The third season of the Weekend Starts outdoor music series continues today, Friday, June 27, with the Blue Thread duo of vocalist Cristi Catt and flutist Nikola Radan as well as guest artists to include Indian violinist Kartik Balachandran, and guitarists Cody Lucas and Asher Perkins from the Ozarks.

The concert will be at the Lower Ramble, south of the Fayetteville Public Library. The concert is free, and is from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Along with the concert, there will be an art table.

For the past decade, Blue Thread has been collaborating on a project exploring the various ways in which music connects people as it travels.  Singer Cristi Catt's singing has been described as "stunning" by the LA Times while flutist Nikola Radan is praised as "striking" by the Boston Globe. 

Catt specializes in Medieval music and has built numerous performance and recording projects around the Galician-Portuguese Cantigas de Amigo folk songs. Radan, on the other hand, has long been fascinated by Sephardic ballad traditions that have traveled from Spain to diverse points around the globe, as well as by the roots of Western music influences from the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

Together with their special guests, Radan and Catt trace ballads that have traveled from Portugal, to India, Greece, the Ozarks and beyond.

• Medieval Cantigas de Amigo 
• Scottish and Al-Andalus dances
• A set of Carnatic and Hindustani ragas (Jog, Yaman, Sindhu Bhairavi, Bilahari and Madhuvanti Raga) 
• American, Balkan, Portuguese, and Sephardic folk songs and ballads

One of the songs will be Bela Infanta, which opens with a young woman waiting by the sea, and her lover returns in disguise. He, then, tests her loyalty and, in most versions, the two lovers are reunited. In their new album, Blue Thread presents a new telling of this tale that weaves together Portuguese, Sephardic and Ozark ballads with its Indian roots.

Another song to be performed is a new version of the popular ballad "Cruel Sisters." This version shows traces of its journey through China, Scandinavia, Ireland, Iceland, and the U.S.

Join Blue Thread for a musical journey of global storytelling full of love, longing, suspense, betrayal and, in some cases, murder, that Portugal's Evora News called "vibrant and playful music that transported us to the rich and varied musical experience of Medieval time without abandoning the present."

Weekend Starts is a collaboration between the city of Fayetteville, the U of A Department of Music and Mount Sequoyah.  The Ramble is the newest part of the growing Fayetteville arts corridor. For the Lower Ramble, there is convenient parking in any of the Fayetteville Public Library's lots. Feel free to bring a picnic, blanket or lawn chairs.

In the event of inclement weather, updates regarding cancellations or rescheduling will be provided on the city website. We encourage attendees to check for updates before heading to the event. For more information, go to Fayetteville Arts and Culture.