On Friday, Oct. 15, there will
be a musical show featuring
David Brahinsky, Guy
DeRosa, Phil MacAuliffe and
the Bolton twins singing and
playing songs by Bob Dylan
and Leonard Cohen in the
music building on Bucks’
Newtown campus. The show
in the Presser room of the
music building will be free and
open to anyone interested in
going, and will begin at 8 p.m.
and end at about 10.
Brahinsky, philosophy and
religion teacher at Bucks,
formed the idea for this event
last winter while at a poetry
reading in the Orangery in
which the featured poet was
his friend Eugene Howard.
While listening to the poetry of
his friend, he formulated the
idea of performing poetry and
songs by Dylan and Cohen at
Bucks. Brahinsky said, “I took
my proposal to the cultural
affairs committee and it was
accepted.”
Brahinsky has been playing
music for about 60 years, starting
with the ukulele and picking
up the guitar at about 12 or
13. His mother was a piano
player who got him involved in
music at a young age and he
said, “I just had a natural inclination
toward music.”
Brahinsky mainly sang and
played chords until his adult
years, when his wife suggested
that he tried finger picking and
going farther with his guitar
playing skills, which he
thought was a great idea so he
did just that.
Brahinsky said he has played
many shows and is not usually
nervous, but with this show he
will be playing in front of his
colleagues, which is a bit
nerve-racking for him. He has
played several shows with
DeRosa, whom he has known
for about three years and is an
expert harmonica player.
Brahinsky met DeRosa
through his Tai Chi instructor,
who is DeRosa’s wife. The
first time they played music
together, Brahinsky said it
sounded so amazing what
DeRosa could make the harmonica
do. He said, “We
immediately became music
buddies.”
MacAuliffe is a professional
photographer who will be
playing bass at the show. He
and Brahinsky met about three
years ago when MacAuliffe
was photographing Brahinsky
for one of his gigs. When the
two struck up a conversation,
Brahinsky found out that
MacAuliffe played bass and
asked him to play music with
him and DeRosa. They have
played many shows together as
well.
Brahinsky mentioned two
backup singers that will be performing
with the band, Nalani
and Sarina Bolton. Brahinsky
has known the 17-year-old
twins their entire lives and
said, “They have wonderful
voices with beautiful harmonies.”
He said they are now
performing in New York once
or twice a week and thinks they
will go very far if they decide
to pursue a career in music.
When Brahinsky plays
shows, he usually performs
covers by several artists
including Greg Brown, Tom
Waits, Kate Wolf, Pete Seeger,
Cheryl Wheeler and a number
of other performers. He usually
plays folk music and said,
“Folk music often has to do
with socially relevant issues.”
Sometimes Brahinsky plays
shows that are solely his music
and he even has two records.
The concert will include
songs such as, “Tangled up in
Blue” and “Leopard-Skin Pillbox
Hat” by Dylan as well as
“Hallelujah” and “Democracy”
by Cohen as well as many
more poetic songs by the two
artists.
Brahinsky said, “This is not
light stuff, this is deep stuff,
this is going deep into the
human psyche, this is the kind
of music I like.”