Upcoming events at The Ridgefield Playhouse

David Grisman & John Sebastian
October 28th at 8PM

Their musical history dates back to college days at New York University circa 1963 when the Greenwich Village folk revival was in its’ heyday. They made their first recording together as members of the Even Dozen Jug Band with future luminaries Maria Muldaur, Stefan Grossman and others. The rest, of course is musical history. John Sebastian became lead singer and songwriter of one of America’s most popular bands – the Lovin’ Spoonful and David Grisman spearheaded an acoustic music revolution with his genre-defying “Dawg” music.

Finally, after a 40+ year hiatus, their paths crossed again at a benefit concert in Mill Valley, California. After this mutually enjoyable evening of spontaneous music, it became obvious that they would continue collaborating and the result is Satisfied – a stunning collection of acoustic duets featuring traditional folk tunes, blues, classy instrumentals and originals by these two legendary masters.

Ticket Price:
Orchestra: $65.00
Mezzanine: $60.00

Rickie Lee Jones
October 29th at 8PM
Part of the Doyle Coffin Architecture
Singer/Songwriter Series

Rickie Lee Jones is a two-time Grammy Award- winning vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer who is best known for her song “Chuck E’s In Love”. Over the course of a three- decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards. Jones met Tom Waits at the Troubadour and Jones’ own love of jazz standards mixed with her unlikely friendship created the radio hit “Chuck E’s In Love”. During the mid-1970s, Jones also met her long-time collaborator Sal Bernardi, who inspired her ‘Weasle and the White Boys’ as well as future collaborator, Dr. John, sent by legendary jazz producer Tommy La Puma, who would eventually produce the two of them singing “Makin’ Whoopie” and win them both Grammy’s for best jazz duet.

The revered singer- songwriter shows off her new material in an intimate setting at the Ridgefield Playhouse.
Photo by Lee Cantelon c. 2007

AllShows.com VIP Party Pass -which includes a pre- show cocktail party, open bar, priority parking, VIP seating and meet and greet with the artist when available! Call the Box Office for more information.

Ticket Price:
$55.00

Pete Yorn
With Special Guest Alberta Cross
November 1st at 8PM
Part of the Doyle Coffin Architecture
Singer/Songwriter Series

New Jersey native Pete Yorn earned monster popularity when a song he wrote was picked by the Farrelly Brothers, for their Jim Carrey film, “Me, Myself & Irene.” It was called “Strange Condition” and it became one of the biggest pop hits of 2001. After netting a record contract with Columbia, Yorn returned to the studio and co-produced his debut album, 2001’s Musicforthemorningafter, with Brad Wood and R. Walt Vincent. He also played the bulk of the instruments himself. The following spring, he returned with the earnest Day I Forgot, which featured several contributions from R.E.M.’s Peter Buck (who had previously made a cameo on the single version of “Strange Condition”). For his third studio LP, Yorn enlisted collaborators such as the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and the Dixie Chicks’ Martie Maguire and Natalie Maines to shape the sound of Nightcrawler. Produced by Butch Walker, the album arrived in August 2006 and replaced Yorn’s folky leanings with a more rock-oriented foundation. Another noted producer, Bright Eyes alum Mike Mogis, was enlisted to helm Pete Yorn’s next record. The resulting Back and Fourth was recorded in Omaha, NE, and released in 2009, prefaced by the lead single “Don’t Wanna Cry.” Yorn returned later that year with another album, this one recorded along side actress/vocalist Scarlett Johansson and inspired by the famed duets of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. Although the project was finished several years prior, Break Up didn’t see the light of day until September 2009, after several of Yorn’s friends urged him to issue the material. Pete Yorn’s new album BREAK UP with Scarlett Johansson is now #1 on Amazon mp3. (9/17/09)! Pete Yorn will be backed by his new band, which now consists of guitarists Jonny Polonsky, Mark Noseworthy and Zak Schaffer; keyboardist Joey Kennedy; and drummer Scott Seiver.

‘Broken Side of Time’, is Alberta Cross’ debut album. A cathartic, kaleidoscope of influences, from Depeche Mode to The Band, it’s also the sound of Alberta Cross’ two principals— frontman/guitarist-vocalist Petter Ericson Stakee and bassist Terry Wolfers—going for broke and stumbling across the sound of their dreams in the process. ‘Broken Side of Time’ took root in an April 2008 jam session, Stakee and Wolfers’ first with three players they would quickly enlist— guitarist Sam Kearney, drummer Austin Beede and keyboardist Alec Higgins. The five jammed on a group of Stakee’s then-new songs, giving birth to Alberta Cross’ second incarnation almost immediately: “I remember thinking that night, ‘This is gonna be insane’,” remembers Stakee. ‘Broken Side of Time’ is grand in volume and vast in vision, it’s an inspired set of electric songs that finds the intersection of The Verve, My Morning Jacket and Neil Young (with or without Crazy Horse). The album melds propulsive, throbbing bass lines and crashing waves of guitar to a haunting, impassioned voice that can sound ancient and Appalachian.

Ticket Price:
$42.50

Herb Alpert & Lani Hall
November 2nd at 8PM
Danbury Audi Jazz Series
“An Evening of Wine and Jazz”

Join us in the lobby before the show for a FREE Wine Tasting with Mélangé Fine Wines and Spirits and hors d’oeuvres from Ancona ’s Market from 7–8 pm

Music icon, legendary trumpeter and bandleader, Herb Alpert, and his wife, the internationally renowned singer Lani Hall will grace our stage to bring you beautifully reinterpreted standards from their first recorded project together called Anything Goes.

