This page last revised 7/5/08

Celebrating our 37th Year!

Golden Link offerings include concerts of folk performers, a monthly newsletter, a lending library of folk music recordings and books, a folk musician's reference service, folk music workshops, an annual weekend folk festival, free weekly Tuesday night sing-arounds, and much, much more.

One way of reaching Golden Link is through the Folk Fone: (585) 234-5044.

Another way of reaching Golden Link is to contact one of the officers listed at the bottom of this page.

OR, our snail mail address is:

Golden Link Folk Singing Society, Inc.
PO Box 92398
Rochester, N. Y. 14692

CHOOSE ANY LINK BELOW BY CLICKING ON IT

CONCERTS are listed below.

WHAT'S NEW? - As of July 5:

CONCERTS & EVENTS

Watch this space for information on upcoming concerts and events. For Festival information, go to the Festival Page.

Golden Link Presents

A 5th Tuesday Members' Showcase Concert

Tuesday, July 29th, 7:30 pm

12 Corners Presbyterian Church, 1200 Winton Road South, Brighton

$5 admission

Featuring:

Angie Lenzo & Friends: A recent Golden Link member, Angie has become a hit at our sing-arounds, playing guitar and banjo and singing old and new songs in a strong, country-influenced style. She'll be bringing some other GL'ers onstage, to back her with a variety of instruments. Expect anything from old-time to gospel to contemporary folk!

Golden Link Harmony Workshop: Dean Santos, our education coordinator, organized and hosted a series of workshops to help interested GL'ers learn the basic steps and rules of singing improvised and written harmonies. He said that the result was so interesting and accomplished, that he wanted to give the workshop participants a chance to perform for their fellow club members –– and this is it! You'll hear a dozen or so men and women singing familiar and new songs in "parts" they've developed themselves.

Dave Mongeau: We don't often get a "touring" musician in our 5th Tuesday concerts, but this long-time club member is making one of his infrequent Rochester stops from his home in the Pacific Northwest. Dave has taken his fluent guitar, strong voice, and large repertoire of contemporary songs, from our sing-arounds to the Middle East, and now, to the West Coast. We'll enjoy re-acquainting ourselves with an old friend.

Ernie & Andy Lawrence: a father-son duo of folkies with a great blues sound, the Lawrences do everything from old country blues to modern blues-rock on two acoustic guitars. Since joining Golden Link just a short time ago, Ernie and Andy have played not only for our club, but at a variety of events both in their own Wyoming County, and up here in Rochester. They pick and sing with skill and authority, and can handle songs from the Mississippi Delta to the Broadway stage.

Golden Link Announces

The Golden Link Summer Picnic

Saturday, August 9th, 1:00 PM

Mendon Ponds Park, Pond View Shelter

For more information, click HERE for flyer (PDF).

Golden Link Presents

Lou and Peter Berryman

Saturday, September 20th, 7:30 pm

Rochester Christian Reformed Church, 2750 Atlantic Avenue, Penfield

$18 ($15 for Golden Link members; 12 years and under free)

Lou and Peter Berryman began their musical partnership in high school in Appleton, Wisconsin, way back in the sixties. By the eighties, they had established themselves as a prominent feature of the songwriting subculture of Wisconsin's capital, playing their original material every week for almost ten years in the run-down but trendy music room of Madison's Club de Wash. Gradually expanding their circuit, they began crisscrossing the continent and gaining national attention with appearances on such programs as Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion and NPR's Weekend Edition. Regular appearances at festivals and folk music clubs all across the country now serve as venues for the songs contained in their twelve recordings and three songbooks, which have been performed by everyone from Garrison Keillor to Peter, Paul and Mary. The popularity of Lou and Peter Berryman -- whose friendship survived a brief marriage in the seventies -- is a testiment to their intelligent and wickedly funny material which is never bawdy or risque but is rich with wordplay and witty images. This duo is not to be missed.

Golden Link Presents

Robin and Linda Williams

and Their Fine Group

Saturday, October 18th, 7:30 pm

Rochester Christian Reformed Church, 2750 Atlantic Avenue, Penfield

$25 ($20 for Golden Link members; 12 years and under free)

"Individually their voices can melt cheese,
and in duet they can do all-purpose welding."
__ Garrison Keillor, host of A Prairie Home Companion

Robin and Linda Williams are like your next-door neighbors - assuming your neighbors are the salt-of-the-earth and top-flight performers to boot. One minute you picture borrowing a cup of sugar from these two; the next, you're completely stunned by their jaw-dropping talent. Bottom line: You feel right at home at a Robin and Linda concert, and their music stays with you like an old friend.

