Saratoga Springs music venue Caffe Lena has announced their top picks for the month of May. From May 1 to 31 Caffe Lena sees a massive lineup of shows and performers for the community to enjoy.
Caffe Lena is a well-known host of talent for the Upstate New York community. Various walks of life see the stage at this venue through a wide range of genre and background. The venueâs mission is to keep a diverse set of programs and artists, regardless of fame, to present to the community. Caffe Lena is where musical discovery begins on all fronts. All shows held in-person in Lenaâs historic listening room are also streamed live to living rooms around the world.
In May, the venue showcases a lengthy, talent-packed lineup of shows including musical performances, poetry open mic nights, and more. Genres like folk, bluegrass, jazz and roots are showcased this May along with songwriting workshops, poetry nights, and kids club concerts. There’s something for all members of the community this month.
Caffe Lena’s Top Shows for May
May 1 – 7 PM Poetry Open Mic Night feat Darcy Smith
May 2 – 7 PM Kruger Brothers
May 3 – 8 PM Dan Navarro
May 7 – 7 PM Live Stream: Storytelling Night feat Miki Conn
May 11 – 8 PM Bandits on the Run
May 12 – 7 PM Peter Rowan
May 17 – 8 PM Ana Egge
May 22 – 7:30 PM Willi Carlisle
May 30 – 7 PM Abigail Lapell
For more information on Caffe Lena’s upcoming dates and performers, click here.
Texas singer songwriter Ruthie Foster brought her incredible cross-genre versatility to a standing-room-only house at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs on Thursday, April 4.
Combining a long set of her own songs of contemporary blues, Americana, gospel and country blues, including “Singing The Blues,” “Brand New Day,” and “4am” with her truly unique arrangements of covers like Pete Seeger’s “If I Had A Hammer,” June Carter Cash’s “Ring Of Fire” and Patty Griffin’s “When It Don’t Come Easy,” interspersed with crowd-pleasing stage banter that ranged from where the ideas for some of her songs came from, to family stories, she delivered a truly energetic show to a highly appreciative crowd in an intimate setting.
With her brilliant flatpicking and fingerpicking on a hollow body electric guitar, which she introduced as “Pearl”, she delivered her well-crafted original songs in a solo performance that matched the legendary intimacy of the room at Caffe Lena, giving the audience a clear understanding of what lies behind her multiple Grammy nominations, Blues Foundation’s Koko Taylor Award, and induction into the Texas Blues Hall of Fame.
The show marked the start of a six-month tour for Ruthie Foster, covering the US and parts of Canada, immediately followed with an April 5 show at The Folkus Project in Syracuse, with other shows in the region in Massachusetts and New Jersey. The tour is followed by a multi-day blues cruise out of Florida.
Ruthie referred to herself at one point as a country girl who grew up on a farm in Texas where she learned how to drive a car at eight years of age in the fields by sitting on phonebooks on the seat of her dad’s pickup truck, moving it slowly at his direction as farmhands loaded hay bales onto the back of the truck. She then segued into her beautifully fingerpicked rendition of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Richland Woman’s Blues” that brought her audience in for chorus sing-alongs.
Throughout the show, Ruthie’s energy fed the crowd and, in turn, was fueled by her audience’s response, both by her playing and singing as well as her eye contact and facial expressions. At the end of her single long set when she said she had only time for one more, she acceded to the the audience request of “Phenomenal Woman” saying “Okay, but that’ll be the encore,” and gave a stellar and moving performance that brought the crowd to its feet where they stayed and cheered until she returned for an a cappella gospel type tune with her appreciative audience joining in on.
There is something very special about a talented solo performance of well-crafted songs delivered to an audience in an intimate venue setting and this was just such an experience.
Esteemed music venue Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs announced a stellar lineup of musicians for the month of April, with Raul Midon, Michael Eck, Vanessa Collier, and The Special Consensus among the featured acts.
CaffeLena has presented New York State with extraordinary music in an intimate setting since the 1960s. It is widely recognized as the longest continuously operating folk music venue in the United States. Bob Dylan performed for two consecutive nights at the cafè in 1961, a year prior to the release of his debut album.
The venue’s mission is to keep a diverse set of programs and artists, regardless of fame, to present to the community. Caffe Lena is where musical discovery begins on all fronts. All shows held in-person in Lena’s historic listening room are also streamed live to living rooms around the world.
Caffe Lena’s April shows are not ones to miss. The itinerary is complete with various well-known artists with utmost talent. Various genres like bluegrass, jazz, folk, blues, poetry, funk rock and more are set to light up the intimate venue with energy, love, and art. Artists like Michael Eck see the stage for heartfelt performances signifying great milestones.
Vanessa Collier
Michael Eck celebrates his 60th birthday with release of sixth album, fermata, and a performance at Caffe Lena, 8 p.m. Friday, April 19. Eck will be joined by an all-star ensemble, including bassist/vocalist Bob Buckley, guitarist Sten Isachsen, and elusive vocalist Rosanne Raneri.
Michael Eck
Caffe Lena’s Top Shows For April
April 2, 7 PM Live Stream: Storytelling Night Featuring Julia Biaculli
April 3, 7 PM Poetry Open Mic Night featuring Susan Jefts
April 4, 8 PM Ruthie Foster
April 5, 8 PM The Special Consensus
April 6, 8 PM Peter Mulvey with Opener Zachary Lucky
April 7, 7 PM House of Hamill
April 9, 7 PM Songwriting with Eliza Gilkyson
April 19, 8 PM Live Stream: Michael Eck
April 26, 8 PM Vanessa Collier
April 27, 8 PM Bright Series: The Clements Brothers
April 28, 7 PM Intersectional Voices: Raul Midon
For more information on Caffe Lena’s April shows and to purchase tickets, click here.
Caffé Lena has a storied history in Saratoga Springs starting in 1960, launching the careers of many folk greats including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Don McLean. Now, the venue is providing that same feel-good listening experience and great talent, set in their iconic intimate setting. In honor of Women’s History Month, it is important to highlight the women helping make the industry happen. Executive Director at Caffé Lena, Sarah Craig, is one of these women leading in the industry.
Lena and Bill Spencer opened Caffé Lena with a deeply entrenched European influence. Upon the passing of Lena in 1989, the venue was converted to a nonprofit institution, supported by concert revenue, grants, private and corporate donors, and a team of volunteers. Lena started the venue as a way to present deserving talent regardless of fame, emphasizing community over business. Over the years, this theme still sticks with Caffé Lena’s diverse range of programming. Whether in-person or on a live stream, those can enjoy the intimate setting and vibe while garnering the sense of community so prevalent in everything they do.
Sarah Craig has been the Executive Director of Caffé Lena since 1995, a role she earned by applying to an anonymous job posting in the classified section of the newspaper. All it said was, “Nonprofit arts organization seeks full or part-time executive director.” She was the only applicant, and the rest is history.
Photo by Derek Java.
Craig earned her BA in Psychology and Women’s Studies from the University of Vermont, where she developed organizing skills as an activist. “[I was] inspired by two things: my sister’s participation in the Peace Corps in rural Paraguay, which was a huge eye-opener for me, and my own exposure to Liberation Theology in the Catholic Church, which was an important part of my life at the time,” she said. She became interested in gay rights, ecology, and economic justice, working in the sphere of some very effective senior activists, including Bernie Sanders and Roddy Cleary.
After college, she moved to Boston and began canvassing for Massachusetts Peace Action, serving as the Executive Director before eventually going to Caffé Lena. When she first started at Lena, her duties included grant writing, house management, and developing the volunteer and membership base. Now that there are a dozen people on staff, the budget has grown more than 2,000%. She says she spends “about 1/2 of my time booking shows, 1/4 fundraising, and 1/4 developing new ideas and managing the team.”
Caffé Lena takes up most of her time – waking and sleeping. “It’s an outlet for my creative energy, my social energy, and my dreams of saving the world. But, ever since the start of the pandemic, I’ve made a concerted effort to not be all Caffe all the time,” she explained. She is working on a sequel to a novel she finished and started playing the French horn again. She likes to spin yarn and felt, run or X-C ski, and when it’s the season – grow vegetables. She also likes to play online Scrabble with her daughter in NC a few times a week, and explains that was one of Lena’s great passions, “she was a 400 player.”
Sarah Craig speaking at a press conference. Lauren Halligan – MediaNews Group file.
In 2016, the venue underwent $2 million in renovations creating a home for Lena’s celebrated program for decades to come. New additions also included a 100% handicap-accessible space on their second-floor performance space.
Caffé Lena has a wide variety of programming available besides their eclectic mix of performers. In 2020, they launched the School of Music to carry on the folk tradition of music as a social pastime. Children and adults learn in small, friendly groups, mastering a repertoire of folk classics, and write some too. Some more experienced kids have now formed their own band, The Rolling Pebbles.
Folk gets passed along by venues, festivals, camps, places of worship, community groups and families. The School is our investment in this process. We offer activities for toddlers to seniors that are social and musical. It’s the most wonderful thing to sit at my desk and hear 30 senior citizens in the next room jamming away on three-chord songs and just having the best time. Or seeing our youth students developing into righteous little fiddlers and guitarists…There are powerful forces in the world pulling us deeper and deeper into a world of technology, where people are rarely face to face with their community. People are not experiencing social life in the way we’ve evolved to experience it. The School of Music feels like a win for basic, old-school humanity.
Sarah Craig.
