Folksinger Michael Johnathon’s WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour has established a new partnership with Clearview Cinemas — WoodSongs at the Movies — that will bring the weekly program to big screens throughout the New York metropolitan area, preceded by 30-45-minute live sets by regional artists.  Showtime is Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m., beginning Oct. 22.  AcousticMusicScene.com has signed on to present artists at Clearview’s 62nd and Broadway Cinema in Manhattan.

WoodSongs (www.woodsongs.com), which began in a small recording studio that could barely fit 18 people, has evolved into a multi-media celebration of grassroots music that now airs on nearly 500 radio stations worldwide, XM Satellite Radio, online, and on public television stations across the U.S.  People from all over tune in each week to hear WoodSongs, which is recorded before a live audience every Monday night at the historic Kentucky Theater in Lexington, Kentucky.  The new partnership/venture creates a concert setting for viewers who are unable to make a multi-camera taping of the show, which marked its 500th broadcast milestone on Sept. 18 with a gala evening featuring special guest Richie Havens.

In addition to AcousticMusicScene.com, Clearview Cinemas (www.clearviewcinemas.com), a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation, which operates 48 movie theaters with 250 screens, has enlisted the assistance of nonprofit folk and roots music organizations like the Folk Music Society of Huntington (Long Island, NY), which is now marking its 40th anniversary, and the Folk Project in northern New Jersey to serve as official presenters.  They are booking regional and touring artists to perform live in select theaters prior to each screening. Since not all the listed theaters will be screening WoodSongs each week, readers are advised to check with the theater before venturing out. 

These Clearview Cinemas will show the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour:

Red Bank Cinema (36 White Street, Red Bank, NJ)

Bellevue Cinema 4 (260 Bellevue Avenue, Upper Montclair, NJ)

Mansfield Cinema 14 (1965 Route 57, Hackettstown, NJ)

62nd and Broadway Cinema (1871 Broadway, New York, NY)

Manhasset Cinemas (430 Plandome Road, Manhasset, NY) 

Anthony Wayne Cinema (109 West Lancaster Avenue, Wayne, PA)

Woodsongs at the Movies will not take place in Manhattan on Nov. 5 and 12 due to a previously scheduled film festival.

Among the artists slated to appear on the big screen are Jakob Dylan and Minton Sparks (Oct. 22), Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet (Oct. 29), Blind Boys of Alabama (Nov. 5), Kathy Mattea (Nov. 12), Del McCoury Band (Nov. 19), Tim O’Brien (Dec. 3), Marie Knight (Dec. 10), Over The Rhine (Dec. 17), Rhonda Vincent & The Rage (Jan.7), Dar Williams (Jan. 14), John McCutcheon (Jan. 21), Band of Heathens and Geoff Atcheson (Jan. 28), and Homemade Jamz Blues Band and the Barra MacNeils (Feb. 4).

The Folk Music Society of Huntington has arranged for Long Island-based artists Steve Robinson and Tornado Alley to perform live on stage at the Manhasset Cinemas on Oct. 22 and 29, respectively, while AcousticMusicScene.com presents Gillen & Turk on Oct. 22 and Joe Iadanza & his band on Oct. 29 in Manhattan.

Michael Johnathon, a folksinger and songwriter, as well as the show’s creator and host, views WoodSongs at the Movies as both a natural extension of the show’s outreach efforts, as well as a logical part of its “WoodSongs Coffeehouse” project establishing local performance venues with the spirit of the radio broadcast in hometowns across North America.  

“Clearview Cinemas is pleased to partner with WoodSongs so music fans and moviegoers alike can experience folksinger Michael Johnathon’s world-renowned Old-Time Radio Hour on the big screen for the first time," said Doug Oines, the cinemas’ senior vice president and general manager.  He cited WoodSongs as “another terrific example of Clearview’s commitment to provide unique entertainment choices for all audiences.”

"AcousticMusicScene.com is delighted to join with Clearview Cinemas in presenting WoodSongs at the Movies in Manhattan and looks forward to helping expose New Yorkers to some talented emerging artists from the metropolitan area,” said Michael Kornfeld, the online publication’s editor and publisher. Kornfeld, who also serves on the board of directors for the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA), views AcousticMusicScene.com’s involvement as a natural extension of its hosting of late-night music showcases at the annual NERFA Conference in the Catskills and song swaps at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.  He and New York area singer-songwriter Glen Roethel, co-creator of AcousticMusicScene.com, will be introducing the artists at Clearview’s 62nd and Broadway Cinema.