Canceled due to weather!

Join Matoaka Little Eagle and Julia Howl Haines and all of us in celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day:The Thanksgiving Address, songs, poems and dance. Learn about current issues facing Native Americans and all of us.

More info on the way…

‘Perennial is a new voice ensemble with songs arranged and directed by Debbie Lan.

Perennial enjoys singing original arrangements of an eclectic mix of songs by The Staves, The Magnetic Fields and Tom Petty, amongst others.

With Deb Murphy, Robyn Gullickson, Lorrie Coffey, Mary Beth Collier, Nine Aledort, MicheleZipp, Neva Cockrell and Jude LaFollette.

Directed and arranged by Debbie Lan.

Much fun to be had!

Please join us for a community sharing and discussion. Agenda decided by attendees.

Shokoloko is an electro-acoustic improvising trio that taps into the diverse sounds and influences of America, Africa, Europe, Asia and beyond.

The band is: Joakim Lartey on drums, percussion and voice; Chris Lane on guitar and electric guitar, oud-guitar and banjo; Richard Carr on violin and electric violin.

Shokoloko is about dance, trance and community fun!

The B2s are a 10 voice Women’s Voice Ensemble founded and directed by Musician, Songwriter, Arranger and Choral Director Debbie Lan.    With original arrangements by Debbie, The B2s eclectic and uplifting repertoire includes songs by Tom Waits, 4 Non Blondes, Agnes Obel, Ma Muse, Rising Appalachia and Ladysmith Black Mambazo amongst others. 

Past performances include Kingston Earth Fair, Olive Free Library Fundraiser, The Rosendale Street Festival, Unison, New Paltz Earth Day and The Widow Jane Mine, amongst other venues.

With Betty Boomer, Ruth Molloy, Suzanne Stokes, Carol Bialy, Noelle Damon, Kathy Flannery, Rita Prusinski, Vicki Koenig, Donna Greenfield Cullen and Debbie Lan.

Moving from music into film, Peyton has charted a unique creative course. His production, writing, and arranging skills contributed to many music hits. (including Peyton's own #1 charting release, "Latitude, 40 Degrees North") In  Peyton worked with artists including Michael Mainieri, Michael Brecker, James Brown, Melba Moore, Nona Hendrix, Levon Helms, and Dan Hartman. Peyton's music has been been used for underscore music for the Friends TV series, the Smithsonian, PBS "Nature" series, and many TV productions and jingles. His primary instrument is the vibraphone, which Craig studied with Gary Burton, at Berklee School of Music. A pioneer in the electric vibes instrument, Craig pushed the boundaries of the instrument. As an arranger he worked with early sequencers, and his main instrument the Fairlight III.  https://www.discogs.com/search/?q=craig+peyton&type=all

Brazilian and American jazz with guitar, vocals, saxophone, flute, and percussion. Ann Belmont, Todd Anderson, Fre Atlast, and special guest Sarah Urech

annbelmont@verizon.net
Guitar/vocals/composer/arrang

Peter Wetzler is returning to the Rail Trail Cafe to play music to the trees and insects and wind and all the magical sounds and people that inhabit the wonderful escape from the world that is The Rail Trail Cafe.  Using solo accordion with subtle (and not so subtle) electronic enhancement Peter will continue his explorations of harmony and melody and capturing the moment in improvisation.”  Joining him will be Peter Einhorn on guitar and breath controlled synthesizers and Joakim Lartey on percussion and electronic percussion.

Conservatory (Salzburg).  20 years of classical/jazz piano study most recently with Kirk Nurock and Robert Helps.  Gamelon study at Brown University and UC Santa Cruz. Landmark Education: entire curriculum including leadership and communication programs.   Teaching appointments at Princeton, NYU, Connecticut College, Juilliard, School for Visual Arts and The Center for Creative Imaging.  

Storyteller Jill Olesker will explore and share stories of many kinds-folktales, Nature experiences and Water memories that we can offer each other. There will be music offered by Dancing Leaf and other possible guests.

Stories offer a way to be in community, to share truths and to connect to nature . 

Jill has been telling stories in Hudson Valley for many years now. She is currently co-creating a project she started called the Water Stories Project. It is exploring our relationship to Waters, letting the Waters speak and nurturing our reciprocity with Water.

Sound from the ground. celebrate falling into Fall with the first iteration of SMSC. Improvised and composed music arising from the ground of stone mountain farm. Deep geologic time sounding and echoing to tomorrow. Join Brian Farmer and guests for an evening of  musical exploration and solace as we move from Summer to Fall. Be prepared to venture into never before heard sonic landscapes. Only once, here, together!.,

Organized by Max Fass of course!

The 2025 edition of Balkan Music Afternoon at the Rail Trail Cafe will feature bands from around the Hudson Valley that play Eastern European dance and listening music.

We will celebrate the changing of the seasons as some villagers might in the Balkans. 4 pm til dusk.

Schedule to be announced in early September. Balkan dances will be taught throughout the afternoon.

