California raised and Berklee- trained fiddle player Laura Cortese has an amzing ability to find and collaborate with incredible musicians. The list is a virtual who’s who in the acoustic music world. Her present Dance Cards are in the very last shows of an American tour which ends tomorrow at the Parlor Room in Northampton. Then the band heads to Sweden and beyond. I was interested in so many of Laura’s projects that I didn’t know which direction to head. I decided to inquire about her band’s trips through the US State Department to exotic world destinations. We also discussed their participation in Folk Fights Back and other social justice causes especially for women. We discussed the video of her latest release, “California Calling” and it’s song “Pace Myself” which features over 65 women from various cultures. We listen to Laura’s take on the bluegrass standard, “Train on the Island” as well as the traditional “Greasy Coat”. Our segment finishes with the title cut from her latest release on Compass Records, “California Calling”.

We didn’t even get to discuss her co-founding Boston’s Celtic Music Festival or the band’s insistence on “sustainable practices on tour”. There are many chapters in this extended story. Catch the latest when Laura Cortese and the Dance Cards play Northampton’s Parlor Room Sunday on 10/26 at 7PM.