Jim Eagan, Maggie Sansone, Laura Byrne Egan, Pat Egan	Thursday, December 10th -- An evening of Celtic Christmas and holiday music with Maggie Sansone, Laura Byrne, Pat Egan and Jim Eagan Tickets $20.00 Showtime 8:00 PM   Maggie Sansone (hammer dulcimer) brings a unique vision to the ancient music of the Celts. Her pioneering artistry has brought the ringing beauty of the hammered dulcimer to thousands of music lovers around the world. Praised as "one of the most exciting and innovative hammered dulcimer players recording today and with a fire and passion to her playing." by Dirty Linen Folk & World Music Magazine, Maggie has been featured on CBS-TV Sunday Morning, and NPR's All ThingsConsidered, Performance Today, and Thistle & Shamrock. She recently was honored with two prestigious awards: 1, WAMMIE award  for best Irish/Celtic instrumentalist(Washington DC's answer to the Grammies) and 2, The ANNIE Award for Performing Arts from the Anne Arundel Country Cultural Arts Foundation. In 1999 Laura Bryne (wooden flute & tin whistle) won the U.S. Eastern Fleadh Championship in New York and since then has played at countless festivals, ceilis and concerts in the U.S. and Ireland. In 2001, Laura was a featured performer in the Emmy nominated Christmas with Choral Arts concert, which aired on WMAR-TV ABC2 and WBJC-FM, filled in for Mark Roberts for Touchstone’s 2004 reunion tour, performed on the Irish Festival Carribean cruise 2006. In 2005 Laura released her first solo album Tune for the Road which received great reviews and radio play across the U.S. and in Ireland. A recent review in Irish Music Magazine reported: "it's astonishing to see the extent of her fluency and grasp of the Irish traditional flute style." Pat Egan, (guitar & vocals)  is from County Tipperary Ireland. He spent years performing in Westport, Co. Mayo before moving to the U.S. to join the band Chulrua. Also known for his work on the great recording “Music at Matt Molloys,” Pat still tours internationally with Chulrua which includes highly esteemed musicians  Paddy O’Brien, accordion and Patrick Ourceau, fiddle. Jim Eagan, (fiddle) has traveled and played in Ireland where he took third place in the “All Ireland” music competition in 1996. He has played at numerous Irish Festivals, Ceili’s, and is a regular in sessions at  Baltimore's J. Patrick’s Pub where he also plays in the band “Custom House.” For the past seven years he has been on the music staff of “Irish Week” at the Augusta Heritage Center, Davis and Elkins College. Jim toured with the “John Whelan Band” for the past four years, traveling throughout the U.S. as well as in Europe and especially in Ireland. He has recorded with John Whelan on two CD’s, Come to Dance and Celtic Fire. He is honored to be one of the members of “O’Malley’s March.”
	Sunday, December 13th - The Hard Travelers   Tickets $22.50 Show time 7:30 pm   Kenn Roberts, Mack Bailey, Mike Munford, Jon Glik and Ira Gitlin are The Hard Travelers. For more than 30 years The Travelers have continued to delight audiences from DC to Japan. The Hard Travelers began playing together in 1958. Original members were Kenn Roberts, Buddy Renfro and Mike Ritter. During their 30+ years of performing some changes have occurred. Eighteen years ago The Travelers added a fourth member, Mack Bailey. Since that time Mike Ritter retired and Buddy Renfro lost his fight with Cancer in May, 1998. Within the past fifteen years they have added three stunning instrumentalists, Mike Munford. Jon Glik and Ira Gitlin. From their beginning to today, they have toured all over the USA from The Kerrville Folk Festival to Grossinger's in NY, Azalea Festival in NC, The Wheeler Opera House in Aspen Colorado and a goodwill tour in Taiwan. The Travelers are dedicated to finding ways to use their music as a vehicle to make a difference in the world. In 1988 they produced the first "Hard Travelers and Friends Concert" to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis. Now an annual event, The Travelers have been joined by such renowned artists as Emmylou Harris, Alabama, Kathy Mattea, John Denver, Kenny Rogers, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride and Reba McEntire, to name a few. They have raised over eleven (11) million dollars for various charities, with their main focus on finding a cure for Cystic Fibrosis. Musically they have evolved from Pure Folk to Folk-Bluegrass to Folk-Country, and now have a unique quality of their own. Much of their music is self-composed, but you can always count on a familiar tune from one of the many performers who have influenced their work. A mixture of varied voices blending into tight harmonies along with guitars, banjo, mandolin, acoustic bass and fiddle, The Hard Travelers are a truly unique act with an avid following of friends and devotees.
