Concert Themes

Ken Lelen sings ragtime, jazz and swing tunes and plays vintage acoustic guitars. He offers clever intros, amusing anecdotes and wry comments focusing romantic, historic and musical themes.
     A Vintage Music Concert with one of these engaging themes is rewarding for venue operators, club managers and program directors, who find it easier to publicize an event to an audience, group or community. It fills diverse venues — from libraries, music & art centers and clubs to senior villages, museums and churches. And it makes the event memorable for concert-goers.

Legendary Love Songs

Offers love songs (1926-1946) that gush with memorable melodies, coy lyrics and sweet sentiments to evoke romantic affairs, long-ago lovers and moonlit nights. Songs may include: As Time Goes By, Star Dust, It Had To Be You, I'm Through With Love, I'm In The Mood For Love, These Foolish Things, Let's Fall In Love, Time After Time. You can expect a visit from the One-Who-Got-Away.

A Fine Romance

Features the creamy ballads (1940-1956) favored by a generation that rationed its romance and deferred its love affairs "for the duration." Songs may include: Time After Time, There! I've Said It Again, I'll Never Smile Again, Beyond The Sea, All The Things You Are, Dream, It's Been A Long, Long Time, Autumn Leaves, On Slow Boat To China, You Belong To Me.

Tin Pan Alley Cats

Includes songs (1912-1935) by those witty wordsmiths and clever musicians who inhabited N.Y. City's Tin Pan Alley — Park Row, West 28th St. or West 46th St. Program may include works by: Gershwin, Porter, Styne, Arlen, Berlin, Fields, Carmichael, Rodgers. Songs may include: Blue Moon, Love Is Here To Stay, On Sunny Side Of The Street, Always, It's Only A Paper Moon, Nearness Of You, Over The Rainbow.

Sunny Side of the Street

Includes the cheerful songs written in the 1930s by Broadway and Hollywood songsmiths to soften the Depression's emotional bite, offer pithy lifestyle advice or poke fun at society's upper crust. Songs may include: On The Sunny Side Of The Street, Bye Bye Blues, The Best Things In Life Are Free, Keep On The Sunny Side, When I Take My Sugar To Tea, The Lady Is A Tramp, Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams, Love Is Just Around Corner, I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm, Pennies From Heaven.

Ragtime Rascals

Offers the syncopated tunes (1912-1929), clever lyrics and jazz precursors popular with doughboys, flappers, speakeasy crooners and radio's earliest stars. Songs may include: April Showers, Sweet Sue—Just You, Marie, Avalon, Bye Bye Blackbird, Everybody Loves My Baby, But My Baby Don't Love Me, If You Knew Susie Like I Knew Susie, It All Depends On You, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, My Blue Heaven, Baby Face, Carolina In The Morning, Toot Toot Tootsie, Makin Whoopee, Five-Foot-Two—Eyes Of Blue, Honeysuckle Rose, If I Had You, Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips With Me, Ain't Misbehavin'.

Big Band Idols

Features the songs (1936-1951) immortalized by the stars of stage, screen and radio — many of whom were the featured vocalists fronting Big Bands, society orchestras and jazz combos led by Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Les Brown, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Ted Weems and others. Singers may include: Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Ella Fitzgerald, Helen Forest, Helen O'Connell, Kitty Kallen, Nat "King" Cole, Jo Stafford, Vaughn Monroe and Peggy Lee. And songs may include: All Or Nothing At All, Why Don't You Do Right, Route 66, Pennies From Heaven, Sentimental Journey, For Sentimental Reasons, Pistol Packin' Mama, Don't Fence Me In, Blueberry Hill, Where or When, I'm Beginning To See The Light, I'll Be Seeing You, Lili Marlene, We'll Meet Again.

Jazzman's Journey

Offers tunes (1918-1935) marked by the rhythm, spontaneity and voicing found in the blues of Bessie Smith, jive of Fats Waller, scat of Louis Armstrong and Slam Stewart, and lilt of Mildred Bailey, all of whom paved the way for Bing, Ella, Connee, Billie and Lena — a cohort of swingin' singers who started their careers as hepcat jazz artists. Songs may include: Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out, Flat Foot Floogee (with a Floy Floy), One Of These Days, Avalon, Ain't Misbehavin', Running Wild, Lazy River, Limehouse Blues.

Juke-Joint Jive

Covers the radio and juke box music (1934-1945) popular with drugstore cowboys, stagedoor johnnies, swing shift maisies, jitter-bug dancers, zoot-suiters and lindy-hoppers. Songs may include: Don't Get Around Much Anymore, Heart and Soul, It's Only A Paper Moon, Minnie The Moocher, Up A Lazy River, Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive, Jeepers Creepers, I'm Beginning To See The Light, Jukebox Saturday Night, Chattanooga Choo Choo, You Are My Sunshine, Satin Doll, Paper Doll, Mairzy Doats, Don't Fence Me In, Heartaches, Between The Devil And Deep Blue Sea, Rum and Coca Cola.

Folksong Boomers

Offers folk music (1949-1968) of Cash, PP&M, Dylan, Lightfoot, Seeger, Denver, Mitchell (Joni, not Chad) and Kingston Trio — artists popular with the post-WWII generation called Baby Boomers. Songs may include: Tom Dooley, Goodnight, Irene, Chilly Winds, Scotch & Soda, Don't Think Twice, Early Morning Rain, Leaving On A Jet Plane, Abilene, Both Sides Now, Someday Soon, Four Strong Winds, Annie’s Song, Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Vintage Guitars +Vintage Songs

Concert will match popular songs from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s with acoustic, steel-stringed guitars made in the same decade for an authentic, back-in-the-day sound. These song-guitar pairings will reference a song's copyright © year and a guitar's manufacture date. Vintage song-and-guitar pairs may include:
    After You've Gone        © 1918    +    1912 Grauso auditorium
    Bye Bye Blackbird        © 1926    +    1926 Larson Brothers auditorium
    It's Only A Paper Moon  © 1933    +    1933 Martin OM-18 orchestra model
    The Lady Is A Tramp     © 1937    +    1937 Gibson KG-21 archtop
    Love Is Here To Stay     © 1938    +    1938 B&D Groton 1 flat-top
    Taking Chance On Love  © 1940    +    1940 Epiphone Triumph archtop

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©  2012 — Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved