Combined Calendar
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Sometimes dates and performers change on short notice. It’s a good idea to check the venue website before attending shows.
LUCKY GIRL. LUCKY YOU!
Linden Tree Coffeehouse returns with Claudia Nygaard
Sat. September 18th at 7:30 pm. LIVE STREAMING CONCERT.
Wakefield’s Linden Tree Coffeehouse announces the 2021 fall concerts of its 37th season. We were hoping that live in person shows would resume this fall, but unfortunately, we will be streaming our first show and then moving to a hybrid show with Covid rates determining the number of vaccinated folks who can attend in person. The Ivy Chord Coffeehouse is again co-sponsoring this season’s on-line concerts.
Nashville’s Claudia Nygaard will launch the series on Sat. Sept.18th at 7:30 pm. Audiences loved her singing, songs, and fun personality when she appeared on our stage a few years ago. Since then Claudia’s recent CD, LUCKY GIRL” has been one of the top Albums of the Year for Folk Alliance International Radio. Sing Out Magazine says, “Songs that rival the likes of Guy Clark and Ian Tyson.”
With a voice as warm and smooth as amber honey and im- pressive for both its power and intimacy, Claudia Nygaard delivers songs that are heartfelt, humorous, scrappy, and sensual. And so are the stories in between them. She is a captivating storyteller, with a twinkle in her eye that makes everyone in the audience think she is sharing a secret with them alone. Emotionally fearless, she shares her deepest sorrows with a rare vulnerability and tenderness one moment, then a quick wit and an outlandish, irreverent sense of humor the next.
Claudia tours tirelessly, and has torn up the highways of all 50 states and performed in 9 foreign countries. She has appeared at over 200 fairs & festivals, including numerous times at the Kerrville Folk Festival. She has also been an emerging artist at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in New York. Claudia’s music straddles the fence between country and folk.
Viewers can turn in to watch on Linden Tree’s shows with easy clicks to the concerts: Youtube: https://youtu.be/HJ1Y7qg8zUg: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lindentreecoffeehouse/live_videos
We hope that those watching will donate to the Linden Tree performers. When not able to get to live gigs, they still need to pay rent and their other living expenses. Our usual at the door admission is $20 pp thanks to partial support from Wakefield’s Art Council of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Ivy Chord Coffeehouse in Reading. Note our previous streaming shows are still available for viewing on youtube and our facebook page. Enjoy the show and pay what you are able. There will be a link to PayPal or checks may be mailed to Linden Tree Coffeehouse, 8 Dexter Lane, Wakefield, MA 01880 Thank you.
Other Linden Tree shows this fall featuring New England Fan Favorites:
Oct. 9: Hybrid: Alastair Moock
Nov. 6: Hybrid: Janet Feld & Esther Friedman
Dec. 11: Hybrid: Bill Staines with Mark B. Evans opening.
For more information: www.LindenTreeCoffeehouse.org, 781-246-2836
BEPPE GAMBETTA “WHERE THE WIND BLOWS” Beppe Gambetta is an Italian guitarist, vocalist and composer who found a way to make Italian and American traditions speak together with one voice. Born in the seaport city of Genova and raised on American Flatpicking he developed a unique captivating guitar and performance style.
NOTE: This event is at the Spinning Room of the Granite Mill in Harrisville, NH and not at Deb’s house.
Beppe is beloved all over the world, gaining new fans and friends with every performance and every new recording. Where The Wind Blows is no exception and may be the best one yet. One final note: in 2019 Beppe was awarded with the title of “Genoa Ambassador To The World” by the Genoa Mayor Marco Bucci.
From a young acoustic guitarist channeling Italian and American folk and bluegrass into a signature style, he became singer, composer, arranger, sound engineer and concert producer. At age 65 he has added one more title: Poet. It turns out he has a lot to say about roots, role models, the road and artistic freedom—and he expresses himself in a voice of unhurried warmth and passion. (Alan Tigay, World Listening Post)
His incredible versatility combined with his charm and engaging stage presence make Beppe’s concerts evenings of high quality music and relaxed entertainment. Over-riding all else, however, is the brilliance of his talent…(Cornish Guardian)
…Though he’s shown over the years that he can keep pace with the Tony Rices and Dan Crarys of the world, , it is Gambetta’s understated elegance as a flatpicker that has set him apart and made him an in-demand partner the world over. (Sing Out!)
