Mark your calendar for our next online concert, October 11th at 4 pm Pacific with Star Thistle: Lonna Whipple (fiddle), David Wright (fiddle and mandolin), and Cheryl McKinney (keyboard). This hometown favorite band plays Celtic, old-time, and other music.
You can join the concert at https://contradance.link/SCDS, starting at 3:45 pm on October 11th.
Tips can be sent to paypal.me/davesuemusic, to be donated to the Country Dance and Song Society.
Please share this information with anyone you know who might be interested. To receive email announcements of SCDS events, sign up at https://groups.io/g/SactoCDS.
Upcoming online concerts:
November 8th – Pete’s Posse
Cedar grew up playing both classical violin and traditional fiddle music, and studied violin performance at the Crane School of Music. For the past ten years he has played for contra dances across North America with bands including Nor’easter, Cardinal Direction, Maivish, and Cloud Ten. His spirited, rhythmic playing and clear tone keep dancers on their feet. In between gigs, Cedar can be found at home in Brattleboro, Vermont, growing vegetables, baking bread, and birdwatching. He also repairs violins, violas, and cellos. (Photo credit: David Frantz)
Donal grew up surrounded by traditional music and dance and played jazz bass and classical cello from a very young age. He has spent many years playing American and Irish music on cello and a variety of other instruments. The resonant chords and percussive rhythms of his cello create an indescribably vibrant soundscape drawing from many different traditions. He has taught and performed at music and dance festivals throughout the United States and is a member of Gallimaufry.
Topher Gayle (OpporTunists, Rosin Doctors, Swingin’ Chickens, Mercury Rising, Chaos Wranglers, et al.) has been happily busy playing contra dance music for nearly twenty years. But he’s been writing funny songs and pretty tunes since he was a teenager (shortly after the Fillmore administration). If you’ve seen him playing at a dance, you’ve perhaps noticed he’s usually surrounded by a music store’s worth of stringed, percussive, and unusual instruments. Many instruments, many styles, many grooves! Topher has several CDs and instructional books available at his web site, 
Please join us at 4 pm Pacific time on Sunday, July 12th, for our first online concert, featuring the Syncopaths! From dance floors to concert halls, the Syncopaths bring a fresh, contemporary spin to music and songs rooted in the Scottish, Irish, and American folk traditions. At the heart of the band’s sound are the twin engines of Ryan McKasson’s dynamic, Scottish-based fiddling and the amazing picking of mandolinist Ashley Hoyer (formerly Broder). Jeff Spero provides inventive piano accompaniment, anchored by the driving power of Christa Burch’s bodhrán. Christa also lends her singular voice — warm, supple, expressive, and intimate — to the band’s songs. Together, they create a “chamber folk” sound, characterized by compelling, rhythmic mandolin, rich vocals, and unexpected colors and rhythms from the piano and bodhrán. The exuberant joy they derive from the music and each other is palpable and contagious.
The Big Day of Giving is coming up on May 7th. Thinking of all those who may need help at this time, we encourage you to give where your heart is and as you are able. If you want to help SCDS put on special events and workshops, train callers and musicians, and buy big-ticket items like sound equipment, our 
Special Program: This special English XTRA workshop is a fast-paced afternoon for experienced English country dancers, which will NOT include an introductory lesson before the dance. Caller David Newitt, the Dancing Master for the upcoming Bay Area Country Dance Society 