SARATOGA SPRINGS — The songs of Mississippi John Hurt have been covered by everyone from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Dave Van Ronk, to Donovan, Jerry Garcia, and Jorma Kaukonen – both as a soloist and with his band Hot Tuna – and he famously performed at Caffe Lena shortly before his death in the mid-1960s. 

On Saturday, April 29 a bevy of entertainers will perform atop the Caffe Lena stage in tribute to the singer and songwriter who has influenced a world of musicians with his unique fingerpicking style.  

The fundraiser features four duos playing the music by and inspired by Mississippi John Hurt.  Performers include the Piedmont Bluz Duo of Valerie and Benedict Turner, Annie & Jonny Rosen of Annie and the Hedonists, Erin Harpe & Jim Countryman and Mark Tolstrup & Jill Burnham of Mark & Jill.

Monies raised will benefit the Mississippi John Hurt Foundation, established by Hurt’s granddaughter, Mary Frances Hurt. The Foundation is a non-profit organization devoted primarily to preserving the musical legacy and history of Mississippi John Hurt, while providing musical and educational opportunities to disadvantaged youth. Through the music of John Hurt, children and adult music fans alike are exposed to the rich oral, musical, and literary traditions of the Mississippi Delta and surrounding areas. 

Funds raised will also support a film, currently in production, about his life and legacy.

For tickets and more information, go to: caffelena.org. 

ALBANY — The NYS Writers Institute and the UAlbany Performing Arts Center, both based at the University at Albany, present a slate of actors who will participate in Selected Shorts, the hit public radio and podcast series featuring readings of classic and new works of short fiction by acclaimed actors. 

The program will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 29 at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown University at Albany campus located at 1400 Washington Ave. in Albany.  

Actor/comedian Jane Curtin will perform in the program. She will be joined by Teagle F. Bougere from Queen America and New Amsterdam’s Mike Doyle.  The trio of thespians will perform selections from books by Ann Tyler, Ray Bradbury, Meron Hadero and Robin Hemley.  

Selected Shorts is produced by Symphony Space in New York City and broadcast on more than 150 stations to about 300,000 listeners around the country. The Selected Shorts podcast consistently ranks as one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes, with more than 100,000 downloads each week. 

Advance tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for students, seniors and UAlbany faculty-staff.  Tickets purchased on the day of the show (pending availability) are $20 for the general public and $15 for students, seniors and UAlbany faculty-staff.  All tickets must be purchased on-line from the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s website at www.albany.edu/pac.  

SARATOGA SPRINGS — House of Hamill will appear at Caffé Lena on Friday, April 21 for a spring return engagement. Showtime is 8 p.m.

House of Hamill’s music has been described as sophisticated, independent Celtic-folk. The band includes Rose Baldino (fiddle and vocals), Brian Buchanan (fiddle, vocals, and guitar), and Caroline Browning (bass, mandolin and piano). The trio tours nationally, performing at Celtic festivals and established folk venues.

All three musicians also tour with the band, Enter the Haggis. Their 2023 schedule will lead them to at least 28 states and 3 countries, including hosting a sold-out musical bus tour through the west of Ireland in October. Their third album, “Folk Hero,” received strong support on the 2022 Folk-DJ charts, as well as from Celtic music podcasters. A new album release is planned for later this year. 

For tickets and more information, see www.caffelena.org or call 518-583-0022.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab will be visiting the Spa City this weekend as a stopover of a monthlong nationwide tour.   

Schwab has authored more than 20 books, including the acclaimed Shades of Magic series, Villains series, Monster of Verity duology, Cassidy Blake series and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. 

Tor Books published the trade paperback of Schwab’s “The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue” on April 11. 

Described as a genre-defying breakout novel, it is a sweeping story about a woman who lives forever, but is destined to be forgotten. More than 1.4 million copies have been sold and the book spent over 40 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. 

The event, In conversation with Jennifer Dugan, is presented by Northshire Bookstore and will take place 7 p.m. Saturday, April 15 at Presbyterian New England Congregational Church, 24 Circular St. in Saratoga Springs. For ticket information, go to: northshire.com. 

