Doors & Bluegrass Jam at 6:00 pm; Show at 8:00 pm
Tickets are $12 - $20 sliding scale
Ashkenaz and Women Drummers International celebrate Women’s History Month with our March series of special concerts and workshops, the Maestra Series, featuring women musicians, dancers, and poets from around the world. The nights are filled with inspired culture, singing, dancing, drumming, performers in new groupings, once-only collaborations, and reunions of pioneering women musicians. Tonight the Handsome Ladies present two bluegrass/old-time bands – The Hossettes and Paper Wings – plus a pre-concert co-ed bluegrass jam at 6 pm.
Sharing a reverence for the soulful harmonies and powerful drive of the pioneering bands of bluegrass, the Hossettes (hoss-ettes) bring tremendous talent and energy to the stage. Comprised of Julie Peet (fiddle), Angela Personeni (banjo), Hailey Pexton (mandolin), and Karen Wilhoyte (bass), the Hossettes impress audiences with duets, trios, and even an occasional quartet number. In addition to their traditional repertoire, they also perform original songs, which offer a fresh sound while maintaining the band’s firm roots in classic bluegrass.
As Paper Wings, old-fashioned acoustic duo Emily Mann and Wilhelmina Frankzerda lays down classic harmony singing over a rotating cast of fiddles, guitar, and banjo. Their music is fine and supple, rough and ready, innovative and timeless. Fiddler and songwriter Frankzerda is the former Oregon State Fiddle Contest Junior Champion and National Twin Fiddle Champion and was twice selected to study and collaborate at the Savannah Acoustic Music Seminar. Banjo player Mann has toured with Darol Anger’s Furies, and she is also a current touring member of old-time string band the Crooked Jades.
The Handsome Ladies isn’t a band; it’s a nonprofit organization started in 2012 with seven musicians to support and promote women in bluegrass on all levels. It has grown to more than 100 active members with monthly ladies’ jams, bluegrass festival events, and workshops. The organization declares, “We are committed to providing opportunities for the advancement of female musicians within the bluegrass community, while helping to preserve the traditions and culture of bluegrass and American roots music.”
