Two Way Street Coffee House is Chicagoland’s most beloved folk and acoustic music venue, presenting weekly concerts and community events for over 50 years! The show starts at 8pm (CDT) and the doors open at 7:30pm. (Suggested donation $10). We will also host this concert virtually. You may access the livestream on www.twowaystreet.org, on our Facebook page, or on our YouTube channel.
On Friday, September 22, 2023 Two Way Street Coffee House Friday Night Concert Series presents Diedre McCalla.
Deidre McCalla doesn’t merely take the stage – she owns it. Her songs embody hope and celebration, struggle, loss, and longing – sometimes all in one song!
A Black woman, mother, lesbian, feminist, Deidre McCalla has long been in the forefront of Black musicians redefining the understanding of how Black folk do folk. Deidre is riding high on her current release Endless Grace which dominated the June 2022 Folk Radio Charts as the #1 Album with the #1 Song – Shoulder To The Wheel and the #3 Song – I Do Not Walk This Path Alone, and finished for the year as the #13 Top Album. PopMatters, Rhythms Magazine, and the Folk Alley Listener Favorites Poll ranked Endless Grace among the Ten Best Folk albums for 2022. In 2023 Deidre’s song Shoulder To The Wheel won the 19th Annual International Acoustic Music Award for Best Folk/Americana/Roots song.
Deidre McCalla’s songwriting reveals an unyieldingly honest perspective expressed with a lyric touch that relentlessly celebrates the power and diversity of the human spirit.
Sing Out! praises Deidre as one of our generation’s most important singer-songwriters and the Austin-American Statesmen describes her as a highly distinctive voice in a crowded field of contemporary folk music. With five independent albums to her credit, Deidre McCalla has touched audiences from Maui to Maine, church basements and college coffeehouses to Carnegie Hall.
A much beloved performer in folk and women’s music circles, Deidre McCalla has shared the stage with a long list of notables that includes Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, Holly Near, Odetta, Cris Williamson, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. She has taught Performance at Warren Wilson College’s Swannanoa Gathering, and songwriting at Common Ground on the Hill. Deidre’s work has been published in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, The Original Coming Out Stories, and Chrysalis: A Feminist Quarterly, and she is featured in The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader. Deidre is a proud member of AFM Local 1000 and the North American Folk Alliance.
If you can’t join us in person, you can still tune in virtually to catch the show! To make your donation to Diedre HERE or for more information visit www.twowaystreet.org.