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Category: The Latest
News for Blog Posts
0 North East Region Folk Alliance – NERFA
We’ll be at #NERFA this weekend! If you’re attending the conference, please join Villa Palagonia for our late night showcases:
**Saturday Late Night, Nov. 14**
11:45 PM – 12:15 PM
Sharon Goldman Birthday Bash, Room 1517
~ ITR: Sharon Goldman, Villa Palagonia,
and David Massengill
**Saturday Late Night, Nov. 14**
1:30 AM – 1:45 AM
It’s Folkin’ Awesome, with Jess Razzi, Room 1515
~ 15 minute set of Villa Palagonia
0 Falling into the End of Summer
Villa Palagonia is very excited to fall into the end of summer. We’ve got some shows coming up, and as we are now sooooo close to releasing Rhythms & Roots, we can’t contain ourselves! Recording an album of songs always creates moments of love and moments of frustration… But when it’s in our hands, we’ll be so happy to get it into yours!
Here’s what we’ve been up to over the last month or so. (Allison, here…)
In early July, we were in Sicily were we spent some time with my cousins and visited Villa Palagonia, our namesake estate in Bagheria. My cousin Filippo Buttitta, a talented photographer, took photos of us. We had so much fun! Here’s a shot of us in the garden. Note the musician statues in the background. They are what inspired to name our group Villa Palagonia!
In late July/early August, Joe and I went to Falcon Ridge Folk Festival where we hung with good friends and enjoyed great music for the weekend. It was really hard to leave after a beautiful few days in the countryside with kindred spirits. We played a few pop-up performances, and one of them was filmed. Thanks to World One Video! Check it out here:
Additionally, we had a great time performing at The Budgiedome. Thank you Gordon Nash for inviting us!
In mid-August, we were featured once again on City World Radio with AC Lowe. AC Lowe, aka Anthony LoFaso, traveled with me to Sicily in June before Joe arrived. It was for me, a wonderful experience to visit Anthony’s ancestral town, where he found kindred spirits who spoke his familiar Sicilian language. (Tears flowed! Definitely emotion to channel for another song about connecting to your roots!)
Much of our appearance on the show (in addition to performing some songs live) was spent talking about our time together in Sicily. Check out the archive at:
Allison Scola & Joe Ravo | Villa Palagonia | on City World Radio | AC Lowe Show, August 17, 2015
On August 24, I was so excited to be featured by the National Organization of Italian American Women in their Member Spotlight. You can read the article on their blog at NOIAW Member Spotlight.
And now, we’re gearing up for more wonder and magic coming this fall. I feel so blessed to have so many terrific things happening. I hope you’ll join us for the journey!
We’ll be live on the internet via ConcertWindow.com on September 13 at 8PM, then at the Italian Feast in Tappan, NY and the Feast of San Gennaro in NYC on September 20, and live at Caffè Vivaldi at 8:30PM on Tuesday, October 20.
See the Events page for all of the details.
Please join us as we prepare to release our debut Villa Palagonia album, Rhythms & Roots! We’ve been working on it for many months… and we look forward to releasing it to you!
0 Let’s Us Take You to Villa Palagonia
In July, Villa Palagonia, the music duo, visited Villa Palagonia, the estate in Bagheria, Palermo Province, in Sicily. Allison’s cousin, Filippo Buttitta took some beautiful photos of us being inspired by the “Villa of the Monsters.” As we finish our debut album, “Rhythms & Roots,” we were thrilled to have had the opportunity to return to the place that represents the roots of our musical concepts. There are more photos where these came from! These are just two of many that we’re ready to share right now.
Join us on the journey to complete “Rhythms & Roots.” We’ll be launching a pre-sale campaign in the weeks ahead. Sign our mailing list on the Contact page.
Here’s another photo, from the interior of Villa Palagonia.
0 Summer 2015
I was listening to what I hope are the final mixes if Rhythms & Roots today, and I am very excited about the results of six months of work on this recording. Next stop: the mastering engineer will make it all sound shiny! Meanwhile, we’re creating a pre-sale campaign on PlegeMusic.com while we get the whole package ready for release. More on that soon!
Please join our community! We have are so excited to get this music out to you!
At the beginning of my favorite season–Summer, we’re playing some shows: We recently played the Positively 8th Street Festival in Greenwich Village, and on June 21 we’ll be at Pera Soho for Make Music New York. At the end of July/beginning of August, we’ll be at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival hanging with our peeps up in the camp grounds. Come find us in the Budgie Dome (http://budgiedome.org) for sure! On June 20, I’ll be in Danbury, CT on the Danbury Green for the World of Colors Celebration, where I’ll be teaching the tarantella. Because of that, I’m thinking of how I can do a mini-tarantella workshop in the fields of the farm at Falcon Ridge! Who is in?
At the end of June and beginning of July, Joe will be touring Belarus with the Johnny Rodgers Band on a cultural diplomacy tour for the U.S. State Department. I will be in Sicily soaking up ideas for our next songs until Joe joins me for a few days… and then, we’ll get inspired together as we tour the southeast part of the island and hopefully write a couple new tunes! We’ll see. We’re pretty particular about writing, but like last summer in Tuscany, I know we’ll be inspired by something along the way.
I am thrilled about all we have coming up and getting you involved in the music. We’ll hatch Rhythms & Roots soooon!