Other programs that have been seen at Caffé Lena are The Bright Series – monthly shows featuring artists playing the venue for the first time; Caffé Lena on the Road, where headline artists travel into the community to deliver live music at places such as elderly care centers, recovery groups, soup kitchens, and more; Pride Night; Little Folk Shows – kid-friendly matinees; and so much more.
Since Craig’s time at the venue, she has seen a variety of musicians, with some of her favorites including those that have not risen to widespread fame besides small clubs like Lena. “In that category, I’d cite Jeremy Wallace, Gina Forsyth, and Chandler Travis. Some were real jaw-droppers and indeed they did go far: Anais Mitchell, Billy Strings, 14-year-old Sawyer Fredericks, and Allison Russell, who just won two GRAMMYs.” She went on to say “Our staff gets asked a lot, ‘Who’s your favorite?’ and we all agree: it’s the one we saw last night.”
Bob Dylan with Lena Spencer. Photo by Caffé Lena.
Caffé Lena has a long history in the folk scene but as Sarah Craig pointed out in our conversation, the emergence of Americana music in 2007 replaced some of the singer-songwriters from the ’80s and ’90s. The popularity of folk-rock string bands has stayed strong for nearly 20 years. Since taking the reigns in 1995, she noticed that the Internet has drastically changed many things.
“It completely changed the culture of everything everywhere, but that definitely includes live music,” she explained. “On the positive side, it has greatly facilitated our success in building an audience with eclectic tastes that is willing to explore new music. On the downside, it has radically amped up the way of life at Caffe Lena. Lena used to book her musicians for a full weekend. These days, it’s a different show every night, and bands rush in 2 hours before showtime and hit the road immediately afterward to get to the next gig.”
With events happening almost every day, the venue is busy and booming. Sarah Craig loves the atmosphere of the venue. She loves when the volunteers arrive and start baking cookies and making coffee, and when the “legendary Joe Deuel, Lena’s sound tech for the past one thousand years, starts setting up the mics.” The little moments that she experiences every day are her favorite; turning off the lights at the end of the show and saying goodnight to the iconic venue.
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The music industry is largely dominated by men, but some very decent people love music and enjoy spending their lives with musicians and are not in it for the money. Asking Craig about her experience as a woman in the industry, she said that her experience has overall been good. Despite the fact she isn’t a man, who can get more bookings, she has made it work. Something notable she highlighted was that the nonprofit world, like Caffé Lena, is largely dominated by women, however, the majority of executive directors are men.
Why does she think this is? Sarah explained “Because boards of directors have more confidence in men. The world continues to misread women because women tend not to be swaggering and self-advocating. They just do a rock-solid job, and expect that to be enough. This is something people in supervisory positions need to be conscious of: valuable male workers and valuable female workers don’t necessarily look the same.”
Despite this, working in the music industry is a rewarding experience for her, and many women across the board.
Goodnight Moonshine at Caffe Lena. Photo by Derek Java.
Caffé Lena has an eclectic lineup month after month, full of vibrant musicians and welcoming people. For more information about the venue, visit here.
Caffè Lena has announced it is partnering with activist/singer-songwriter Crys Matthews and local community groups to produce the Cry Matthews Black History Month Tour. The concert is happening on Friday, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m.
Cry Matthews is an activist, singer-songwriter and powerful lyricist who tackles heavy topics such as immigration, the opioid crisis, Black Lives Matter, and gun control with a warm heart, strong voice, and inspiring songs. Caffè Lena presents extraordinary music in an intimate setting, widely recognized as the longest-continuously operating folk music venue in the United States. The Library of Congress calls Caffè Lena “An American treasure,” and it has been recognized by The GRAMMY Foundation for its important contributions to the development of American music.
The Black History Month concert is also partnering with local community groups. MLK Saratoga, Saratoga Youth Safe Space, CREATE Community Studios, Camp Stomping Ground and Saratoga Pride are tabling before the event to socialize and discuss their organization’s role in the community.
MLK Saratoga shares Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision of peace and justice for all, building civil and human rights awareness by promoting equity, inclusivity, diversity, anti-racism, and social justice through community events and offerings, engaging via performance, dialogue, conversation, and the arts. Saratoga Youth Safe Space is a group intended to bring BIPOC youth as well as LGBTQ+ youth, and allies, together to have a place of reflection, dialogue, and support.
C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios is dedicated to providing a space where the benefits of art-making impact both the individual and the community. They offer low-cost art workshops and groups, community wellness activities, and open studios to promote art-making and the creative process as a vehicle for personal growth, communication, and social change. Unlike other art studios, their expectations are not rooted in a product or an image. They focus on the evolution of a piece and encourage conversation about its meaning.
Stomping Ground is an overnight camp in the gateway to the Adirondacks in Saratoga Springs. They aim to partner with young people to inspire the next generation of radically empathetic decision-makers. Saratoga Pride is a welcoming community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people and allies in the greater Saratoga Springs area.
