Ethan Robbins’ was the first concert we canceled due to the COVID outbreak in early 2020 so it seems appropriate that we welcome him back to the Nelson Town Hall as we return to the local concert calendar. His band, Cold Chocolate, will be at the Nelson Town Hall on Sunday, April 16 for an afternoon concert starting at 3:00 PM. Admission is $18/$15(senior, student, or in advance).
Cold Chocolate is a genre-bending Americana band that fuses folk, funk, and bluegrass to create a unique sound all their own. Featuring Ethan Robbins on guitar, Ariel Bernstein on percussion, and backed by some of the root’s music scene’s finest players, this group from Boston is impressing audiences throughout New England and beyond. Punctuated by tight harmonies and skillful musicianship, and with a focus on songwriting, Cold Chocolate has quickly gained recognition for their original music and high-energy shows. The band has shared bills with Leftover Salmon and David Grisman, and regularly performs at venues and music festivals across the country.
A Saturday afternoon of workshops at the BMC from noon to 5:30 p.m. will be followed by a 7:30 p.m. concert. Sunday brings popular pub sessions from 1 to 5:30 p.m. at the River Garden Marketplace, 157 Main Street, Brattleboro. All workshops and sessions will be in person.
A cornerstone of the traditional music calendar in New England, the Festival offers a unique showcase of a variety of northern musical traditions including Irish, Scottish, English, French Canadian, Shetland, and Welsh.
This year’s featured performers include Nathan Gourley and Laura Feddersen (Irish fiddle duo), Julia Friend (Traditional song), Alex Cummings and Max Newman (English accordion & guitar), and Mary Fraser and Sally Newton (French Canadian fiddle). Keith Murphy, Andy Davis, Fred Breunig and Amanda Witman will make up Traddleboro 2023.
brings this community event to the Nelson Town Hall each year.
Admission is $5.
This year the evening will begin with a holiday concert featuring a selection of traditional and original seasonal music performed by The Solstice Sisters (Alouette Iselin, Melanie Everard, Kim Wallach, & Heather Bower) and friends; as part of the concert we feature a performance by one or more of our Johnny Trombly Scholarship recipients. This year, due to COVID protocols, we will not be serving refreshments and THERE WILL BE NO DESSERT POTLUCK. We’ve altered our format this year in an attempt to keep everybody healthy during the holiday season. Various groups of unsavory characters presenting their idea of seasonal entertainment will not surprise us as they will be part of the scheduled entertainment and once they are on their way we can decide if there is enough interest and energy to complete the evening with a traditional New England contradance.
Attendance will be limited to 75 individuals
on a first come/first served basis.
Doors open at 6:30PM.
You should be able to view the live stream from the Monadnock Folklore Society Facebook page or our YouTube channel:
Everyone aged two and up must wear a high-filtration (N95, KN95, KF94) mask inside the building at all times (except for *brief* sips of a beverage) and not eat inside the building. Masks will be available for sale at the door.
Performers may choose not to mask and are asked to take a same-day rapid test.
Everyone should be vaccinated and boosted.
If you get sick within 5 days after the dance, contact contrainfo@monadnockfolk.org.
Please consider taking a rapid antigen test no more than 24 hours before the event.
If the CDC reports any of these NH counties as Red, the event will be canceled: Cheshire, Hillsborough, Sullivan.
If you have any symptoms, we’ll be sorry to miss you, but please stay home and rest!
Cosy Sheridan will appear in concert at The Nelson Town Hall on Sunday, November 13 at 3 pm. She will be accompanied on bass and keyboards by Charlie Koch and Kent Allyn. Special guest appearance by Julie Snow!
This will be MFS’ first indoor concert since early 2020. There is NO ADMISSION FEE, but we will have a basket out for donations to cover our presentation costs. We are still in the midst of a pandemic and require that masks be worn indoors and there will be no refreshments served. Help us return to the world of music presentation while keeping everyone safe. Please review our COVID protocols.