Grace Griffith	December 17th - A Connemara Christmas   Tickets $20.00 Showtime 8:00 pm Connemara’s Celtic Christmas is a time-honored tradition at Baldwin’s. Holiday songs and instrumentals from Ireland, Scotland, and the North Pole are served up with equal parts humor, holiday spirit, and masterful musicianship in this annual extravaganza, which features some of the D.C.-area’s finest Celtic performers. Award-winning Blix Street recording artist Grace Griffith, a founding member of Connemara, is one of the region’s most respected and popular folksingers. Versatile pianist and composer Paul Nahay lays down a solid foundation for the band, and Andrea Hoag’s fiddle playing is passionate and lyrical, complex and evocative. Jody Marshall, well-known for her lively and expressive dulcimer playing, also provides solid harmony vocals, as does singer-songwriter Carey Creed, whose soulful voice has earned her a WAMMIE award from the Washington Area Music Association. Stirring three-part harmony vocals are a trademark of Connemara’s Christmas show, as are instrumentals that run the gamut from exquisitely arranged showpieces to foot-stomping fiddle tunes.
Pete Kennedy Mark Stuart	Thursday, January 7th, Pete Kennedy & Mark Stuart Tickets $20.00 Showtime: 8:00 pm Pete Kennedy and Mark Stuart are names usually seen in a duo listing, but, not with one another. Guitar specialists from "The Kennedys" and "Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart", Pete and Mark are joining forces in a rare tour in early 2010. Many music forms will be served up here with these masterful guitarists leading audiences through a barrage of notes. Few players possess the diversity of these two artists and both are known for tastefully choosing what to play when their fingers caress the strings. Current staples on the folk circuit, these two have spent previous years providing sideman musicianship for a who’s who of Americana artists (Steve Forbert, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Freddy Fender, etc.). Audiences can expect Kennedy and Stuart to sing originally penned numbers, but, especially delight with lots of wonderful guitar work on their. "No Girls Allowed"  tour!
	Thursday, January 21, Catie Curtis   Tickets $20.00; Showtime: 8:00 pm "Singer/songwriter Catie gives a warm, fame worthy performance." (John Ziegler, Duluth News Tribune) Catie Curtis' style is rootsy and folky but with the rhythmic undercurrent of pop/rock music. Curtis is known for her compelling melodies, relaxed grooves, and subject matter ranging from philosophical to political, romantic to maternal. She performed on the Lilith Fair Tour, and tours now full-time in the US and Europe to a fanbase that has been built over years of returning to the folk clubs and theaters that are the foundation of the acoustic music scene. Her songs have appeared on TV shows from Grey's Anatomy to Alias, and in many films including the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie "Our Lips Are Sealed." Catie Curtis just wanted to play the drums. She got her first kit when she turned 12. At age 15, she was hired to play drums for a musical theater production at the amusement park in her hometown of Saco, Maine. The production manager of the show gave Curtis her first guitar saying, "I will give you this if you promise me you'll learn to play it." Curtis taught herself to play and write songs by listening to singer/songwriters like the quirky "Melanie," Karla Bonoff and the quietly philosophical Cat Stevens. Later, she learned about the grassroots folk scene while attending Brown University. Friends took her to concerts at the Stone Soup Coffeehouse, introducing her to "under the radar" artists like Cheryl Wheeler and Greg Brown. Curtis gravitated toward the solo acoustic guitar, lyric-driven music, and the sometimes comedic exchange between performer and audience. After graduation and a short stint as a social worker in Boston, Curtis was signed to EMI/Guardian Records in 1996 and has gone on to release 10 CDs to date. Pete Seeger says