Catie Curtis @ Driftwood Folk Cafe on Feb. 11th!

Driftwood Folk Café proudly presents a night of music with the incredible musical talent of Catie Curtis in a special solo performance on Saturday, February 11th.

The Boston-area folk music scene is a vibrant one, boasting a variety of diverse artists. But if pressed to name the region's defining musician, it would have to be singer-songwriter Catie Curtis, who has called it home for nearly all of her twenty-year music career. Since the release of her last album in 2009, Curtis has toured extensively, playing a number of diverse venues ranging from Chicago's legendary Old Town School of Folk Music to the White House. She's also spent that time writing and testing out new material, developing a collection of masterfully written lyrics that serve as the heart of her newest record, Stretch Limousine on Fire.

On the new album, Curtis, a Lilith Fair alum who's been dubbed a "folk-rock goddess" by The New Yorker, delivers some of the finest material of her career: ten original songs that push at her own musical boundaries and explore "the difficult edges of passing events" in life, harsh realities that are tempered with moments of fleeting beauty. This temporary nature of life is a theme that pervades the album from the first notes. Opening song "Let It Last, which features folk powerhouse and former tour mate Mary Chapin Carpenter singing harmony, finds Curtis pleading "I know it can't last/And all I ask is let it last a little longer."

The sound, like the subject matter, is rawer than Curtis' previous work, which has been featured on episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Dawson's Creek and several other hit shows. "There's a lot of texture that makes you feel like you're really close to it," she explains.

That vibe is spirited, unique, and best embodied by the album's title track. "Stretch Limousine on Fire" is an infectious song whose central image takes on the idea that "when bad things happen, you sometimes take comfort in realizing they happen to everybody." It's this portrayal of universal life experiences, wrapped in Curtis' brand of evocative songwriting that won her the 2006 International Songwriting Competition, that appeals to her legions of dedicated fans.

With her Aspire to Inspire Endowment providing musical instruments to seven youth-oriented music organizations, a busy schedule officiating nontraditional weddings, and the fulltime job of raising two daughters with her partner, Catie Curtis is stretching her own boundaries to ensure that, despite the rough edges in life, there will always be those moments of beauty.

Driftwood Folk Café is a volunteer-run, 501(C)(3) not-for-profit corporation. Shows are generally held on the 2nd Saturday of the month at Plymouth’s Unitarian Universalist First Parish Church, downstairs in Kendall Hall, at 19 Town Square in Plymouth MA.  Café-style seating as well as home-baked goods, a variety of tea, soft beverages, and, of course, delicious coffee help to ensure a tasty, intimate concert experience. In order to provide the highest quality listening atmosphere for all, this is an alcohol-free and non-smoking venue.  Children are always welcome with adult supervision, provided they are attentive and courteous. Tickets may be purchased for $22 in advance or $25 at 7:30 pm at the door the day of the show (if available). Upcoming shows include Antje Duvekot, a co-bill featuring Tracy Grammer and Dan Navarro, and Melissa Ferrick.

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This press release is available at www.driftwoodfolkcafe.com.  For additional information on shows, sponsorships or to schedule artist interviews please contact Lynn Holdsworth at (508) 224-7024 or email Lynn at lynn@driftwoodfolkcafe.com.

Reminder - Kris Delmhorst at Driftwood Folk Cafe Jan. 14th!

Hello Everyone!

Just a quick reminder that our next show is this coming Saturday, January 14th featuring Kris Delmhorst with opening act Bethel Steele! Tix are available online now at www.driftwoodfolkcafe.com. The doors open at 7:30 and the show starts promptly at 8. We serve a variety of homebaked treats as well as an assortment of hot and cold beverages by donation before the show and during intermission.

Singer and songwriter Kris Delmhorst was raised in Brooklyn, NY. She trained in classical cello early on, then used her skills to land work with jazz bands and folk singers in the area. A move to Maine -- and a very long winter -- gave her time to learn to play the fiddle and guitar. In 1996, she relocated to Boston, MA, and was nominated for Outstanding Female Singer/Songwriter twice by the Boston Music Awards.

Kris Delmhorst's arresting 2008 album Shotgun Singer began as an act of solitary creation. Holed up in a rural cabin with minimal recording gear and a houseful of instruments, Delmhorst recorded her new songs alone and off the clock, in late night sessions that yielded layers of intimate vocals combined with nylon string and electric guitars, cellos, keyboards, and percussion. She treated the work like oil painting, allowing the canvas to breathe and change over the course of many months until the picture emerged. With the core of each song patiently assembled, she brought in a diverse cast of players to add sparse backing lines of drums, keys, guitar, and vinyl-based samples, and then signed on co-producer Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter) in arrangement and mixing, enlisting him meanwhile to play keyboards and percussion on several songs. The result is collection of songs fully realized and even lush at times, but retaining a hushed intensity, a spirit of lo-fi intimacy and unhurried exploration.

With Shotgun Singer, Delmhorst has trained that voice on a series of gracefully open lyrics and figures that transcend genre, ranging into the borderlands between indie-rock and folk, that nameless territory inhabited by such hard-to-classify artists as Juana Molina, Feist, Iron & Wine, and Laura Veirs. Adventurous, elegant, lucid, and haunting, the record is the work of a musician at full stride who has found a musical language equal to her vision.

Bethel Steele has been writing music and playing guitar since the age of 14, but it wasn’t until a move to a small town outside of Poughkeepsie, New York at age 21, that Bethel began to perform with regularity. At a small dive bar, you’d find Bethel playing covers of songs by Ani DiFranco, the Indigo Girls, Josh Ritter and Susan Werner alongside Bethel’s own originals to a crowd that grew each month.

In addition to an eight-song EP, Beautiful Woman, Steele has also released a full-length self-produced studio album in 2009 entitled Come Home, which was the result of many musicians bringing in their own sound and adding it to the soulful lyrics and driving rhythmic guitar that has become a trademark of Bethel's music. The album has tastes of a country upbringing, dashes of pop and rock, but is nailed in the folk genre.

Bethel is currently back in the studio, working on a much-anticipated sophomore record that is scheduled to be released next Spring. This will be Bethel's first album working with producers and is a fan-funded project.

We recommend you guarantee your seat and buy in advance for $20 +$1 PayPal service fee. If available, seats will be $23 at the door.

All the best, and we hope to see you Saturday night!

Carlyn, Lynn, and all of the Driftwood volunteers