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Ljova lives on the Upper West Side of New York City with his wife, vocalist and attorney Inna Barmash, and their sons, Benjamin and Yosif. For the latest news, downloadable mp3s, and CD releases, please visit Ljova’s website at Ljova.com

On three Fridays in August, we invite you to a laid-back evening concert as the sun sets on our expansive Friends Field. Relax (or get up and dance!) as world-class musicians fill the air with music, while you have a picnic or just a refreshing glass of wine. Consider it a date night, a family outing, or just another Friday at Caramoor! Tickets: Adult $35 / Child $15.

THE MUSIC CONTINUES: CONCERTS ON THE LAWN

Flor de Toloache

Friday, August 13 7:00pm / Friends Field

The women of Flor de Toloache fuse together influences from across genres and cultures to produce a unique and powerful take on traditional Mariachi music. “They don’t just sing; they could blast through mountains with their wails and gritos (shouts), and melt glaciers with the warmth of their gorgeous harmonies” (NPR).

Della Mae

Friday, August 20 7:00pm / Friends Field

Shenel Johns

Friday, August 27 7:00pm / Friends Field

Della Mae is a Grammy Nominated, Nashvillebased, all-female string band. With a musical approach that’s steeped in tradition yet firmly rooted in the present, they have a completely original style that blends years of experience with traditional mountain music and modern singer-songwriter sensibilities.

Presented in collaboration with City Winery POWER TO THE PEOPLE With a voice that embodies grace and passion and a personal style that sways effortlessly from jazz to R&B to gospel, Shenel Johns has emerged as one of the shining stars of her generation. A native of Hartford, CT, Johns has been performing since she was fourteen years of age, and has developed a distinctive, eclectic style that has increasingly caught the attention of her peers and some of the industry’s top performers.

Presented in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center

Watkins Family Hour

Presented in collaboration with City Winery

Friday / August 6 / 8:00pm / Venetian Theater

Sean Watkins, guitar Sara Watkins, fiddle

Help everyone enjoy the music.

Please do not take photos or record any part of the performance, and remember to silence your mobile devices. On behalf of the artists and the rest of the audience, we thank you.

About the Artists.

Watkins Family Hour

Returning to the studio as Watkins Family Hour, Sean and Sara Watkins consider brother sister a duo-centric record — yet one that feels bigger than just two people. With Sean primarily on guitar and Sara on fiddle, and with both of them sharing vocals, the siblings enlisted producer Mike Viola (Jenny Lewis, Mandy Moore, J.S. Ondara) and mixer-engineer Clay Blair to harness the energy and honesty of their live sound.

“From the beginning, our goal was to work on these songs to be as strong as they could be, just the two of us,” Sara explains. “And with a few exceptions on the record, that’s really how things were. It was a tight little group of us, working dense days where we could squeeze them in.”

Sean (who is four years older than Sara) adds, “Because of the limited amount of time we had collectively to spend in the studio, there was a general sense of urgency, which I think the three of us (Sara, Mike and I) kinda strive for on these days. We didn’t have that much time and that made it fun and exciting. It was just us, in one room, facing each other with some really great mics, often playing and singing at the same time, trying to capture what Sara and I do in a real way.”

For the first time, the Los Angelesbased siblings carved out time to write with each other, often during the naptime of Sara’s toddler. They took early versions of the new songs to Viola, who instinctively rearranged some of the song structures in an effort to draw attention to interesting lyrics or surprising arrangements.

“Mike brings a diverse musical-history to his production work,” Sean says. “He’s worked with a lot of people [from The Figgs to Fall Out Boy] that surpass just bluegrass or folk, but his sense of the songwriting craft and melody is right in line with us. He was bringing ideas that we would have never had, and vice versa.”

As Watkins Family Hour’s first project since a self-titled debut album in 2015, brother sister begins with “The Cure,” which Sean was inspired to write after watching Tidying Up With Marie Kondo. The concept of throwing things away is evident in the lyrics; there’s also a sense of knowing that you’re in an unhealthy relationship, but still choosing to avoid fixing it.

“Part of the fun of being a songwriter is being able to write about something that started from an image and then transcends that image to speak to something greater,” Sara observes.

Sara chose the beautiful “Neighborhood Name” after hearing it on a record by Courtney Hartman and Taylor Ashton, while “Just Another

Reason” is an original that Sean describes as having “a vague, nebulous vibe” lingering below the surface. In contrast, the instrumental “Snow Tunnel” is like an epiphany, titled after Sean’s memory of driving through Zion National Park, emerging from the darkness of a loud tunnel into a peaceful panorama of snow.

Moving from one landscape to the next — literally and musically — is nothing new to Sean and Sara Watkins, who have performed separately and together for nearly their whole lives. Growing up near San Diego, they played countless shows at a local pizza place in Carlsbad, California, with their childhood friend, Chris Thile. As young adults, those three musicians broke out nationally as Nickel Creek, an acoustic ensemble that sold millions of albums, won a Grammy, and toured the world.

Encouraged by a local club owner in Los Angeles, Sean and Sara formed Watkins Family Hour in 2002 as an outlet to try out some original songs and a few covers that wouldn’t work in Nickel Creek. That club, Largo, has since become the home base for Watkins Family Hour, whose shows frequently pair musicians who seem to have little in common, yet find a shared language in their music.

