PORT TOWNSEND — Mighty Squirrel, a band mixing Appalachian, country, Celtic, Yiddish, French Canadian and other sounds, will start off the Key City Cabaret Concert Series this Saturday.
The acoustic quartet will step up at 8 p.m. at the Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., so tickets are on sale for $20 at www.keycitypublictheatre.org and at the playhouse box office, 360-385-5278.
Mighty Squirrel consists of familiar players on the folk and bluegrass scene: singer-fiddler Caridwen Irvine Spatz, fiddler-octave mandolinist Greg Spatz, accordion player Nova Karina Devonie and David Miles Keenan, who plays the banjo and National guitar.
Mighty Squirrel’s style, according to Sing Out! magazine, is “fresh, evocative material presented by talented musicians . . . deep musical history, understood and played at the gene level.”
Key City veteran
Greg Spatz is best known as the fiddler for John Reischman & the Jaybirds, who have graced the Key City stage in past cabaret concerts.
Irvine Spatz, meanwhile, provides most of the lyrical content for Mighty Squirrel, singing in French, English, German, Italian, Russian and Yiddish.
Music lovers might recognize Keenan from his appearances not only on public radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion” but also for his work with Devonie in the duo Miles & Karina.
The pair performed a live soundtrack for the movie “Steamboat Bill Jr.” at the Key City Playhouse earlier this year.
The Mighty Squirrel foursome starts off a cabaret series, hosted by Key City Public Theatre and Port Townsend’s Toolshed Soundlab, that also will bring Latin jazz duo John Miller and John Reischman next Sunday, Aug. 30; folk-pop trio Uncle Bonsai on Saturday, Sept. 5; and Hawaiian Hapa-Haole duo Casey MacGill and Orville Johnson on Sunday, Oct. 11.
