Upcoming Events
Doors open at 7:00 pm; show at 7:30 pm
Fall 2024 Season
Fall Season Pass $130
Oswego Music Hall Ticket Information:
-
Season Pass Holders purchase the entire season at a discount. They get the best seats in the house which are typically upfront tables. Anyone sitting with pass holders must purchase VIP seating.
-
VIP seating (typically $5 above general seating) is preferred, forward seating. It is usually table seating.
-
General seating is the balance of seating in the house. Any ticket level may sit there.
National Stage
Delaney Brothers Bluegrass
John Delaney's Birthday Celebration
September 14th $17-22
Back for the third consecutive year to open the Oswego Music Hall 2024 Fall Season, two-time SAMMY winners, Delaney Brothers Bluegrass is one of CNY's oldest and best-loved bluegrass bands. More than just bluegrass, their music is influenced by many other acoustic traditions such as country, folk, gospel, and celtic. Fans are treated to a musical experience that sets toes tapping and… John Delaney’s birthday celebration!
Website: https://www.facebook.com/DelaneyBrothersBluegrass/
National Stage
Alice Howe & Freebo
Cam Caruso opening
September 28th $17-22
ALICE HOWE & FREEBO
Alice Howe and Freebo present a unique study in contrasts, bringing together a rising voice in Americana music and a venerable rock, folk, and blues icon. Each a compelling performer in their own right, they both lead and support each other in their well-crafted songs with flawless harmonies and tasteful instrumentation. They have worked as creative collaborators in the studio and on stage since 2017. Freebo weaves his unique fretless bass stylings into Alice's superb vocals for a presentation with undeniable chemistry.
To hear Alice Howe sing is to be enraptured by the natural, unaffected beauty of her voice. There’s no artifice, no histrionics — just honest, authentic, emotionally resonant singing in the tradition of the roots music that shaped her. On Circumstance, her second and latest album, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter guitarist displays her vocal prowess and introspective writing in abundance, mining both her heart and her musical tastes for a deep, personal journey across an Americana soundscape dotted with blues, folk, country, soul and rock. Recorded in two sessions at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Etta James and Wilson Pickett once shook the walls, the record channels their spirits with 11 stirring tracks that pull no punches diving into the vagaries of the heart and her own personal journey. As an old soul inside a 30-something millennial, Alice puts her stamp on Americana’s venerable strands with 10 standout originals evoking both the classic singer-songwriters and the seminal music that once filled airwaves, roadhouses and juke joints.
Freebo is best known for his decade of touring and recording with Bonnie Raitt, and has distinguished himself as one of the great bassists of our time, playing on records with CSN, Maria Muldaur, John Mayall, Ringo Starr, Dr. John, and Neil Young as well as appearing on Saturday Night Live, The Midnight Special, The Muppet Show, and in concert with the legendary Spinal Tap. Not willing to simply rest on those achievements, Freebo delved more deeply into his creativity and has become a highly regarded singer/songwriter, now working on his 6th full-length solo CD. A multi award winner and finalist in numerous songwriting contests, Freebo’s music reflects his compassionate concern for the world and people around him, and his lyrics and open stage banter have helped him connect with listeners worldwide. A live musical experience with Freebo is astute, insightful, clever, and truly melodic.
National Stage
Peter Mulvey
Mark Wahl Opening
October 19th. $17-22
Peter Mulvey has been a songwriter, road-dog, raconteur and almost-poet since before he can remember. Raised working-class Catholic on the Northwest side of Milwaukee, he took a semester in Ireland, and immediately began cutting classes to busk on Grafton Street in Dublin and hitchhike through the country, finding whatever gigs he could. Back stateside, he spent a couple years gigging in the Midwest before lighting out for Boston, where he returned to busking (this time in the subway) and coffeehouses. Small shows led to larger shows, which eventually led to regional and then national and international touring. The wheels have not stopped since.
Nineteen records, an illustrated book, thousands of live performances, a TEDx talk, a decades-long association with the National Youth Science Camp, opening for luminaries such as Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris, and Chuck Prophet, appearances on NPR, an annual autumn tour by bicycle, emceeing festivals, hosting his own boutique festival (the Lamplighter Sessions, in Boston and Wisconsin)… Mulvey never stops. He has built his life’s work on collaboration and an instinct for the eclectic and the vital. He folds everything he encounters into his work: poetry, social justice, scientific literacy, & a deeply abiding humanism are all on plain display in his art.
