Ongoing and Past Events of Interest

This page includes information about regular musical events of interest around town. It also contains an archive of past events where the information may still be of interest, such as past benefit concerts and classes.

When I'll be featured at a specific upcoming event, that will be mentioned on the Upcoming Appearances page.

Traditional Old Time Music Around Boston

Contra Dancing Around Boston

Annual Childsplay Concerts

Past Benefits

Past Classes

Traditional Old Time Music Around Boston

Old time music is alive and well in the Boston area. Here are a few venues to know about to hear old time music on a regular basis:

Every Sunday:

Alan Kaufman's Watch City Opry every Sunday from 8-11 pm at:

Skellig Pub, 240 Moody Street, Waltham, Mass.
781- 647- 0679

The first hour or so is an old time jam. (Fiddles, banjos, mandolins, guitars, bass, and clogging for those so inspired.) The second hour is devoted to songs with old time accompaniment (for example music of the Delmore Brothers, Uncle Dave Macon, Skillet Lickers, Jimmie Rodgers and... Hank Williams as well). The third hour features the hosts, Dan Fram and Alan Kaufman (and special guests), playing fiddle tunes and singing old time songs. Please come down, bring your instruments!

Every Monday:

Sandy Sheehan hosts an old time jam at his store every Monday evening (except Sandy's gracious enough to usually put his session on hold on Mondays when Club Passim holds their Old Timely Musicalias).

Sandy's Music
896-A Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139
617 491 2812

Also Monday evenings fiddler/banjoist Eric Merrill runs an invitational old time session at Skellig's Pub in Waltham. Other nights feature different genres of traditional music (Irish, bluegrass, etc.)

Occasional Tuesdays:
Sandy Sheehan's Old Time night at Johnny D's.

17 Holland St., Davis Square, Somerville

These nights have been going for many years and have really helped build the community for old time music in Boston. Usually starts at 8:30 and featuring the Great Banjo Orchestra around 10:00. Also, every year approaching the Christmas holidays, local favorites the Dixie Butterhounds do a old time music show at Johnny D's with a great clogging group from Vermont, the Kitchen Sink Cloggers. Not to be missed!

Twice yearly:

Mike Holmes puts on Banjo Camp North and Old Time Music North gatherings. Find out about it at his Mugwumps site.

Contra Dancing Around Boston

My two favorite local spots (and also dances where I play occasionally as guest fiddler):

Thursday Evening Contra Dances (8:00 PM start)

Mt. Auburn VFW
688 Huron Av.
Cambridge, Mass.
Look for a large fake missile out front!

Monday Evening Contra Dances (8:00 PM start)

Scout House
74 Walden Street, Concord, MA
Contact: Cal Howard (781) 272-0396, caldance@gis.net.

For other dances in the New England area, check out http://folkdancing.org

Pretty regularly now every year, my horde of fiddling buddies Childsplay gathers from corners far and wide (D.C., Sweden, Seattle, even Martha's Vineyard!) to regale Boston audiences with 'orchestral fiddle music' of many traditions: Irish, Old Time, Cape Breton, Quebecois, and contemporary compositions in traditional styles.

For ticket information call (617) 354-1673, email: Bob Childs

Or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Childsplay
120 Garden Street
Cambridge MA 02138

Past Benefit Concerts

A good cause is a good cause, and so I like to keep information about causes and events I've supported in the past on the site. I'm sure the problems haven't been solved yet, and I'm sure everyone still needs money!

Saturday, November 3, 2001
Nameless Cafe

This was a benefit held around the time of the U.S. move into Afghanistan after 9/11. Oh, how long ago that seems now! But the situation isn't getting any better, to say the least.

Saturday evening, November 10, 2001, 7:30 PM
and Sunday afternoon, November 11, 2001, 2:00 PM
at Boston College's Gasson Hall

Tony Cuffe was a wonderful Scottish singer, guitarist, etc. who lived in the Boston community for many years and wove a wide circle of students, musical comrades and friends. Mark was honored to participate in these benefit concerts which generated support funds for medical expenses for Tony and his family. Sadly, Tony passed away in December 2001, shortly after these concerts. After his death, a group of friends and colleagues released a wonderful record of his music, Sae Will We Yet.