ALBANY — The UAlbany Performing Arts Center presents Dan Froot & Company in Pang! for three public performances taking place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday, April 20-22, on the uptown University at Albany campus located at 1400 Washington Ave. 

Pang! is an original work adventurously staged as a triptych of live radio plays based on the oral histories of real working-class American families hungering for change. It explores social challenges ranging from food insecurity to gun violence to foreclosure to anti-immigrant bias. Pang! aims to raise awareness, decrease stigma and promote cross-class dialogue around circumstances faced by families living below the poverty line.

Performed as if recording a live radio broadcast or podcast, the actors at microphones voice dozens of characters from 18-months to 77-years old; from a Burundian refugee speaking in his home language to a 7-year-old Miami boy whose dialogue is spoken in unison by the entire ensemble. Pang!’s performers include Natalie Camunas, Krista Gonzalez, Christopher Rivas and Froot.

Over the course of eight months in 2015-16, the company created six book-length oral histories of families living with food insecurity in Cedar Rapids, Los Angeles and Miami. They then collaborated with one of the families from each city to devise the three 30-minute plays that comprise Pang! The families consulted with the company continuously throughout the adaptation, rehearsal and performance processes. 

Advance tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for students, seniors and UAlbany faculty-staff. Tickets purchased on the day of the show (pending availability) are $20 for the general public and $15 for students, seniors and UAlbany faculty-staff. All tickets must be purchased on-line from the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s web site at www.albany.edu/pac. Information and assistance can be obtained by contacting the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s main office at 518-442-3995 or PAC@albany.edu.

In addition to the public performance, Pang! will also be performed for area high school students on Thursday and Friday, April 20 & 21 at 10 a.m. Admission is free, but reservations are required. Limited seating is available. Educators wishing to bring groups can contact the UAlbany Performing Arts Center office at 518-442-3995 or PAC@albany.edu. Home school students and parents are also welcome.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —Gov’t Mule will stage a show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on July 28.

The band will be performing the hits, plus a set of Dark Side Of The Mule performing Pink Floyd classics. 

Tickets on sale Friday, April 14 at livenation.com.  

SARATOGA SPRINGS — What’s in a name? Plenty when it comes to how some local residents see themselves represented. 

A new movie by local filmmaker Shaun Rose is garnering loud feedback from some in the community in which the movie was made – largely due to its one-word title: Toga.  

“I’ve never seen this before with any type of movie on any type of level. The fanatical ones, they’re at me like rabid animals,” Rose says.  

The 61-minute film tells Rose’s continuing story of a person progressing through different stages of their life. Released in January, “Toga” follows freelance videographer ‘Ellis Martin’ on assignment, scouting locations in the town where he was raised.

“I grew up in Saratoga Springs over on the west side of town by the high school,” says Rose.  “Toga” is a semi-autobiographical film and a sequel to his previous work, “Upstate Story.”  

“Getting into some of the biographical details of the movie, just channeling that, I think has been very therapeutic for me,” says the 37-year-old filmmaker. 

“The character is a fictionalized version of me, but there’s a lot of truth in that movie; Capturing me at different aspects, different time periods of my life,” says Rose, who handled most of the writing, directing, acting, and image-making/editing of the independent film. “Pretty much everything; tackling so many different roles, but I did have some help,” he says. 

“It has received good reviews from outside sources and has built up quite a few views over on YouTube. But it’s been controversial, to say the least – mostly due to the name alone and I’ve received a lot of hate from fellow locals over the shortening of our town name,” says Rose, privately sharing some of the more personally focused messages he received. Rose isn’t wrong in his labeling of these as “outright vulgar and disgusting. My girlfriend and co-producer received some as well.”

Saratoga: What’s In A Name

There is more than one Saratoga in the U.S. – a town in Wyoming, a city in California, and a Saratoga Springs in Utah, among them. Closer to home, the Town of Saratoga Springs was set apart from the Town of Saratoga in 1819. It was incorporated as a village in 1826, and in 1915 the City of Saratoga Springs came into existence. Its translation and spelling are varied:

• “Saratoga after an Iroquois Indian word Sarachtoue, which translates to “place of miraculous water in the rock.” – Visit Saratoga Wyoming, Carbon County Visitors Council.  

