PCA's Stage TOO to Welcome Folksinger Art Podell and More, 5/16-17

Join us as we "step back in time" to New York City's Greenwich Village in the 60s. During the early 1960s New York's The Bitter End Nightclub hosted Folk music "hootenannies" every Tuesday night, featuring many performers who have since become legendary including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Tom Paxton, Peter, Paul and Mary, Odetta and Pete Seeger.

On the weekend of May 16-17, Prescott Center for Arts Stage TOO will be transformed into this legendary nightclub. Folksinger Art Podell, a founding member of The New Christy Minstrels, was there at the beginning of the Greenwich Village scene. His new recording "From the Village to the Canyon - A Songwriter's Journey" highlights the days of the "Folk Revival" in the early 6os and "Outside Llewyn Davis," his take on Greenwich Village in 1961, recently aired on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles. Art will be out tour guide through the era and musicians, including Brad Newman and Tom Agostino, will be on hand to recreate the experience.

Had Art Podell kept a diary, it would have been a rich chronicle of the life of a folksinger during the Folk Era and as a songwriter in the years since, spiced with a healthy serving of laughter. Unfortunately, he didn't. Instead, at the coaxing of friends and former folkies, he is spilling the beans on stage. He began in Greenwich Village with friend and fellow musician, Paul Potash. Art and Paul released two albums on Columbia Records. In the Village, Peter Yarrow, their friend, shared a new song with them called "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and it was Art and Paul who first recorded the song. In 1961, the boys headed west to the L.A. folk scene. "We were so successful," Art remembers while scratching his head, "we broke up." Art turned to songwriting. In short order, he had songs recorded by Rod McKuen, The Smothers Brothers, Glenn Yarbrough, Bud and Travis, Barry and Barry, and, eventually, The New Christy Minstrels, whom he joined as one of the original members in 1962. Quite a ride -- from the Troubadour to Carnegie Hall in less than six months ...national TV, college concerts, European tours, and performances at the White House. Read more at: http://artpodell.com/

Time: 7:30pm. Tickets: $22.00. Call 928-445-3286, or visit www.pca-az.net or folksessions.com.