Événement

Whorled Band

Doors at 5pm, show at 7pm.

Thom Jayne, Keala Venema & Mariko Venema perform highly original world-music on accordion, vioin, guitar, hand drums and a variety of eclectic instruments!

Thom Jayne

After playing for several years with the band 'Pariah' on the east coast in the late 1970s, Thom sold everything, joined the Peace Corps, and moved to the savannah of Ghana in West Africa in 1982. Much of his eclectic musical style draws from African influences where he has worked for 35 years as a Professor of Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University. Thom has been part of Michigans music scene since the Lansing-based Thom Jayne and the Nomads emerged in the early 2000s with a hard-to-categorize blend of African, celtic, jazz, and Latin influences. His first two releases, The Forgotten Conquest and Road Trip, both won WYCE Jammie Awards for best local World Beat CD of the year. In addition to playing and listening to music, Thom enjoys spending time with friends and family, exploring, and petting dogs.

Keala Venema

Keala is a multi-instrumentalist who plays fiddle, guitar, piano, mandolin, ukulele, tin whistle and Irish drum. She has played in Irish and bluegrass sessions and jams for years while also playing in three different bands including Gypsy Circus, Circling Shannon and the Michigan Academy of Folk Arts ensemble.

She is a graduate from the Michigan Academy of Folk Music and now is apprenticing as a private and group instructor. In addition to her work with the academy, she has run fiddle string clinics with local youth orchestras and is the adult fiddle instructor at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Her experiences draw from the opportunity to attend camps with multiple Grammy award or nominated artists such as Jeremy Kittel, Darrol Anger, David Greely and John Reischman, and now plays on the occasion with any local bands that need fiddle such as The Barley Saints, Pocket Watch, and Ben Traverse. She's also appeared on Smoking Dobrolele's recent album and has been instructed by Dan Seabolt and Grant Flick of Full Cord.

Mariko Venema

Mariko has been classically trained playing the piano since the age of five, but later in life was always drawn to world genres. She began playing the accordion in 2017 playing genres such as Irish, Gypsy Jazz, Brazilian, Blues etc. Once meeting Michael Shaffer , a local artist and accordion player, she was further inspired by the beauty of traditional French and Italian style accordion and began to play the genres as well.

She was also a member of Gypsy Circus and Circling Shannon. She now currently teaches piano and accordion lessons in the Grand Rapids area to share the joy of music to youth.

Tickets: $15 General Admission