Seaweed Sway Presents:
~a benefit for the Liberation Institute~
Annie Bacon’s crowd-funded Folk Opera album release
at the Swedish American Hall in SF
Thursday December 2nd
~with audiafauna (Santa Cruz) and The Seedy Naturalists~
Address: 2174 Market St.
ALL AGES
Tickets: $12 advance/$15 door, or $40 for a VIP ticket which includes dinner and a meet/greet with the artists. Tickets available at www.theFolkOpera.com or by visiting the Swedish American Hall’s calendar at http://www.cafedunord.com/?temp=calendar
Venue: http://www.swedishamericanhall.com / http://cafedunord.com
RSVP on facebook: http://on.fb.me/folkoperaDec2
Time: 7pm doors / 8pm showtime
Press Inquiries (including ticket giveaways), please contact Annie Bacon, 510-693-8788, anne.bacon@gmail.com or Jessie Woletz, 415-515-7604, seaweedsway@gmail.com
Annie Bacon’s Folk Opera – written and composed on the ukulele, funded by its community via Kickstarter.com, and recorded live at The Tower Studios in San Francisco’s Mission District – is set to release on Thursday December 2nd at the Swedish American Hall, as part of a benefit for the community mental health non-profit Liberation Institute. Santa Cruzian phenom Audiafauna co-headlines and the Seedy Naturalists open.
The Folk Opera: www.TheFolkOpera.com
Audiafauna: http://www.facebook.com/audiafauna
The Seedy Naturalists: http://www.myspace.com/theseedynaturalists
The Liberation Institute: http://www.liberationinstitute.org
Seaweed Sway: http://facebook.com/theseaweedsway
The Folk Opera is a haunting and triumphant extended musical suite tracing the events of a single afternoon that expand into life-changing moments for a few different people in a small town, written for ukulele, upright bass, fiddle, trumpet, and multiple voices. Described by various delighted listeners as a diverse and eclectic cross between A Prairie Home Companion, Neko Case, Jeff Darnielle, Patty Griffin, and Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,†Annie Bacon’s The Folk Opera is, in fact, a musical world unto itself, with few, if any, antecedents in musical history. Its haunting and simple melodies, beautiful soaring harmonies and captivating folk and bluegrass rhythms are memorable after only one hearing, and the characters are so indelibly drawn, you’ll feel like you know them.
In just over a year and fewer than 20 performances, The Folk Opera has achieved a grassroots following so dedicated that the live recording sessions were fully funded by donations from avid fans through Kickstarter.com. The live show and recording feature Joe Lewis (Os Beaches, Honeycomb) on the upright bass, Elizabeth Greenblatt (the OSHEN) singing the lead character, Joel Dean vocalizing the Old Man and the Mechanic, Savannah Jo Lack (Ruth Gerson), giving voice to Aunt Sara and playing fiddle, Annie Bacon playing the ukulele and singing Rita, the waitress, Dave Scott (Boz Scaggs, Rosemary Clooney) on trumpet, and a Townsfolk Choir of Bay Area singers.
The evening is a benefit for Liberation Institute (also based in the Mission district) which has since, September 2008, provided bureaucracy-free mental health services to residents of the Bay Area on a sliding scale starting at $1. The Institute has grown to include a staff of a dozen multilingual, interdisciplinary therapists serving an upwards of fifty clients of all ages and backgrounds, including artists, musicians, students, disabled adults, or anyone else who needs any kind of help. This benefit will help the Institute expand its much needed services.
Santa Cruz phenom Audiafauna (“likened to the powerhouse vocals of Florence & the Machine, the impassioned hunger of Cat Power, and the curiosity of Cocorosieâ€) will co-headline the night, promising an explosive close to an emotional evening. The Elvis Costello-inspired Seedy Naturalists open the night.
Seaweed Sway, presenting the event, is an evolving project to encourage, cultivate, & support creative community through through local music, yoga classes, and nature events. You can find their calendar at http://bit.ly/seaweedswaycalendar and stay in touch via http://facebook.com/theseaweedsway and http://seaweedsway.blogspot.com.
Press Inquiries, CONTACT: Annie Bacon, 510-693-8788, anne.bacon@gmail.com
or Jessie Woletz, 415-515-7604, seaweedsway@gmail.com