Balkan Festival at the Rail Trail Cafe
Sunday, September 28, 2025

Kate Prascher is a singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for her evocative songwriting. She was thrilled to be named a 2021 IBMA Songwriting Showcase finalist. Inspired by her Tennessee roots and influenced by master song crafters like Hazel Dickens and Gillian Welch, Kate is a versatile and engaging performer. Her songs are outspoken and sometimes tender, by turns playful and heart-piercing. Ink 19 described Kate’s "delicate and expressive singing" and “intangible vintage feel". 

Thomas Workman, Ev Mann, Gabriel Dresdale and Timothy Hill.

Levanta brings together a quartet of extraordinary musicians and unique instrumentation, featuring original compositions and improvisations with influences from Brazil to the Silk Road to the Australian outback.

In this multi-faceted event native author/musician Evan Pritchard will

sing traditional and original songs, read poetry, tell stories, and talk about

our relationship with each other and the earth. He will also sign books and CDs

between sets.

A workshop for healing, ritual, and ancestral alignment at the Rail Trail Cafe, Rosendale, NY

There is a language beyond words—spoken in symbols, shadows, and the silent presence of what came before us. In this immersive workshop, we enter that liminal space through the art of object altars and the healing field of Kaleidoscopic Constellations.

Many of us know the Rail Trail Cafe as a beloved site that welcomes all, providing a meaningful context as we gather community in its landscape. Together in this space we will call in the wisdom of our lineages,  illuminating inherited stories and soul entanglements. Through intentional placement of meaningful objects we create altars that speak the unspeakable, and honor what longs to be seen, released, or embraced.

In this sacred circle, we will:

• Experience the subtle field of Family Constellations in an intimate, symbolic way
  
  

• Learn to create personal object altars as portals of remembrance and resonance
  
  

• Participate in ritual, guided constellations, and deep intuitive listening
  
  

• Reconnect with ancestral gifts, patterns, and inner alignments ready to unfold
  
  

***Bring with you: a personal object (small item of meaning), an open heart, and a willingness to listen to the unseen.

Step into the Field. The ancestors are waiting.

Bio

Kathleen Mandeville is an Episcopal Priest, arts producer, Constellations facilitator, founder of The Outer Edge Coaching and spiritual leader of Gateway House, a multi-faith sacred arts community in Rosendale, NY, where she currently facilitates sacred ceremonies, individual and group counseling.

In her in-person monthly Kaleidoscopic Constellations group, members integrate and cross-pollinate a variety of healing and creative modalities, informed by the practices of the group's participants. Thus we may weave storytelling, writing, somatic experiencing, music and other disciplines together.

Find out more:

https://www.theouteredge.net/constellations

Rain date September 26th, 5-7.

Hudson River Playback Theatre!

Please join us under the tall trees for a community conversation through theatre! This outdoor show is part of Climate Change Theatre Action 2025, a worldwide project held in conjunction with the biennial UN climate conferences. Our performance includes the short CCTA-commissioned play “Brackendale” by Elaine Ávila (two bald eagles reflecting on climate change) – plus YOUR stories about living in this rapidly changing world. Our performing team of facilitator, actors, and musician will listen, then create theatre on the spot, complete with music.  

Hudson River Playback Theatre is a New Paltz, NY-based nonprofit ensemble founded in 1990 by Playback pioneer Jo Salas. HRPT has performed by invitation in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Montreal, London, Frankfurt, and South Africa. Locally, we have performed in theatres, conferences, migrant labor camps, and much more.  Our longterm projects have included school performances addressing bullying, and “Immigrant Stories,” a series of over 100 performances for the Mid Hudson Valley’s immigrant community, funded by the Dyson Foundation. We have been presenting climate-themed interactive shows since 2009 and have participated in Climate Change Theatre Action since its inception. 

 The Rail Trail Cafe, right beside the parking lot on Stone Mountain Farm off Springtown Road, serves delicious food and drinks. Come early or stay later to eat and relax!

 All are welcome. Limited outdoor seating — feel free to bring your own folding chair! No reservations or tickets required. Donations gratefully accepted to support the performers.

 This outdoor show will be postponed in case of rain! If in doubt please check on Facebook (Hudson River Playback Theatre or Rail Trail Café.)

Julia Howl Haines and Matoaka Little Eagle will bring delight and beauty to you with their cross cultural adventures, interweaving music, voice, and stories. Their unique collaboration is magical, serendipitous. Really! So beautiful! 

Soar with your spirits as you hear original compositions and stories from Julia on the lever harp. Matoaka complements Julia's music with her Native songs, vocals, and stories.

 Julia Haines has a unique approach to the lever harp. Called a “harper among harpists” and a ‘hip harper” by the Irish press, she won First Prize for harp and voice at the O’Carolan Festival, Keadue, Ireland. Her radiant music fuses world, folk, rock, classical & improvisational influences.

