Randi Fishenfeld Takes the Stage with Nancy Atlas Tonight in Sag Harbor

Nancy Atlas is back at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor tonight, rocking the East End with the latest installment of her Fireside Sessions concert series. Every week Nancy invites a special musical guest to join the show, and this Friday night Randi Fishenfeld will be hitting the stage!

There’s already quite a buzz going on about this upcoming show with Randi Fishenfeld.
Randi is my musical soul sister. We are like Thelma and Louise’s bad evil stepsisters when we get together. We have, in the past, plucked men out of the crowd and just well, how do I say this…played music over them. Literally. Lord help us if we ever get on the road together, although we have played the Kentucky Derby and some private shows in California, Florida, Arizona…and we are still alive to talk about it.

If each guest in this series has a flavor, I would say Randi is spicy Mediterranean food followed by the finest dark-chocolate-dipped cherries you could find. She is a “Do Not Miss” guest for sure, but I feel a little funny saying that because each person has been that. But if you like violin, then this is the show for you.

Danny Kean was your last guest, and the audience clearly loved him. We even noticed his CDs sold out in about one minute! Tell us about that show and working with Danny. 

I started that show on the side wings of the stage, crying. Danny is someone who shifts your ions when you watch him. Obviously he is blind, but what I didn’t realize is that he has also been battling a life-threatening disease for the last seven years, which normally takes a high percentage of the people in the first eight months they are diagnosed with it.

So there I am with no sleep and having what I think is a “hard” week and I see this man out on the piano, fighting all odds and still playing his music with everything he has. He is only 30. So yeah, the show was very emotional for me on a personal level. I felt very present to the fact of how fleeting time is and just how lucky we are to have experiences like we did with him that night. It was a gift.

On January 31, you have bluesman Jonny Rosch joining you. What can we expect at that show?  

Well, I don’t want to give away the whole kit and caboodle, but Jonny has a really deep, gravely, soulful voice. The kind that warrants a serious duet. Or two. I’m rubbing my hands together but still trying to figure out what we will conquer. I have to get through this week first.

One thing people may not realize is that after Friday night we have one day off and then the whole band is back to work on the next show. It’s a bit like Saturday Night Live, I guess. But it has been a blast and I cannot say enough about my bandmates and our sit-ins for all the work they have done to make this happen. A big shout out to Johnny Blood, Brett King, Richard Rosh and Neil Surreal!

For tickets, visit baystreet.org.