Past Classes and Workshops

I tend to vary the classes I teach pretty often, since every chance to teach is a chance to learn something new myself! But I will periodically offer most of these classes again, sometimes in different venues or formats. If any of the course descriptions below catch your eye, drop me a note and I'll be sure to let you know if the class will be offered again or if class materials will be made available in some other form. Also, if I'm coming to your area on tour and you think a one-day workshop on any of these themes would be of interest in your community, drop me a note and let's talk!

The Songwriter's Path (6 weekly 2-hr sessions)

Songwriting has many aspects: as art, craft, self-expression, business and profession. In this class we map a path for discovering how songwriting uniquely fits into each of our lives as artists and human beings, exploring six progressing but independent themes in discussion, individual and group exercises, and shared work:

1) Cultivating a songwriter’s perspective … via a daily practice of listening for and catching seed ideas, from our inner ears and from the world and people around us.
2) Grounding and schooling creative work within a tradition … so our songs speak older, dig deeper and reach farther than personal experience alone.
3) Growing seeds into songs … through dynamic strategies for rework and reshaping rather than fixed rules for how the final results should look.
4) Distinguishing the writer’s from the performer’s stance… to find a pivotal point of clarity about where our own true fire lies—in the singing or the song.
5) Co-writing as a further step in strengthening our writing… to gain insight into others' processes and influences, and expand our own stylistic range and craft.
6) Writing for others… guerrilla techniques for effectively "pitching" songs to artists; and letting our writing selves sing through others’ voices.

Skill level: Can accommodate intermediate to advanced writers; performing songwriters as well as writers who don’t perform or performers just starting to write.
Minimum class: 6 people; Maximum: 16
Bring to first class: Notebook and pen will suffice. Guitar not essential (we can pass a guitar around) unless you require a very specific setup (tuning, etc.) to play.

Calling Down the Well: Cultivating the Songwriter's Inner Ear (3-week course)

Working with individual and group exercises Mark has developed over the years, we'll explore that mysterious realm where the music of words meets the sense of melodies to shape songs, in a format encouraging exploration and discovery within the group. The exercises build our skills for listening, memory, attention, and "auditory imaging", better preparing us to draw musical ideas from outer (and inner!) worlds, grab hold of those ideas and wrestle them into pleasing form. If you are a musician convinced you can't write lyrics, or a poet daunted by melody and chords, these exercises may help you surprise yourself into songcrafting in a new way. They can also help experienced writers isolate and further discipline their songwriting skills and processes. A follow-up (separately offered) three week session later in the spring will let participants work on their own material in more depth.

Prerequisites and materials: Open to all levels; while simple, the exercises are often as challenging for experienced players as beginners. This is not an instrumentally oriented class; feel free but not obliged to bring a guitar or tape recorder. A notebook and open ears are all that's required.

Gathering at the Well: Seeking and Giving Creative Critique in Songwriting (3 2-hour session course)

These three sessions provide a chance to share our songs in progress in a supportive group setting. We will also be learning and practicing how to listen for, critique, and improve the union of melody, lyric, and phrasing in our songwriting, building on exercises and the overall approach to songwriting explored in Mark's other Passim classes. It is thus an ideal follow-on for students of those earlier sessions, but also open to others with song drafts they would like to work on in a group critique setting.
To allow enough time for listening and feedback, the class will be limited to 10 participating songwriters, on a first come first serve basis. Bring to the first class a lyric sheet and either a tape of, or a readiness to play, either: 1) a song in progress which you are stuck on at some point, or with a problem or frustration you would like to address; or, 2) if you are brave, a song you are happy with but willing to have critiqued. The two-week break will give us a chance to react to the feedback and critique we’ve received; in the last session we will listen to revisions, to savor both the progress of the songs and our developing skills in listening and conscientious, creative critique!

