Post by the Scribe on Aug 31, 2022 17:16:56 GMT
Let the good times roll: Ann Savoy plays the Napa Grange
napavalleyregister.com/entertainment/music/let-the-good-times-roll-ann-savoy-plays-the-napa-grange/article_c2fcf2ca-20c8-11ed-b21c-e337c50c4b18.html
From the The Napa Valley A&E Scene: August 2022 series
EVY WARSHAWSKI Aug 21, 2022 Updated Aug 26, 2022
Cajun music legend Ann Savoy makes a rare appearance in Napa on Friday at the Welcome Grange Hall.
Submitted photo
Now and then a live concert that promises something truly special lands in our fair city.
On Friday, Aug. 26, Cajun music legend Ann Savoy (pronounced: Sah-vwah) and her Raggedy Ann Dance Band are throwing a romping, stomping dance party at Napa’s Welcome Grange Hall, at 3275 Hagen Road in Napa. Joining Savoy will be well-known Bay Area-based musicians Suzy and Eric Thompson.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with music and dancing from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Only 110 tickets are available through Eventbrite.com. Additional information can be received by emailing concert presenter Daniel Baron at dabaron7@comcast.net.
Savoy’s musical roots, education and serendipitous marriage reveal a rich story of how she arrived in Louisiana’s Cajun country and has thrived there while earning kudos as a singer, musician, author, record producer, historian and photographer.
Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Savoy was given a plastic baritone ukulele by her father at age 10 and was, she said, “obsessed with playing music from that moment.”
She learned French beginning at age 14 while living in Switzerland and completed her junior year abroad in Paris while attending, as Savoy describes it, “my private ladies' school, Virginia’s Mary Baldwin College.”
In 1977 she met her future husband, Marc Savoy, a nationally-recognized Acadian accordion maker and musician, at the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C. Subsequently Ann Savoy became proficient on guitar, fiddle and accordion, all while traveling throughout the world as a member of the renowned Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, with her all-woman band, The Magnolia Sisters, and with Marc and their talented sons in the Savoy Family Band.
The multi-instrumentalist also plays banjo and mandolin. “I also play folksy stuff like Virginia dulcimers and autoharps,” Savoy added.
“Ann never rests musically,” said Richard Thompson, an English singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Savoy has recorded 12 CDs on the Arhoolie, Rounder and Vanguard labels. She worked with celebrated record producer T Bone Burnett for the 2006 Sony remake of “All the King’s Men,” and she has appeared in numerous documentaries on the subject of Cajun music, including the PBS series “American Roots Music,” and with her husband Marc in Les Blank’s film “Marc and Ann.”
As a writer, Savoy is the author of the Benjamin A. Botkin award-winning, two-volume book “Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People,” which chronicles the history of Cajun and zydeco music through interviews, biographies, historic and current photographs plus song transcriptions.
In 2006, “Adieu False Heart” was released on Vanguard Records, featuring the blending of Savoy’s rich alto with the pure soprano of the celebrated singer Linda Ronstadt. Singing duets as “The Zozo Sisters,” the artists were nominated for two Grammy awards for their album.
“In 2023 Smithsonian Folkways label is putting out my solo album, ‘Another Heart,’ which is basically a follow-up to the record I made with Linda,” Savoy said. “It’s a follow-up that we wanted to make but her voice was cruelly stopped by Parkinson’s. We had developed quite of bit of material, and some of those songs are on this album. It is very eclectic, all kinds of genres.”
“Friday night will be a Cajun dance party,” said Savoy, “with some blues and old rock n' roll thrown in, probably. So wear your dancing shoes to waltz, two-step and boogie.”
For more biographical information on Ann Savoy as well as her recording project and friendship with Linda Ronstadt, visit www.annsavoy.com/bio.html.
The Peabody Award-winning independent producers, the Kitchen Sisters, have created a short video on Savoy that can be viewed at kitchensisters.org/2013/03/the-hidden-world-of-ann-savoy/.
