Coming shows

Upcoming 2024 performances:

On September 21st at 12:15 pm, I’m performing Songs of Steel at the Steel Weekend in Bethlehem.

About the show: I wrote about steelmaking for the 1999 Steel Festival, produced by Touchstone Theatre.  I was one member of a songwriters’ group that produced a CD of original songs, Days of Steel on Allentown’s Bummer Tent Records.  Like the other group members, I spoke to steelworkers, including family and friends. Together, we crafted rousing and melodic songs from their stories, and great shows within the Steel Festival. 

The songs I wrote then have endured in my show ever since, and will be at the heart of the Steel Weekend show.  One song, “Hello, Mr. Wolle,” imagines a worker who quarrels with his foreman during the day, but sings with him in the Bach Choir.  “The Guy Who Keeps it Going” celebrates steelworkers’ commitment to get the job done.  “Little Mexico, 1938” (link to YouTube video) was an area, later razed to build the Coke Works, originally Company housing for workers recruited in Aguascalientes.  “Liberation Day” imagines the different feelings of workers as their jobs ended.  Because managers and executives were also steelworkers, “Ironically” recognizes their work, with its successes and failures. 

I will also tap into the rich vein of other writers and songs from “Days of Steel,” including “No Te Vayas Ya” by Patti Foley Edgar, about family ties among Puerto Rican steelworkers, and the lament “Days of Steel” by Tom Watson.  Anytime is a good time for a Woody Guthrie song, so “Hard Travelin’” pays tribute to steelworkers along with drifters, miners, farmers, gamblers, and travelers of all kinds.

Thanks to Bette Kovach of the Steelworker’s Archives for reaching out, and to Andria Zaia of NMIH for the invitation!

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I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been invited to perform at the 2024 Philadelphia Folk Festival.  Here’s the info:

Date / Time: Sunday, August 18, 2:00 pm to 3:30 p.m. 

Place: Philadelphia Folk Festival , which is held at

Old Pool Farm, 1323 Salford Station Road, Harleysville, PA 19438

GPS Coordinates:  40.2891° N, 75.4522° W

in beautiful Upper Salford Township, PA! (near Schwenksville)

For more information, directions, tickets, etc: www.folkfest.org.

Anyone who knows my music-making knows how much I’ve enjoyed and admired the Philly Folk Fest, and used it as a touchstone in the early programming at Musikfest, an annual reunion with dear friends, and a constant channel to hearing the best in folk music.  Now, I’m very happy to be able to perform there as an artist. The 61^st Festival is calling on my Canadian heritage, and I am honored to join three great Canadian artists: Dave Gunning, J. P. Cormier, and Geneviève Racette, in a workshop performance “Canadian Voices.”  I’ll play some songs from my time there, and new ones written here that have Canadian roots.  

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Roland Kushner & No Song Left Behind (split bill with Kray Van Kirk):

Date / Time: Saturday, February 24, 8, 8:00 p.m.

Place: Godfrey Daniels, 7 East 4^th Street, Bethlehem, PA  18015

Phone: 610-867-2390, 

https://godfreydaniels.org/event/kushner-vankirk-february-24-2024/ .

Tickets $22.50 advance, $27.50 day of show

Singer, guitarist, songwriter, and storyteller Roland Kushner sings narratives and exciting songs from the 60s and 70s up to the present.  Images and sounds from American steelmaking and the Canadian wilderness, lovers looking ahead and looking back, rivers overflowing and cries of freedom … musical reminders, guesses about the future and stories from the world over are all part of his performance. Roland’s music-making and writing over the years has included performance, songwriting and theatrical collaborations at First Night Bethlehem, Selkie Theatre, the Steel Festival, Touchstone Theatre, Zoellner Arts Center, Muhlenberg College, and Musikfest.  He has played at Godfreys in the Saturday Night Coyotes, and produced the Stan Rogers Song Nights. In 2024, Roland brings the “No Song Left Behind” trio to Godfreys, featuring Lee Daniels on guitar and Steve Foreman on bass, with originals and songs from Ian Tyson to Madonna to Archie Fisher to Silvio Dante.

About half of the songs in each show are mine, the rest from my favorite writers.  My list of favorites changes all the time, and there are a lot of songs not to leave behind! Right now, I’m covering:

William Blake, Jacques Brel, Dave Carter, Susannah Clark, Ray Davies, Adam Duritz, Steve Earle, Archie Fisher, Vin Garbutt, John Hiatt, Chris Hillman, Mac MacAnally, Joni Mitchell, Amy Ray, Stan Rogers, Smokey Robinson, Jules Shear, Paul Simon, Michael P. Smith, Ian Tyson, Madonna, Steve van Zandt, Jesse Winchester… among many others!

I perform solo, in duos with friends Jack Hoffman (vocals) and Lee Daniels (guitar), with my friend and Muhlenberg colleague Michael London, and with Dave Fry, Mary Faith Rhoads and Rick Weaver singing Stan Rogers’ songs. In 2024, I’m playing with Lee Daniels and Steve Foreman as “No Song Left Behind”

Special programs I’ve done for students and community groups:

The Songs of Player Piano

When I Get to the Border: Songs of Migration

Work Songs in the Twenty First Century

 1968

What went wrong! Songs of disaster

Songs in the Key of M – songs about management (with Michael London)

William Blake poems to original melodies

Canal Songs

To reach me:

tel: 610-428-7995 
music@rjkushner.com 
www.rolandkushnermusic.com
Post Office Box 4213 
Bethlehem, PA 18018 U.S.A.