Three Wishes from the Tune Genie:
Exploring Melody & the Inner Ear
(Afternoon workshop, 2-4PM)

Where great melodies come from remains one of the great mysteries in songwriting and composing in general. Through many years of fiddling, accompanying, and 'tunesmithing' in Celtic, old time American and other traditions, I've developed some fun exercises that help cultivate our active inner ear for melody: a half-conscious, half-intuitive 'tune genie' (I call my little fella 'Smitty', but don't worry, he never tells me to do anything REALLY bad!) that grabs hold of little bits of melody and bends and shapes them (often while we aren't even paying attention!) into well-crafted tunes. In this afternoon workshop, I'll introduce a few of these exercises, like "Tunesmith Telephone" and "The Well". The exercises are engaging and challenging, require no instrumental skills and almost no previous knowledge of music 'theory' in a traditional sense, and work on multiple levels: ear-training, mental focus, memory, and creativity. Theycan be practiced solo (say, while doing the dishes), with partners (including spouses and kids) or in group settings.

A great class for songwriters at any level who want to find fresh, more interesting melodic resources and to shape their melodies more intentionally; for instrumentalists who want to learn tunes more quickly and accurately and compose new tunes; for teachers of music; and for anyone who wants to learn to listen to traditional tunes and songs with an ear to the hidden structures of questions and answers that make truly 'tuneful' melody.

Goosing the Muse: Creativity and Songwriting
An Evening with Lisa Aschmann and Mark Simos
Wednesday, September 18, 2002 7:00 - 10:00 PM

Mark Simos, a well-known local songwriter who has taught several songwriting classes at Club Passim's school, has arranged for a special evening workshop to introduce the Boston acoustic music and songwriting communities to the amazing Lisa Aschmann (see his intro below).

In this workshop, we'll offer a variety of techniques for rapidly generating inspirations and ideas for songs from the full spectrum of sources available to us as songwriters: writing both with and without an instrument (Lisa is an a cappella singer who doesn't play); starting from words, from melodies, or from stories and ideas; and writing both from our own and others' perspectives. Some exercises will be drawn from Lisa's book, 500 Songwriting Ideas for Brave and Passionate People, available from MIX/Hal Leonard. (I always liked her original title, "Dare to Be Stupid!" which wonderfully conveys Lisa's free-wheeling ways of getting her and her partners past the 'dreaded editor'...) We'll also explore ways of using co-writing to jump-start and nurture our creative spark, with an in-class exercise and, in the last hour, a 'lecture-demonstration' from Lisa and Mark drawing on examples from their ten-year co-writing partnership.

This workshop should be of interest to songwriters at any experience level, from beginners just gaining confidence, to experienced writers who may have settled into comfortable habits that could open up to new possibilities.

Mark says of Lisa: "Lisa Aschmann is a Nashville-based songwriter with whom it has been my pleasure to co-write for the past ten years or more. She is one of the most prolific, unceasingly creative and inspirational people (not to mention songwriters!) I've ever known, as anyone who has encountered her will attest. She's written more than 3000 songs, in every conceivable genre of the spectrum (folk, bluegrass, Latin, swing, gospel, country and pop to name a few), and has had more than 300 cuts with a wide range of artists, from mainstream country (Colin Raye, Diamond Rio) to bluegrass and contemporary acoustic artists. She's also co-written with just about everybody on the planet; some of our recently covered co-writes include the title tracks on the Wayfaring Stranger's "Shifting Sands of Time" (Rounder) and Valerie Smith's new "No Summer Storm" (Rebel/Bell Buckle) albums, as well a song on Aoife Clancy's "Silvery Moon."

The Ravelled Hank of Yarn: Learning to Listen to Traditional Fiddle Music (3 Week Course)

Delighted, yet mystified by Celtic or old time tunes? Blending music appreciation, ear-training, useful bits of theory and lots of fun, we'll discern and savor distinctions of form (jigs, reels, slipjigs), mode, phrase, variation and ornament within Irish and other traditional genres. For aspiring musicians, dancers, enthusiasts and innocent bystanders.

