Description The Main Street Museum presented a concert by Dennis Lichtman and Jerron Paxton on October 23, 2026. Dennis Lichtman is a multi-instrumentalist (clarinet, mandolin, fiddle, and more) who has been living, performing, composing, and teaching in New York City since 2002. He is a Selmer Paris Artist as an endorser of their Signature Clarinet. His music was recently used in director David Simon’s The Plot Against America (HBO) and he has appeared this year as a clarinetist on Succession (HBO) and The Blacklist (NBC). Lichtman’s newest album, Secret Workshop, features eleven original compositions inspired by the strange, unusual, and revealing objects he discovered in the off-limits workshop of his late father, an eccentric and extremely private inventor/machinist/mad-scientist. The project was made possible with a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and includes a music video directed by award-winning Mexican animator Fer Lozada. Prior albums include Jerron Paxton & Dennis Lichtman, a duo effort with the young lion of acoustic blues formerly known as “Blind Boy” Paxton, and Just Cross the River, featuring original compositions inspired by the migration of jazz legends into the borough of Queens, NY beginning in the 1920’s. Lichtman is also a member of ragtime quintet The Lovestruck Balladeers and Ghost Train Orchestra, whose 2023 album of Moondog’s music is a collaboration with Kronos Quartet. Since 2007, Lichtman has been the clarinetist and bandleader of the famed Tuesday night traditional-jazz jam session at Mona's in downtown New York, which was profiled in the New York Times, and has been described by the Wall Street Journal as "ground zero for an emerging late-night scene of young swing and traditional jazz players.” Lichtman has performed at Carnegie Hall, major festivals throughout the United States, and on stages in Europe, Brazil, and China. He is on the faculty of several jazz and string music camps and workshops, and has led college master classes and school workshops through the Midori Foundation, Lincoln Center’s Meet The Artist Series, and Beijing’s Ping-Pong Productions. Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton, born January 26, 1989 in Los Angeles, California, is a celebrated American multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and tradition bearer of early blues, jazz, and Black folk music. Raised in the Watts district, Paxton's Southern roots—his grandparents migrated from Louisiana to California in 1956—deeply influenced his musical upbringing. He was immersed in the sounds of old Cajun and country blues sung by his grandmother and the blues played on local radio, sparking a passion for music that led him to the fiddle at age twelve and the banjo at fourteen. Paxton is legally blind, having lost most of his sight as a teenager, but this has not hindered his artistic development. Paxton moved to upstate New York in 2007 to attend Marist College and soon became a fixture in Brooklyn's roots music scene. He is renowned for his mastery of guitar, banjo, piano, violin, harmonica, Cajun accordion, and more, drawing from the blues idiom of the 1920s and '30s and the traditions of artists like Fats Waller, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith, and Lonnie Johnson. His performances at major festivals, including his role as artistic director of the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Workshop and Festival, and his appearances in documentaries such as "The American Epic Sessions," have cemented his reputation as a leading interpreter of Black traditional music. Paxton's artistry is characterized by a refusal to compartmentalize genres, blending blues, jazz, ragtime, country blues, Cajun, and old-time music into what he calls "Black folk music." He is often compared to contemporary tradition bearers like Taj Mahal, Keb' Mo', and Corey Harris, and is one of the few African-American banjo players touring today. His legacy lies in his ability to channel the spirit and sound of early American music, inspiring new generations to appreciate and learn from the rich tapestry of Black musical heritage. Paxton is legally blind, having lost most of his sight at age 16, but retains some peripheral vision and continues to perform and travel independently. Filmed and edited by Rick Russell for Junction Arts & Media