Favorites of fans and promoters alike, they have crisscrossed the continent (and beyond) for more than three decades, performing the tunes they love & a hearty blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time and acoustic country. From The Grand Ole Opry to Austin City Limits, Music City Tonight to Mountain Stage, clubs, festivals and countless other venues, Robin and Linda never cease to wow audiences wherever they go.

Their chops don't stop at singing. They are first-class instrumentalists and superb songwriters, able to, as TheWashington Post put it, "sum up a life in a few details with moving completeness." It'swhy their compositions have been recorded by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tom T. Hall, Kathy Mattea, Tim and MollieO'Brien, George Hamilton IV and The Seldom Scene. Irish singer Mary Black included their haunting "Don't Let MeCome Home a Stranger" on her CD Full Tide.

"Among contemporary country performers,
Robin and Linda Williams shine like a diamond amid rhinestones.
Their sound is so sincere as to give the listener chills."
__ David W. Johnson, The Boston Globe

R&L (as their pals are apt to call them) are in constant demand, along with Their Fine Group, which formed after they teamed up with former Red Clay Rambler Jim Watson (bass, vocals and mandolin). The fourth chair of the Fine Group is a rotating chair filled by Jimmy Gaudreau (veteran of The Country Gentlemen, J. D. Crowe, The Tony Rice Unit, Chesapeake and Aldridge, and Bennett & Gaudreau) on mandolin and mandola, Tony Williamson (mandolin), Chris Brashear (fiddle), and Tom Corbett (mandolin). Whatever the configuration, the band keeps the joint jumpin'. Robin and Linda Williams: dynamic, hilarious and better than ever.

Golden Link Presents

Bill Staines

Friday, December 5th, 7:30 pm

Rochester Christian Reformed Church, 2750 Atlantic Avenue, Penfield

$18 ($15 for Golden Link members; 12 years and under free)

For over thirty five years, Bill has traveled back and forth across North America, singing his songs and delighting audiences at festivals, folksong societies, colleges, concerts, clubs and coffeehouses. A New England native, Bill became involved with the Boston- Cambridge folk scene in the early 1960's and, for a time, emceed the Sunday hootenanny at the renowned Club 47 in Cambridge. Bill quickly became a popular performer in the Boston area. In 1971, after one of his performances, a reviewer for The Phoenix stated that Bill was "simply Boston's best performer." A decade later, both in 1980 and 1981, the annual Reader's Poll of The Boston Globe selected him as a favorite performer. In 1991, Bill entered his forth decade as a folk performer with an international reputation as an artist.

Singing mostly his own songs, he has become one of the most popular singers on the folk music circuit today and averages around 200 concert dates a year.

Bill weaves a magical blend of wit and gentle humor into his performances, and as one reviewer wrote, "he has a sense of timing to match the best stand-up comic." His music is a slice of Americana, reflecting with the same ease, his feelings about the prairie people of the Midwest or the adventurers of the Yukon.

Interspersed between original songs, Bill also includes songs ranging from traditional folk tunes to more contemporary country ballads and delights in having the audience participate in many of the numbers. He may even do a yodeling tune or two- having won the National Yodeling Championship in 1975 at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville Texas.

A number of Bill's songs have been recorded by other artists including, Peter, Paul, & Mary, Makem and Clancy, Nanci Griffith, Mason Williams, The Highwaymen, Glen Yarborough, Jerry Jeff Walker, Grandpa Jones, Priscilla Herdman and others. Bill has recorded twenty-two of his own albums, fifteen of which are still in print. Additionally, Bill's songs have been published in four songbooks, If I Were A Word, Then I'd Be A Song, River, Music To Me, The Songs of Bill Staines, and All God's Critters Got A Place In The Choir. Two of the books contain nearly one hundred of Bill's songs.

Radio and TV appearances have included A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, The Good Evening Show and a host of local programs on PBS and network TV. Bill continues to drive over 65,000 miles a year, doing what he loves, bringing music to people.

EMAIL (or PHONE, if no e-mail) any of our OFFICERS/ CHAIRPERSONS