DB Productions next presents the Brazilian choro trio, Três Baias, on Sept. 11. Musicians include Amir Côrtes, Nando Duarte and Brian Rice. For information, email dabaron7@comcast.net.
napavalleyregister.com/entertainment/music/let-the-good-times-roll-ann-savoy-plays-the-napa-grange/article_c2fcf2ca-20c8-11ed-b21c-e337c50c4b18.html
From the The Napa Valley A&E Scene: August 2022 series
EVY WARSHAWSKI Aug 21, 2022 Updated Aug 26, 2022
Cajun music legend Ann Savoy makes a rare appearance in Napa on Friday at the Welcome Grange Hall.
Submitted photo
Now and then a live concert that promises something truly special lands in our fair city.
On Friday, Aug. 26, Cajun music legend Ann Savoy (pronounced: Sah-vwah) and her Raggedy Ann Dance Band are throwing a romping, stomping dance party at Napa’s Welcome Grange Hall, at 3275 Hagen Road in Napa. Joining Savoy will be well-known Bay Area-based musicians Suzy and Eric Thompson.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with music and dancing from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Only 110 tickets are available through Eventbrite.com. Additional information can be received by emailing concert presenter Daniel Baron at dabaron7@comcast.net.
Savoy’s musical roots, education and serendipitous marriage reveal a rich story of how she arrived in Louisiana’s Cajun country and has thrived there while earning kudos as a singer, musician, author, record producer, historian and photographer.
Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Savoy was given a plastic baritone ukulele by her father at age 10 and was, she said, “obsessed with playing music from that moment.”
She learned French beginning at age 14 while living in Switzerland and completed her junior year abroad in Paris while attending, as Savoy describes it, “my private ladies' school, Virginia’s Mary Baldwin College.”
In 1977 she met her future husband, Marc Savoy, a nationally-recognized Acadian accordion maker and musician, at the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C. Subsequently Ann Savoy became proficient on guitar, fiddle and accordion, all while traveling throughout the world as a member of the renowned Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, with her all-woman band, The Magnolia Sisters, and with Marc and their talented sons in the Savoy Family Band.
The multi-instrumentalist also plays banjo and mandolin. “I also play folksy stuff like Virginia dulcimers and autoharps,” Savoy added.
“Ann never rests musically,” said Richard Thompson, an English singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Savoy has recorded 12 CDs on the Arhoolie, Rounder and Vanguard labels. She worked with celebrated record producer T Bone Burnett for the 2006 Sony remake of “All the King’s Men,” and she has appeared in numerous documentaries on the subject of Cajun music, including the PBS series “American Roots Music,” and with her husband Marc in Les Blank’s film “Marc and Ann.”
As a writer, Savoy is the author of the Benjamin A. Botkin award-winning, two-volume book “Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People,” which chronicles the history of Cajun and zydeco music through interviews, biographies, historic and current photographs plus song transcriptions.
In 2006, “Adieu False Heart” was released on Vanguard Records, featuring the blending of Savoy’s rich alto with the pure soprano of the celebrated singer Linda Ronstadt. Singing duets as “The Zozo Sisters,” the artists were nominated for two Grammy awards for their album.
“In 2023 Smithsonian Folkways label is putting out my solo album, ‘Another Heart,’ which is basically a follow-up to the record I made with Linda,” Savoy said. “It’s a follow-up that we wanted to make but her voice was cruelly stopped by Parkinson’s. We had developed quite of bit of material, and some of those songs are on this album. It is very eclectic, all kinds of genres.”
“Friday night will be a Cajun dance party,” said Savoy, “with some blues and old rock n' roll thrown in, probably. So wear your dancing shoes to waltz, two-step and boogie.”
For more biographical information on Ann Savoy as well as her recording project and friendship with Linda Ronstadt, visit www.annsavoy.com/bio.html.
The Peabody Award-winning independent producers, the Kitchen Sisters, have created a short video on Savoy that can be viewed at kitchensisters.org/2013/03/the-hidden-world-of-ann-savoy/.
DB Productions next presents the Brazilian choro trio, Três Baias, on Sept. 11. Musicians include Amir Côrtes, Nando Duarte and Brian Rice. For information, email dabaron7@comcast.net.