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Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present a Roots and Americana Music Festival featuring The Mammals, Corner House, and The New Domestics, as part of the 2022 Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series. Bring lawn chairs or blankets for outdoor seating on the ballfield. Rain date for the concert is Monday, May 30.
The Mammals are a warm-blooded party band with a conscience that spans the horizons of Americana music, from soulfully harmonized indie-folk ballads to revved up fiddle and banjo-driven foot stompers. Led by songwriting multi-instrumentalists Mike Merenda and Ruth Ungar, the stringband of subversive acoustic traditionalists features a mix of sassy blues, Motown soul, old-timey harmonies, rock-n-roll energy, and inspired, political songwriting. Brimming with their unmistakable hope and authenticity, and featuring the magic of Ruth and Mike’s voices, The Mammals’ latest album “Nonet” includes energizing, uplifting arrangements of ten emotionally potent songs with lyrics that strike deep. It brings us “the defiant spirit needed to heal a damaged world” – No Depression Magazine
Woodstock, NY-based Ruth Ungar and Mike Merenda founded The Mammals with Tao Rodriguez-Seeger (grandson of the legendary folk singer Pete Seeger) in 2000, and after touring the world for the next seven years with the likes of Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger, emerged as one of acoustic America’s most revered musical duos – Mike + Ruthy. The daughter of fiddle legend Jay Ungar and country singer Lyn Hardy, Ruthy is an earthy country-blues singer with the unmistakable stage presence of a natural-born performer. Mike is an artfully prolific songwriter with an indie rock soul and feather-touch vocals. Together they create music to heal hearts and rouse minds.
Originally from Boston, MA, Corner House takes its name from the place where the four young band members found musical family in one another – their shared home in Brighton, as students at Berklee College of Music. Emerging from varied genre backgrounds, the quartet’s unique strength is their desire to learn from one another, not only in musical skill and style, but in life experience; such that every challenge overcome by one band member becomes part of the group’s shared musical and personal DNA. On their debut full length album “How Beautiful It’s Been,” Ethan Hawkins (guitar), Louise Bichan (fiddle), Ethan Setiawan (mandolin), and Casey Murray (cello) reveal the sublime result of that growth mindset, with a singular sound that incorporates old time, Scottish, progressive bluegrass, and folk.
Guitarist and songwriter Michelle Cummings Kostek and mandolinist Ed Kostek are the indie folk/rock duo The New Domestics. Melding musical influences that range from traditional jazz to Radiohead and Nickel Creek, they feature soaring vocal arrangements and carefully crafted songs.
The Bandwagon Summer Series is a family-friendly outdoor cultural performance series running from early May through mid-October, at venues throughout Windham County.
Breanna Elaine will play the Stage 33 Live listening room at 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, Vermont, on Sunday, May 29 at 7:00 PM. $10 in advance, $15 at the door – all proceeds go to the performer. Limited seating. The performance will be recorded and filmed. Tickets and more info at stage33live.com
Breanna Elaine has been making waves with her unique sound and songwriting talent: earthy folk with rock, jazz, and occasional punk underpinnings. She’s been favorably compared to Jewel, Alanis Morissette, and Stevie Nicks. This is an opportunity to catch her in an intimate listening room performance before she graduates to bigger venues.
Sunday, May 29 at 7:00 PM, Stage 33 Live at 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, Vermont. No opener, a timely arrival is recommended. Seating is limited to 40.
According to the performer’s preference, the COVID-19 protocol will be the guidelines in effect in the community on show day. Currently the guidance is that masks are optional, although that may change without notice. Seating will be a minimum of eight feet from the stage and set up in pods of two. If you wish to make a custom pod for your party, arrive early to do so.
Stage 33 Live is a casual and intimate industrial-rustic listening room run by volunteers in a former factory hosting local, regional, and national performances and presentations of original material. No bar or kitchen, the stage is the mission; coffee / soda / juice / water and weird snacks available by donation. More info about the nonprofit, all-volunteer project, and this and other upcoming events, online at stage33live.com
Zoom Tunes- May 29, 2022 virtual jam session
Presented by the Vermont Jazz Center
7-8:30 pm
Welcome to a new year of Zoom Tunes. It seems so strange that we are entering 2022 with so few occasions to play live music in safe environments.