The contemporary folk music scene has become a ‘big tent’ where songs and instrumental dance tunes from varied regional traditions and eras cross paths, interweave, and inspire new creations. For those unfamiliar with them, traditional musical forms are delightful yet often mystifying. This listening class is intended for musicians and non-musicians alike: aspiring players, dancers and enthusiasts; experienced musicians and songwriters who want to explore the rich musical resources of traditional forms and styles; as well as parents or partners of players and other ‘innocent bystanders’!

In this class we will begin to draw a ‘map of the territory’ spanning several important and inter-related traditions (Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, Southern Appalachian among others). Our goal: to grasp enough about structure and style to discern key similarities and contrasts among genres, and to hone appreciation for the artistry of traditional music practitioners. Combining recorded and demonstrated musical examples, useful bits of ear-training and theory, and lots of fun, we’ll learn to listen for and savor the inherent ‘poetry’ of fiddle tunes, as expressed in the rhythmic dance forms (e.g., jigs, reels, slipjigs, hoedowns), melodic modes and phrase patterns used within and across genres. Handouts and discography provided—bring your ears!

The Knotted Chord: Accompanying Traditional Celtic Music on Guitar (3 Week Course)

Accompaniment, a perfect doorway into traditional music, is reverent listening made audible. This foundation class for guitar accompaniment will emphasize clarity of tone, rhythmic pulse, and incisive chord choices for varied rhythms and modes. We'll explore alternate voicings in "standard" tuning, preparing to later explore DADGAD and other open tunings.

*Note: These classes were offered "back to back" the same evenings. Accompanists were encouraged to take both classes for more grounding in ear training and tune structure, but the listeners' class can stand alone, and should be of interest even to non-musicians.

The Knotted Chord II: Accompanying Traditional Celtic Music in DADGAD guitar (3 Week Course)

For guitarists ready to dive in depth into DADGAD tuning for accompaniment of traditional Irish (and other Celtic) music. We’ll learn techniques for navigating the chordal landscape via alternate inversions and voicings, first in"standard," then DADGAD tuning. We’ll also explore right hand picking patterns that exploit the distinctive drone and harmonic resources of open tunings; then put it all together to build a solid but varied accompaniment style.

Skill level: for intermediate to advanced guitar players; preferably those with an interest in accompanying traditional dance music although we will learn plenty of guitaristic technique applicable to song accompaniment, songwriting, etc.

Bring: guitar, capo, medium and/or heavy flatpick, notebook and pen. Handouts will be provided at each class.

Shaking Down the Acorns: Introduction to Old Time Fiddling
(6 Week Course)

Club Passim's popular fiddle instructor, Laura Risk, is settling into her new life in Montreal and, sadly, letting her classes go for the present. Filling the breach is local old-time and Irish fiddler Mark Simos (who also teaches songwriting and guitar accompaniment at the School). This kickoff class will focus on the old time fiddling tradition of the Southern Appalachians. Over the course of six weeks, we'll listen in depth to the recorded repertoire of one selected player, learning a new tune each week as we also learn about bowing patterns, tune structure and keeping steady pulse. We will also be practicing learning tunes by ear, and the art of critical listening to source recordings. An ideal transition class for players who've tried other styles and are ready to dive into the rough joys of old time fiddling.

Gathering at the Well (For a Day): Seeking and Giving Creative Critique in Songwriting (Limit: 16 participants)

Ever asked a friend for feedback on a song, and wound up feeling they were being nice but not informative? Or asked a fellow songwriter, only to find them helpfully rewriting your song for you? Critiquing and evaluating our songs is a critical step in completing any song, and for our growth as writers. Critiquing songs, ours and others', is also a process involving creativity, spontaneity and awareness as do other aspects of songwriting. A very useful, but often neglected, form of critique gives the songwriter high quality information about a listener's experience, while leaving him or her free to work with those insights in their own way.

This one-afternoon workshop presents, in condensed form, techniques supporting this approach to songwriting critique, which Mark has offered in several previous classes. We'll present a series of techniques/exercises, putting each into practice directly working with a participant's song in a short, intensive round. With just one afternoon, not everyone's song will get heard; nor will we get to see the results of rework based on our critiques. But everyone will leave with some experience of a different style of critique, and a very specific toolset (handouts provided) to help us provide critique that is non-judgmental but specific, supportive but not sugar-coated. One past participant said:

I thought after having participated in half a dozen writing-critiques through college and running a songwriting critique for the last year, I had a pretty good handle on the critiquing process. Mark's class revolutionized my insight into providing feedback on a person's work.

