w/ Harmonica Legend Will Scarlett, Caffé Lena, 7/29/11

    
Caffé Lena, Saratoga Springs, NY, the oldest folk club in continuous operation in America.  We were on a double bill w/ Frank Fotusky, a devotee of old blues repertoire, and legendary harmonica player Will Scarlett, whose distinctive sound is all over recordings by David Bromberg, Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, Old & In The Way, and others.    During a shuffle tempo version of Call Me A Fool, with little urging, Will ran out of the room, grabbed his harmonicas and loped back onstage to join us.  Needless to say, we had a good time. 

Comments

[Glenn Leahey]

Good Lord! This looks like fun... I REALLY need to get up to Saratoga again. Never been to Lena's....but have gone to some SPAC concerts when I was younger with HEART, Stevie Nicks. I remember a Deadhead bar called AIKO's near the Saratoga Downtowner Inn. I'll check Lena's schedule for early fall...great time/fall colors. A friend of mine from Fordham University/Carlo Devito and his wife own the Hudson-Ghent Winery in Chatham/just south of Albany. It's time to plan a trip to the northern Hudson Valley! Maybe some apple/pumpkin picking in the mix... Yippee!!!

[craig]

Highly recommended. Lena has the up close atmosphere sand carries the torch for great folk music. The intimacy brings out the honest best in performers. We opened for singer/songwriter John Gorka a while back and it was like a house concert. The town is pretty wild--a lot of people with a lot of money. We left town at around midnight after our show and the place was still in high party gear after a day at the races.