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Raindate:  Sunday, May 16

The Greenburgh Nature Center and
Common Ground Community Concerts
present

featuring

Nerissa and Katryna Nields

with special guests
The Walkabout Clearwater Chorus    Driftwood    Hope Machine    Solar Punch    Matt Turk

Bring the whole family and join us at The Greenburgh Nature Center in Scarsdale, New York for the Open Air Family Music Festival! The festival, scheduled to run from 11 am to 4 pm, will include a full afternoon of music from a variety of national, regional and local artists, and will take place on a special solar powered stage!

Throughout the festival, you'll also have the opportunity to visit the Nature Center's  indoor exhibits and live animal museum, walk its woodland trails, explore its outdoor birds of prey exhibit and newly expanded barnyard exhibit, enjoy a your own picnic lunch or one that's available from one of our special food vendors, or just sit back and enjoy the music.

Headlining the music will be the celebrated folk rock duo Nerissa and Katryna Nields. The Nields have been the darlings of the coffeehouse/festival scene since 1991, with tunes ranging from off-the-hook idiosyncratic to kicking to heartbreaking. "Our parents were total folkies," says Nerissa. "Their first date was a Pete Seeger concert and their second was a Harry Bellefonte concert. We used to go to a family camp in the Adirondacks every summer where people sat around a fire. That's where I learned how to finger pick."

Katryna recalls, "One of my top five musical memories in my entire life was one night at camp when it was cold and the fire was blazing and everybody sang 'When the Saints Go Marching In.' Just a couple guitars or maybe a banjo and people swapping songs with everybody singing along. Woody Guthrie and Weavers songs, Odetta. 'Charlie on the MTA,' 'The Frozen Logger,' 'Goodnight Irene,' 'This Land is Your Land,' 'Wabash Cannonball.' Maybe a little Bob Dylan. I know people think those old songs are quaint, but when everybody is singing them, it becomes such powerful music. Music you eventually can’t even remember where you learned it, but it becomes part of your vocabulary – I love that."

Nerissa and Katryna have also become mothers in recent years, the presence of children in the house bringing with it a desire for greater musical directness. "Having children has brought us back to our roots in a powerful way. I'm much more drawn to the honesty of folk music, the simplicity of it," says Nerissa. In addition to releasing nine records as part of the 5-piece folk rock band The Nields, and more recently, three more as a duo, Nerissa and Katryna have also released three folk-oriented records for kids of all ages and their families. The most recent is the two CD, "Rock All Day and Sleep All Night" (2008), which includes one disk of up-tempo tunes and a second of softer lullabies.

Also appearing at the festival will be:

The Walkabout Clearwater Chorus, which was founded in 1984 by folk music legend Pete Seeger, as a true “people’s chorus,” made up of folks who love to sing and work hard at making good music. The chorus’ repertoire ranges from engaging sing-alongs to carefully crafted arrangements.

The Binghamton NY-based group Driftwood, who incorporate a mix of old-time, blues, jazz and rock into their sound. Driftwood’s virtuosity is matched by their versatility and they are able to play sweet and sultry ballads with as much drive and passion as an up-tempo romp.

The environmental-consciousness raising rock band Solar Punch, who use music to pose questions about, and find solutions to, the modern climate challenge. They recently release Surya a 12-song album of all-original eco-rock;

Hope Machine, who describe themselves as a "foot-stompin', guitar-bangin', drum-beatin', song-leadin', harp- blowin', hand- clappin', human hoping machines, " as they mix Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and other traditional folk tunes, with their own blend of old-time, modern, Native-American, folk, and rock originals.

and Matt Turk, a veteran Westchester performer who has engaged audiences around the world, both as hard-rocking bandleader and acoustic folk troubadour. Turk's recently released American Preservation is his fourth CD as a solo artist, and features wide-ranging reinventions of beloved classics made everyone from Roy Acuff to the Rolling Stones and Taj Mahal to T. Rex.

Raindate:  Sunday, May 16

Tickets: Greenburgh Nature Center Members: $8, Non-members:$12, all children 2-12 years of age-$4; children under 2 are free