With Nickel Creek on hiatus, Sean and Sara released multiple solo albums and pursued other collaborations, most recently with Sara’s involvement in I’m With Her. However, the siblings gravitated toward the idea of another Watkins Family Hour album after realizing that their calendars afforded them a rare opportunity to write, record, and tour together. Their musical chemistry is clear on songs like “Lafayette,” an ode to Hollywood as well as the hometowns left behind by its aspiring stars; “Fake Badge, Real Gun,” about confronting authority figures as well as your own beliefs; “Miles of Desert Sand,” whose haunting coda underscores the vivid imagery of immigration; and “Bella and Ivan,” a playful instrumental named for a friend’s two dogs who love to wrestle.

Two choice covers complete brother sister. Warren Zevon’s poignant “Accidentally Like a Martyr,” which they unearthed for a tribute show, conveys all the complicated facets of love, and “Keep It Clean,” the rabblerousing Charley Jordan gem from the ‘30s, serves as a grand finale, with David Garza, Gaby Moreno, and John C. Reilly all chiming in on vocals.

“That’s just fun to sing,” Sean says. “Going into this record, we wanted to focus on the duo-centric thing, but this was a chance to lean into the group aspect, and have some of the people that have been a part of the Family Hour but weren’t on the first record that we made years ago.”

However, brother sister remains exactly that — the result of a brother and sister creating music.

“It felt really good to dig into the potential of two people,” Sara says. “There are a few songs on the record where Matt Chamberlain comes in to play drums, and we filled in the low end in a few cases with Mike Viola playing MOOG or piano, but the primary goal of this record became to see what we could do when it is just the two of us. The arrangements and the writing were all focused on that.

Listening now, I’m really proud of what we did. These are songs that would not have come out of either one of us individually, and it feels like a band sound, like this is what we do, the two of us.”

Enlighten your Sunday mornings with Beginner’s Ear, a unique series founded by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim and designed to bring mindfulness to the concert experience. Caramoor’s bucolic East Lawn provides a fitting setting to clear the mind and nourish the spirit with silence and music. Beginning with a guided meditation and concluding with a group discussion, Beginner’s Ear offers a soul-nourishing new way of hearing music and builds community through the shared experience of silence and sound. Tickets are $50.

THE MUSIC CONTINUES: BEGINNER’S EAR

Sunday, August 15 10:00am / East Lawn

Alexi Kenney, violin Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, moderator

Sunday, August 29 10:00am / East Lawn

Layale Chaker, violin Kinan Azmeh, clarinet Amadi Azikiwe, moderator Thomas Droge, meditation coach

Sunday, September 12 10:00am / East Lawn

Rubén Rengel, violin Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, moderator

TICKETS / caramoor.org / 914.232.1252

Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas

Concert on the Lawn

Saturday / August 7 / 8:00pm / Friends Field

Friends Field sponsored by

Help everyone enjoy the music.

Please do not take photos or record any part of the performance, and remember to silence your mobile devices. On behalf of the artists and the rest of the audience, we thank you.

About the Artists.

Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams plays zydeco, the fast and furious accordion-driven dance music of the Creole people of South Louisiana, a relatively modem style that emerged after the Second World War. With its trademark rubboard percussion, electric guitars, and R&B influences, zydeco is distinct from the fiddle-driven music of neighboring Cajuns. Zydeco is now a famlllar sound to many, heard in commercials for mainstream companies such as Burger King and Toyota, and there are pockets of devoted zydeco dancers throughout the world. Yet, after its flush of national popularity in the late 1980s, which saw soaring sales of both zydeco and Cajun CDs, zydeco has in many ways faded from popular consciousness, retreating to the South Louisiana dance halls and festival gigs that sustained it all along.

If zydeco was a one-trick pony, that might be well and good. However, in the hands of a dedicated musician and songwriter such as Nathan Williams, zydeco is one of the most expressive sounds in roots music. Williams’ down-home parables are delivered with surprising musical turns and a distinctive Caribbean lilt that reaches back to the very beginnings of Creole culture in Louisiana.

Growing up in a Creole-speaking home in St. Martinville, Williams eagerly sought out the music of zydeco originators such as Clifton Chenier. When he was too young to actually attend a Clifton Chenier dance at a St. Martinville club, he hovered by the window-sized fan at the back of the building to hear his idol, only to have the bill of his baseball cap clipped off by the fan when he leaned too close. Later, while recovering from a serious illness, Williams decided lo dedicate himself to learning the accordion. That dedication blossomed into an illustrious career, encompassing seven albums and spanning close to two decades.

The music of Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas is the expression of a remarkable South Louisiana family. Dennis Paul Williams, Nathan’s brother, brings his jazz-influenced guitar chops to the band. He’s also a well-known painter whose work has been shown throughout the country, and who contributed the cover and card paintings for their new album, Hang It High, Hang It Low. Keyboardist Nathan Williams Jr. ls enrolled in the music program at the University of South Louisiana, while he leads his own band in the Lafayette area. Rubboard player Mark Williams is a cousin who has been with the band since its inception. Manager Sid El Sid O. Williams, the eldest Williams brother, is an entrepreneur who has built a remarkable network of businesses in Lafayette, while

honing his skills as an accordion contender himself. Rounding out the Cha Chas is the exceptional rhythm section of bassist Paul Newman and drummer Herman ‘Rat’ Brown, who held the drum chair with Buckwheat Zydeco for many years.

In the world of contemporary AfricanAmerican music, roots styles are easily categorized as old music, good for sampling maybe, but not music that relates to the lives of mainstream American people. Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas might make us think twice about this assumption, for here is uplifting, new music that remains connected to its place in history. If you haven’t heard what’s happening in zydeco lately, here’s your chance!