Grand
Traditionalists- Jay Unger and Molly Mason
by
Peter Aaronby
Peter Aaron
It’s
difficult to imagine anyone with genuine emotions getting sick of
hearing “Ashokan Farewell,” but do Ungar and Mason think
they’ll ever get sick of playing it? “Well, maybe if
I’d written a song like ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ we’d
get sick of playing that,” Ungar says with a laugh. “But,
no, we’re not tired of it yet.”
“We
get hundreds and hundreds of letters and e-mails from people telling
us how much the song means to them,” says Mason. “People
have had it played at their weddings, at funerals. Someone even
wrote in about how they played it to someone that was in a coma.”
“Yeah,
when we play it now those are the people I think of. I’m playing
it for them,” says Ungar. “That’s what makes it
feel like it’s worth doing over and over again.”
Jay
Ungar and Molly Mason will present “The Pleasures of Winter,”
a special holiday concert also featuring Ruth Ungar and Michael
Merenda, Swingology, and Genticorum, at SUNY Ulster’s Quimby
Auditorium in Stone Ridge on December 1. On December 8, Jay and
Molly will perform with dance caller/instructor Eric Hollman at
the Woodstock Community Center’s monthly contradance. The
duo will host their annual “Dancing on the Air” holiday
radio special at WAMC’s Linda Norris Auditorium in Albany
on December 12.
www.jayandmolly.com.
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