Zoom Tunes continues to provide an opportunity to learn new tunes and maintain relationships with musician-friends in a supportive atmosphere.
The Zoom Tune for May 29, 2022 is ‘Barbados’.
ON-LINE; $15 per session
HOSTS:
We have three hosts – Malik McLaurine, Ben Barnett and Franz Robert. Eugene and Ginger will also be present.
TO PREPARE:
Beforehand – try playing the tune of the month along with the backing track mp3 found on the VJC’s website. You can use any other backing track you like, including iReal Pro or you can play the tune solo.
WHEN & WHAT:
On the last Sunday of each month
from 7:00 – 8:30 pm EST
Malik, Ben and Franz will be online to listen with other VJC community members to everyone’s version. Be sure to have your backing track cued up and ready to go.
Each person will play the melody and then launch into their solo improvisation. After you have finished your improv, play the melody once more to complete your session.
AND THEN…
Malik, Franz, and Ben will guide us in a short conversation about your interpretation of the tune. Community participation in this process is encouraged. Focus topics could include positive comments about the performance as well as suggestions regarding style, improvisational options and helpful tips.
Please join us by sharing your music with our online community!
Free music on the flatbed at the street entrance on Rt. 5 weather permitting. Whetstone Foodtruck, plus beer and ice cream for sale. Tables and chairs provided on the lawn. The Epitones: Stringy, swingy nostalgic songs and instrumentals from a bygone era are played by a quartet of seasoned musicians from Vermont. Guitars, mandolins, violins, and a few other crazy instruments are handled by all the musicians, passed around by whim, but expertly played in a grooving ensemble format. New Orleans stomps, tasty fingerpicked blues, old jazz gems, and perky melodies will fill your ears and warm the cockles of your heart. Dave Richard, Cannon Labrie, Lisa Brande and Mark Trichka bring the music to life for your pleasure.
Embrace the journey, the imperfections, and the beauty in “Gently Unhinged” by the New England Center for Circus Arts’ Professional Track students. In their 2nd year of training, these students are presenting an end of year circus showcase exploring what it is to be broken and then mended into a stronger form than the original. This showcase is inspired by the Japanese art form, kintsukuroi meaning “to repair with gold.” Come see the relationship between kintsukuroi and circus in “Gently Unhinged.”
WHEN: June 3-5.
There are two different casts with different acts resulting in Show A and Show B versions as follows:
– Cast A performs: Friday, June 3 @ 7:30 pm & Saturday, June 4 @ 3:30 pm (Cast A: Thea, Colleen, Joelle, Shir, Abigail, Jessica, Bri)
– Cast B performs: Saturday, June 4 @ 7:30 pm and Sunday, June 5 @ 1 pm (Cast B: Darian, Chanty, Marine, Layton, Cheyenne, Megan, Josephine)
WHERE: NECCA’s Trapezium
10 Town Crier Dr
Brattleboro, VT 05301
COST: $12-25
TICKETS: https://our.show/gentlyunhinged
MORE INFO: https://necenterforcircusarts.org/about/gently-unhinged/
info@necenterforcircusarts.org
(802) 254-9780
The Brattleboro Women’s Chorus presents their 26th annual spring concerts entitled “Why Not Sing?” on Saturday June 4 and Sunday June 5 at 4:00 pm outdoors at the Retreat Farm. These will be the first in-person concerts the BWC has presented since 2019.
The concerts will feature songs the chorus has been working on this spring and includes some favorites from earlier sessions. Local musician Lisa McCormick will join the chorus on several songs, including “Tiny Lights” by Coco Love Alcorn and “Can You Catch the Moon” by Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell. The chorus will also sing Velma Frye’s “Take Heart” and Terry Garthwaite’s “Shine On.” McCormick and the chorus will be joined by the ukulele orchestra on a premiere of Barbara McAfee’s song (and the concert title), “Why Not Sing?”
