Beanrunner Cafe Hosts Free Community Sing and Concert

From Bongar Biz: Lisa Gutkin (Klezmatics) and Fred Gillen Jr. (Hope Machine, Tribes Hill) teach new and old songs of “perseverance and protest,” in an hour of participatory singing at 6:30 pm, and perform a concert at 7:30 pm, in an evening of music at the Beanrunner Cafe, 1 Ester Street, Peekskill, NY 10566 on Jan. 5.

Audience is encouraged to come to one or both - the Community Sing is free and the concert is a $15 ticket minimum. Proceeds to benefit ResistSpectra.

Lisa Gutkin is best known as violinist and vocalist for the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, for “Gonna Get Through This World” that she co-wrote with Woody Guthrie and that Pete Seeger called a “piece of genius," for her cameo appearance in Sex and the City, and for her work with Sting in "The Last Ship." She recently released “From Here On In,” a CD of original songs, produced by John Lissauer (Leonard Cohen, Louden Wainwright) and is a co-composer of, and on-stage musician in “Indecent,” a new play about Sholem Asch’s “God of Vengeance” by Paula Vogel, which opens on Broadway at the Cort Theater in April 2017.

NYFA (New York Foundation For The Arts) grant recipient Fred Gillen Jr. has released nine full-length albums, to great critical acclaim, and has toured all over the U.S. and Europe. His songs have been featured on ABC's "All My Children," NPR's "Car Talk," CMJ's New Music Marathon Sampler, and in 2012 his version of Woody Guthrie's "I Ain't Got No Home" was featured on "Pete Remembers Woody," a collection of Pete Seeger's spoken stories about Woody Guthrie. Like Guthrie, his songs often reflect the struggles of the marginalized and forgotten, shining a light on both the despair and hope in the human condition.

These musicians have shared many stages and recordings, but never as a duo until October of 2016 when they made a video of “What is this World Gonna Do?“ with music by Lisa Gutkin and words by Woody Guthrie. This, their debut duo appearance, grew out of a delight in working together on that project, and a mutual love for community singing.

Photo Courtesy of Bongar Biz