Matoaka Little Eagle is Native singer, dancer, storyteller, and educator who has introduced Native American culture to thousands of students, teachers, event goers, and professionals in a wide array of venues from schools, colleges, and museums, to prestigious cultural institutions like Symphony Space and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. She is a lifetime member of the acclaimed Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, based in NYC and has collaborated with numerous arts and educational organizations. Her many collaborations with fellow performers and musicians include Pete Seeger, David Amram, and Ulali. Matoaka plays the role of Grandma Jingle Dress in the contemporary Native musical, Distant Thunder, through the Lyric Theater of Oklahoma City, which premiered in March, 2022 at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City. She currently resides in New Paltz, NY. matoaka.e@gmail.com. (845) 977-6146.

New Paltz residents Michael and Emmy Clarke perform a mix of original material and cover songs. Michael songs tend to be rooted in nature often embracing themes of social conscience. Michael plays guitar and together they blend their lead vocals and harmonies together to create a unique sound…

Catskill Mountain Gamelan has been performing since 2012 at locations

throughout the Hudson Valley, performing traditional Indonesian music,

original songs and arrangements.  We return this season with new

members featuring, Ashley Enright, Sue Kiel, Alex Letourneau, Amy

Recchia, Alvaro Romao, Annmarie Tedeschi, and Julien Valenstein, led

by Dorcinda Knauth.

At our Sept 20 show, expect to hear some beloved Sundanese classics, a

retelling of a trickster story: Kancil, and even see some

Turkish-gamelan fusion dance.

They’ll be playing on The Rose Blossom Gamelan, a red and gold West

Javanese gamelan built in 2012 by master builder Asep Ahum.  It is

tuned to the pentatonic (Five-tone) scale called degung.  Gamelan

would typically be used in Indonesia for playing ceremonial music,

accompanying elaborate all-night long puppet shows that double as

providing social or political commentary, or accompanying important

life cycle events like weddings. Hope you can come!

Devotional Music from around the world with Ned Leavitt, Joseph Jastrab, Steve Gorn, Avinash and surprises.

The Clear Light Ensemble is an improvisational musical collaboration divinely inspired by Classical Indian Ragas. It's a cosmic tapestry of diverse musical forms including world jazz, rock, classical, folk and avant guard

The Artist Salon, hosted by Wild Arts Collective, is a monthly outdoor gathering where artists are invited to share works and ideas in progress. This is a space for collective imagining, where we support artists to envision, co-create, and get new perspectives on their work. The Artist Salon fosters the space for ideas to grow. No advanced sign ups required-if you’d like to participate, bring a piece of art(works in progress welcome) or an idea to share and a question for the group. We hope to see you there!

Come join us for a community discussion. Let’s shape our futures with discussions that matter, tap into our collective intelligence!

Noé Dinnerstein - Sitar Voice, Khopong, and guitar.

Ami Fixler – Mridangam and guitar

Noé Dinnerstein is an ethnomusicologist with a background in the musics of India, Tibet, Ladakh, and Ireland.  He has been a professional sitar player for the past 50 years, as well as being proficient in voice, flute, guitar, and other odd ethnic instruments.  He is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of music at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.  He is a disciple of the late sitar virtuoso Pandit Uma Shankar Mishra and was also a long-time voice student of the late Pandit Pran Nath.

Ami Fixler is a long-time Mrdungam player for Siddha Meditation chants at ashrams and centers worldwide.  He has and continues to perform locally on both guitar and percussion with kirtan and jazz based ensembles.

Drumsong Orchestra is a women’s drum and percussion ensemble founded and directed by Ubaka Hill. 

The Drumsong orchestra of the Hudson Valley performs world rhythms and songs rooted in women’s folkloric and contemporary music genres. Drumsong orchestra is a whole vibe for everyone to enjoy. 

Sound from the ground. celebrate the harvest with the first iteration of SMSC. Improvised and composed music arising from the ground of stone mountain farm. Deep geologic time sounding and echoing to tomorrow. Join Brian Farmer and guests for an evening of  musical exploration and solace as we move from Spring to Summer. Be prepared to venture into never before heard sonic landscapes. Only once, here, together!.,

Gamelan Kingston is a group of composers and performers exploring the musical possibilities of gamelan (a multi-timbral melodic percussion orchestra from Indonesia) in contemporary and traditional styles. Their diverse backgrounds combine to create new music and well as new collaborative possibilities with both artists and audiences. They present original works by members, many inspired by classical and experimental repertoire from Java and Bali. Members include: Jody Diamond, director, Sasha Bogdanowitsch, Katie Down, Dean Jones, Henry Lowengard, Gavin Ryan and Peter Wetzler

Can’t wait! Nick Collins is a local accordionist who has been delighting audiences in and around the Hudson Valley for over 10 years.   Playing a wide variety of traditional and popular music in many styles, Nick is thrilled to return to the Rail Trail Café!

A folk inspired singer songwriter from Woodstock, Malerie Day weaves heartfelt lyrics with tender yet powerful emotionality.  Her velvet vocals take center stage atop skillful finger picking guitar and bittersweet sentiments.  Inspiration by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Karen Carpenter and Adrianne Lenker are heard in her first full length record titled “Heaven Knows” now available on all platforms.