X stands for danger

Sure, it's easy to be snarky and make fun of the name Xtreme Folk Scene.
But are you brave enough to come to the Country Creek Winery Friday night the 11th and/or Saturday the 12th to find out what it is at the 10th annual XFest? Well, are ya, punk?
The Berrys should be a good, comfort zone starting point for you. Briana Berry's MySpace has some recognizable covers.
And don't let the name fool you; the West Philadelphia Orchestra is nothing like the Philadelphia Orchestra. In fact, you may have seen them in this area before. The video says it all. Holy crap!
Electric Man has been featured on Talk about the Passion before, but this time I've also provided a link to his Website for you.
Hopefully you're not thinking about heckling me at XFest during Raspberry Tea's set.
Brenda Kahn, who I have heard described as "old school anti-folk," has a new CD in the works. Her songs are kinda seductive, and I hope this veteran performer doesn't put Raspberry Tea to shame too terribly much.
Since the time I wrote a story on the Bucks County branch of the Paul Green School of Rock, they have a whole new set of kids. They were a hit at last year's XFest.
Who could resist a progressive bluegrass band that named itself after the stuffed pig stomach dish HogMaw?! I'm a fan of the songs "The Flood" and "Sauerkraut." There's even an XPN interview with them on their MySpace, if you have time to listen to it.
Chattanooga, TN resident Butch Ross can't do anything right.

1. He plays the mountain dulcimer.
2. He plays it standing up like a guitar.
3. He holds it upside and strung backwards.
4. And Butch Ross plays rock n roll on it.

His 'While My Dulcimer Gently Weeps' is above.
Psych-A-Billy are nuts. If you dare, download their tunes "If Love is Blind" and "Let's Get Drunk and Break Bottles in the Alley."
Slo-Mo and Mic Wrecka has a truly unpredictable sound. Will they go hip-hop, Americana, somewhere in between?
The schedule and ticket information is all at www.xfsmusic.org.

Taking the post-holiday letdown personally

After being saturated by Christmas for more than a month, and then for a week by New Year's, there's going to be a whole lot of nothing going on. It's a classic example of binge and purge.
As the chief content provider for The Reporter's weekend section for close to 10 years, this is the time of year I dread the most -- the winter doldrums. The New Year really is like starting from zero -- waiting for things to start happening again.
Well I'm doing something about it.
My acoustic duo, Raspberry Tea, will be the first act of 2010 for the Indian Valley Public Library's Second Fridays series. I get a kick out of how the library makes sure to mention my name (even though they spelled it wrong on their Web site) in promoting Raspberry Tea ... as if I was a rock star or something.
Ken Kennedy and I will be celebrating the release of a five-song mini-album, "Just Like That!" which showcases our singer-songwriter skills, plus a Bo Diddley beat arrangement of Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
This being a library, we'll have some other songs among our originals that were inspired by literature.
Admission is free and Raspberry Tea is on at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 8.
February's entertainment (Feb. 12) is Lazy Sundays, featuring Elena Eschbach and Dawn Hunsdorffer, who I know from Church of the Holy Spirit Episcopal. They performed during the Lansdale Center for the Performing Arts open house fundraiser earlier this month.
Now and Then is featured March 12.
On April 9, cigar box guitar/diddley bow specialists One-String Willie and Gerry Thompson will show that sometimes a store bought guitar just won't do.
Keep checking http://www.ivpl.org/ for updates to the Second Fridays series.

http://www.myspace.com/theraspberrytea offers you a sneak listen to track 1 of the CD, "Curly Howard's Blues."