Cosy Sheridan first appeared on the national folk scene in 1992 when she won the songwriting contests at The Kerrville Folk Festival and The Telluride Bluegrass Festival. The Boston Globe wrote: ”she is now being called one of the best new singer/songwriters”. She plays a percussive bluesy guitar – often in open tunings and occasionally with 2 or more capos on the guitar. She is backed up with the strong rhythms and harmonies of bass player Charlie Koch and keyboardist Kent Allyn.
Cosy continues to be one of the most prolific songwriters in the folk scene. My Fence & My Neighbor was number four on the folk radio charts in 2018. Pretty Bird was listed in Sing Out Magazine’s Great CDs of 2014.
She learned guitar when she was nine years old from her babysitter – using an old guitar she found under the family piano. She was a voice student at The Berklee College of Music, and a guitar student of legendary fingerstyle players Eric Schoenberg and Guy Van Duser. She has played at Carnegie Hall, The Cowgirl Hall of Fame, and on the Jerry Lewis Telethon.
She teaches classes in songwriting, performance, and guitar at workshops and adult music camps across the country. She is the director of Moab Folk Camp in Moab, Utah.
“Her user-friendly musical philosophy sets her happily apart from the myopic, self-involved songwriters… she is a wonderfully lively, very funny and enormously amiable entertainer with a keen and wicked eye for the excesses of our fast-food, tv-happy and noisome culture.” – The Boston Globe
“A Buddhist monk in a 12-step program trapped in the body of a singer/songwriter.” – The Albuquerque Journal
“Sheridan is frank, feisty, sublimely and devilishly funny. She fuses myth with modern culture, Persephone with Botox.” – Cornell Folksong Society
The Aurora Nealand Sextet will bring the music of New Orleans to Dublin, NH on Friday, July 1 at 7:00 PM for a concert on the lawn at the Fountain Arts Building on the campus of the Dublin School. The sextet is:
Aurora Nealand – Horns/Vocals
Tomas Majcherski – Clarinet/Saxophone
Leo Forde – Guitar
Brian Coogan – Piano
Matt Booth – Bass
Brad Webb – Drums
An established bandleader, composer, performer and improviser, Aurora Nealand has become a prominent force in the New Orleans music scene since she first arrived in 2004. Combining the “formal education” – a music composition degree from Oberlin Conservatory and training at the Jacques Lecoq School of Physical Theatre in Paris – with the “informal” experience of playing music in the streets and clubs of New Orleans and throughout the northern Hemisphere, Nealand has emerged as an innovative, sensitive and daring music creator and performer.
She is most recognized for her performance on saxophones, clarinet and vocals and has been at the forefront of the revival of New Orleans Traditional Jazz amongst the younger generation of the city’s musicians. After playing and learning as a sideman in established New Orleans Bands for several years, (Panorama Jazz Band, VaVaVoom, The New Orleans Moonshiners), in 2010 she formed her own Traditional Jazz band “The Royal Roses”. The Royal Roses released it’s first album, “A Tribute to Sydney Bechet: Live at Preservation Hall” to national acclaim and Nealand was voted as one of Downbeat Magazines top ten rising stars for soprano saxophone in 2010.
Nealand grew up in a musical family in California listening to Preservation Hall Jazz Band recordings side by side with Stravinsky, Joan Baez and the Pixies. Later, during her time at Oberlin College/Conservatory she was exposed and fell in love with the recordings of Mingus, the soundscapes of Mort Subotnik and the performances of Laurie Anderson. With a strong interest in interdisciplinary work and sound for theatre and installation, she moved to Paris to study at the Ecole du Theatre Physical Jacques Lecoq. Upon returning to the states, she bicycled cross-country collecting audio interviews and stories in rural America to be used in a series of compositions about true “American Dreams”. This bicycle trip landed her in New Orleans, which has acted as her home base since 2005. In New Orleans she began playing traditional jazz, jazz manouche of Django Reinhardt, as well as Balkan/Klezmer music. She quickly became involved in the local improvisation scene as well, making frequent appearances at the Open Ears series playing her own compositions with various ensembles and artists.
