Bill Staines Helps Celebrate 47 years of Music at the me&thee in Marblehead

Folk Legacy Month at the me&thee continues with the appearance of Bill Staines on February 10. Staines has appeared on our stage every year since the coffeehouse began in February 1970. Quentin Callewaert, a most gifted teenager guitar virtuoso opens the show. The me & thee coffeehouse at the Unitarian Universalist Church on 28 Mugford Street in Marblehead. The show begins at 8:00 p.m.

For more than forty-five years, Bill Staines has traveled back and forth across North America, singing his songs and delighting audiences at festivals, folksong societies, colleges, concerts, clubs, and coffeehouses. Bill became involved with the Boston-Cambridge folk scene in the early 1960's and for a time, emceed the Sunday Hootenanny at the legendary Club 47 in Cambridge. From the time in 1971 when a reviewer from the Boston Phoenix stated that he was "simply Boston's best performer.” Bill has continually appeared on folk music radio listener polls as one of the top all-time favorite folk artists. Now, well into his fifth decade as a folk performer, he has gained an international reputation as a gifted songwriter and performer. He performs nearly 200 concerts a year and drives over 65,000 miles annually. Bill has recorded 26 albums much to the joy of his loyal fans. "Folk music is rich in the human spirit and experience. I've always wanted to bring something of value to people through my songs." With these thoughts, Bill continues to drive the highways and back roads of the country year after year, bringing his music to listeners, young and old.

Bill's music is a slice of Americana, reflecting with the same ease his feelings about the prairie people of the Midwest or the adventurers of the Yukon, the on-the-road truckers, or the everyday workers that make up this land. Many of Bill's songs have appeared in grade school music books, church hymnals, and scouting campfire songbooks; he is one of only a few songwriters to have eight songs published in the classic song collection, Rise up Singing. Composer David Amram recently described Bill as "a modern day Stephen Foster…his songs will be around 100 years from now." Over the decades, you have heard Bill singing on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, HBO's award winning series Deadwood, and Public Radio's Mountain Stage.

Quentin Callewaert has only been on the music scene for a few years now but he’s making a major buzz as one of the most gifted guitarists around---and he’s still in high school. Quentin plays a combination of classical, traditional, contemporary and popular material as well as his own finely crafted original compositions.

Folk Legacy Month at the me&thee coffeehouse is supported in part by a grant from the Marblehead Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

The door charge for this show is $20. Tickets are available at the me & thee website at www.meandthee.org. Tickets are also available in Marblehead at both the Spirit of ’76 Bookstore and Arnould’s Gallery. As at all me & thee coffeehouse events, refreshments are available, including homemade pastries, coffee, and teas. The me & thee has a handicapped-accessible entrance, is a smoke-free environment, and is easily reached by MBTA bus.

The me & thee is one of the oldest continually running acoustic coffeehouses in New England, and probably the country. The me & thee has been and will always be a volunteer, non-profit organization sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead. For information and directions, call 781-631-8987 and check the website www.meandthee.org.

Next concert: Friday, February 17: Beloved singer-songwriter, Lui Collins, returns to the me&thee. Jakals open the show.