of Woody Guthrie: "Any fool can be complicated; it takes a real genius to be simple." There should be a corollary for today's folk-popsters: Any fool can write a love-gone wrong song; it takes a real genius to write a love-gone-right one. No urban songwriter does that better than Curtis. On her hushed and deeply felt new CD, "Long Night Moon," she sings grippingly about love's better moments: tracing the shadows on a lover's face, and the sweet delights of staying warm on a cold day. Like Guthrie, she is fearless about using simple imagery to draw us in: a night sky full of fireflies, or "headlights crossing my bedroom wall." Also like Guthrie, she can fine-focus political complexities into a stark, telling couplet: "If they can keep us fighting about marriage and God/ There'll be no one left to notice if our leaders do their jobs." (Scott Alarik, Boston Globe)
	February 18th - Magpie   Tickets $18.00 Showtime 8:pm   From the beginning Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner’s (Magpie) interests in various musical styles have led them to be eclectic in their repertoire. Rather than confine themselves to a single style, Magpie has always embraced a musical rainbow, and with impressive proficiency in each different genre. From traditional, classic country, swing, folk and blues of the nineteen twenties and thirties, to contemporary songs written by themselves and others, Terry and Greg cover a lot of musical ground. Terry's voice is a truly impressive instrument, not only because of its natural power, but also because of her versatility. She is a gifted singer of jazz and blues in the tradition of Connie Boswell and Billie Holiday, but is equally comfortable with the subtle beauty of traditional folk and contemporary songs. Add to this her uncanny ability to find the perfect harmony line, and, in a powerful blend of their two voices, you have a real treat for the ear. As if this weren't enough, Terry is also an excellent player of the harmonica, mandolin, fretted dulcimer, and rhythm guitar. Greg is an outstanding guitarist whose fingerstyle approach owes a lot to his heroes, guitar legends such as Reverend Gary Davis, Big Bill Broonzy, Nick Lucas, Phil Ochs, and Rolly Brown. His playing is the solid basis of Magpie's sound, providing whatever is called for, whether it be a hard-driving rhythm, or a ringing lyrical beauty. From a slow Scots air or a plaintive ballad to a rollicking ragtime blues or infectious swing, Greg covers it all. His high baritone voice has equal range and his captivating interpretation gives power and beauty to the full spectrum, from growling blues, to a Chilean lament, to a sweet croon. With the power of their delivery, Magpie is well known for their performances of hard-hitting topical songs. They are well-known as regular performers on Phil Ochs Song Nights, organized by Phil's sister, Sonny Ochs, since 1984. Politically, their viewpoint has been shaped by their life experiences. Greg began to play music in the early sixties as a direct result of the Civil Rights Movement. His father worked for the National Urban League, and members of the family became involved in local action in the Movement. Terry also began singing at that time, and spent many of her childhood summers with her mother's family in the deep south where she witnessed the cruelty of racism and the power of the Movement. She also was a witness to the shootings at Kent State on May 4th, 1970 when National Guard troops fired into a group of students protesting the war in Vietnam. Terry and Greg continue to reflect these experiences in their own work as they frequently raise their voices in support of the ongoing struggles for civil rights, freedom, justice, and peace. "Greg and Terry can show us all what a wonderful thing it can be for two voices to harmonize together. How lucky I am to have lived to see and hear more links in the chain." ~ Pete Seeger. Magpie presents a splendid musical journey. Their sound is outstanding! They are one of my very favorites. ~ Joyce Sica, Uptown Concerts Inc.