In addition to leading the Royal Roses, Nealand is also the leader/frontman ofNew Orleans premier rockabilly band “Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers”, and as performs frequently with her solo project, “The Monocle”. She also is a member of Panorama Jazz Band and Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship. In 2010 and 2011 she appeared frequently as herself in the HBO TV series, “Treme”.
Nealand has performed extensively in New Orleans at clubs, in the Jazz and Heritage Fest, FrenchQuarter Fest and Satchmo Fest. She has also performed frequently in New York City at Lincoln Center Summer Festival in NYC, the BlueNote, Knitting Factory, Barbes and has premiered original works at Symphony Space and Alice Tully Hall. Internationally she has appeared at the Istanbul Jazz Festival, London Swing Festival, Barcelona Swing Out, and has toured several times around Irealand, Sweden, Germany , France and the Balkans.
This concert is presented by the Walden School as part of their summer concert series and is FREE and open to the public.
Since we are still without a performance venue and are not up to speed as a presenter in the time of COVID, PFMS has graciously agreed to present Beppe at The Spinning Room in Harrisville.
“Italian guitarist, Beppe Gambetta is considered by many musicians in the world as one of, if not the best, acoustic guitarists. His talent, his taste, and his execution are superb. In this latest release (The American Album), Gambetta returns to the bluegrass field with a very nice selection of familiars and originals…This is a wonderful project of clean guitar interpretations that both musicians and non-pickers should enjoy” (BF, Bluegrass Unlimited).
“…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)
BEPPE GAMBETTA
Beppe Gambetta
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.
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)
“Beppe Gambetta has built countless bridges between Genoa and the Americas, combining the rich culture of his hometown with the beauty of the American roots and adding in his compositions contemporary influences to the traditions he mastered. He has been a true Ambassador of the Genovese culture in all his studies, productions and performances”.
For his 14th CD (Where The Wind Blows, Borealis Records, Canada 2020) Beppe Gambetta revealed himself to be not simply a master guitarist but also a new songwriter of great feeling, wisdom and maturity. “Where the Wind Blows” is a collection of songs and tunes all written, arranged and performed by Beppe with the extraordinary collaboration of American bass player Rusty Holloway and percussionist Joe Bonadio.
On Saturday, December 19, 2020, we published our Annual Solstice Party as a collection of YouTube videos. The Monadnock Folklore Society produces this community event every year, and this year we’ll forego the admission and the dessert potluck will be DIY.
In 2019, we had more interest in this event than the Nelson Town Hall could accommodate and many people were turned away at the door. Here is the 2019 Holiday Concert featuring a selection of traditional and original seasonal music performed by The Solstice Sisters (Alouette Iselin, Melanie Everard, Kim Wallach, & Heather Bower) and friends including a performance by our Johnny Trombly Scholarship recipient.
After the concert, the chairs and benches are usually cleared to make way for a traditional New England Contradance. Unfortunately, or not, the dance is often interrupted by various groups of unsavory characters presenting their idea of seasonal entertainment. These diversions, sometimes involving costumed individuals making complete fools of themselves or performing ancient ritual dances to help us through this dark time of the year, are generally tolerated as once they are applauded and fed we can return to dancing the night away. Last year we had to endure this 2019 Mummer’s Play.
Due to our current circumstances, we are not able to host this event in the traditional manner but we have managed to collect some video performances including Kim’s solo version of the Nelson Wassail and our 2020 Mummer’s Play.
You may also be interested in these videos from previous Solstice concerts:
On Saturday, August 1 we’ll be presenting TWO shows with different setlists, one at 2:30 pm EDT so our friends in the UK and Europe don’t have to stay up all night, and one at 7:30 pm EDT for our US fans. You can watch either one, of course, or come to both!
During all this chaos, the Stay at Home Music Festival brings you live broadcast music from your favorite international musicians straight to the comfort of your living room. Performances will be live-streamed from the individual Instagram accounts of the artists as well as on this website. Follow on Instagram @StayAtHomeFestival for updated artist roster and performance schedule!
