of song first exploded into the radio waves. The trio features the hypnotic vocal duet of Arwen Lawrence de Castellanos and Sabra Weber and playful guitarist Jorge Liceaga, who together perform on a dizzying number of traditional instruments: tres cubano, flute, marimbol (a bass lamellaphone related to the African thumb piano), guitarra de son and jarana of Veracruz, donkey’s jaw bone, zapateado (percussive dance), and cajun. Cascada de Flores‘ muses include the earthiest of duos of the traditional Trova from Cuba: the late Maria Teresa Vera and Lorenzo Hierrezuelo, as well as Los Compadres, Las Hermanas Mendoza of Texas, Tońa La Negra of Veracruz and many maestros of Mexican and Cuban traditional music. “Cascada de Flores explores the musical traditions of Mexico and Cuba with grace and sensitivity. Their music is strongly rooted in folkloric forms, yet they steer clear of anachronistic mimicry of the past, instead interpreting their repertoire in their own subtle way. The result is rich, delicate, and lovely.” –Sing Out! Magazine