Four Schillings Short is a California based duo, which is the embodiment of true folk music, not the watered down political version that popped up in 1950’s New York coffee houses, either. Armed with banjos, lutes, mandolins, and more – Four Schillings Short is a harkening back to the day when folk music was just that…the music of common folks. The music that passed down their stories, their fables, and their histories. When the words told of the shoulders they stood on, and echoed among the hills they spent their lives climbing. This was the music that was sang around fires and on back porches and at bed sides. Music that was in the bones of a community because their collective narrative existed somewhere between the words and the notes.
That in many ways is what Four Schillings is as a band. A call back to longing voice that exists in us all that sounds like the faint whisper of ancestry reminding you not to forget from where you came. They have seven albums full of traditional folk songs that as familiar as they may be find you instantaneously connected to them in a deeply intimate sense. Their most recent album, Of Love and Liberty, finds the duo playing traditional songs, original songs, and even their own twist on a classic John Prine song.
In an attempt to preserve the rich musical history of folk music, Four Schillings Short also runs a school that teaches people of all ages how to play these classic instruments that aren’t commonly being taught, dulcimers, tinwhistles, and sitars; and they’ll even show you how to sing in Gaelic.
They will be doing two shows Sunday April 12th at The Bard’s Town, 6:00 PM & 8:00 PM - $10 donation suggested.
