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Session Americana at Next Stage on Friday, July 20

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present folk/roots-rock band Session Americana at Next Stage on Friday, July 20 at 7:30 pm. Featuring Boston-based, multi-instrumentalists and singers Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting and Jefferson Hamer, plus a rotating collective of guest musicians, the band’s raucous live shows are built around the community concept of traditional Irish seisiúns.

Blending vintage American roots music styles – from country to jazz to rock – Session Americana is a rock band in a tea cup, or possibly a folk band in a whiskey bottle. This band/collective of talented musicians craft a musical experience unlike any other. On stage is a collapsible bar table wired with microphones, a vintage suitcase recast as a kick drum, an old Estey field organ, a pre-war parlor guitar, a mandocello and all of its smaller siblings, a harmonica case fire damaged when Jack’s bar went up in flames and graffitied by Depeche Mode roadies, and an assortment of other instruments that get passed around in this freewheeling modern hootenanny. The anything-could-happen feel of a Session show depends on craft that’s not accidental or easily won; they bring a kind of ease and genuineness to this timeless music, sometimes presenting the latest batch of original songs, sometimes reaching back into depths of the American “song bag.”

Session Americana has toured worldwide, performing at festivals from Ramblin’ Roots in the Netherlands to Strawberry Music in California to the Philadelphia Folk Festival, and on TV and radio shows such as Music City Roots (Nashville) and Mountain Stage (NPR). Band members come from diverse musical backgrounds, having played with artists such as Patty griffin, Josh Ritter and The J. Geils Band.

“Session Americana has developed into a traveling medicine show which eschews snake oil in favor of an ongoing grail quest for the perfect collaborative experience.” – Hot Press Ireland

Next Stage is located at 15 Kimball Hill in downtown Putney, VT. Tickets are $20 Advance / $24 At the Door. For information, call 802-387-0102. Advance tickets are available at www.nextstagearts.org, Turn It Up in Brattleboro and Putney Food Co-op in Putney. For more information, visit www.sessionamericana.com, www.twilightmusic.org and www.nextstagearts.org.