FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 31, 2003 Contact: Terry Eagan
(781) 894-0706

MUSICFEST 2003 COMING TO ARLINGTON’S REGENT THEATRE APRIL 26
Annual Benefit Concert To Feature Award-Winning Canadian and American Musicians
In A Fundraiser To Create and Maintain Hospital Garden Patios For Cancer Patients

On Saturday, April 26 at 7:30 pm, The Regent Theatre in Arlington, Massachusetts will host the Sixth MusicFest Benefit Concert sponsored by Patio Records. The event will feature singer-songwriting performers and virtuoso musicians from the U.S. and Canada. Headlining the event will be James Gordon and Sandy Horne, Bill Bourne, Annie Gallup, Louise Taylor, and Scott Alarik. Also featured will be special guest accompanists Richard Gates, Matt Leavenworth, and Dean Sharp. All ticket proceeds will go towards the care of the Mary Eagan Garden at Waltham Hospital that provides a setting of comfort alongside the cancer treatment center.

With eight albums to his credit, master folk musician, Bill Bourne of Edmonton, Alberta, is a Canadian Juno Award winner and seven-time Juno nominee, including one for the upcoming awards for the Roots and Traditional Album of the Year. This will be Bill’s third featured performance at the MusicFest series.

James Gordon (Ontario, Canada) has spent more than 20 years recording and touring as a solo singer-songwriter and with the groundbreaking trio Tamarack. He has released over 30 albums, and has toured regularly across North America and Great Britain. His songs are becoming part of the fabric of Canadian culture—his classic "Frobisher Bay" was recently named "Favourite Canadian Song" in the roots category in a national CBC radio contest. Canadians know Sandy Horne (Ontario, Canada) for her work with the "The Spoons,” who had two gold albums, two Juno nominations, and a string of pop radio hits in the 1980s. James and Sandy recently released their first collaboration, One Timeless Moment.

Beat Poet songwriter and “spoke folk” artist, Annie Gallup (Ann Arbor, Michigan), was a New Folk award winner at Kerrville in 2002 and has been featured at folk festivals throughout North America. In addition to her musical contributions, Annie has been generous with her time and involvement in helping to bring the Mary Eagan Garden to fruition.

Signature Sounds recording artist, Louise Taylor (Brattleboro, Vermont), has had many songs included on Fast Folk compilations and performed in a number of annual Fast Folk shows at the Bottom Line in New York City. Louise teamed up with Annie Gallup and Lori McKenna for a special Patio Records benefit show in 2001 that was mc’ed by Laney Goodman, producer and host of WUMB’s “Women in Music” program. Hot off the presses is Louise’s brand new CD Velvet Town, from which specially selected songs will be performed at the Regent.

Before moving to Boston in the early '80s, Minnesota native, Scott Alarik (Cambridge, MA) spent nearly 15 years as a folk singer-songwriter and balladeer, releasing three albums and appearing regularly on the hit National Public Radio program "A Prairie Home Companion". Alarik has been the principal folk music writer for the Boston Globe since 1986, was editor of the New England Folk Almanac from 1991-97, and has recently published Deep Community: Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground. For MusicFest 2003, he will double up as host/MC.

The Mary Eagan Garden Fund was created in memory of Mary Eagan (1947-1992), who requested that any monies raised in her honor be directed towards building a garden patio to provide solace and comfort for patients while undergoing the rigors of cancer treatments. The Waltham (MA) Hospital embraced her wish, and opened the magnificent healing garden on April 27th, 2001. The "Mary Eagan Garden" adjoins the Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Care Center providing an uplifting, natural setting for patients. The long-term goal is to make such patio gardens a standard, universally recognized part of an overall treatment plan for those unfortunate to be afflicted. The mission of Patio Records is to help create these garden patios through sponsorship of benefit concert series and recordings. For more information on events to date, participating musicians and friends, and available CDs, please go to www.patiorecords.com.

Located at 7 Medford St. (just off Mass. Ave.) in Arlington Center—minutes from Cambridge and Boston—the Regent Theatre is MBTA and wheelchair accessible with plenty of free parking across the street.

During the past year, the historic Regent Theatre has hosted benefit concerts for the Alliance For Democracy, The Middlesex Human Services Agency, WBUR, The Blues Trust, The September 11th Fund, and others. MusicFest 2003 will be held at the Regent on Saturday, April 26 at 7:30pm. Tickets to benefit the Mary Eagan Garden Fund are $15 in advance, $17 day of show ($2 discount to WUMB members). For tickets or further information call (781) 646-4TIX (4849)