~Allison
0 Stepping Out, Stepping Up
Ciao! All winter we’ve been recording and mixing our debut album, Rhythms and Roots. We are very much looking forward to getting this out to you. We’ve got a campaign in the planning and a introduction video to boot. If you haven’t heard us live yet, you’re in for a treat. Our objective is to entertain you and get you singing and dancing with us. So, stand by for more news about Rhythms & Roots coming soon!
We’re currently working on some performance dates. We’ll be out and about almost every weekend in June 2015 in New York City and Connecticut–all daytime and kid-friendly! Check out Events for details. And we’re starting to book shows for summer, fall, and winter. We just gotta get this record done! Let us know if you’d like us to bring our brand of acoustic world folk to a festival, stage, or house concert near you! Looking forward to seeing you in person really soon!
0 Like a Lion, Indeed
After a very successful trip to Chicago, we were back in the recording studio for much of February and some of March mixing our debut album Rhythms & Roots. Of course, we all want this stuff to go more smoothly and faster than it ever does. We’ve been back and forth to Mix-O-Lydian Recording Studio in Delaware Water Gap, Penn. many times now thinking that we were done, and yet, we had to go back to fix one thing or another. That’ll make you roar!
Just last weekend, we were in Philadelphia where we performed four sets at the Travel & Adventure show on the World Beats Stage. We had a terrific time teaching the tarantella and getting folks to sing along with us! More of that please!
Now, back to mixing that record…
0 Live in Chicago! Feb. 6 & 7
We are so thrilled to be bringing Villa Palagonia to Chicago this month! Please share the news with friends and family.
And, even if you’re not in Chicago, that doesn’t mean you can’t hear our show! On Saturday night, we’ll be live on WFMT radio, and you can stream the concert from your computer at WFMT.com. See below for more info.
Friday, February 6th, 2015 – Doors open 7:15 PM, music at 8 PM
Clark House Concerts
Please make a reservation for street address by calling 708-848-2205.
Oak Park, IL 60303
Price: $15
Peter and Nancy Clark will be our gracious hosts for an intimate evening of music, stories, and treats in their home.
Reservations are required. Address details will be given once you have been in contact with the Clarks. Please call Nancy at 708-848-2205 to reserve your spot!
Saturday, February 7th, 2015
Villa Palagonia Live on Folkstage – 8 PM CST
(Listen Live! 9PM Eastern on wfmt.com)
Folkstage
5400 N. St Louis
Chicago, IL 60625
Price: Membership to Chicago’s FM 98.7
Hosted by Richard Warren, Folkstage is an uninterrupted, one-hour concert broadcast featuring some of the best traditional and singer-songwriter talent in folk music. The live concerts can be are heard Saturdays at 8 PM CST/9 PM EST on WFMT (98.7 FM) or streaming at http://www.wfmt.com, immediately preceding the broadcast of the renowned folk show, The Midnight Special.
0 Making A Record!
Villa Palagonia is in the studio! As I write this post, we are mixing songs that we’ve recorded over the last 10 days. It’s hard to describe our excitement of how everything sounds–the album represents a mix of all the things we love: rootsy-organic instrumental sounds, a variety of world-rhythms, and inspired stories and tales. Dave Mancuso (percussion) and Greg Maker (bass) joined us for intense days of laying down the band tracks lead by Joe (guitar), and Janie Barnett has been coaching and producing me, Allison on vocals.
We’ve sequestered ourselves out in Delaware Water Gap, PA at Mix-O-Lydian recording studio with Don Sternecker at the helm. Being able to focus so intently has been a blessing and luxury in our fast-past world full of distractions.
We hope to release some of the songs during a pre-release campaign in the weeks ahead. Stand by for more details soon!
~Allison
0 Grateful and Hopeful
Joe and I are so grateful to Joe Pszonek of Radio Nowhere on WMSC-FM for presenting us at the DJ Showcase at the North East Region Folk Alliance (NERFA) conference in November. It was an amazing experience for us, and we have been thrilled with the reception. We made terrific contacts at the conference, and hope to be touring around the region in the coming year… which brings me to our next news!
We are going into the recording studio at the end of December/beginning of January to record our debut album. We are getting everything ready and rehearsing with Dave Mancuso (percussion) and Greg Maker (bass) in preparation. It’s going to be a busy holiday season for us, but that means laying the ground work for an awesome 2015!
More news about our record to come!
0 Villa Palagonia #NERFA Showcases 2014
Villa Palagonia is thrilled to be returning to the North East Region Folk Alliance Conference this year. We’ll be showcasing at the following times. If you are one of the conference attendees, please join us!
Thursday
Thursday, Nov. 13, 9:52-10:02 PM – Suzi Wollenberg Folk DJ Showcase, The Bentley
— Presented by Joe Pszonek, Radio Nowhere, WMSC-FM, Upper Montclair, NJ
Thursday Late Night, Nov. 13, 12:15-12:45 AM – GoGirlsMusic.com, Room 1316
— ITR – Villa Palagonia w/ Karen Hudson
Thursday Late Night, Nov. 13, 1:15-2:00 AM – The Ladies Room, Room 1502
— ITR – Villa Palagonia w/ Beggar’s Ride and The Ladies Auxiliary Ukulele Orchestra
Friday
Friday Late Night, Nov. 14, 1:45 AM – Mist-Covered Mountains, Room 1525
— 15 minute set of Villa Palagonia
Saturday
Saturday Late Night, Nov. 15, 1:15 AM – Mist-Covered Mountains, Room 1525
— 15 minute set of Villa Palagonia
Villa Palagonia 