Official music video for Lara Herscovitch's song "Angels," from the album Highway Philosophers (LaraHerscovitch.com). A Blackland film.

Saturday, April 15, 2023
FocusMusic Presents Lara Herscovitch w Juliet Lloyd at
Island Pride Oasis |  617 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20879 | 7.30pm | $25 adv, $30 door | webcast available separately or with purchase, webcast will be archived for later viewing for all ticket-holders

Lara Herscovitch is a singer-songwriter-poet-performer-author gem. As described in The Boston Globe, she brings “a luminous voice and a buoyant stage presence… big-hearted lyrics embrace the sum of life… Herscovitch’s music blows on the embers of a lagging spirit or a dormant creative life.” Lara leads with authenticity, integrity, humor and heart. Sound Waves Magazine described her music as “expertly written prose… songwriting at its best… good for your ears AND your soul.” Acoustic Live in New York City added, “She possesses not only a huge reservoir of musical talent and a voice with a bell-like clarity, but a keen sense of global concern and a fierce intellect... It might seem too good to be true, but true it is.” More about Lara at LaraHerscovitch.com

Tonight Lara's paired with local artist Juliet Lloyd!

 “…With such success and overwhelming popularity, it seems as if Lloyd’s future is as boundless as her vocal range…” 
The Daily Orange

After a nearly 10-year hiatus from writing and recording, acclaimed DC-based singer/songwriter Juliet Lloyd  has released of High Road, an EP containing five new songs, available on streaming platforms everywhere on July 6, 2022. 

“It seems like music is the one thing I keep coming back to,” Lloyd says, acknowledging a career that began nearly 20 years ago and has spanned multiple cities and states and a number of professional and personal changes. “High Road is a set of songs that has taken a long time to come out, but I feel like I needed that time, that break, for them to be what they are.” Stylistically, the album shares some traits with Lloyd’s earlier, piano-driven pop—but this time tinged with a sweeter country edge to complement her signature R&B vocals.

More about Juliet julietlloyd.com

Sunday, April 23, 2023
FocusMusic Presents the Nordic Fiddlers Bloc at Focus Mount Rockville - Tikvat Israel | 2200 Baltimore Rd, Rockville, MD 20851 | 7.30pm | $25 adv, $30 door

From the moment Kevin Henderson, Olav Luksengård Mjelva and Anders Hall of The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc first played together in 2009 they felt a particular chemistry in the sound they created. 

Some seven hundred gigs later, playing across Scandinavia, mainland Europe, the U.S. and the UK, that chemistry continues to draw the trio together. 

Passion is a word that comes up often in conversation with Henderson, Mjelva and Hall. It’s a word that lies behind the trio’s determination to find exactly the right tunes to play and exactly the right way to play a certain phrase (Henderson has been known to find forty different examples of them playing the  same motif stored on his mobile phone from rehearsals). Passion for the music they make is also what makes them endure forty-two-hour flights that should only have taken two – to – three hours to get to a concert rather than let the promoter and audience down.

More about The Nordic Fiddler's Block at thenordicfiddlersbloc.com

Saturday April 29th, 2023 
FocusMusic and WFMA Present Iona at St Aidan's Episcopal Church   
8531 Riverside Road, Alexandria, VA 22308 | 7pm | adv and virtual tickets $25 | Livestream will be available for at least 48 hours after the event

IONA treats its audience to high energy entertainment featuring multiple fiddling styles, dynamic dancing, driving percussion, and strong vocals from all the Celtic nations, including America. Presenting the music and dance of all the Celtic countries--Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, Brittany, Asturies and Galicia-- IONA emphasizes that America is not only the repository of all these cultural influences, but also the progenitor of many of its own. Audiences are encouraged to clog along, or dance Breton line dances, and join in singing. 

Conceived in 1986, IONA has evolved into one of the top rated pan-Celtic groups in the world. Co-founders Barbara Tresidder Ryan (lead vocals, Celtic bouzouki, guitar and bodhrán) and Bernard Argent (wooden flute, whistles, doumbek, back-up vocals) are joined by Air Force Band veteran Jim Queen on fiddle, banjo and vocals, and Chuck Lawhorn on 6-string bass guitar, whistles and vocals. And Marsha Searle will be dancing with the group for this show. 

The group has released eleven albums, the most recent of which, Silver, is their 25th anniversary celebration.

More about IONA at www.ionamusic.com

Tickets (both in-person & virtual) for this concert will go on sale soon! 
In-person tickets purchased in advance are $25.  All virtual tickets are also $25. 
Members of WFMA, Focus Music and St Aidan’s congregation will receive a 10% discount on advance ticket purchases (both in-person & virtual). 
If available, in-person tickets may be purchased at the door for $30 (non-members) / $25 (members), starting at 6:30 PM. 
No tickets will be mailed.  The list of all ticket purchasers will be at the door on the night of the show, starting at 6:30 PM. 
All ticket purchasers (both in-person & virtual) will receive an email two days before the show with info about attending the concert in-person and instructions for viewing the live stream.

Saturday June 17th, 2023
FocusMusic and One World Coffeehouse Present Lo Fi Dolly Album Release Show 
Featuring Sara Beck, Lauren Lucas, & Kimberly Quinn at Owen Brown Interfaith Center – Sanctuary C 
7246 Cradlerock Way Columbia, MD 21045 | 7:00 pm | $25 | all tickets include access to OWC's Livestream of the event.

Sara Beck and Lauren Lucas have been individually writing and recording music for over 20 years. You’ve seen them on the road touring with Blake Shelton, Stevie Wonder, Old Dominion, Kevin Costner & Modern West, The Bacon Bros. (Kevin and Michael), and Kenny Chesney – just to name a few. They've graced listening room stages from The Bluebird to Gruene Hall to The Birchmere. They’ve garnered Academy of Country Music and Tony Award nominations, as well as song placements on the ABC network and the History Channel, both as artists and songwriters for other recording artists – including Danielle Peck, Jaida Dreyer, and Risa Binder. 

Their love for old country music and classic singer-songwriters is one of the things that brought the two together. In the early 2000’s, they formed an all-women, Nashville-based music collective with several other talented singer/songwriters playing the country standards they grew up on. They called themselves The Honky Tonk Angels, and together they brought heartbreaking harmonies and a hefty dose of sisterhood to bars, weddings, and bonfires all over middle Tennessee. Along the way, they co-wrote songs together that each released separately, including “Come On” (Beck/Chisolm/Lucas) and “Burning Down the Dark” (Beck/Jones/Lucas). 

Now – inspired by the “Trio” albums by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris – Sara and Lauren have joined forces with another original Honky Tonk Angel – Kimberly Quinn – to release an album of some of the very tunes that ignited their friendship way back when. In Spring of 2023, Sara Beck, Lauren Lucas and Kimberly Quinn will release “Lo Fi Dolly,” an album of reimagined country classics, including songs by Dolly, Emmylou, Ronnie Milsap, Vince Gill, Roseanne Cash, Willie Nelson and others. 

Having toured together for years on and off, Lauren and Sara are looking forward to bringing the flavor of “Lo Fi Dolly” and their original songs to a stage near you in the spring and summer of 2023. Live onstage together, the two women swap stories, guitars, snare drums, and stompboxes – taking the audience on a musical ride that is both intimate and sweeping. Their harmonies are tight, and their affection for each other and the art of making music take center stage. This is a show not to be missed.

Learn more about them at sarabeck.net