Been recording all this weekend at Audible Arts Studio in Princeton, W.Va., for an upcoming project called Third Eye Cabaret. Here are some of the essential crew (with other photos to come of other players in the Cabaret). From left to right: Albertino Eye, Douglas John Eye and Robert Eye.

Mark the date: Third Eye Cabaret with special guests Option 22 comes to Taylor Books in Charleston, W.Va., on Saturday, May 22, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., with other guest acts. Third Eye Cabaret will also be coming to Culturefest 2010, Sept. 9 to 12, 2010, at the Appalachian South Folklife Center, one of the Mountain State’s most scenic, historic outdoor festival sites. The stages press right up against the clouds in the middle of the Ocean of West Virginia.

Come on down Dec. 11, 12 and 13, to “Christmas with the Riff-Raff,” featuring The RiffRaff Players at The Room Upstairs on the  funky end of Mercer Street in Princeton, W.Va. Thanks to  the excellent microphone on my iPhone (with a dash of Garageband reverb), listen-in on this rehearsal take of a gorgeous modal hymn that will be part of the upcoming holiday concerts, featuring familiar and not-so-familiar holiday tunes plucked from several centuries:

“Christmas with the Riff-Raff”| Five-Part Harmony

Show are at 7:30 p.m. Fri., Dec. 11 and  Sat., Dec. 12; with a 3 p.m. matinee on Sun. Dec. 13, 2009. Admission is $10 at the door. Sweets and treats will be served. The Room Upstairs, one of the coolest listening room spaces in the Mountain State, is at 865 Mercer Street, Princeton, W.Va., about one hour and 45 minutes south of Charleston, W.Va. You could Google Map it.

The RiffRaff Players feature vocals by Lori McKinney, Kathleen Coffee, Albert Perrone, Douglas Imbrogno and Melissa and Kayla McKinney, with eclectic acoustic and electronic instrumentation by The Captain  Lazerblast Band and soundsmithing by Robert Blankenship. The group’s most recent (and debut) performance was a production of the off-Broadway play “Songs for a New World,” staged at the Room Upstairs and as part of the Tamarack Dinner Theater Series.

Meet an acquaintance of mine. He’s a performer named the Cardinal of Crows. He’s not from around here. He was among a crowded stage of spoken word artistes at a thing at the 2009 Create West Virginia in downtown Huntington, W.Va.

Come to the The Clementines 2nd Annual HALLOWEEN CABARET, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., SATURDAY, Oct. 31 at Taylor Books, 226 Capitol St., in Charleston, W.Va. With special guests Option 22, Kathleen Coffee and The Flow. The Clementines feature Casi Null and Douglas Imbrogno (and whomever we rope into a current song). Come as someone or something else.

“Hear My Song” by the RiffRaff Players, March 2009

Here are two back-of-the-room videos of “Flying Home” and “Hear My Song” from the RiffRaff Players production of “Songs for a New World” at the Tamarack theater this March 2009. Ed Trotta of Summit Stage Theater II in Bluefield shot the subsequent show, at the Room Upstairs in Princeton, W.Va., on two high-def cameras. But since none of us have a hi-def camera we have not yet seen it. Plus, we need someone with the mojo to edit a two-shoot video of a one-hour-and-15 minute show down to a fabulous, finished version. Advice welcome on that. Hope you like these.

“The River Won’t Flow” by the RiffRaff Players, March 2009.

CLICK POSTER TO ENLARGE IT.

A dear friend is part of a musical-theatrical clan I consider a spiritual homeland in southern West Virginia. A month ago, she invited me to be of one of four characters (‘Man One’) in an area production of Jason Robert Brown’s wonderful 1995 off-Broadway show “Songs for a New World.” Oh, what a fabulous, witty, moving, profane and powerful cycle of songs. Oh, what a bunch of challenging songs to sing. Omi-gaaaawd….. That was the third reaction after I began diving into the libretto and score, trying out the songs Man One is tasked to sing. I am now past the freak-out stage after several weeks of intense rehearsals. I’ve got a new voice coach whipping my vocal chords into Broadway mode. God, I love this show. Killer songs. A masterpiece of four-part composition. A slew of genres (often within the same song), moving from pop to gospel, Broadway chorus to R and B. Come see what we’ve worked up from one of the finest new shows in recent American musical theater. Two opportunities:

MARCH 20 and 21, Beckley, W.Va.:

WHEN: Dinner at 6:30 p.m.; show 8 p.m., on Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21
WHERE: Tamarack in Beckley, W.Va. A dinner theater show in the cozy 150-seat theater of this arts and culture showcase. The food will be fine, I assure you, as they’ve got excellent cookery going on there.
MENU: Tamarack Chop House Salad; Fennel-seed Roasted Salmon with Ciopino-Saffron Broth; Homemade Cheesecake with Fresh Strawberries
TICKETS: $40 a person. Call 1-88TAMARACK ext. 148 or 168.
NOTE: This version of the show is the family-friendly one, missing a few of the ribald references and language of the off-Broadway production
……………….

APRIL 10 and 11, Princeton, W.Va.:

WHEN: Dinner at 6:30 p.m.; show 8 p.m. on Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11.
WHERE: The Room Upstairs, run by the RiffRaff Arts Collective at 869 Mercer Street in downtown Princeton, W.Va. It’s one of the coolest performance spaces in West Virginia.
MENU: To be announced (but I’ve had the cook’s food from this festival and it’s very very good).
TICKETS: $22 a person. Call 304-425-6425.
NOTE: The full Monty, language-wise. (Including the funniest in-your-face song about Santa Claus ever written, from the perspective of his long-suffering wife.) There will also be a Create West Virginia regional meeting that day with the show as the evening’s entertainment.

PS- Now, someone tell me what ‘Ciopino‘ is.
PSS- OK, I just Googled it and as a person of Italianate extraction, I really should have known this.