…spinning a thick weave that sometimes calls to mind what a duet by Doc Watson and Leo Kottke might sound like. (Mike Joyce, The Washington Post) In the end, Gambetta’s originals offer some of the most intriguing listening for their amazing virtuosity, pleasing tunefulness, and beyond category pedigree. He’s truly a man of the world. (Roger Levesque, Penguin Eggs)
www.facebook.com/BeppeGambetta
Called “a musician and singer of dazzling versatility” (No Depression), Tracy Grammer is among contemporary folk music’s most beloved artists. Renowned for her pure voice, deft guitar and violin work, and incantatory storytelling, Grammer has recorded and performed with Joan Baez and Mary Chapin Carpenter, headlined several of the nation’s top folk festivals, including Philadelphia Folk Festival and Falcon Ridge, and enjoyed 12 consecutive years as one of folk radio’s 50 top-played artists, both solo and with the late Dave Carter.
Grammer is currently on tour celebrating her highly-anticipated eleventh release, LOW TIDE, which is the first of her albums to showcase her original songs. LOW TIDE was the ninth most-played album on folk radio in 2018 and was voted a Top 10 Album of the Year by Fish Records UK.
Cheryl Wheeler
“Cheryl Wheeler has to be seen to be appreciated. Nothing you read and nothing you hear from her albums prepares you for how good a performer she is.”
“If your idea of a folk singer/songwriter concert is a bunch of people clapping politely after songs, and then sitting quietly while the performer says things like “This next song is about …”, well, you’ve never seen a Cheryl Wheeler concert before. ”
“Cheryl’s songs are often emotional portraits of people, leaving you with the impression that you know the characters. You find yourself being dragged into the song rather than standing outside and observing. Other songs by Cheryl are hilarious situation comedies.”
“You may not be familiar with Cheryl, but you have probably heard her music. She is very respected as a songwriter by her peers, which can be seen by how many of them record her songs. Chery’s songs have been covered by artists as diverse as Dan Seals, Peter Paul and Mary, Kenny Loggins, Garth Brooks, Suzy Boggus, Melanie, Bette Midler, Maura O’Connell, Sylvia, Kathy Mattea, and Holly Near. If they think she is great, then you owe it to yourself to learn more if you aren’t familiar with her.
“From her albums you can tell that she is a gifted songwriter with a beautiful voice. From other people’s comments about her you can learn that she is a natural story teller with a fantastic sense of humor. But until you see her in person, you never really believe what you’ve been told about her. Besides, almost half of the songs she does during her shows haven’t been recorded!”
Cheryl’s concerts are more like what you would find at a comedy club than expect to find at a folk music concert. “She will tell a story that has you rolling in the aisles, and then sing a song that leaves you wiping tears from your eyes. She will talk about some serious current event, and then sing a song that will have you howling with laughter. Her entire concert is an emotional roller coaster.”
http://www.cherylwheeler.com/home/bio.html
Kenny White
“I’d have to say that Kenny White has earned a place among my favorite singer/songwriters … and particularly, lyricists. As we say in the trade ‘he goes deep.’ A true wordsmith AND musician whoreveals a fine sense of humor, as well. Put on your headphones and listen carefully.”
— David Crosby
“Kenny White is a quadruple threat – a singer, songwriter, pianist and producer with a knack for summing-up the human condition in half a song verse or less. (Take the lyrics “So you might as well put it on the line once in awhile, Maybe leave something more than ashes in a pile,” from his song “Five Girls.” Need we say more?”
Peterborough Folk Music is thrilled to have Le Vent du Nord returning to the Monadnock Region. Their last appearance in the area was at The Keene Colonial Theater last March. A wonderful late afternoon of a band who love to please their audience with their stories and music. Join us for some rollicking good fun.