The chorus will also premiere “Everyone Sang,” a work for string quartet and chorus by founder and director Becky Graber. Graber set the powerful words Siegfried Sassoon wrote at the end of World War I and will be creating a YouTube video with the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus and local string players Kathy Andrew, Michelle Liechti, Greg Diehl, and Sabine Rhyne. The piece begins, “Everyone suddenly burst out singing, and I was filled with such delight as prisoned birds must find in freedom, winging wildly across the white orchards and dark green fields, on, on, and out of sight.” Presentation and recording of “Everyone Sang” is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.brattleborowomenschorus.org.
The Brattleboro Women’s Chorus presents their 26th annual spring concerts entitled “Why Not Sing?” on Saturday June 4 and Sunday June 5 at 4:00 pm outdoors at the Retreat Farm. These will be the first in-person concerts the BWC has presented since 2019.
The concerts will feature songs the chorus has been working on this spring and includes some favorites from earlier sessions. Local musician Lisa McCormick will join the chorus on several songs, including “Tiny Lights” by Coco Love Alcorn and “Can You Catch the Moon” by Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell. The chorus will also sing Velma Frye’s “Take Heart” and Terry Garthwaite’s “Shine On.” McCormick and the chorus will be joined by the ukulele orchestra on a premiere of Barbara McAfee’s song (and the concert title), “Why Not Sing?”
The chorus will also premiere “Everyone Sang,” a work for string quartet and chorus by founder and director Becky Graber. Graber set the powerful words Siegfried Sassoon wrote at the end of World War I and will be creating a YouTube video with the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus and local string players Kathy Andrew, Michelle Liechti, Greg Diehl, and Sabine Rhyne. The piece begins, “Everyone suddenly burst out singing, and I was filled with such delight as prisoned birds must find in freedom, winging wildly across the white orchards and dark green fields, on, on, and out of sight.” Presentation and recording of “Everyone Sang” is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.brattleborowomenschorus.org.
Join local authors Susan Mills and Barbara Morrison as they read from their books and discuss incorporating social justice issues in fiction and memoir.
Susan Mills’ new novel, On the Wings of a Hummingbird, follows a 15-year-old Guatemalan girl who draws on Mayan mythology to help her carve a future out of a childhood scarred by gang violence. Susan was a Spanish-speaking immigration attorney for twenty years and prepared asylum cases for thousands of immigrants from Central America. www.susanmills.co
Barbara Morrison will be reading from her award-winning memoir, Innocent: Confessionsof a Welfare Mother which is now an audiobook read by the author. In Innocent, Barbara describes her experience when a failed marriage sends her plummeting from a prosperous middle-class life onto welfare. Part coming-of-age story and part immersion in an unfamiliar culture, this book puts a human face on poverty. Available as of July 15 at most streaming outlets. www.bmorrison.com
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present a twin bill of contemporary folk singer/songwriters Patty Larkin and Darryl Purpose.
Patty Larkin is a visionary of sound and wonder, a real deal version of artistry made of equal parts guitar wizardry, vocals shot through with soul, and inventive lyrics that ripple across the terrain of the heart. Described as “riveting” (Chicago Tribune), “hypnotic” (Entertainment Weekly), and “drop-dead brilliant” (Performing Songwriter), Patty has captured audiences for over 30 years with an imagination, enchantment, and technical artistry that has redefined the boundaries of the guitar driven singer/songwriter.
With 11 Boston Music Awards, 14 albums, and an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music to her credit, Patty’s recent projects include putting poems from ten notable poets to song for her “Bird in a Cage” album, gathering 25 friends, including Rosanne Cash, Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Janis Ian, Bruce Cockburn, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Greg Brown to perform on her retrospective album “25,” and producing the groundbreaking album “La Guitara,” a compilation of women guitarists actively changing preconceptions about gender and guitar heroes. Patty’s songs have been covered by artists from Cher and Holly Cole, and have been featured in television and films.
