Roots Cafe Singer-Songwiter Series
presents
Disappear Fear's Sonia
& Palookaville's Howard Markman
Sonia and Howard Markman
perform their own songs in the round
with your singing host Geoffrey Himes
Tickets: $7 in advance/$9 at the door
SONiA:
Sonia Rutstein and her sister Cindy Frank, both Baltimore natives and residents, founded the folk-rock duo Disappear Fear in 1987. The duo performs only occasionally these days, but the duo last year released a new studio album, “Get Your Phil,” a collection of Phil Ochs songs. SONiA continues to tour the world as a one-named solo act, singing in Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic and English. Her latest studio album, “Blood, Bones & Baltimore," features nine original compositions, Woody Guthrie’s “Worried Man Blues,” and lead guitar from Howard Markman. SONiA has performed in 16 countries and has just as many albums to her credit. She has received GLAMA Awards for Female Artist of the Year, Best Band and Best Song; a WAMA Award for Best Vocalist; and Out Music Awards for OUTstanding World Music CD and OUTstanding Single.
www.disappearfear.com, www.soniadf.com
HOWARD MARKMAN:
A veteran of the Baltimore music scene, Markman has played with a variety of Mobtown bands from country to avant-garde, from folk-rock to R&B. He is probably most recognizable for his stints as guitarist with Baltimore’s premier improvising roots band Freewater in the ‘70s and with Disappear Fear, featuring Sonia, in the ‘90s. On his 2005 solo album, "Half Smiles Blue Skies," Markman drew from the instrumental prowress of the first band and the songwriting ambition of the second to carve out a personal collection of songs, exploring a life that sometimes gets dark, sad, and lonely but can still be a wild and deeply satisfying ride. His latest album, “Welcome to Smalltimore," was released last year, and he has just formed a new band called Palookaville.
www.howardmarkman.com
GEOFFREY HIMES:
Though he is best known as a music critic for the Washington Post, Baltimore City Paper, Nashville Scene, Jazz Times, No Depression, Paste and others, Geoffrey Himes is also a longtime singer-songwriter who has co-written songs with Fred Koller, Walter Egan, Sonia Rutstein, Billy Kemp, Stephen Wade, Jim Patton, Ed Pettersen, Paul Margolis, Josh Charles, Timothy Bracken, Andrew Grimm, Bob Kannenberg and others. This month Himes will premiere his new song, “I Slept with Your Sister."
UPCOMING SHOWS IN THE ROOTS CAFÉ SINGER-SONGWRITER SERIES
AT AN DIE MUSIK LIVE:
April 15: Phil Wiggins & the Grandsons’ Alan MacEwen
May 6: Victoria Vox & TBA
June 3: Arty Hill & TBA
OTHER ROOTS CAFÉ SHOWS:
May 19 (tentative): Fourth annual “Night of 1000 Dylans” concert for the Creative Alliance at the Patterson featuring TBA