• “Saratoga, it is said, is derived from an Iroquois word, Se-rach-to-que, literally, ‘floating scum upon the water,’ a completely understandable interpretation to be put on the presence of mineral deposits showing up as vari-colored film on the surface of a pond.” – Saratoga Historical Foundation, Saratoga California.

• “Among the earliest dates in which the name Saratoga appears in history is the year 1684. It was not then the name of a town, nor of a county, neither was it the name of a great watering-place; but it was the name of an old Indian hunting-ground located along both sides of the Hudson River…Se-rach-ta-gue, or the “hill-side country of the great river.”-  Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, 1878, History Of Saratoga County, N.Y. 

Toga? What People Are Saying

An inquiry posted this week on locally focused social media channels asking folks to reply with their preferred usage of “Saratoga” vs. “Toga” returned more than 200 comments. 

Some said they took no issue with either. Others pointed to the two-syllable “to-ga” as affording a clean and simple chant at high school sporting events.  

Those opposed to the abbreviated version – which counted more than twice as many commentators – said they had either had never heard the phrase uttered, or set blame for its usage on everything from “the younger generation” and summertime “invaders from New Jersey” to John Belushi’s portrayal of the bellicose toga-draped John “Blutto” Blutarsky in the 1978 film “Animal House.” 

Here are some of the comments:

• Calling Saratoga Toga is like calling your father “the old man,” or calling your mother by her first name, or calling your wife “my old lady”, etc. etc. Sounds cool to those of the same mindset. Lived in the area for most of my life and TOGA is just one of the many little things that irk some of us “OLD TIMERS” – Don.

• “Toga” is a nickname used by Saratoga high athletics only. Anyone else referring to Saratoga as Toga is a Neanderthal – Scott. 

• We don’t call it ‘Toga. New people do – Michele. 

• Toga a known cheer and chant. Nothing wrong with it. Everyone knows where Toga is – Barbara. 

• My dad is 79 and my mom is 73. We’ve all lived here our whole lives. I know plenty of “old” Saratogians and I’ve never heard it – Amber. 

• TOGA was probably made popular by a drunken frat boy – Heather. 

• Lifelong born and raised, graduated from SSHS. It has always been shortened to Toga – Dee. 

• Been here since 1956. Toga is an abomination. Nobody called it that when I was growing up… and get off my lawn while you’re at it – Eric.

• Notice that cranky “baby boomers” are the only ones offended – Bruce. 

• Bruce – boomer here…not offended. SSHS class of ‘79 and we used to chant this at basketball and football games, taking a page from Animal House – Cathy. 

• This must be coming from people who were NOT raised in Saratoga. No one I know of calls it Toga – Joan. 

• Lifelong resident and it’s always been Toga! My kids, current students, call it Toga! Never found it offensive or complained about the shortened name. A lot easier to chant “let’s go Toga!” – LeeAnn. 

• True natives say “Sara-doga” born there, raised there, still return any time I can. Never heard the Roman sheet reference until recent times. Kind of goes with backward ball caps and flips flops, not good – Brian. 

• I have called it both. At sporting events it was yelled as Toga but I normally said just Saratoga. I was not born and raised here but my kids call it both. Don’t really get what there is to be offended by but I guess that’s the way of the world at present. – Jonna. 

Rose first became Inspired to make films while growing up watching movies that came into his home from the video rental store that stood in the strip mall on South Broadway. 

“I used to go there all the time with my family and rent movies. I just fell in love with movies as a teenager,” he says.  

“I always try to make movies to connect with people. Outside the obvious title fiasco, I’ve gotten positive feedback from a lot of people who have liked it. Something that people can connect with,” Rose says.  

“When we usually see coming of age movies -it’s common to see kids transitioning into teenagers, or teenagers into adults – but what about further areas of adulthood? We don’t really see that. I think we as people never stop growing, or maturing, bettering ourselves. It’s constantly a learning curve,” he says. “I try to make things that people can connect with, a story I’m trying to tell, and balance it with comedy or drama so people can be entertained by it as well.”   

The film may be viewed on YouTube by searching “Shaun Rose” and “Toga.” Note, the film contains mature themes and strong language.