Sun Runner Magazine Showcases for Fall 2006

August 11, 2006 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Joshua Tree - The Sun Runner Magazine is pleased to announce two Sun Runner Showcase Concerts this autumn at the newly restored Hi-Desert Playhouse in Joshua Tree. Now in their third season, Sun Runner Showcases continue to bring internationally known musical and dramatic talent to Morongo Basin audiences for low ticket prices. Sun Runner Showcases are welcomed by KX 96 FM.

A Sun Runner Showcase: Pint & Dale in Concert

Thursday, September 14, 7 p.m.

Pint & Dale

$10

Hi-Desert Playhouse

61231 Highway 62 (29 Palms Highway), Joshua Tree, California

Box Office: (760)366-3777

Reserved seat tickets available online at: www.thesunrunner.com

Front Row Sponsor: Melissa Baxter of Hi-Desert Realty

“William Pint and Felicia Dale rank among North America’ s most exciting interpreters of music is based in the traditions of the British Isles and France … unconventional but spine-tingling … unique and mesmerizing.”

- Dirty Linen

William Pint & Felicia Dale are some of the most highly regarded performers of traditional sea music in the world today. But while they often perform traditional music, they bring high energy and innovation to its performance for an exciting evening of lively songs drawing on several cultures.

With bright vocals, guitar, mandola, Irish pennywhistles, percussion and the exotic sounds of the vielle-à-roue, or hurdy gurdy, this Seattle-based duo invigorate traditional songs that shed hundreds of years to sound fresh and contemporary.

Felicia Dale grew up on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound of Washington State. Her father was a sea captain and she spent her childhood sailing the Northwestern coastal waters and cruising Canada’s “Inside Passage.” Her mother is a transplanted Parisian, and Dale learned French as her first language, which she puts to good use with her lifelong love of songs from the French seafaring tradition.

William Pint has been part of the world of folk music since 1970. In 1977, he headed west to the salt air of the Puget Sound, with its rich seafaring history. He began recording Irish tunes and nautical songs for Folkways Records in 1979. Pint performed and recorded with the likes of Paul Ely Smith and Bob Kotta, and recorded with them for a 1984 Flying Fish Records release. With Smith and Kotta as “Copperfield,” a popular Northwest band, he opened for musicians such as Richard Thompson, John Renbourn, David Bromberg and others.

Together, Pint & Dale have recorded eight albums, including the popular “Port of Dreams,” “Making Waves,” “Hearts of Gold,” “Round the Corner,” “When I See Winter Return,” “Hartwell Horn,” “White Horses” and “Seven Seas.” They have gathered an ardent following wherever they have toured. They have performed extensively in the U.S., as well as across Europe in Great Britain, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands.

This autumn, Pint & Dale return from touring in England to perform in Southern California at several maritime festivals – and – at the Hi-Desert Playhouse in Joshua Tree.

A Sun Runner Showcase: Richard Grainger Returns in Concert

Sunday, November 19, 7 p.m.

Richard Grainger

$15

Hi-Desert Playhouse

61231 Highway 62 (29 Palms Highway), Joshua Tree, California

Box Office: (760)366-3777

Reserved seat tickets available online at: www.thesunrunner

Richard Grainger is an internationally loved folk musician and folk music historian from England. And he’s been busy since he first performed in the hi-desert last fall. This year, Grainger has toured Sicily, Scotland, England, the East Coast of America, Ireland, France and New Zealand, finally making his way to the Hi-Desert Playhouse in Joshua Tree. Some of his performance s are with the Endeavour Shantymen, a group Grainger formed in 1997.

Born in Middlesbrough, Grainger’s father played ukulele and sang. “Ah. Those were the nights; around the fire at home with me brother on guitar, me on banjo, me Dad on his uke, and Mam singin,.” Grainger recalls. His first encounters with harmonies came from family gatherings and singing old Methodist hymns and gospel songs. His interest in folk music came from folk blues and skiffle. His brother Peter was also a musician and singer with a local skiffle group.

Grainger worked with Ron Angel, once a member of the Teesside Fettlers, and Charles O’Connor, fiddler and a founding member of the Irish folk-rock legends “Horslips.” In the 1980s Grainger became a member of the Teesside Fettlers folk group which had recorded some of his songs. One of his earliest songs, “Whitby Whaler,” wound up in a museum, labeled as a traditional whaling song. Talk about authentic.

As a solo artist, Grainger has been recording since the mid-1980s, and has worked with the likes of Chris Parkinson. Grainger very successfully incorporates his love of history and his home region with that of music.

In 1997, Grainger staged the first performance of his ambitious folk opera, “Eye of the Wind,” the story of Capt. James Cook and his first voyage on Endeavour, in Whitby, to celebrate the arrival of the bark replica from Australia.

“Eye of the Wind,” has since been performed in numerous venues and in 2004, BBC Radio produced an adaptation of the folk opera, with Sir David Attenborough as narrator. Attenborough also appears on the “Eye of the Wind” CD.

Klondike Folk Arts is busy producing a song book of Grainger’s work, featuring 25 of his original songs, while his 2006 touring has taken him to perform in some incredible venues, such as Sicily’s Medieval Convent del Carmine. His recent album, “On Heather & Clarty Moor,” is a celebration of his homeland, a beautiful album blending traditional and original works. His music can be dark and brooding, or humorous to the point of provoking widespread laughter throughout an audience. His performance last year at the Hi-Desert Playhouse, packed with stories and music, was mesmerizing – strong, lively, and immensely entertaining. Grainger returns in 2006, drawn by the desert that he enjoyed so much during his last American tour.

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