“ There was a sizable contingent of Quebecers in the audience who probably understood every word. For the rest, it did not matter. While the band put down their instruments from time to time to perform beautifully harmonized a cappella songs, this was definitely a concert that was more about the music than the words.” THIRDCOAST REVIEW( Jan, 8, 2020, Chicago, USA)
The award winning and highly acclaimed band Le Vent du Nord is a leading force in Quebec’s progressive francophone folk movement. The group’s vast repertoire draws from both traditional sources and original compositions, while enhancing its hard-drive soulful music (rooted in the Celtic diaspora) with a broad range of global influences. Featuring button accordion, guitar and fiddle, the bands sound is defined by the hurdy-gurdy, which adds an earthy, rough-hewn flavor to even the most buoyant dance-tunes – Boston Hearld
“ There must be few souls alive who could resist Le Vent du Nord’s boundless joie de vivre. And there was certainly no resistance in Finstown, as the band raised the roof with a jubilant maelstrom of prodigiously bouncy dance-tunes, also featuring hurdy-gurdy, accordion, bouzouki, piano, jaw-harp, guitar and electric bass, garlanded with lustily compelling five-part vocals, which, in one thrillingly throttled-back a cappella number, recalled the numinous, spine-tingling modalities of Gregorian chant (…) With Brunet [André] on board, their sound’s scale and intricacy are fast evolving into fresh dimensions, manifest in some sets’ looser, boldly freewheeling arrangements; in lashings of red-blooded honky-tonk brio, and in umpteen insouciant virtuoso flourishes, like one medley’s cheeky wee disco-funk intro, dashed off on fiddle, jaw-harp and fat bass licks. ”
— Sue Wilson [Orkney Festival, Scotland], Folk radio (June 2
Southern Rail’s performances are high-energy exuberant fun, with riveting harmonies, irrepressible humor and sparkling banjo, mandolin, and guitar solo work. Southern Rail celebrates over three decades of performing with the long awaited release of their 12th CD , “Voices in the Wind.”
Over the years, Southern Rail’s recordings, featuring their prolific songwriting, have graced Bluegrass Unlimited’s Top Thirty Singles Chart for a combined total of 32 months, climbing to #11. One of Southern Rail’s earlier CD’s, a special Bluegrass Gospel compilation entitled Glory Train, was nominated for Best Gospel Recording of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association. Southern Rail has been selected by the New England Foundation for the Arts to be included in their prestigious Touring Roster.
Southern Rail includes:
Jim Muller (Richmond, VA. Resides Massachusetts) – guitar, lead vocals. Talented singer, songwriter & humorist. “Jim’s guitar playing is the genuine article.” Bluegrass Unlimited (VA) “One of the most distinctive voices in Bluegrass.” Bluegrass Now (MO)
Sharon Horovitch (Montreal, Que. Resides in Massachusetts)- acoustic bass, harmony vocals. Sharon’s infectious energy has become one of the group’s trademarks. “Marvelously upbeat” Worcester Telegram (MA)
Rich Stillman (New Jersey. Resides in Massachusetts) Banjo and Harmony Vocals. A 30 year veteran of the banjo, Rich has extensive performing and recording experience, including a stint with Southern Rail from ‘85-’89. Rich has won multiple banjo championships (New Jersey champion 1983, New England champion in 2002 and 2003), as well as extensive teaching experience (Banjo Camp North, Boston Bluegrass Union, Phillips Academy in Andover, MA)
John Tibert (Northboro, MA) Mandolin and Harmony Vocals. John started playing guitar at age 14. But once he heard Dave Grisman on”Old and in the Way”, his life was never the same. He’s been addicted to bluegrass ever since.He’s a prolific songwriter and also has taught mandolin for over a decade. John’s mandolin playing isfluid, lyrical and from the heart, and his superb bass vocals are a powerful addition to the group’ssignature quartet harmonies.
Peter Mulvey has been a songwriter, road-dog, raconteur and almost-poet since before he can remember. Raised working-class Catholic on the Northwest side of Milwaukee, he took a semester in Ireland, and immediately began cutting classes to busk on Grafton Street in Dublin and hitchhike through the country, finding whatever gigs he could. Back stateside, he spent a couple years gigging in the Midwest before lighting out for Boston, where he returned to busking (this time in the subway) and coffeehouses. Small shows led to larger shows, which eventually led to regional and then national and international touring. The wheels have not stopped since.
Nineteen records, an illustrated book, thousands of live performances, a TEDx talk, a decades-long association with the National Youth Science Camp, opening for luminaries such as Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris, and Chuck Prophet, appearances on NPR, an annual autumn tour by bicycle, emceeing festivals, hosting his own boutique festival (the Lamplighter Sessions, in Boston and Wisconsin)… Mulvey never stops. He has built his life’s work on collaboration and an instinct for the eclectic and the vital. He folds everything he encounters into his work: poetry, social justice, scientific literacy, & a deeply abiding humanism are all on plain display in his art.
