PREVIEW: Caffe Lena brings back TrueSongs for 2025
11/15 @ Universal Preservation Hall, Saratoga
“Folk music is the music of the people, which embraces their dreams and aspirations for a better world. It embraces their efforts to hang on to traditions in a changing world, and connect with others in a meaningful way.”
Back for its sixth year is TrueSongs: Stories of Courage, Resilience, & Community. The event gives members of the community who have experienced and overcome major challenges in their lives the opportunity to transform those experiences into stories and songs to share on stage.
This year, there are six individuals who are supported by respective not-for-profit organizations that helped them in their journeys. Those individuals are joined by songwriters and professional storytellers as their “coaches,” helping them craft their unique stories and creating a new, original song from it as well. The event is hosted by Caffe Lena, and is the brainchild of Executive Director, Sarah Craig.
Craig has been the executive director of Caffe Lena for 30 years, and she has helped to further establish deeper connections with the community. Coming from a background of working in a grassroots organization, which dealt with peace and disarmament, as well as civil rights — specifically gay rights and feminism in the Boston area — she had found it surprising to end up in the arts, but as it turns out, this corner of the arts world was actually a perfect fit. When Craig met with the three board members of the newly formed Caffe Lena nonprofit, they really hit it off and she grew very excited about the possibilities of the organization, which has since led to events like TrueSongs.
“There’s a huge overlap between social justice and folk music,” Craig says. “Folk music is the music of the people, which embraces their dreams and aspirations for a better world. It embraces their efforts to hang on to traditions in a changing world, and connect with others in a meaningful way.”
Caffe Lena has a lot of informed culture and cherished traditions that have allowed people to discover music and things they might not know about themselves. It allows those connections between people through music which is demonstrated through these kinds of events. With Community being core to a folk venue and their mission, Craig emphasizes that “this is a wide open club for anybody to join,” and that’s on full display with these very real people sharing very real experiences and stories.
This year’s event takes place at Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. The speakers and performers are:
Rebecca Lefevre, representing Clifton Park-based, CAPTAIN Community Human Services. Lefevre will be joined by songwriter Emily Barnes and is coached by Christie Keegan.
Teagan Ketchum, representing Albany-based Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York. Ketchum will be joined by the band Sirsy, and is coached by Shawn Banner.
Robert Winkler, representing Saratoga Springs-based RISE Housing & Support Services. Winkler will be joined by songwriter Rachel Sumner and is coached by Margaret French.
Keely Milligan, representing Glens Falls-based, All Abilities Productions. Milligan will be joined by songwriter Reese Fulmer and is coached by Vivian Nesbitt.
Tom Stock & Joanne Yespen will be representing Saratoga-based, Sustainable Saratoga. The duo will be joined by songwriter Dan Berggren and is coached by Jeannine Laverty.
Daniel C. will be representing Middle Grove-based Camp Stomping Ground. Daniel will be joined by songwriter Crys Matthews and is coached by Claire Nolan.
For more information and tickets, visit the Caffe Lena website. And be sure to check out our cover story on Caffe Lena in honor of their 65th anniversary, out in print now!