Author: MFS

☼ ☼ ☼ Windborne | Nelson Town Hall | December 6, 2019

Concerts, Dance Music, Events, History, Songs

Coming off two years as featured vocalists for Christmas Celtic Sojourn in Boston, as well as a collaboration with Nowell Sing We Clear, Windborne, known for their powerful vocal harmony and stunning original arrangements, presents songs of the season along with their diverse repertoire of music from around the world in this can’t-miss concert.  Windborne has collected and studied polyphonic vocal music for over 15 years from traditional singing masters from cultures around the world, Windborne is able to shift from radically different genres like no band you have ever heard, as comfortable with an improvised Corsican couplet son, as an English protest ballad from the 17th century. Lynn Mahoney Rowan, Will Thomas Rowan, Lauren Breunig, and Jeremy Carter-Gordon share a vibrant energy onstage – their connection to each other and to the music clearly evident. They educate as they entertain, telling stories about the music and explaining the characteristics and stylistic elements of the traditions in which they sing. Join us on Friday, December 6, 2019, 7:30 PM at the Nelson Town Hall for a concert of seasonal music. Admission is $18/$15(Sr/Jr).

While all four singers had other careers, ranging from trapeze artist to dance anthropologist, the outpouring of requests for performances led them to make spreading this music and message their full time work, and they are now touring across the US and UK.

“The best musical discovery of the year…Stunningly powerful vocal harmony in the tradition of the Watersons, The Voice Squad, and Coope, Boyes, and Simpson, Windborne sets a new bar for folk harmony singing today”

-Brian O’Donovan, National Public Radio

☼ ☼ ☼ Catherine MacLellan | Nelson Town Hall | September 14, 2019

About, Concerts, Events, Songs

Catherine MacLellan will grace the Nelson Town Hall stage on Saturday, September 14 for a 7:30 PM concert. Admission is $18/$15(Sr/Jr).

Catherine MacLellan has become one of Canada’s finest and favourite singer-songwriters on her own merits. She’s kept away from the media circus and celebrity scene, preferring to live at home in rural P.E.I. She’s worked diligently at her craft, releasing a series of remarkable, creative albums, culminating in the Juno Award-winning The Raven’s Sun from 2014, to go along with multiple East Coast Music Awards, Canadian Folk Music Awards, and Music PEI Awards. Most impressively, she has chosen to carve out her career path without trading on her family name, that’s pretty hard to do, when your father is one of the country’s most famous songwriters, Gene MacLellan.

“I was born to do this, and my father taught me the ways of a songwriter. I first used songwriting as a way to find out who I was. Now with every song I hope to find truth in inspiration and light in the dark.”

After releasing her debut album in 2004, Catherine MacLellan earned immediate critical acclaim, winning awards and being labeled “Critics Favourite New Discovery” by Penguin Eggs magazine in 2008. Since then she has toured internationally and her music has been a perennial fixture at the top of Canada’s Roots Music Charts, winning acclaim from international media including the Austin Chronicle, The Boston Globe, BBC Radio, Maverick Magazine and Q Magazine.

“…the Canadian singer-songwriter hearkened Gillian Welch, with guitarist Chris Gauthier playing electric Dave Rawlings to her acoustic strum. Gauthier’s tones wound richly around MacLellan’s crystallized vocals, whether cutting low blues or in delicate trill on tunes like “Isabel’s Song.” Perhaps most remarkable is the sheer effortlessness with which MacLellan and Gauthier unravel the songs..  –    Austin Chronicle, SXSW Review

 

☼ ☼ ☼ CONCERT CANCELED! Stu Fuchs & Sarah Carlisle | Nelson Town Hall | August 18, 2019

About, Concerts, Events
 
Stu Fuchs

THIS CONCERT HAS BEEN CANCELED AT ARTIST’S REQUEST!

A concert with Stuart Fuchs is a well rounded experience. His music is diverse – you’ll hear peaceful messages and jaw dropping instrumentals on ukulele, nylon stringed guitar, Native American flute & didjeridoo. Be prepared for an uplifting, soulful and often hilarious blend of jazz, world music, poetry, storytelling and original songs. Stuart will be accompanied tonight by his wife Sarah Carlisle on upright bass. Sarah & Stuart have performed on concert stages around the world with the renowned Kirtan artist Snatam Kaur and recorded on the Grammy Nominated recording “Beloved”.

“You haven’t heard the ukulele until you’ve heard Stu SHRED on the instrument from Brazilian choro and jazz to his dazzling instrumentals and soulful original songs.” – Marion Jacobson, ethnomusicologist and writer for The Atlantic.

“Stuart brings the sounds of foreign lands, unearthly realms & eclectic world styles from his acoustic pallet. A diverse mélange of playful ukulele tunes, beautifully peaceful instrumentals, original songs of scared poetry & cosmic humor” – The Keene Sentinel

Stuart Fuchs (guitar, ukulele, voice, didjeridoo) Stuart Fuchs is an internationally touring performing guitarist and ukulele artist who performs and teaches fun & innovative ukulele workshops at music festivals throughout North America, the Caribbean & Europe. Stuart is passionate about sharing music as a practice for self-care & wellness and keeps a
busy schedule as a teaching artist in the ukulele circuit, in school residencies and beyond. Stuart blends mindfulness and music at his annual “Ukulele Zen” retreat held at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck NY – his YouTube channel “Ukulele Zen” offers weekly ukulele lessons to over 35,000 subscribers. Fuchs, an accomplished guitarist in many styles, has arranged and performed the gypsy jazz guitar music of Django Reinhardt for full symphonic orchestras and was featured on PRI’s “The World” with his award winning gypsy jazz band “Babik”. In 2014 Stuart was awarded a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts for his work bringing healing music to cancer patients at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo NY, where he was a professional artist in residence for eight years. Stuart has toured to three continents as a soloist and as guitarist with the internationally acclaimed new age Kirtan artist Snatam Kaur. Stuart’s meditative guitar playing was featured on Snatam Kaur’s Grammy Award nominated Best New Age Album “Beloved”.

Sarah Carlisle (upright bass & mandolin) Sarah formally studied classical and jazz music at the Peabody Conservatory and Temple University. After spending more than ten years playing with orchestras and jazz ensembles in the Baltimore/DC area, she discovered kirtan and began collaborating with musicians in the genre. She has toured with renowned kirtan artist Snatam Kaur and with many others in the sacred chant genre including David Newman, Simrit Kaur, Ajeet Kaur, Aykanna and Luna Ray.

☼ ☼ ☼ Lissa Schneckenburger & Corey DiMario | Nelson Town Hall | July 14, 2019

About, Concerts, Events, Songs

Lissa Schneckenburger and Corey DiMario will appear in concert at the Nelson Town Hall on Sunday, July 14 at 7:00 PM. Admission is $15/$12(Sr/Jr)/$10 if you pedal, walk or run.

Vermont based fiddler and folk singer Lissa Schneckenburger is well known for her anthemic interpretations of traditional New England fiddle tunes and her recent release of original songs for foster and adoptive families, but this summer she is pairing down and playing duo shows with her husband, double bassist and tenor guitar player Corey DiMario (of Crooked Still, The Sweetback Sisters, and The Karen Casey Band). Although both musicians are long time veterans of the stage, this tour marks the first time they will be traveling to each show via bicycle. Inspired by concerns about climate change, and a community of activists in their hometown of Brattleboro VT, the couple wants to shift environmental conversations from that of fear and denial, to empowerment and creativity, in order to inspire others with ideas of how to move forward as a healthy society. The musical couple will travel to each show on cargo bikes with electric assists, bringing their son, merchandise, and all of their instruments (except a double bass, which will provided at each venue) with them. Audience members that follow suite and arrive at each concert via pedal power will be sold discounted tickets.

The music that Schneckenburger and DiMario make is inspired by other beloved musical duos (like Ani DiFranco and Todd Sickafoos, Chris Wood and Andy Cutting, and young new-comers Jenna Moynihan and Mairi Chaimpbeul). They have crafted an intimate show together with sparse interpretations of both traditional and contemporary music. Selections will include pieces from Schneckenburger’s release, Covers (2013), which is a mix of pop songs re-imagined with the luscious foundation of fiddle and bass on each selection, as well as her newest album Thunder in My Arms (2019) which is a song cycle of original songs written for foster and adoptive families about attachment, developmental trauma, and resiliency.

The two first met sixteen years ago in the Klezmer ensemble at The New England Conservatory in Boston, and have played and recorded together in a variety of ensembles ever since. As Schneckenburger explains, “although performing with a big band can be exhilarating and really fun, we’re looking for a deeper connection to our favorite music with this duo approach… stripping back the layers to find the bones of each piece and appreciate it’s simple beauty.” She continues, “Many musicians are self conscious about the carbon footprint of their touring lifestyle, but uncertain how to make changes that will be sustainable both for their careers and for the environment. It’s certainly challenging, but we want to be part of the solution, and I’m certain we’ll have a lot of fun in the process.”

If you’re interested in learning more, check out some of the amazing organizations that exist both locally (http://www.vbikesolutions.org, https://350vermont.org) and internationally (https:// sustainabletouringarts.org). The musicians encourage you to come out and support the music, in addition to contacting your state and national legislators to ask for better infrastructure for alternative transportation (biking, walking, and public transit) and an end to new fossil fuel infrastructure and subsidies.

For more information, please visit Lissa’s website at www.lissafiddle.com

 

☼ ☼ ☼ Aurora Nealand & the Royal Roses | Dublin School | July 5, 2019

About, Concerts, Dance Music, Events

 

Join us for a special evening of traditional New Orleans jazz with Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses at the Dublin School in Dublin, NH. This will be an outdoor event, weather permitting, Friday, July 5, 7:00 pm at the Fountain Arts Building on the Dublin School campus. The concert is co-sponsored by The Walden School, the Monadnock Folklore Society and the Dublin School and is FREE and open to the public.

The New Orleans Moonshiners, Meschiya Lake’s Little Big Horns, Panorama Jazz Band, Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers, Monocle—just a partial list of groups to which Aurora Nealand claims membership.

