I'm a musician, writer and photographer, born and raised in New York City. I make my living doing technology for online news and media.
Welcome to the new www.kenficara.com. Lots of music, images and writing -- and much more to come. February is coming!
Live Show: With Saboteur Tiger
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The Greenwich Village Bistro13 Carmine St
New York, New York
Finally, a February snow song
Blog post: Friday, February 12, 2010
On Wednesday I posted my fifth song for February Album Writing Month, "People Will Not Realize the Peril." I started every previous FAWM (hard to believe this is my fourth!) with a song about snow. The first year was "Song For a Snowy Sunday Night," about sitting in the bar where I now host my weekly jam, talking to the quite adorably snarky bartender about a bad breakup. In 2008 I wrote a song (which I can't find online at the moment) about a drive to Pennsyvlania in a snowstorm, and in 2009 I wrote a song about a snowstorm in St. John's, which remains a good song despite the circumstances that surrounded it. That Hopey Changey Stuff
Blog post: Sunday, February 7, 2010
I woke up this morning to a news report about Sarah Palin's speech to the Tea Party convention. And I heard the sound of jackboots. So my fourth FAWM song is "I Am So Proud To Be An American (That Hopey Changey Stuff)." It's excerpts from her speech, including processed and looped mob howling, over an appropriately relentless drum pattern, with a harmonica part recorded live through my effects rig.February Harmonitronica
Blog post: Monday, February 1, 2010
Introducing ... harmonitronica. As some of you may remember, I was experimenting with some electronica approaches last year, and I'll be going much farther in that direction this year. I started writing this song and programming the drum loop last night, then recorded a synth drone today (more about that in a moment). After that, it was all harmonica and vocals. I spent much more time on it than I'd planned, but I like it, although it's not what I'd call musical.Lonesome Moonlight Waltz
Video: Sunday, January 31, 2010
Quick run-through of this lovely fiddle tune, which my friend Rick Shields likes to play at jams, but for the fact that I get the chords wrong too often. So I finally sat down and learned it right. Well, mostly....
She Left Me In the Red
Video: Thursday, August 6, 2009
Performing my song "She Left Me In the Red" at the 2009 Augusta Heritage Festival, with Joe Newberry, Mike Compton, Ann Downey and Clay Buckner. It was an amazing honor to sing with a backing band like that!Annabelle
Video: Thursday, August 6, 2009
Accompanying Amanda Lynn Stubley on her version of Gillian Welch's "Annabelle," at the Augusta Heritage Festival, summer 2009.The Heaviest Odds
Original song: Wednesday, December 31, 1969
An experimental piece I did for February Album Writing Month in 2008. It's amplified harmonica recorded over a set of loops I created in GarageBand using tracks from Alphane Reality Generator.
The Severance Reel
Original song: Wednesday, December 31, 1969
There's a well-known tune called "The Temperance Reel" that we play frequently at jams. When I took a buyout from my job at the beginning of this year, a friend told me I should write "The Severance Reel." So here it is, with Kari, who suggested the song, on fiddle, and my good friend Tricia Khleif singing harmony. This was recorded live at Ashokan this summer.The Open Sea
Original song: Wednesday, December 31, 1969
An improvisatory song fragment recorded for February Album Writing Month in 2008.