About Cityfolk

Cityfolk is Dayton, Ohio's traditional arts organization. Cityfolk brings in artists from around the world to perform for audiences in concert, dance, festival and educational settings. From Celtic to African, bluegrass to Latin, blues to Cajun, you can find a world of traditional music and dance at a Cityfolk event. Visit Cityfolk.org for more info.

Cityfolk Presents Bluegrass Tymes II + TICKET CONTEST

May 8, 2013 by Cityfolk

Cityfolk is proud to present the 2013 bluegrass concert Bluegrass Tymes II, sponsored by the Jack W and Sally D Eichelberger Foundation and featuring Russell Morre & IIIrd Tyme Out with special guest Sons of Bluegrass at the Masonic Center on Friday, May 10 at the Dayton Masonic Center. Now celebrating its 22nd year as a band, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out is one of the most successful and celebrated bluegrass ensembles of the last quarter century. The band was formed in 1991, when singer/guitarist Russell Moore, bass player Ray Deaton and fiddler Mike Hartgrove left Doyle Lawson … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dayton Music

Cityfolk Photo Show: The People of the Mosaic City

March 6, 2013 by Cityfolk

Here comes SPRING (as we all give a collective sigh of relief!) With spring will come new opportunities, fresh energy and artful vision. Cityfolk recommends that you use all of the above by sharing your photographic skills in a new community photo show! That’s right! Cityfolk Photo Show: The People of the Mosaic City – is a call to local photographers of all ages to submit images for consideration on the theme of Mosaic City; that is: our Dayton as a place where diversity is celebrated! Photos will be accepted in five categories: Black & White, Color, Youth (ages 15 -18), Student … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: Cityfolk

Cityfolk World Music Series Presents Fatoumata Diawara at UD

September 17, 2012 by Cityfolk

Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist Fatoumata Diawara, a resident of France since the late 1990s, has gained considerable momentum in world music circles over the past two years. She released her debut recording, an EP, Kanou, in Europe in May 2011, and followed that in September with Fatou, which won the prestigious 2012 Songlines Music Award for Newcomer of the Year. Fatou was greeted with universal acclaim; the Telegraph says “this stylish debut doesn’t put a foot wrong,” the Times of London says “the air of wistful, understated beauty draws you in, and Mojo calls her a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts & Entertainment, Dayton Music, The Featured Articles

Cityfolk presents the Prince Edward Island trio Vishten

September 12, 2012 by Cityfolk

Twin sisters Pastelle and Emmanuelle LeBlanc formed Vishten a decade ago to play the traditional French Canadian tunes and songs of Prince Edward Island (PEI), a Canadian maritime province consisting of the main island and 231 minor islands. The smallest of the Canadian provinces, Prince Edward Island is home to some 140,000 people and is located north of Nova Scotia and west of Cape Breton Island, with which PEI shares many musical traditions, especially those of Scottish and Irish fiddling and French song. Emmanuelle (bodhrán, piano, whistles, dance and vocals) and Pastelle LeBlanc … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dayton Music

Cityfolk Festival: Where You Make The Music Happen

June 25, 2012 by Cityfolk

When Ohio’s #1 Multi-Cultural festival sets up shop June 29-July 1, at RiverScape MetroPark 700+ volunteers will be helping make it go and your donation at the entrance and onsite will be a key piece. While festivals continue to materialize throughout the summer months, this one, begun as the three year run of National Folk Festival in 1996, remains unique and completely dependent on community participation. The festival will take place between 6 and 11 pm on Friday, and 1-11 pm on Saturday and Sunday. The City of Dayton fireworks, the region’s largest, will cap the event on Sunday night … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts & Entertainment, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Bonsoir Catin, Cityfolk, Cityfolk Fest, Culture Builds Community, Makina Loca, Red Baraat, Rhonda Vincent, Ricardo Lemvo, Royal Southern Brotherhood, Shoefly

Volunteers at The Heart Of Cityfolk Festival

May 17, 2012 by Cityfolk

On June 29 – July 1, The Cityfolk Festival, returns to RiverScape MetroPark. It takes thousands of hours of volunteer time to pull together the three-day celebration of music, dance, culture and the City of Dayton Fireworks. Volunteer leadership has already worked months to get the festival ready from a production standpoint. Organizers are now looking to sign up volunteers for three- or four-hour shifts during the festival as well as during set-up and tear-down. People interested in helping out can visit the Cityfolk website or call (937) 223-3655, ext. 4006. The performance … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Getting Involved, The Featured Articles

Quebecois Party Time With De Temps Antan

April 5, 2012 by Cityfolk

The end of another Ohio winter (even one as strange as this one has been) is the perfect time for a good old-fashioned Québec kitchen party. Much like a bluegrass picking party, a kitchen party in Québec offers plenty of music and singing, some high-spirited dancing and a pervasive feeling of warmth, community and friendship. Just what the doctor ordered for an end of winter/hello to spring blow-out. And there is no better group to apply this magical tonic than the Quebecois acoustic power trio known as De Temps Antan. De Temps Antan consists of Éric Beaudry (guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts & Entertainment, Dayton Music, The Featured Articles

Cityfolk Bluegrass Doublebill Features Soaring Vocals and Stellar Musicianship

January 24, 2012 by Cityfolk

Very few bands, in any style of tradition-based music, have stirred up the commotion upon making its debut than the bluegrass outfit known as Dailey & Vincent did in 2008. Hailed by theWall Street Journal as “a new dynasty in bluegrass,” Dailey & Vincent released its first album to rapturous acclaim, tore up festival and concert audiences across the country with exciting, high-energy performances and capped its first year by sweeping the 2008 International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards, winning seven awards, unprecedented for a new act. Though Vincent and Dailey had … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dayton Music, The Featured Articles

Cityfolk brings Christmas in Cape Breton to Dayton

November 17, 2011 by Cityfolk

Natalie MacMaster with husband Donnell Leahy (photo by Richard Beland)

(from Jon Hartley Fox via Cityfolk) Christmas is the best time of the year for renowned Canadian fiddler and step-dancer Natalie MacMaster. As a girl growing up on Cape Breton Island, MacMaster was part of a large extended family and tight-knit community, and the holiday season was the high point of her year. Now that she’s a mother with a family of her own—and living several hundred miles from Cape Breton in Ontario — family traditions are even more important to her. With her husband, fiddler Donnell Leahy, they are creating their own new traditions for their growing family. On … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dayton Music, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Cape Breton, Cityfolk, Dayton Masonic Center, fiddler, Natalie MacMaster

Spotlight on Huun-Huur-Tu

September 14, 2011 by Cityfolk

Back in February, lousy weather caused us to cancel the much-anticipated return of the amazing Tuvan throat singers of Huun Huur Tu. Happily, we were able to reschedule at a time when the weather is much less likely to be an issue: Tuesday, October 4. They will be in the intimate Boll Theatre on the University of Dayton campus. Tuvan throat singing is truly one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. The range of sounds they're able to make with their voices is mind-boggling. The last time they were in Dayton, they told the Standing Room Only crowd that the music originated from Tuvan … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dayton Music Tagged With: Cityfolk, Dayton Music