In late January 2019, Mulvey and his band, SistaStrings (Chauntee & Monique Ross) with Nathan Kilen on drums, decamped to their home turf, the Cafe Carpe, in Fort Atkinson, WI where they spent just five days making two records in the tiny back room. The live record, “Peter Mulvey with SistaStrings Live at the Cafe Carpe” is out now on Righteous Babe Records. It’s a celebration of a world that is temporarily on hold: a small folk club, packed with listeners, and a band shoulder-to-shoulder, playing and singing with intimacy and abandon.
The other shoe, “Shenandoah” a studio album about love and family in the midst of a dying empire, will drop in early 2021, provided there is still a republic within which to drop it.
After inheriting her grandmother’s guitar and a bag full of handwritten cover songs in 2017, folk singer Lisa Bastoni returned to music after a 10-year absence. The mother of two had taken a break after time spent busking in Boston after college, but finding her grandmother’s lyrics ignited something irresistible inside her: she says she felt the routines of her own life shaking loose. How We Want to Live, released today, chronicles life changes, including songs about the dissolution of her marriage and learning to live a new normal — but more than anything, it finds the songwriter diving deeper into the life she craves.
All of the songs on How We Want to Live were written when Lisa’s marriage was ending — though it’s not a divorce album. Instead, it finds its creator doing the deep work of deciphering what she wants her world to be. Sifting through her thoughts and feelings about her relationships — between her and a partner, both real and imagined; between her and a parent; between her and her children; between longtime friends — and expressing what she would like each of those people to hear and know. It was produced by Sean Staples and recorded at Side Hill Sound in Waltham, MA. The album, which Glide Magazine says offers “expressive, well-crafted folk songs,” also features guest musicians Isa Burke, Eleanor Buckland, Mali Obomsawin (Lula Wiles); Rose Cousins; Mark Erelli; and Naomi Sommers.
The first song written for the album, “Pockets Full of Sighs,” was inspired by a line in a hidden notebook of Lisa’s grandmother’s, found after she passed away. As a teenager, Lisa flipped through the pages of her grandmother’s guitar notes, an instrument she learned as a 40-something-year-old. After she died in 2017, Lisa inherited her guitar — a 1971 Gibson J50 — complete with her handprint on the upper bout, where the sweat and oils from her hand wore away the finish while waiting her turn in song circles.
The title track, “How We Want to Live,” with background vocals from Mark Erelli, chronicles her feelings around the time she began digging deeper into her songwriting and recording career, when it was becoming clear her passions and her relationship would not be able to co-exist. The summer after the end of her marriage, Lisa spent a weekend catching up with old high school friends, inspiring “Take The Wheel.” “Silver Line” recalls what it can feel like to end a relationship with someone you love, but need to let go. Billboard premiered “Never Gone To You,” with background vocals from Rose Cousins. The track examines a relationship with a parent who doesn’t have the capacity to stay involved.
Other tracks are a bit more carefree: “Dogs of New Orleans” captures the lesson of being in the moment. “Nearby” is about the moments where love feels just right; Wide Open Country says the song “honors effortless love.” Featuring guest musicians Lula Wiles, “Walk A Little Closer” is a bluegrass-tinged tune about a first date, and aptly premiered with The Bluegrass Situation. “Beautiful Girl,” featuring Naomi Sommers, is an encouragement to Lisa’s daughter — to keep the sometimes-softer edges that can seem like a liability. PopMatters says the “heartening folk song is an ever-present reminder that kindness can be a strength.”
The sole cover on the album is Bob Dylan’s “Workingman’s Blues #2.”
“I keep picturing my grandmother, who was always encouraging me to keep at it — I was just getting started again when she died. I wish she knew what a gift she gave me when she taught me to play the guitar all those years ago.”
It is more than appropriate that Kim Moberg, who won our Performing Songwriter Competition in 2018, returns to split the bill with this year’s winner, to be decided in September 2021. She’ll be joined on March 19, 2022 by fiddler Heather Swanson.
Kim Moberg was born in Juneau, Alaska, the daughter of a classical pianist mother of Alaskan Native Tlingit descent and a US Coast Guard veteran father from Kansas.
Music was the constant in Kim’s childhood, helping her to adjust to the frequent moves associated with growing up in a military family.
