South Pasadena Public Library's May 3 Eclectic Music Festival 'Carnegie Stage' Free Concert Will feature Eliza Gilkyson, Tony Gilkyson, Billy Childs, and Other Great Performers

On Saturday, May 3rd the South Pasadena Public Library Community Room will again serve as ‘The Carnegie Stage,’ one of the premier showcases of the 6th Annual South Pasadena Eclectic Music Festival which will present over a dozen musical acts at free venues around town. Six musical performances will be presented in the Library’s beautiful, historic Community Room. Styles offered will range from Folk to Jazz, and all the way to Bluegrass, Country, and Rock.

At 3:00 p.m. the show will lead off with Loafer’s Glory featuring Herb Pederson. Showcasing 3 and 4-part harmonies blended with acoustic banjo, guitar, fiddle, and bass, the group displays hair raising vocals and powerhouse picking

.

At 4:00 p.m. Elliott Caine and his combo will offer a set of “Blue Note” style jazz. Elliott has performed and/or recorded with Teddy Edwards, O.C. Smith, Wycliff Jean, Beck, and The Beastie Boys, among many others. He was also an integral part of the Latin-ska group, Jump With Joey for three tours of Japan and the USA, and performed at Capitol Records' 50th Anniversary celebration. A South Pasadena resident, Elliott also received a Platinum Record for his work with the rock group, Filter.

Jazz pianist/composer extraordinaire and South Pasadena resident Billy Childs will appear with vocalist Moira Smiley at 5:00 p.m. They will be performing songs that will be appearing on Billy’s next album, a re-imagining of songs by Laura Nyro. The album will feature Esperanza Spalding, Chakha Khan, Rickie Lee Jones, and many other special guests. Billy was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009 and a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award in 2013. He has been called one of the most diversely prolific artists working in music. Billy is also a three-time GRAMMY® winner who has appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival and with the Kronos Quartet at Disney Music Hall.

Powdercoat featuring Kristin Mooney and Claire Holley will appear at 6:00 p.m. The duo began singing together a few years ago when a mutual friend re-introduced them. The two had an immediate vocal chemistry and soon began writing together. Their self-titled EP came out last fall, and Huffington Post called it “one of the year's loveliest recordings.” The EP also was selected as Winner of the 2014 MIAL (Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters) Award for Popular Music Composition.

At 7:00 p.m. Rick Shea and bassist Dave Hall will perform a set that embraces traditional Folk and Country elements. Shea, a skilled vocalist and formidable guitarist, has released 6 widely- praised albums and has worked with many famous musicians including Roots Rock kingpin Dave Alvin and Rock legends, R.E.M. His new album “Sweet Bernardine” is a folk troubadour’s dream collection of personal stories of California and the Southwest. Rick has performed to enthusiastic Eclectic Fest audiences the last 2 years.

8:00 p.m. will bring a much-anticipated set showcasing Tony Gilkyson and Eliza Gilkyson. Eliza and Tony grew up brother and sister in South Pasadena in an environment of songwriters and musicians and have both gone on to superlative musical careers. Tony started recording as a boy with his father, Terry Gilkyson, a prominent folksinger/songwriter in his own right. Terry was the lead singer on The Weavers’ #1 hit from 1950 “On Top of Old Smokey” and he received an Academy Award® nomination in 1967 for his “The Bare Necessities” from “The Jungle Book.” Terry’s group, The Easy Riders had their own big 50s hit, the Calypso song “Marianne” (all day, all night Marianne), and Terry co-wrote “Memories Are Made of This” for Dean Martin’s only #1 hit in 1956. Tony Gilkyson played guitar with the Los Angeles band X for ten years, starting with the acclaimed album “See How We Are” and continuing through the all-acoustic live recording, “X Unclogged.” Other artists he has played and recorded with include Lone Justice, Peter Rowan, Dave Alvin, Alice Cooper, Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and k.d. lang, He has produced recordings for Exene Cervenka, sister Eliza Gilkyson and Dances with Wolves author and poet Michael Blake. With Tom Waits, he co-produced Chuck E. Weiss’ albums “Extremely Cool” and “Old Souls & Wolf Tickets.” Tony also has played guitar on numerous film sound tracks including the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line,” and “All the King’ s Men,” with noted producer T Bone Burnett.

Eliza Gilkyson is a GRAMMY®-nominated singer, songwriter and activist who has become one of the most respected musicians in Folk, Roots and Americana circles. The daughter of legendary songwriter Terry Gilkyson, Eliza entered the music world as a teenager, recording demos for her father. Since then she has released 20 recordings of her own, and her songs have been covered by Joan Baez, Bob Geldof, Tom Rush and Rosanne Cash and have been used in films, PBS specials and on prime-time TV. Eliza has appeared on NPR, Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, Air America Radio and has toured worldwide as a solo artist and in support of Richard Thompson, Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Dan Fogelberg, as well as with the Woody Guthrie review, “Ribbon of Highway-Endless Skyway” alongside the Guthrie Family and special guests Pete Seeger, Jackson Browne and Kris Kristofferson. Eliza has been inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame alongside such legends as Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt and Nanci Griffith. She has been accorded many of the Austin Chronicle’s various music awards, as well as Folk Alliance awards for Best Artist, Best Songwriter and Record of the Year.

Her CD “Land of Milk and Honey” was nominated for a GRAMMY® for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Eliza’s meditative “Requiem,” written as a prayer for those who lost their lives in the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia, was recorded by the internationally recognized choral group Conspirare, whose version was nominated for a GRAMMY®. The song has become a standard in choir repertory the world over. In addition to touring in support of her previous release “Roses at the End of Time” in 2011 and 2012, Eliza and label-mates John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky performed as the “Folk Super Trio” Red Horse, a side project which hovered atop the Folk Music Charts for months. Eliza recently was invited to contribute a track for the Jackson Browne tribute, “Looking Into You” (released in 2014), along with Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Shawn Colvin, Bonnie Raitt and others. Her latest release on Red House Records, “The Nocturne Diaries,” produced by her son Cisco Ryder, is a restless contemplative work inspired by her highest hopes and darkest fears.

The free concert is able to be presented because of the partnership between the South Pasadena Public Library, the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, Levitt Pavilion, The City of South Pasadena, The Rotary Club of South Pasadena, and the Woman’s Club of South Pasadena, Special thanks to Bob McClain/ S&B Sound, South Pasadena Mercantile, South Pasadena Unified School District, and Videotheque. Parking will be available in the Superintendent of Schools Office lot across the street—its driveway is located on Fairview just north of El Centro. The Library Community Room is located at 1115 El Centro Street. Doors will open at 2:30 p.m. No tickets or reservations are necessary, but seating is very limited. Audience members are advised to arrive early as seats could become very hard to come by. Refreshments will be provided and CDs will be for sale. For more information on the Eclectic Music Festival, which will present a wide variety of free concerts throughout downtown South Pasadena on May 3, please refer to www.eclecticmusicfestival.com.