As a teenager, Darryl Purpose hitchhiked from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, where he began a legendary career as a professional blackjack player (he was Inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2010). In 1986, he walked from Los Angeles to Washington DC for peace, on the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. He began playing music on marches, including one in the former Soviet Union, and performed in the first ever outdoor stadium concert in the history of Russia, produced by Bill Graham, featuring Santana, James Taylor, and Bonnie Raitt. Since then, he has released 8 albums of original music that feature his narrative lyrics and fingerstyle guitar. The last two, “Still The Birds” and “Next Time Around,” spent weeks at #1 for AirPlay on Roots Music Report.
Please visit our health & safety page for current COVID protocols.
Free music on the flatbed at the campground’s street entrance on Rt. 5 weather permitting. Whetstone Foodtruck, plus beer and ice cream for sale. Tables and chairs provided on the lawn. Easy Street duo is comprised of Mark Trichka and Lisa Brande, who share their time between Putney, Vermont, Nokomis, Florida and SW Louisiana. They are full time musicians, having performed together for over 30 years, playing swing, bluegrass, cajun and zydeco, rockabilly and honkytonk and all manner of popular, sometimes obscure, but always interesting music, on fiddle, mandolins, guitars and vocals.
This concert will have ONLY a limited in-person audience. There will NO livestream component.
Akinmusire is a multiyear winner of Downbeat’s critics’ choice awards for Trumpeter of the Year (including 2021) and Jazz Artist of the Year.
A visionary artist with six albums as a leader, he is a first call sideman found on recordings with Joni Mitchell, Brad Mehldau, Kendrick Lamar and many others.
Ambrose Akinmusire is a truth-teller whose music is an expression of his personal journey as a Black man. Although he loves playing jazz standards, he has chosen to compose original music that draws attention to the realities of racism.
It’s important to me to talk about the injustices that Black people experience, and the fear that I have walking around the United States and really a lot of places in the world.
And that is why I called this last album a blues album – it’s trying to express beauty and pain at the same time, trying to express what is to me the most defining part: resilience. And that’s what all my records are trying to express.”
Akinmusire’s sound on the trumpet is unlike anyone else’s. He masterfully bends notes up and down to make the air coming out of his horn sound like the melismas of a human voice.
Along with the timbre of the voice, Akinmusire explores sonic possibilities such as unique forms, atypical instrumentation, extended techniques and varied textures.
Akinmusire’s most recent album, his fifth for Blue Note Records, On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment, has been nominated as Best Jazz Instrumental Album for the 2021 Grammy Awards.
The list of his accolades include Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition Winner, Carmine Caruso International Trumpet Solo Competition Winner; Downbeat Critics Poll: Jazz Artist of the Year, Best Trumpet (numerous times); Jazz Times Critic’s Poll: Trumpeter of the Year (3 times), Artist of the Year, Record of the Year; New York Times Best Jazz Album of the year (2011), Jazz Journalist Association Trumpeter of the Year and others too numerous to mention.
His discography includes 6 albums as a leader and sideman work with Kendrick Lamar, Joni Mitchell, Joel Ross, Brad Mehldau, the Blue Note All-Stars, Mary Halvorson, Jen Shyu, Somi, Marcus Miller, Dayna Stephens, Trilok Gurtu, Gerald Clayton, the Yellow Jackets, Jack DeJohnette, Archie Shepp, David Binney, Terri Lyne Carrington, Roy Hargrove, Mimi Jones, Esperanza Spalding, Linda May Han Oh, Tom Harrell and many others.
Akinmusire is one of the most acclaimed jazz artists of his generation, a trumpeter of deep expressive resources and a composer of kaleidoscopic vision. —NPR
Ambrose Akinmusire – trumpet
Micah Thomas – piano
Linda Oh – bass
Tim Angulo – drums
Sponsored by a Friend of the Vermont Jazz Center educational programs.
$20-40 sliding scale
Reservations online & by phone
Proof of Covid-19 vaccination and photo ID required.
www.vtjazz.org
gingervjc@gmail.com
802 258 9088