Hand-crafted ragtime, jazz & swing — sophisticated music that celebrates love — lost, found, discarded or denied. Concerts filled with amusing anecdotes, memorable melodies, clever lyrics and vintage American acoustic guitars.
Ken Lelen
Ken Lelen sings great American ragtime, jazz, swing and pop tunes in his concerts and plays vintage acoustic guitars for an authentic, back-in-the day sound.
Friday, February 21, 2025
Bucky + 1930s Richter uke
2025 Concerts Schedule
Apr 7, 2025 — Poets of the Prairie
Milltown Public Library, Milltown NJ
Apr 10, 2025 — Broadway Song Memories
Moravian Hall Square, Nazareth PA
May 15, 2025 — Speak Easy Jazz
Havenwood Heritage Heights, Concord NH
May 16, 2025 — She Did It Her Way
Fox Hill Village, Westwood MA
Sep 10, 2025 — Crooners, Swingers & Idols
Heath Village, Hackettstown NJ
Sep 13, 2025 — Crooners, Swingers & Idols
Old Bridge Public Library, Old Bridge NJ
Sep 18, 2025 — MidCentury Melodies
Little Falls Public Library, Little Falls NJ
Oct 13, 2025 — Vintage Guitar Roadshow
Havenwood Heritage Heights, Concord NH
Nov 15, 2025 — Hollywood Song Souvenirs
Greenwood Lake Public Library, Greenwood Lake NY
Dec 28, 2025 — Crooners, Swingers & Idols
Mahwah Public Library, Mahwah NJ
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Dale Evans — 1948 North Hollywood CA
2026 Concerts Schedule
Jun 21, 2026
Poets of the Prairie
Mahwah Public Library
Mahwah NJ
July 11, 2026
Great American Songsters
Free Library of Northampton Township
RichboroPA
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2024 Concerts Schedule
Banjo Girl – 1880s from Windy City IL
Jan27 - Pound Ridge Library, Pound Ridge NY She Did It Her Way
Mar 19 - Milltown Library, Milltown NJShe Did It Her Way
This post addresses typical program, budget, logistics & publicity issues that concert hosts ask when they plan an event. These matters can also be reviewed in a 15-minute phone call. And though some alien lifeforms can only deal with such matters by text or email, I'll always welcome an opportunity to talk directly with concert hosts — the people I'm going to work with to deliver an event.
I perform concerts for a diverse group of small & medium-sized venues, including churches, arts & culture commissions, public libraries, life-care communities, acoustic music clubs, social, charitable & fraternal groups, community colleges and local senior centers. Each weighs a distinct mix of considerations as they assess program content, budget, logistics and publicity for an event.
Given the range of venues and events I work on, I find it difficult to set a one-price-fits-all fee on an individual concert. Instead, I tell hosts the fees I earned last year were modest – ranging between $300 and $600 per concert — and averaged $475.
I'll ask three key questions: Which of my concert Themes will suit your audience? What dates do you prefer? And what budget do you propose for this event?
Not surprisingly, when we reach the nitty-gritty of a booking call, every host wants to negotiate their fee, jockey back and forth on a preferred date, and discuss the Theme that will please their audience – the folks I'm going to entertain. These are familiar pursuits for me as well.
OTHER DETAILS
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Concerts offer ragtime, swing, jazz + pop tunes,
playingofvintage American acoustic guitars and
programs on historic, romantic, musical themes.
I request 6 ft table, one bottle water, staff intro.
I bring sound system, guitars + equipment cart.
I request 45-minute set-up and 30 min. re-pack.
I insist on NO cells, texts, videos during concert.
Concerts range from 60 to 90 mins w/o a break.
Adult and senior audiences range 40 - 90 years.
I check that my audiences can all hear me, and
I inform themwhenwe’renearing concert’s end.
I do not sell merch, CDs, tee shirts or literature.
Celebrating female vocalists, recording artists & composers with stories and songs
Nashville songwriter Cindy Walker (1918 - 2006)
March is Women's History
Month, and for more than a
decade I've been invited to
play She Did It Her Way
concert programs numerous
times for my audiences at
public libraries, life-care
communities, social clubs
and other venues.
