Stefan Dollak: vocals, guitar, shaman drum, mandolin and dulcimer; Heather Rene Dollak: vocals; Renee Hope Guillory: vocals; Jeremy Cooney: vocals, guitar and dulcimer.
Influences
The Sacred Harp ... Early American Shape Note traditions ... Shaker Spirituals ... Old Blues ... Old Gospel Songs ... Slave Songs ... Prison Songs ... Work Songs ... The Carter Family ... Peter, Paul & Mary ... Old Psalmody ... West Gallery Hymns ... Pete Seeger ... the Weavers ... Pentangle ... the Incredible String Band ... the Watersons ... the Young Tradition ... Alan Lomax ... Shirley Collins ... the Chad Mitchell Trio ... John Jacob Niles ...
Sounds Like
Sacred Harp... Peter, Paul and Mary... the Incredible String Band... the Carter Family... 19th century religious cultists... well-meaning honkies singing blues, slave songs and gospel tunes... hill folk from Appalachia (but not the ones from "Deliverance")...
Green Street evolved as a subset of the early music collective Bartholomew Faire to focus on the traditional songs and vocal traditions of old America. Stefan, the director of Bartholomew Faire, first experienced Sacred Harp singing in college, while attending Collegium Musicum directed by composer/musicologist/gambist/barytonist Roland Hutchinson at Montclair State University. There, Stefan ecountered such Sacred Harp leaders like Ginnie Ely and Amanda Denson at the Montclair SH sings.
Later, in Arizona, Stefan would occasionally slip a few Sacred Harp tunes into the Bart Faire repertory, but secretly harbored a desire to create a group for the specific purpose of singing such tunes. While teaching guitar at Metro Arts high school, Stef discovered that he had a guilty fondness for playing old fashioned blues on guitar. With the recent graduation of star pupil Jeremy from Metro, Stef decided it was time to start work on Green Street (named for one of the great tunes from the Sacred Harp). He put the word out; Renee had always expressed a keen interest in such music, and Heather was finally getting a chance to sing music that she liked while her husband played guitar! We set up a debut date with Mama Java's, and the rest is history in the making...
Green Street plans on adding more inventive and unusual tunes and arrangements to their repertory, including some originals by living composers, like the playwright Raymond King Shurtz, the aforementioned Mr Hutchinson (who has written several pieces in the shape-note idiom), as well as some folksy originals by our very own Jeremy. Stefan is also constantly prowling the dark forgotten paths of old American song, researching strange Shaker spirituals, slave songs and other odd gems to polish anew for today's audiences. We also hope to add a bass instrument to the mix, the likely candidate being a bass native American flute made by a local flute-maker, if we can find someone to play it.
Thank you, and welcome to a discussion among Music and Theater people, film makers and philosophers, painters and poets. I invite you to my current exhibitions of paintings and poems, and look forward to talking with you.
One show in Phoenix, one in Miami: TEAPOT TOTEMS AND POEMS @ THE FIREHOUSE artspace 1015 N 1st Street, DOWNTOWN PHOENIX - Opening Reception 1st Friday, APRIL 3
9PM reading of Ken Boe's epic poem "Tatterdemalion Day Dream"
MIAMI LOCO! Open weekends, 11am to 6pm at MIAMI ART WORKS, 509 Sullivan Street, off highway 60. Miami, Arizona.
CALL 928-273-7679 for an appointment.
(Closing reception is during the Miami Boomtown Spree, April 16, 17, 18, 2009. Miami Loco is a group show of some interesting local artists, and the closing party will be an all out show down. )
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Check out some of my work, history, and ideas: DELVE into √
If you know of any young bands or solo performers that have been looking for a place to play on a big stage please pass the word! I’ll have a house drum set, great PA system with monitors, lots of stage lighting, guitar and bass amps, etc. The owner of The Cell Block also owns the all ages venue called UB’s in Mesa. He wants to use the open mic to discover new bands and book them at both clubs.
Thanks for the add ... GREAT job last Friday, thanks for the music. Let's book for next year .. I'll be in touch. Here are some exclamation points to borrow - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey! I miss you guys! Sorry I missed the recording session Monday. It was short notice and I'm going crazy getting ready to go to Chicago tomorrow....oh wait, it's 12:46....TODAY! Gah! But, on the upside I get my own solo show on Friday (tomorrow, oh lord) and my da is taking me to see Assassins Sunday! Woowho! Anyway, let's plan something for the next time we're all instate.