In late January 2019, Mulvey and his band, SistaStrings (Chauntee & Monique Ross) with Nathan Kilen on drums, decamped to their home turf, the Cafe Carpe, in Fort Atkinson, WI where they spent just five days making two records in the tiny back room. The live record, “Peter Mulvey with SistaStrings Live at the Cafe Carpe” is out now on Righteous Babe Records. It’s a celebration of a world that is temporarily on hold: a small folk club, packed with listeners, and a band shoulder-to-shoulder, playing and singing with intimacy and abandon.
Website: https://www.petermulvey.com/
Guest Curator Series
Curator: Dave Kaspar
Jazz By The Lake
featuring Opus Black Strings
October 26th $15-18
SUNY Oswego students $10 (with SUNY ID)
Opus Black Strings is a dynamic violin, viola, cello string trio. Opus Black Strings reimagines the boundaries of classical music with their innovative arrangements of alternative rock, jazz and pop hits. Their captivating performances blend virtuosity with modern flair, creating a unique and unforgettable musical experience. The group was established in 2016. The contemporary trio performs music from Beyonce to Led Zeppelin. Opus Black Strings has a penchant for the unorthodox, Opus coming from the traditional catalog of a composer, and Black because they perform with Lewis and Clark carbon fiber instruments. The trio consists of Kristen Kopf, Allyson Skylar and Liz Ingersoll.
Kristen Kopf is a cellist and veteran performer and pioneer of alternative education for 30 + years. She performs with Monk Rowe, and is a freelancing musician. Allyson Sklar is the owner and operator of Valley Talent Education Center, and The Mohawk Valley Strings Orchestra. She performs with the Half Moon Orchestra, and plays viola with Opus Black Strings. The lifeforce of the Opus Black experience comes from the stylistic interpretations of Liz Ingersoll. Known fondly as Liz “Fiddle”, she was dubbed a “CNY Treasure”. Liz lights up the stage with her dynamic performance and genuine smile. Liz is a freelancing musician and educator, and owns and operates Music With Liz teaching studio and The State Bridge Collective, art and music venue MusicWithLiz.com.
National Stage
Carsie Blanton
November 2nd $25-30
Carsie Blanton is a songwriter with hooks, chutzpah, and revolutionary optimism. Inspired by artist-activists including Nina Simone and Woody Guthrie, her catalog careens through American popular song from folk and swing to pop-punk protest anthems.
With her unique mix of humor, soul, and political wit, and fifteen-plus years on the road, Blanton has amassed a dedicated fan base and a small menagerie of viral hits (Rich People, Shit List, Fishin’ With You). Her most recent album After the Revolution, produced by Grammy-winner Tyler Chester, was released in March, 2024.
Carsie Blanton is that rare artist who knows how to combine savvy stagecraft and airtight songs with a revolutionary spirit. Take her latest hit, “Rich People,” which swept TikTok by storm with over 3 million views and, true to its name, laid bare wealth inequality in the process. Songs like “Shit List” and “Dealin’ with the Devil” lampoon neo-Nazis and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, respectively, and indicate why she has been hailed as an artist who creates “beautiful, militant anthems,” with the ability to make ”revolution desirable to your body, even if your head resists it” (NPR, American Songwriter).
Despite the struggles she readily acknowledges, Blanton retains a sense of hope, which shines through in her songs and performances. “When you spend your time watching the news or social media, people seem cruel and stupid,” she says. “But I think that by a wide margin, people are good, and want to take care of each other.” Her songs "Be Good" and “Lovin’ is Easy" are steeped in that spirit, inviting us to “love everybody alive.”
After keeping her band afloat throughout lockdown with live-streamed ‘Rent Parties’, going viral with a song memorializing John Prine (“Fishin with You), and releasing a critically acclaimed mid-pandemic album (2021’s Love and Rage, “fighting fascism with big hooks and an even bigger heart" - American Songwriter), Blanton chose to bring some nuance to her success, with her recent exposé in The Nation, laying bare the economics of the modern-day music industry.
The galvanizing spirit of her work is backed up by expertise. Blanton and her impeccably dressed “Handsome Band” bring skills betraying their long tenure as live musicians. Accompanied by Joe Plowman on bass, Patrick Firth on keys, and Sean Trischka on drums, their performances are a rich musical gumbo of genres, meandering from Americana and rock to cocktail jazz, Motown, and pop punk. With three-part harmonies thickening their sound, and kazoos leavening it, her dynamic sets range from slapstick jokes to call-and-response protest songs, making Blanton and her band “a festival presenter’s secret weapon, guaranteed to win over the crowd” (Promoter Roger Menell).
Blanton makes no attempt to disguise her far-left political leanings, but at the heart of her music is love, and her songs are capable of tethering us to our shared humanity across socio-political lines. No matter where they begin, every audience leaves her show transformed into friends and comrades, united in laughter, camaraderie, and hope.
