Gail Finnie Rundlett

• Folk
• Singer/Songwriter

“Gail is one of the best ballad singers I’ve ever heard”…”she captures the pathos and fun in a wide ranging repertoire”…”Gail was a thorough delight…singing with an angelic softness”. These are a few reviews in the press about Gail over her forty years performing in the Boston area folk scene. A singer–songwriter, she also draws some of her repertoire from traditional music. Gail plays guitar, ukulele, and is considered to be one of the primary innovators on the Appalachian dulcimer in New England. With four solo albums to her credit, Gail also released two albums with her former a cappella group “Taproot”. She’s shared the stage with Tom Rush, Nanci Griffith, Garnet Rogers, Odetta, and Pete Seeger. Gail will be joined by a merry band of players: Paul Loranger on bass, Woody Carpinella on guitar, and Lori Fassman on vocals. Her daughter, Hannah Shihdanian, will join in on a few songs as well.

Although Paul Loranger has spent most of his adult life in the Los Angeles area, he grew up in Boston MA and has recently returned to Massachusetts. At an early age he developed an interest in bass but it wasn’t until HS that he began playing. By his senior year he was playing jazz standards in the Boston area. At 22 he began touring. Paul has toured in blues, blues rock and traditional country internationally. He has toured every state in the US, every country in Europe, as well as Australia, Japan, Africa and South America. He plays both upright bass and electric bass. As well as touring Paul has recorded for numerous artists in various genres including pop, pop country, traditional country, alt country, rock, blues rock, bluegrass and jazz. Paul considers himself a roots and groove player rather than a virtuoso.
Lori Fassman has been singing since she was a child, belting out songs by folk-rock legends such as Carole King and Bonnie Raitt, and she started performing when she moved to the Boston area in the late ‘80s. She sings with a folk music quartet called The Simones (named after her late cat), which has been together almost 30 years. These days she spends much of her spare time producing concerts and doing other volunteer jobs for folk organizations like the Folk Song Society of Greater Boston (FSSGB) and the New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA).”
Woody Carpinella has been playing guitar since the mid-60’s in Beatles and Rolling Stones cover bands, toured with R&B bands, and played occasionally with rock, country rock, disco and funk bands. He was a folkie in high school, listening to Tom Rush, Leo Kottke and Joni Mitchell. In 2010, musician and presenter Ellen Schmidt was influential in developing his career in the Boston folk scene. He has become a much sought after side man and accompanist for singers, especially in the open mike community.