Kossoy Sisters with Kate Seeger and Dean Spencer

Newton Corner, MA
$20 at the door ($5 for students)
Reservations required: HouseConcerts@fssgb.org

The Kossoy Sisters, Irene Saletan and Ellen Christenson, performed at the first Newport Folk Festival, sang in the original Production of Woody Guthrie’s Bound for Glory, and recorded their legendary Bowling Green for Tradition Records. They are known for their clear belllike harmonies, which have inspired and influenced other singers. Although they sing mostly southern mountain songs, they have also adopted other traditional and contemporary songs, as well as written some of their own.

Irene and Ellen began singing in harmony at the age of 8 or 9, singing mostly what they heard around the house: songs of the 20’s and music hall songs. In their early teenage years, they became immersed in traditional songs and became part of the music scene in Washington Square in Greenwich Village. By the age of 20, they had performed widely in New York. In addition to Newport, the Kossoy Sisters performed at many other festivals and coffee houses, including the Fox Hollow Festival, University of Chicago Folk Festival, and the Eisteddfod in eastern Massachusetts. In 1997, Bowling Green was reissued as a CD by Rykodisc. The Kossoys resumed performing for the Folk Song Society of Greater Boston, the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, the Pinewoods Folk Music Club of New York, and participated in the Truly Acoustic Folk Festival in Cambridge, MA and the Summer Solstice Festival in southern California, among others. In 2001, the Coen Brothers included the Kossoy Sisters’ version of “I’ll Fly Away” in their movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou. Their album Hop on Pretty Girls was released in the fall of 2002.