Website: https://www.carsieblanton.com
National Stage
Abbie Gardner
Ryan David Green (from Ryanhood) opening
November 16th $17-22
Abbie Gardner is a fiery dobro player with an infectious smile. Whether performing solo or with Americana harmony trio Red Molly, her acclaimed tales of love and loss, both gritty and sweet, are propelled by her impeccable lap style slide guitar playing. Solo performances feature the dobro as a solo instrument, bouncing between a solid rhythmic backbone and ripping lead lines, all in support of her voice and songs. Her latest recording DobroSinger hit #11 on the Billboard Blues Chart. It’s intimate, real and raw - her dobro and voice recorded at the same time at home, without a band or any studio tricks to hide behind. You can hear every breath, every chuckle, as if you are in the room with her.
You might recognize Abbie from the female trio Red Molly. That’s where she’s honed her skills since 2004 – writing songs, singing and playing the lap-style resonator guitar often referred to as a Dobra. It’s typically an instrument that you’d find in the midst of a 5-piece bluegrass band, but here Abbie pushes the boundaries and uses it on her own without accompaniment. Here’s the record that she always dreamed of making. Using a tiny closet recording studio in her home in the shadow of NYC, Abbie gathered a collection of songs and recorded them raw – singing and playing without a band, without separating the voice from her instrument, and without any studio tricks to hide behind.
“DobraSinger is a naked little roller coaster of an album, when we get to hear how good Abbie Gardner really is. By turns awkward, raucous, fragile, and forceful, it sounds like Abbie is in the room with me, maybe sharing a stage and, honestly, I don’t know how to follow her. Nobody wants to follow her.” – Jonathan Byrd, Songwriter
Website: https://www.abbiegardner.com
Ryan David Green's music has been called "virtuosic acoustic guitar that is remarkably accessible", with fast fingerwork that is always in service of unmistakable melodies. Performing a blend of instrumental guitar pieces and delicate vocal tunes, Green takes audiences to a place both otherworldly, and somehow surprisingly intimate.
A graduate of Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, Ryan David Green has performed on four continents, been profiled in Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and twice been named "Best Guitarist" in the Tucson Music Awards (where he currently resides). His original compositions have received numerous film and TV placements, including shows on E!, Lifetime, and ABC Family/Freeform.
His acoustic-duo Ryanhood (with musical partner Cameron Hood) has performed with a wide-range of artists including Jason Mraz, Matt Nathanson, and Train, and were named the "Best Group/Duo" in the International Acoustic Music Awards.
His debut solo-guitar album Off and Running releases on June 14, 2024.
Website: https://ryandavidgreen.com
National Stage
The McKrells
December 7th $17-22
Somewhere tonight, across the country or across the sea, a singer, sitting on a stool on a pub’s corner stage, is belting out a Kevin McKrell song, and the crowd is singing along. McKrell pioneered American Celtic music beginning in 1979 with Donnybrook Fair. The original trio’s 1982 album, “Tunnel Tigers,” remains a landmark of the form, with its blend of Clancy Brothers swagger and upstate NY attitude. McKrell honed his powerful performance style further in the 80s with The Fabulous Newports, a rambunctious harmony group known as much for its antics, cut-up comedy and long list of eventual members as for its sweet singing.
In 1998, McKrell—who has three solo albums to his credit—formed a powerhouse band under his own name, merging the Irish sensibility of Donnybrook with a steely, world class bluegrass edge. The McKrells toured harder than Donnybrook, bringing its music, with McKrell’s lusty vocals supported by hot string band picking, to Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Folk, Irish and Bluegrass festivals and concert venues around the country.
Offstage, McKrell, is a respected painter, with his work hanging in many of the halls he’s haunted, here and in Ireland, Scotland and Italy.He is best known, though, for his indelible songs—classics like “Home In Donegal,” “ You and Me”, “I Miss the Rain” and the eternal “All of The Hard Days Are Gone”—which, in addition to the raft of pub singers mentioned afore, have been sung and recorded by artists like The Kingston Trio, Bob Shane, Hair of the Dog, Wood’s Tea Company ,Get Up Jack, from Ireland The Furey Brothers, Seamus Kennedy ,The Druids, The Dublin City Ramblers from Scotland North Sea Gas, from Australia Pat McKernan.
Website: https://themckrells.com/
NEW: Oswego Music Hall Guest Curator Program:
The Ontario Center for Performing Arts (aka Oswego Music Hall) offers its resources and expertise to facilitate programs produced and curated by others outside of its own calendar. Although we facilitate, endorse, and promote these events, they are otherwise independent of OCPA, and admission to Guest Curator events is not included in Music Hall season passes.
Oswego Music Hall
is supported by