The Royal Roses grew out of the rich resurgence that traditional jazz is seeing in New Orleans amongst the younger generation of musicians today. Saxophonist/vocalist Aurora Nealand has been playing in various groups in New Orleans since 2005, and the Royal Roses, founded in 2010, is her first venture as a bandleader. The Royal Roses draw their repertoire heavily from Sidney Bechet, Django Reinhart and traditional jazz of New Orleans. Comprised of some of the finest young players on the New Orleans music scene today, the Royal Roses are seeking to breath new energy, arrangements and compositions into this genre of music while exploring and learning from its rich history and tradition. They’ve performed in New Orleans at the French Quarter Festival, Satchmo Festival and Preservation Hall, as well as in NYC at Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival. In the Spring of 2018 The Royal Roses were voted “Best Traditional Jazz Band”  at the Big Easy Awards!! Their first album “A Tribute to Sydney Bechet: Live at Preservation Hall” was released in 2011 to national acclaim. Their second album “The LookBack Transmission” was released in 2014 and includes original and traditional compositions including one Ms. Nealand wrote for the HBO series “Treme”. Inn 2016 they released a third album, “Comeback Children”.

The Royal Roses lineup fronted by Aurora Nealand on vocals and saxophone includes Dave Boswell on trumpet, Jon Ramm on trombone, Matt Bell on guitar, Nathan Lambertson on bass, and Paul Thibodeaux playing drums.

☼ ☼ ☼ Summer Solstice Concert | Nelson Town Hall | June 29, 2019

About

The Solstice Sisters return for a celebration of the Summer Solstice on Saturday, June 29, 2019 at 8:00 PM at the Nelson Town Hall. Admission is $15/$12(Sr/Jr).

Alouette Iselin, Melanie Everard, Kim Wallach, and Heather Bower have been a mainstay of our Winter Solstice party for years, presenting a program of original and traditional and sometimes just wacky seasonal music. They decided that getting together for the solstice concert was so much fun that it was a shame it was only once a year. But wait …….. there are two solstices in the calendar year, what better excuse could there be?

So come celebrate the Summer Solstice, Fathers Day, the end of black fly season, St. John’s Day, the longest day of the year, Midsummer, Ivan Kupala night, Wianki, Jani, the shortest night of the year, the Red Sox or whatever floats your boat with a selection of music that only the Solstice Sisters could put together.

☼ ☼ ☼ CANCELLED!!! Due to Illness – Andrea Asprelli & Jason Borisoff | Nelson Town Hall | May 25, 2019

About

On Saturday, May 25 at 8:00 PM Andrea Asprelli & Jason Borisoff of ‘Cricket Tell the Weather’ present a concert featuring the music of Townes Van Zandt at the Nelson Town Hall. Admission is $15/$12(Sr/Jr/Advance).

This concert has been cancelled.

The music of Andrea Asprelli and Jason Borisoff takes listeners on a journey both familiar and new, timeless and timely. Beat poet Allen Ginsburg would say when new folk musicians came on the scene in Greenwich Village in the 60s, everyone wanted to know: “what does he have to say?” Andrea and Jason embrace this tradition, staying devoted to the craft of lyricism, while wrapping them in infectious melodies, delivered with an honesty that can be simultaneously dry, comic, and soulful. Founders of the FreshGrass award-winning band Cricket Tell the Weather, they’re now embarking on a duo project to feature new original songs in a pared down, intimate style. 

Since September 2018, Andrea has hosted the Master’s Radio Series in Brooklyn, NY featuring the repertoire of influential songwriters and musicians in American traditional music. Andrea and Jason will perform selections from their tribute show to Texas songwriter Townes Van Zandt. 

☼ ☼ ☼ English Country Dance in Nelson on Sunday, May 19, 2019

dance

The Monadnock Folklore Society presents the last in its 2019 series of English Country Dances with the theme “Dance Around Monadnock.”

On May 19 from 2:00 to 5:00 PM, the dance will be held at the Town Hall in Nelson, NH, with Sue Rosen teaching dances that will appeal to all, from novice to experienced dancers.

English Country Dance is a form of social dance that harkens back to the days of Jane Austen and “Pride and Prejudice”, but its roots extend further back in time. Its traditions and innovations continue right up to the present.

Lovely music will be provided by the band Seven Times Salt. They are Karen Burciaga, fiddle; Josh Schreiber Shalem, bass viol; and Matthew Wright, lute.

Seven Times Salt is a Boston-based early music ensemble specializing in the repertoire of the 16th and 17th centuries. Praised for creative programming and an “impeccably balanced sound,” STS has performed since 2003 at venues throughout New England including Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Plimoth Plantation, the New England Folk Festival, WGBH radio, and many others.

Hauntingly beautiful tunes, elegant yet simple steps, friendly people and beautiful surroundings combine to make an English Country Dance a pleasant and energizing experience. No special clothing is required, but comfortable clothes and soft-soled shoes are recommended.

Beginners and singles are welcome and all dances are taught throughout the session. Admission is $10. For more information call (603) 876-4211 or visit http://www.monadnockfolk.org. The Monadnock Folklore Society has presented dances and concerts of traditional music since 1982.