May 24–31, 2001

music picks|roots

Caryn Lin

Seeing Caryn Lin jamming at the Folk Festival after-hours party, noting how seamlessly she added her electric violin lines to anything thrown at her, it was easy to imagine she’d grown up folkie. Wrong. She’s a Cherry Hill native now living in Willow Grove, but she’d never heard of Gene Shay until John Gorka introduced them. Caryn Lin is a classically trained violinist, but one, she says, who never fit in. She’d jam along to Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne, not seeing how she’d find a spot in popular music. Working with John Gorka introduced her to the world of listening rooms. She loved that people paid attention, but found the bookers were a little dubious of her effects-laden electric violin-based show. Fortunately people are loosening up a bit and are no longer intimidated at the thought of a singer/songwriter who fiddles rather than picks. Caryn Lin now has a four-piece band who help her drive a groove behind her all-originals show.

—Mary Armstrong

Sat., May 26, 9 p.m., with Groovelily, at The Point, Bryn Mawr, 610-527-0988, www.atthepoint.com, $10; Lin will do a live radio performance on Fri., May 25, 9 a.m., WXPN, 88.5 FM.