Herb Alpert is known for his work with Tijuana Brass, and his Grammy Award winning Record of the Year “A Taste of Honey”, and his 1979 solo hit “Rise”. He also founded A&M records in 1962 with Jerry Moss.

Lani Hall is a Grammy Award winning songstress known for her solo albums in English, Portuguese and Spanish that began with 1972’s “Sun Down Lady”.

Ticket Price:
$50.00

Keb’ Mo’
Special Guest:
Kristina Train
November 3rd at 8PM

In a historical sense, if any artist can be said to rule Billboard’s Top Blues Album chart, it is L.A. – bred singer/songwriter Keb’ Mo’ – black English for Kevin Moore. In fact, Keb’Mo’ has never been absent from the chart during the course of its existence.

Guitarist/vocalist Keb’ Mo’ draws heavily on the old- fashioned country blues style of Robert Johnson while keeping his sound contemporary with touches of soul and folksy storytelling. A skilled frontman as well as an accomplished sideman, he writes much of his own material and has applied his acoustic, electric, and slide guitar skills to jazz- and rock-oriented bands. 1990 found him portraying a Delta bluesman in a local play, +Rabbit Foot, and later playing Robert Johnson in a docudrama entitled Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl? He released his self-titled debut album as Keb’ Mo’ in 1994, featuring two Robert Johnson covers, 11 songs written or co-written by Moore, and his guitar and banjo work. His second album, Just Like You, saw Keb’ Mo’ stretching his legs by working with a full band and tackling several rock-based songs. The gamble paid off, as Just Like You won the artist his first Grammy award. Slow Down followed in 1998 and netted Mo’ another Grammy, and Door was issued two years later. Big Wide Grin followed in 2001, while 2004 saw the release of two albums, Keep It Simple and Peace…Back by Popular Demand. Suitcase was issued in 2006 on Red Ink Records.

Hearing Kristina Train for the first time is nothing less than a revelation: her sunny, easygoing demeanor and youthful good looks belie the heart-wrenching power of her voice. Train’s Blue Note debut, Spilt Milk, is urbane and soulful, lush in its arrangements but intimate in its emotions.

Ticket Price:
$68.00

Straight No Chaser
November 5th at 8PM

Originally formed a dozen years ago, while students together at Indiana University, the group has reassembled and reemerged as a phenomenon – with a huge fanbase, millions of viewers on YouTube, and a contract with Atlantic Records. In an era when so much pop music is the product of digital processing and vocal pro-tooling, Straight No Chaser is the real deal – the captivating sound of ten unadulterated human voices coming together to make extraordinary music that is moving people in a fundamental sense… and with a sense of humor. After their version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” became a YouTube sensation, SNC are back with “Holiday Spirits”

Ticket Price:
$35.00

Gin Blossoms
with special guests The Spring Standards
November 6th at 8pm

Fueled by mega-hits including “Hey Jealousy,” “Found Out About You” and “Til I Hear It From You,” Gin Blossoms completed the classic crossover from college-circuit heroes to multi-platinum album sellers. The band’s hometown following in Tempe, Arizona grew quickly as the band earned a great reputation as a live act. Readers of the Phoenix New Times chose them as the city’s best rock band qualifying them to play at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas in March, 1989. Later that year, College Music Journal dubbed them the “Best Unsigned Band in America” and invited them to play MTV’s New Music Awards in New York City. Major label interest quickly followed …their initial releases on A&M Records included Up and Crumbling in 1991 and the multi-platinum selling New Miserable Experience in 1992 featuring the single, “Hey Jealousy” which peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Four more singles followed … “Mrs. Rita,” “Found Out About You,” “Allison Road” and “Until I Fall Away.” With NME having sold nearly 3 million copies in the US alone, the Gin Blossoms became a band to be reckoned with. Congratulations I’m Sorry, which was released in 1996, was the Blossom’s final original album of the decade bringing them two more hits … “Follow You Down” which spent ten weeks in the Top Ten and “As Long As It Matters” which earned the group a Grammy nomination for “Best Performance by a Duo or Group.” The album debuted in Billboard’s Top Ten and a year of touring helped put the record past 1,500,000 units sold.

Ticket Price $55.00

Flying Karamazov Brothers
November 8th at 2pm & 5pm
Part of the Pepsi Children’s Series
Benziger Family Winery Theatre Series

Join us in the Lobby one-hour Pre- Show for a FREE Wine Tasting! The Flying Karamazov Brothers are a world famous juggling and comedy troupe who have been performing since 1973. They learned their trade while performing as street artists in Santa Cruz, California. They were extremely popular while pursuing their busking career and soon rocketed to international fame in the world of juggling.

“4PLAY” is the latest show by the Flying Karamazov Brothers. This original production is directed by Paul Magid. The show is a unique blend of nouveau cirque, visual music, dance and theatre. The Brothers mix visual fireworks, visceral physicality and theatrical innovation to create a post- modern sensibility where anything is possible. Their method is to combine skill and scope to form a work that is kaleidoscopic and passionate. The objects, them musical instruments (traditional and invented) and their own bodies are transformed into a fresh polyrhythmic performance. Ground-breaking and provocative, the four brothers use their many talents to demonstrate that chaos and unexpected events in our lives is the stuff that makes us human.

This show’s Union Savings Bank “Arts for Everyone”
recipient is Amos House.

$30.00 adults
$25.00 children & seniors
Children & Senior tickets are ONLY
available thru the Box Office – 203.438.5795