After a successful opening in Princeton, W.Va., last Saturday night, Third Eye Cabaret re-opens at Taylor Books in Charleston, W.Va., this Saturday, Aug. 14, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., featuring IO and the IONS with special guests Option 22. We spent the last week at the official Third Eye Cabaret Camp at The RifRaff Arts Collective, rehearsing up a new show-full of tunes. So, please come out and check us out in our well-rehearsed splendor full of harmonic convergences. You may wish to get to Taylor’s a bit early if you wish a seat. If past Cabaret shows at Taylor are an indication, there’ll be a decent crowd.

The evening opens with a short set of rhythmic world-beat rock by Option 22, feauturing the inimitable vocals and lyrics of Lori McKinney and the stellar string playing of Robert Blankenship, Albert Perrone and Clayton Blankenship. You will likely hear a digeridoo, a shamisen and many other instruments along the way. Io joins them after the opening set for the transformation into IO and the IONS, featuring a set of theatrical folk-rock. (Io has been known to resemble me). The Ions will perform their set from the upcoming Culturefest world music and healing arts festival at the Appalachian South Folklife Center, five minutes and one mountain over from Pipestem State Resort. A more stirring and gorgeous outdoor stage at the tippy-top of a mountain in the Appalachian outback ye shall not find. The festival runs Thursday, Sept. 9 through Sunday, Sept. 12, and IO and the IONS have a primo hour-long set at 5 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 11 on the main stage.

We hereby announce to both hither and yon that THIRD EYE CABARET will open soon for several days in two different locales within the hills of West Virginia. Third Eye Cabaret is a floating spectacle of theatrical music, art-folk-rock and the spoken/unspoken word.

SATURDAY, May 22, 7:30 to 9:30 pm | Third Eye Cabaret with special guests Option 22. Taylor Books, 226 Capitol St., Charleston, W.Va. Free. | www.taylorbooks.com

SEPT. 9 to 12 | Third Eye Cabaret also opens during the 2010 Culturefest World Music, Dance & Healing Arts Festival at the Appalachian South Folk Life Center near Pipestem, W.Va. Festival Admission. | culturefestwv.com.

PERFORMERS INCLUDE various combinations of Doug Imbrogno, Douglas Io, Albert Perrone, Robert Blankenship, Lori McKinney, Sister LaLa, Clayton Blankenship, Kathleen Coffee, Kayla Ward and others. And possibly you. You’ll never know unless you’re there when the Third Eye opens.

The tippy-top of the Appalachian South Folklife Center.

You were hunkered down under mounds of snow for months. You’ve not stood high on a mountaintop, surveying the oceanic hills all around you, for many a moon. You’ve not yet gotten out to revel amid the red buds of Spring. You love live music by fine folks. You believe in homemade burritos. Planting butterfly gardens. Soaking up sacred spaces. Wild and wonderful West Virginia. You like the planet Earth and wish to hang with like-minded stewards of Gaia. You have not seen the Milky Way so startlingly clear that it looks like milk spilled across the nighttime sky — and wish to.

If any of the preceeding applies to you, then point yourself South this Saturday, April 24 to the day-long Earth Day Music, Arts & Activism shindig at the Appalachian South Folk Life Center about five minutes from Pipestem State Resort in Pipestem, W.Va. The Folk Life Center is one of the best-kept secrets in the Mountain State, though the “crusty old radical” who founded it, Don West, certainly made it a destination. It is about as far out in West Virginia as you can get before you start coming back in. It’s the heart of the heart of the country. Those of us who cherish its high vistas and trans-dimensional vibe always look forward to this time of year when we may again return to the Magic Mountain.

You’re invited to join us. I have a personal stake in the event, true, as my new musico-theatrical concept, Third Eye Cabaret, unwinds some of its ongoing, developing work. We go on at 8:30 p.m. The music, the chat, the communality, the connections go on all day, starting 11 a.m. How much? Not much. It’s free. The lineup:

11 am- Butterfly Garden Planting Project

12 pm - LUNCH (serenaded by Maggie’s Kids)

1 pm- Panel Discussion – “Creating Sustainable Communities”

2 pm- Sound Healing Workshop

2:30 pm- Drum Circle

3 pm -  special Earthday performance by Stages Music School

3:15 pm -  Miss Behavin’ and Whiplash

3:45 pm –   Josh Harmon

4:15 pm -  Sarah Turner

4:45 pm -  Melissa McKinney

5:15 pm -  Captain Lazerblast Band

6 pm -  Kathleen Coffee

6:45 pm -  Option 22

7:45 pm -  Briddy & the Buzz

8:30 pm -  Third Eye Cabaret

9:30 pm – Jamming and improvisation.

Click to enlarge poster.

This is the 7th annual Earth Day festival by LLyniuM entertainment, and the 5th in a cooperative effort with the Appalachian South Folklife Center.