Go to a play, get a CD?

Sept. 28-30 is the final weekend for the funny and heartwarming "Almost, Maine" at dcp theatre in Salford Township. We're season ticketholders this year, and my fiancee says it's the very best of the bunch.
Pay attention to the recorded curtain and scene change music by North Carolina duo The Elftones. Yeah, Mara Shea and Roger Gold need a name that evokes Appalachian, Celtic and contra guitar and fiddle music -- which is what they do -- instead of awful Christmas lounge music, which is what their name sounds like they do.
The gentle waltzes from their "Mist-Covered Mountains" CD, in the words of the "Almost, Maine" playbill program, adds "a special dimension to this production," and makes for some terrific, instrumental, folk, chill out music. It rather belies the "fiery" and "high energy dance music" tags on their website.
Don't know how the dcp folks matched this music with the show, but it sure works. Some of the tunes are centuries old, like the timeless search for love and belonging that runs through all of the vignettes of the play, set in a fictional, remote New England town.  
 The album is available for $15 at the theater at 795 Ridge Road for the remaining shows at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15.

Universal language

May 2, Congregation Tiferet Bet Israel on Skippack Pike in Whitpain hosts the musical duo Noa & Mira. One is Israeli and one is Palestinian. And whaddaya know, they not only coexist, but they make music together, spreading a message of hope and reconciliation to the Holy Land and beyond.

Bernie Allmayer at TBI, who has been ringing my phone non-stop about this concert, tells me their song "There Must Be Another Way" represented Israel in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, held in Moscow. He also says this is their only area stop on their tour of the U.S.

I'm working on getting an interview with these fascinating ladies. Meanwhile, for ticket information, call (610) 275-8797, ext. 144 or go to http://www.tbibluebell.org/.

And who knew?! Burning Bridget Cleary, a high-energy Celtic folk band from Harleysville, just won accolades from http://www.celticradio.net/. Their awards include Album of the Year, and song awards in the Jigs and Reels and Contemporary categories.

They will be performing May 15 at DCP Theater, 795 Ridge Road, Salford Township. Tickets are $15. The concert is a very rare music event at the Dutch Country Playhouse, which is a benefit for the community theater.