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What is a populist voice? People talk about Johnny Cash and sometimes Willy Nelson as authentic folksters, singing about the American experience, failures and aspirations. NYFOS was recently at Exeter Academy, one of our finest prep schools. I was busy conducting ...
We cover quite a bit of arcana in NYFOS concerts. Forgotten composers, obscure corners of the repertoire from A to Z. We delight in finding these treasures. Many of them defy classification. Is it a folk song, or a pop tune? We don’t think that’s of any importance...
I’m hoping to enjoy my summer this year. We are just getting into it, and I’m already having lots of fun. I think it’s the long evenings that can make summer so special. Langorous dinners with friends al fresco. Extended dusk, and lingering twilight eventually...
Steve Blier introduced me to the 19 yr. old John Brancy ( a Juilliard underclassman) about a decade ago. Since then, we’ve helped, and watched “Brancy” (he’s become a one-name star) go from success to success. Most recently, he won a number of prizes in the biggest...
Yesterday, I was going on about Dave Frishberg, and mentioned “My Attorney Bernie”. I don’t expect anyone actually looked it up, so I’ll make it easy for y’all. Here’s Dave performing that song on the Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was the host. I first heard this...
Dave Frishberg. Urbane, pianist extraordinaire, a real lyricist, and a musician who gets us other musical cats. Here is “I Want To Be A Sideman”. At NYFOS, we bring in sidemen all the time. Clarinetists, guitarists, percussionists, whatever the music calls for. And...