An Evening of Ancient Sephardic Music with Lily Henley

When award-winning folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lily Henley set out to make an album of Sephardic Jewish ballads set to new melodies, she was looking for her own way to interpret a critically endangered tradition. On Oras Dezaoradas (out on Lior Éditions Records), Henley highlights the Ladino language, a threatened tongue that fuses old Spanish with Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian elements spoken by less than 100,000 people in the world today.

What she didn’t expect was to find herself directly connected to centuries of women spread across a forced global diaspora. The album is not a reinterpretation project—Henley’s newly-penned songs are a reclamation and contribution, a living line between her roots in American and Celtic music traditions and the rich history and culture of her Sephardi ancestors.
These old ballads carry the hopes and dreams, daily worries, and existential thoughts of the Sephardi people. They tell stories of everyday life, loss, exile, lovers quarrels and advice-seeking daughters. Known for her expressive songwriting, gifted fiddling, and bell-like vocals, Henley brings new life to these songs and the independent female characters in them—drawing from a well so deep that disparate listeners all feel a connection to their own heritage.With a repertoire encompassing both her Sephardi musical lineage and a broad expanse of influences from across the folk world, in concert Henley weaves ancient and modern languages, cultures and styles to reveal their interconnectedness, and ours.

Henley tour as a duo with her husband, Duncan Wickel (fiddle, cello, bouzouki, guitar, voice) and sometimes as a trio (with bass). Henley is a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright award and was an Artist-in-Residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Caramoor American Roots Festival, the Denver Botanical Gardens Summer Series, and the New York Sephardic Music Festival. For the past year she has toured as a front-woman with mystic-folk band Rising Appalachia and has collaborated with John Doyle, Brittany Haas, David Krakauer, Rushad Eggleston, The Duhks, and many more.

DETAILS

ADMISSION: $25/$20 (Under 12) advance / $30/$25 (Under 12)door (subject to availability).

REFUND POLICY: We get it, plans change and/or life's more pressing details sometime get in the way of a good time. We will process a refund request up to 24 hours before the event. After that, we're committed to paying the artist and will not issue a refund. Thank you for your support and understanding.

This show will be held in the Milking Parlor at the Historic Octagon Barn Center. Doors will open at 6pm with the band beginning at 7. Seating is first come, first served. If you have a unique seating requirement please email and we will do our best to accommodate your request. The Octagon Barn Center is ADA accessible.

Old-Time Jam - 6-7pm!

COVID-19: If you are feeling unwell, please stay home.

OUTSIDE FOOD & DRINK: other than personal water bottles, no outside food and/or drink is permitted inside the venue. The Octagon Barn Center is a non-smoking facility.

Host or Publisher SLO County Stumblers