At the age of 14, Kim began playing acoustic guitar on a borrowed nylon 6 string. A few years later, Kim taught herself to strum and finger pick to her favorite songs by singer/songwriters of the 1970’s, but debilitating stage fright kept her from pursuing her own dream of becoming a professional performer.
In 2014, Kim set out to overcome her stage fright and wrote her first song.
Kim teamed with Grammy-nominated producer Jon Evans to record both of her CDs. “Above Ground” celebrates the achievement of her goal to bring her music out of the basement and “Up Around The Bend” consists of 13 new original songs and one cover, Cliff Eberhardt’s “The Long Road.” Both recordings have received world wide airplay and critical acclaim, charting on the Folk International Folk DJ and NACC charts.
Kim’s passionate and heartfelt vocals mesmerize listeners while her compositions tug at feelings of melancholy, heartbreak, healing and social consciousness.
Two extraordinary veteran New England singer-songwriters come together for a split-bill show that promises to be one of the most exhilarating musical events we’ve ever experienced. Bill Staines’s music is a slice of Americana, reflecting with the same ease his feelings about the prairie people of the Midwest or the adventurers of the Yukon, the on-the-road truckers, or the everyday workers that make up this land. David Mallett’s songs are filled with passion, evocative imagery, and a sense of the inevitable passage of time. The struggle of the common man and the loss of American towns and landscapes are the subject of many of his songs.
To listen to April Verch and Cody Walters is to be immersed in tradition. To watch them perform is to be transported. Be it regional Canadian roots, American old-time, 50’s Country, Scandinavian folk music, or something original that sounds as though it’s been around for a century—the one common thread is their love and reverence for the music and traditions that have been passed down to them.
Husband and wife duo April Verch & Cody Walters is a true partnership of kindred musical spirits, each a world-class musician in their own right. Combining their unique backgrounds from Verch’s native Ottawa Valley and Walters’ heartland roots in Kansas, their music showcases endless creativity and versatility— transitioning effortlessly from traditional Ottawa Valley step dancing and fiddle tunes, to old-time fiddle-banjo duets with tight-knit vocal harmonies, to innovative sandpaper foot percussion, all contrasted against Verch’s sweet soprano voice.
Verch and Walters began playing together in 2007 when Walters joined the April Verch Band as their bassist. Initially formed as a pickup band centered around Verch’s own fiddle and dance stylings in 2000, the band grew and blossomed into an established trio of world-class musicians, spanning several musical traditions and backgrounds, yet all united in their mission to share the music they love. Together they have traveled to four continents, performed in fourteen countries, and played everywhere from tiny pubs and dusty festival workshops all the way to legendary stages such as the Kennedy Center and the Ryman Auditorium. In 2018—fittingly amidst their ever-busy tour schedule—April and Cody were married.
During the heart of COVID lockdowns in 2020, the couple began performing as a duo out of necessity, and learned firsthand that sometimes, art born of necessity can yield unexpectedly beautiful results. They developed new material, arrangements and a concert performance that hum with the ease and playfulness that can only be cultivated through deep understanding and trust—as musicians and as partners.
The duo’s diverse repertoire and unbridled passion come to life on stage with a presence that is versatile, robust, and masterfully executed. Audiences remark at their sincerity in sharing stories between tunes. Verch’s delicate voice, energetic footwork, sand paper foot percussion and stunning playing (sometimes combined all at once!) are jaw-dropping. Walters’ melodic banjo stylings, solid rhythm guitar accompaniment and tasteful vocal harmonies are at once understated and brilliant, dueting with Verch’s skills in glorious harmony. Their ability to preserve the authentic folk traditions of the past and reintroduce them into the musical landscape of the present is a testament to their masterful musicianship and widespread appeal.
Even now, after more than two decades leading her own band and with 14 albums in her name (two of which were nominated for JUNO Awards, among other honors), there is nothing that fulfills Verch or gives her more joy than playing and sharing her music with the world. “It’s like the reward for everything else,” she says.
Together, she and Walters are exemplary tradition-bearing performers: never forgetting the roots of the music, that connection to the people out there in the audience or on the dance floor, to the community sparked by a good song. “It’s about joining together to celebrate everyday life, through music. We’re all in this together.” And so together they press onward: diving deep into musical tradition, bringing people together and forging connections, and sharing their insight and genuine love for the music they play so well.