Chicago artist performs for Sisters Folk Arts Circle

Members of the Sisters Folk Festival's Folk Arts Circle gathered last Saturday evening at Sisters Art Works for a private concert. Each year the folk festival organizes a special evening of good food and fine entertainment to thank Folk Arts Circle members and other special friends for their continued support and dedication.

Singer-songwriter Susan Werner from Chicago entertained with originality and a unique blend of folk, jazz and pop. Saturday was Werner's first time ever in Sisters, and she was infatuated with Sisters' unique shops and natural beauty.

"I had lunch Angeline's. I bought a hat at Eurosport. I bought gloves at the Ace hardware store. I gassed up at Sisters Oil. I mailed a post card at the post office," Werner said.

Werner performs full-time "...at folk festivals, coffee houses, concert halls, jazz clubs around the country and in Canada. That's it. I haven't done any business in Europe. I'd like to, but I'm just not organized over there yet," she said.

According to Werner, when an audience hears the work of a songwriter it is like listening to the news with music attached.

"Instead of getting the news as it breaks, you get the news about a month late, but songs have context or feeling attached in a way that the news doesn't. The news is an event, but the news doesn't help you process how the news made you feel," she said.

Werner told The Nugget that she got to Sisters after Sisters Folk Festival artistic director Brad Tisdel became aware of her earlier this year at the Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, Tennessee.

"He saw me there," she said. Werner had a gig in Bend on Friday night and another in Seattle on Sunday. With Saturday night free, scheduling her to perform for the Sisters Folk Arts Circle was a perfect arrangement.

Speaking of Saturday night's concert, Tisdel said: "Tonight is a thank you and a private event for our Sisters Folk Arts Circle members and some of our close family of the folk festival."

According to Ginger Durdan-Shaw, who serves on the folk festival's board of directors and chaired Saturday evening's event, the special concert is one of the perks of membership in the Sisters Folk Arts Circle.

"We promise one little private party for members of the Folk Arts Circle, and that's what this is tonight," Durdan-Shaw said.

The Sisters Folk Arts Circle currently has 44 members.

"Each membership is usually two people. With your membership you get a certain number of tickets for My Own Two Hands. You get badges for the folk festival. You get tickets for all the winter concerts, so basically joining the Folk Arts Circle is like pre-buying all the tickets for the year," said Durdan-Shaw. "It costs $1,000 to join; if you add up all the benefits, it's $1,200.

"It's like a season's pass," she said.

Membership in the Sisters Folk Arts Circle provides an avenue for individuals to sponsor the Sisters Folk Festival.

"We have lots of corporate sponsors and business sponsors. Membership in the Folk Arts Circle is a way for individuals who really believe in the folk festival and the Americana Project to join this little group of like-minded people who all want to see the Americana Project benefit and the folk festival continue, so that when we all get together we begin to create a sense of community," Durdan-Shaw said.

A campaign to solicit more Folk Arts Circle members is slated for the spring.

For more information contact the folk festival office at 549-4979.