March 20, 2002

Southern Feast and Music at MASS MoCA April 20

(North Adams, Mass.) Great food and great music will be abundant at MASS MoCA on Saturday, April 20, at 7 P.M. at the Southern Feast with Live Roots Music. The evening starts with dinner of traditional Appalachian foods hosted by the Lee Brothers, southern food experts and star writers for The New York Times, Travel and Leisure, Food and Wine and Martha Stewart Living. After dinner, the party continues with the Be Good Tanyas, an all-girl alternative folk band whose edgy bluegrass style is drawing rave reviews.

The down-home spread includes Tandy's Burgoo, a lamb, beef, and chicken-based stew with potatoes, carrots, and peppers; Soupy Beans and Cornbread, a traditional main course in Kentucky; Kilt Lettuce and Ramps, a vegetable dish of wilted lettuce and garlicky ramps (which are in season in April!) slicked with bacon grease (or vegetable oil for vegetarians); Country Ham on Biscuits with a colorful array of relishes (including pickled corn, green tomato relish, pickled peaches, and Jerusalem artichoke relish); and apples seasoned with a little Jack Daniels for dessert.

Matthew and Ted Lee left their native Charleston, South Carolina, to go to college in New England. Ted graduated from Amherst College in 1993 and Matthew from Harvard in 1992. Homesick for their favorites like briny boiled peanuts, lemony fig preserves, and Goo Goo Clusters, the boys had to fend for themselves when their parents exhausted their patience and budget sending care packages to the two bottomless pits. After college they both moved to New York City and quickly became disenchanted as Matthew used his art history degree to fetch iced lattes for a talent agent, and Ted spent two years in book publishing that he says "felt like 20." The brothers used cut-up paper bags and a 1952 Singer sewing machine to create the first, passport-sized Boiled Peanuts Catalogue.

Today they've gone high-tech. Using www.boiledpeanuts.com, the Lee Brothers distribute delicacies from spoonbread to butter beans, and they regularly write about food and travel for The New York Times, Food and Wine, and Martha Stewart Living as well as work as contributing editors for Travel and Leisure and lecture on regional foods for the Smithsonian.

The Be Good Tanyas play an old-timey blend of folk, country, and blues bolstered by sweet harmonies and traditional fingerpicking. The Vancouver trio has won comparisons to like-minded predecessors such as Gillian Welch and Iris Dement. The band features Samantha Parton on guitar, mandolin, banjo and vocals; Frazey Ford on guitar and vocals; and Trish Klein on electric guitar, banjo and vocals. The group first met on a farm where they worked together, singing everything from Joni Mitchell to traditional field worker songs. At night the three would frequently sing on open microphone stages jamming mainly jazz and R&B. They went their separate ways after planting season was over, each continuing to play individually and in other groups throughout the U.S. and Canada until they crossed paths again years later and picked up where they left off.

Their first CD Blue Horse quickly became a hit when independent record stores played the CD and had trouble keeping it on the shelves. Kevin Finseth, partner at one Vancouver indie retailer, Highlife, notes, "The album is one of our best sellers. We play it all the time in the store. People hear it, and they just grab it." Their major record deal came when they came to the attention of Nettwerk CEO Terry McBride. The London-based publication Comes With A Smile calls their Nettwerk album Blue Horse "a thoroughbred on just about every level" noting that "The Be Good Tanyas play with an assured and natural spark. But it is their engaging voices, either individually or collectively in sumptuous harmony, that really captivate. There is both vulnerability and sass."

Tickets for Southern Feast with Live Roots Music are $30 and include dinner. Advance reservations are required. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams from 11 A.M. until 5 P.M. (closed Tuesdays). Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located on a 13- acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings. MASS MoCA focuses on the work of visual and performing artists charting new territory.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org