Tag: Oswego Music Hall

The Oswego Music Hall is proud to present Shawna Caspi and Rachael Kilgour, as part of its Women in Music Series, on Saturday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m.

Before the concert, the public is invited to the Annual Member Meeting which will take place at 4:30.

“I’m excited to be kicking off the first year of our new Women in Music Series during Women’s History Month with two talented Canadian singer-songwriters that put on incredible performances at the NERFA conference,” said Tom Lambert, Artistic Director.

The Oswego Music Hall evolved from a little coffee house venue called “The Low Life Cafe,” created by Richard Reinert in 1976, on Water Street in Oswego, known as the Market House Music Hall. Oswego Music Hall was incorporated in 1979 and received 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 1985. The venue relocated twice before settling into the McCrobie Civic Center, a historic municipal building adjacent to Breitbeck Park, overlooking the Great Lake Ontario.

Run by an incredibly reliable team of volunteers, Oswego Music Hall has produced diverse and high-quality concerts on their National Stage every other Saturday night during their fall, winter/spring seasons, and national stage events for 40 years. Their programs offer Oswego and the Greater Central New York community exposure to top-quality touring musicians, singers, and songwriters of many genres. Most importantly, the venue helps support artists and music not typically heard in the mainstream media, encouraging the development of emerging artists from the community. 

Toronto-based singer-songwriter Shawna Caspi takes her time crafting poetic and meaningful lyrics, often using unusual rhymes. She spent years on the road playing solo shows at festivals and in concert halls, train cars, backyards, and living rooms, supporting her warm, clear voice with intricate fingerstyle guitar accompaniment, and drawing energy from shifting landscapes and long drives through Canada and the United States. After taking a break from the road, she returns with her fifth album, Hurricane Coming, a collection of raw, deeply personal songs set against a backdrop of colorful cinematic soundscapes. She also created a series of abstract paintings inspired by the songs on the album.

Hurricane Coming was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Album of the Year and the Ontario Folk Music Award for Album of the Year. Her songs have also won awards from Folk Music Ontario and the Songwriters’ Association of Washington. She strives to tell the truth and empower listeners to come to terms with the parts of themselves and the world that they might find scary.

Rachael Kilgour is a Canadian-American songwriter and performing artist whose plain-spoken, lyric-driven work and intimate performances have endeared her to listeners and fellow artists alike. Kilgour has been featured at NYC’s Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and the Sundance Film Festival.

Her exquisite fourth full-length collection, My Father Loved Me, is a tribute to her late father, produced by JUNO Award-winning songwriter Rose Cousins and recorded in the senior Kilgour’s native Canada. Kilgour gives us a complex portrait of a man through his daughter’s eyes, posing questions about identity, inheritance, and grief, affirming the value of one ordinary working man’s life in an often indifferent world.

Tickets are on sale online or at the Rivers End Bookstore in Oswego.

Oswego Music Hall Events Calendar

Mar 16                        The Intention – Jazz by the Lake

Mar 22                        Open Mic w/Hosts Frank Stefanek and Julie Clement

Mar 23                        Shawna Caspi and Rachael Kilgour (Women in Music Series)

Apr 12                         Open Mic w/Host Mark Zane

Apr 13                         Big Sky Quartet

Apr 20                         Count Blastula w/Special Guest Mike Dubaniewicz Jazz by the Lake

Apr 26                         Open Mic w/Host Larry Kyle

Apr 27                         Livingston Taylor w/Ash & Eric opening

May 11                        Season Finale – Sam Robbins & Emerging Artists Showcase