First Church Friday Folk Coffeehouse Presents the Doppelgängers and Friends on 4/19!

Friday Folk Coffeehouse at First Church Dedham
670 High Street, Dedham, MA
(781) 326-7463

Contact: Geoff Tegnell

First Church Friday Folk Coffeehouse presents its seventh concert of the 2023-2024 season featuring the Doppelgängers and Friends at First Church and Parish Dedham 670 High Street, Dedham on Friday, April 19, 2024 at 7:30 pm in the Auditorium. There will be refreshments for purchase.  Tickets are $15 and are available online at Folk Coffeehouse | dedhamuu and at the door.  Doors open at 7:00 pm.

The Doppelgängers , Kenny Raskin and RF Berks, make their 3rd triumphant return to the Church, having played the Friday Folk Coffeehouse concerts in 2022 and 2023. This time they are bringing a few other players along. Both RF and Kenny have had their own musical careers as singer/songwriters, but revel in the camaraderie of playing together. Their style is Americana, with a touch of swing as well. While their careers have been different, their love of acoustic music and singing harmony has brought them together and found them playing everywhere from living rooms to music festivals.

The two men met in 2015 at the Maine Fiddle Camp, where they soon found out that many people at the camp thought they were brothers. The deal was sealed when RF’s daughter mistook Kenny for her father. Thus, the Doppelgängers were born.

Kenny was 8 years old when his father’s friend Harry gave him a ukulele. He played that ukulele until he was 11 years old. Then he discovered girls, and promptly bought a guitar. That ukulele, however, was the gateway into a fifty-year plus love affair with playing music on multiple instruments, including banjo, mandolin and bass.  In 2018, Kenny released his debut CD, MY GREATEST HITS!, and in 2022 followed it with his second CD, Peace of Mind. He is also known internationally as an accomplished actor and theatre clown, having appeared on Broadway and with Cirque du Soleil, as well as on television and variety stages in the US, France, England, Chile, Germany and China.

RF Berks found a Sears guitar in the attic when he was 15 and began carrying it everywhere he went. Whenever he met a kid that could play a song or guitar lick he would make them show him how it worked until eventually he learned enough to form a band. He learned most of what he knows about music long before he studied and obtained a degree in the subject. He has been writing songs – over one hundred – for twenty plus years, and in 2019 he released an album entitled TREAT ME WELL, which can be found on the usual streaming platforms. It was an eclectic mix of musical styles with contributing musicians from around the world. Francis is also an accomplished poet.

First Church and Parish Dedham Unitarian Universalist was first gathered in 1638 and is located in Dedham Center at 670 High Street. Its lively music program includes choir at Sunday services and the Parish Players theater troupe, in addition to our Friday Folk Coffeehouse events.