Now, as some past Passim class participants are forming a songwriter circle of their own, this single session will serve as a refresher, or as a way to quickly acquaint new folks with these techniques and the rationale behind them. Also useful for new writers getting started, experienced songwriters looking to further hone their craft, or just lovers of song who want deeper insight into how songs are formed. If you'd like one of your songs to be a candidate, bring @10 lyric sheets and either a tape of, or a readiness to play, the song.

Mark offered the following new songwriting class through BBU's Bluegrass Academy. Unfortunately we did not get sufficient numbers to run the first session, so we plan to offer it again early next year. Email Mark directly if this seems like a class you'd be interested in...

Ocean of Diamonds: Songwriting in the Bluegrass Tradition
6 eve sessions. Limit 12 participants. Location TBD, probably Watertown

From the days of bluegrass music's first classic innovators, such as famed "singer-songwriter" Bill Monroe (a nod to Laurie Lewis for this description), newly created songs and tunes have been at the forefront of the developing bluegrass tradition. Today, as the influence and crossover appeal of bluegrass within mainstream popular music is steadily growing, the bluegrass community is hungrier than ever for great songs that resonate with traditional roots and sources, while breaking new musical ground and exploring contemporary themes.

What makes a great bluegrass song? What makes it 'bluegrass'; and what makes it great? This class will get us writing songs that draw on musical and thematic elements of bluegrass and related traditions. We'll study examples of great bluegrass songs-classic to contemporary/progressive, as well as some of the class leader's own work, and class participants' songs. We'll listen with songwriters' ears, to discern characteristics that place songs within (or on the borders of) the bluegrass idiom, all the while applying general insights about songcrafting. While we'll listen and discuss, this is not a historical survey but a practical writing class; we'll do new writing for each session, both solo and collaborative.

We welcome a diverse mix of participants, including musicians familiar with bluegrass who want to expand their songwriting experience, as well as those with prior experience in songwriting who want to learn more about the musical resources that bluegrass offers the songwriter. Such diverse backgrounds should create increased opportunities for learning from each other, especially in collaborative exercises. The class is targeted for players with intermediate to advanced skill on a chordal instrument (guitar, mandolin) and some knowledge of music theory, as we'll spend some time on specifics like chord progressions as a key element of song structure.

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The Net of Jewels: Exploring the Geography of the Guitar Fingerboard (6 weekly 1:15 hr sessions)

Friends! Are you stuck at the low end of the guitar neck, the 'shallow end of the swimming pool'? Do you long to swim freely along its full expanse, yet find yourself gritting your teeth over those clunky barre chords? This class turns the 'fret'-board back into the fingerboard! It's ideal for intermediate players who have learned their basic chords and some right hand strums, and who feel stuck getting to the next step.

Mark's "Net of Jewels" approach is an empowering way of visualizing the geography of the guitar: in terms of small chord forms that interlock, overlap, and transform in mysterious, wonderful (and playable!) ways. As we practice 'shape-shifting' using a core set of triads, with inversions and voicings on different sets of strings, we learn 'theory' through our fingers, ears and eyes and not just our heads. Then we'll combine forms into varied harmonic and modal progressions that move us fluidly across and along the entire fingerboard.

Mark refined his "Net of Jewels" approach over three decades as a premier accompanist for Celtic music, and has previously taught it primarily as part of accompaniment classes. In this session we'll focus on the basic elements, and apply them to a number of simple exercises, songs and tune accompaniments. The "Jewel" patterns and progressions show up in styles from Motown to Afro-Pop, and are a great foundation for accompanying yourself or other singers on folk and contemporary songs, playing simple and tasty leads, exploring alternate tunings, and expanding harmonic ideas in your songwriting. Extensive hand-outs provided.