Most recently, I performed
this program for audiences
in Erie and Pittsburgh PA, in
Dover DE, in Middlesex,
Whiting, Milltown, Toms
River and Bloomfield NJ, in
Parksville and Frederick MD,
and in Pound Ridge NY.
The program features stories and songs of female vocalists active from the late 1920s to mid-1960s. We highlight the hit tunes of such musical luminaries as Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Jo Stafford, Judy Garland, Kate Smith, Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee, Mitzi Gaynor, Patti Page and Dinah Washington.
In late 2023 the program expanded to honor femalecomposers of pop songs. Concerts included tunes written by such talented female songwriters as Chilton Price, Dorothy Fields, Cindy Walker, Claire Rothrock and Sadie Vimmerstedt.
Tin Pan Alley Songwriter Dorothy Fields (1905 - 1974)
The emotional strength of their music and the cultural contribution of their art has been over-looked by fans, musicians and media for too long. What's more, few of these women saw a lot of recognition for their work during their lifetime despite the many popular hit songs most of them produced. To put it bluntly, people liked the songs, but they never really knew who composed them.
Over the past few years my audiences have given a warm response to hearing about these female vocalists and composers, as well as their stories and their tunes. As a result, these artists have become the key element of what is now my most popular concert program.
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Program offers songs by these femalevocalists:
The Lady Is A Tramp — This song was launched into popularity by former child actor Mitzi Gaynor in a 1937 coming-of-age Broadway play, Babes In Arms. The song is a spoof of big-city socialites and the clever contrivanceof the composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart. Gaynor would meet fame and fortune from her starring role in the 1958 movie musical South Pacific.
The song was also sung in 1937 by Edythe Wright, a vocalist in Tommy Dorsey's band and Judy Garland in 1939 for the Hollywood version of the play. Lena Horne had a hit with the song in 1948 and Frank Sinatra saw huge LP record sales with it by his singing role in the 1957 movie Pal Joey.
Time has only deepened the sonic well of this song. To wit, the most exciting and classy version of this song just might be the combination of the 25-year old pop icon Lady Gaga and an 85-year old Tony Bennett for his 2011 album Duets II.
Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett sing "The Lady Is A Tramp" in 2011
I’m Through With Love — This jazz standard was composed by Fud Livingston, Matty Malneck and Gus Kahn in 1931. Early covers by female vocalists included Dinah Shore in 1941 and 1951, Sarah Vaughn in 1947, Carmen McRae in 1957, and Ella Fitzgerald in 1959.
The song gained notoriety and a perch in the pantheon of torch songs by Marilyn Monroe, who played vocalist Sugar Kane in the 1959 film, Some Like It Hot. Near the movie's end she sings it as a lovelorn lament while perched atop a piano in a black slinky dress. Some say her dress was as memorable as the song.
Marilyn Monroe sings "I'm Through With Love" in the 1959 film Some Like It Hot
Dream A Little Dream Of Me — This dreamboat of a song was written by the orchestra leader Fabian Andre, arranger Wilbur Schwandt and lyricist Gus Kahn. It was first recorded in 1931 by band leaders Ozzie Nelson and Wayne King with vocals from their “girl singer,” Kate Smith.
Plucked from obscurity in 1968, the song became the signature tune of Cass Elliott, a member of the folk-rock group The Mamas & The Poppas. Her solo recording sold seven million copies.
Cass Elliott sings "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" in 1968
On A Slow Boat To China — This is a 1948 ballad by composer and lyricist Frank Loesser, who wrote tunes for many successful Broadway musicals and Hollywood films made from the late-1930s to mid-1960s. A 1993 biography by his daughter Susan Loesser states the song was her father’s romantic twist on the well-known poker term that derides the hapless person who loses “steadily and handsomely” at cards.
It seems everyone and his cousin likes to give this song the up-tempo crooner treatment, usually seasoned in Dixieland or Vegas overtones. This musical rabble includes covers by Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee, Joni James, Rosemary Clooney, Bette Midler and Liza Minelli.
In my view, however, it wasn’t until Ella Fitzgerald teamed up with guitarist Joe Pass for their 1986 album Easy Living that “On A Slow Boat To China” received the artful, wistful, romantic treatment it deserves.
Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass perform "On A Slow Boat To China" in 1981
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Program has songs by these femalecomposers:
You Belong To Me — This popular ballad from 1951 is memorable to many fans for its opening line: “See the pyramids along the Nile.” It was entirely written by [Ms.] Chilton Price, who had little experience in the pop music world.
So, when the song was published she shared credit with two experienced hands — country music artists Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart — who gave assistance with publicity, distribution and tinkering with the lyrics.
Indeed, King and Stewart revised the song's lyrics from its original late-1940s wartime focus to one with a universal view of separated lovers. As a result, the song has had an appeal for fans generations apart.
It was first recorded in the summer of 1952 by Joni James, Jo Stafford, Patti Page, Ella Fitzgerald and Dean Martin. Best of the bunch was the smooth and sweet vocals of Jo Stafford, whose 78 rpm record spent 24 weeks on pop charts in the U.S. and U.K.
A decade later The Duprees, a five-man doo-wop group from Jersey City NJ, saw their 45 rpm record reach No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Believe it or not, the one and only Ringo Starr also recorded this song — a boisterous and speedy dance-hall variant — in 1981.
Jo Stafford sings "You Belong To Me" in 1952 The Dupree's sing "You Belong To Me" in 1962
You Don’t Know Me — This ballad was written in 1955 by country music song writer and lyricist Cindy Walker after country music singer Eddy Arnold cornered her at a disc-jockey convention in Nashville and pitched an idea for a song with this title.
Walker agreed to turn Arnold's concept into workable lyrics and melody, she told an interviewer for the Grammy Foundation Living History. “Let me let it cook and I’ll let you know,” she told him.
“I was up in my little studio just sitting there. All of a sudden, here comes this song. 'You give your hand to me and you say hello'," she recalled.
"But I couldn't finish it. I couldn't find any way to finish it. Maybe two or three weeks went by and nothing happened. One day, [I thought] 'You give your hand to me and then you say goodbye,' and when it said that, I knew exactly where it was going.
“To make a long story short, I couldn't wait to get to the phone to call Eddy." Lest it go unsaid, a hit recording by Eddy Arnold quickly followed.
Many people have recorded this song, but the best-selling version was the plaint and anguished cover by Ray Charles in 1962. It peaked at #1 for 14 weeks on Billboard’s Pop Album chart. Today, it’s revered as the most soulful version of an emotionally impactful tune.
Ray Charles sings "You Don't Know Me" in 1962
I Wanna Be Around — This originally was planned as a revenge song from Sadie Vimmerstedt, a Youngstown OH widow and cosmetologist. In the early 1950s she was upset Frank Sinatra divorced his wife Nancy and married Ava Gardner, who eventually left him.
Sadie began to write the song only to realize her musical skills were limited. So, in 1957 she sent a handwritten note to tunesmith Johnny Mercer with the song’s first line — "I want to be around to pick up the pieces, when somebody breaks your heart." She asked for Mercer’s help in finishing the ballad, which took another five years.
In 1963 balladeer Tony Bennett had a big hit from Sadie and Johnny’s collaboration. Mercer gave Sadie half the song’s royalties, which were sizeable given the number of people who recorded it. Among the many covers by female artists are records by Aretha Franklin, Patti Page, Julie London, Brenda Lee, Dinah Washington and Eydie Gormé.
Tony Bennett sings "I Wanna Be Around" in 1963
I Don’t Know Enough About You — This is a very clever song written by a pair of very clever people, vocalist and lyricist Peggy Lee, and her husband, writer and guitarist Dave Barbour. They married in 1943 while both performed in the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Within a year, both left, however, due to Benny’s prohibition on band members fraternizing with his “girl singer.”
By 1945 they were writing songs and making records for Capitol Records. Peggy would record the song three times in her life — in December 1945, January 1956 and September 1992.
This version of the song was produced in 1950 as a promotional film that reveals the couple’s obvious chemistry. Key to this achievement is Peggy’s jazz-tinged vocals and subtle facial gestures, as well as Dave’s smooth guitar work.
Peggy Lee and Dave Barbour perform "I Don't Know Enough About You"
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