Taft's Music for a While Concert Series continues Sunday, December 2 with Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem. The New England-based folk quartet will perform a special children's concert in Walker Hall at 3 pm, followed by a full, all-ages concert at 4 pm. Both performances are free and open to the public; tickets are not required.
Dubbed "playful and profound" by The Boston Globe, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem have been together for 17 years, playing to crowds from the Newport Folk Festival to the California World Music Festival and beyond. The quartet has seven releases on Signature Sounds, most recently Wintersong, a celebratory, poetic, reflective collection of seasonal songs; and Violets Are Blue an eclectic bouquet of love songs infused with poetry and groove that "skip over sentimentality and go straight to the bittersweet truth." (Music Matters Review). The band's family album, Ranky Tanky, won top awards from the Parents' Choice Foundation, National Association of Parenting Publications, and the American Library Association. Their residency programs include school and family shows, hands-on percussion-building workshops, and Arts in Medicine offerings.
Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem is a standard-bearer among string bands blurring the boundaries of American roots music, with a particular knack for pairing words and sound. Led by Arbo on vocals, fiddle, and guitar, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem features Andrew Kinsey on bass, banjo, and ukulele; Anand Nayak playing electric and acoustic guitars; and Scott Kessel on percussion, with a homemade kit that includes cardboard boxes, tin cans, caulk tubes, packing-tape tambourines, bottle-cap rattles, Mongolian jaw harps, and a vinyl suitcase. Kinsey and Nayak add vibrant baritones to the vocal repertoire, while Kessel brings a resonant bass.
For more information about the band, visit their website at raniarbo.com. To learn more about the Music for a While concert series, visit the taftschool.org/concerts