Art and Music Saturday, May 18, in Rock Tavern

“A painting is music you can see, and music is a painting you can hear.” – Miles Davis
Both art and music will be seen and heard Saturday, May 18, at the Unitarian
Universalist fellowship hall at 9 Vance Road in Rock Tavern. If you appreciate folk music and artistic talent, this is the venue for you.

The public is invited to the free art show featuring Mark Rosengarten’s paintings
and photography from 1 to 3 p.m. From 3 to 5 p.m., accomplished and celebrated
musicians Neil Okeson and Lydia Adams Davis will present “A Gallery of Song”.
Suggested donation is $20.

Neil Okeson is a singer-songwriter living in the Hudson Valley, performing original
songs to audiences that weave together humor, joy, and the occasional political
jab. Long associated with the Hudson Valley Folk Guild, he views songwriting as a living process, and a conversation with many.

Neil enjoys hiking the trails from the river to the ridge, and exploring the wilderness of the imagination, hunting for metaphors. He was a voice major in music school; guitar, piano, and ukulele are some of the tools of his storytelling shows. His first CD “Beautiful World” was released in 2015, and he is currently producing the next one, to be completed this year.

Lydia Adams Davis is a relaxed and warm￾voiced balladeer. She brings an improvisational flair to her original and traditional songs. Lydia grew up in New England and the Hudson Valley, where she was active with Pete Seeger and the Hudson River Sloop Singers. She also lived in Brooklyn for many years, earning a Master of Science degree in Deaf Education from Hunter College and raising her daughter, the jazz vocalist Romeyn Adams Nesbitt. Lydia performed songs in a unique Country/Folk style at the Bottom Line, the Gaslight Café and enduring Folk venues such as the People’s Voice Café where she played on March 23 and the Hudson Valley Folk Guild and the Towne Crier Cafe where she played on April 7. Several recordings document her Woman’s Gift of Story landscape, and her environmental focus. We All Have Lunch With LAD and One Earth So Green And Round were short-listed for a Grammy nomination in 2012, at which time she also achieved “Best In Hudson Valley” recognition.

Mark Rosengarten is retired from being a long-time high school chemistry teacher whose music videos and tutorials have helped many thousands of students all over this big blue marble of ours. In 2012 he decided to start taking photography seriously and has been building his skills since then. He is a regular winner of the Times-Herald Record Photo of the Day, is well-known on several Facebook group including Hudson Valley In Pictures. He is also a painter, and a member of the Wallkill River School and Goshen Art League.