Valley Stage Blog

Phantom Music Series presents the Stray Birds on Wednesday, March 13 at the Valley Players Theater beginning at 7:30 p.m.  This will be their last performance in northern Vermont before they play at the Valley Stage on Aug. 10 beginning at 4:45 p.m.

 


When:    Sunday afternoon
               February 10, 2013 @  3:00 PM

Tickets:  $15 in advance
               $20 day of show

Contact:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
                802.434.4563


Sweetheart's Night Out:

Celebrated Roots Musicians
Darol Anger/Emy Phelps,
Hanneke Cassel/Mike Block
Lissa Schneckenburger/Corey DiMario,

...will present a musical evening of both the sweet and the scary side of romance, from their perspective as couples, with original songs and old favorites from every musical genre.

Darol Anger has made a 30+year career as one of the most influential and innovative fiddlers in the world. Lissa Schenkenburger is one of the best of the young fiddler-singer-songwriters of America’s Northeast region. Hanneke Cassel, one of the most dynamic and exciting Celtic fiddlers alive, tours internationally and is a Northeast favorite.

Emy Phelps, the “Golden Voice of the Pacific Northwest”, has been charming fans out west for 25 years with her phenomenal voice and marvelous songs, and has recently migrated East. Phenomenal songwriter and virtuoso contemporary cellist Mike Block has toured all over the world with Mark O'Connor, Yo-Yo Ma and other hip “downtown” ensembles and has made many recordings of his original songs and stories.

All these artists are connected with each other in musical and personal friendships, but they are especially connected as couples who live and work together regularly. The results of their process of assembling a Valentines' theme concert will be both amusing and deeply beneficial to everyone's soul. Please grace us with your presence in your town!

The Valley Stage for 2012 seems like a distant memory although it's closer than the 8th annual festival which will take place on Aug. 10, 2013.  And right now with the welcome snow that's falling here on Blackbird Swale next year's concert seems miles away.  Fact is we've just firmed up our lineup for this year.

Vermont's own Modern Grass Quintet opens the afternoon concert at 12:30 p.m. followed by a special performance by Sara Grace and Miriam Bernardo.  

Our "2" headliners are represented by a couple of bands on the rise nationally that you won't want to miss.  The Stray Birds (www.thestraybirds.com) out of Lancaster, PA are fast becoming the sweehearts of folk/traditional/americana as typified by their top 10 album of 2012 ranking by NPR and with bookings well into 2014 already it's obvious that they are much in demand. Comments range from "When I'm hearing their music it's like holding a precious book of wisdom. The words are full of good poetry, and the rich American melody makes the lyrics soar through time." to “The Stray Birds bring a unique maturity to their record, with a real reverence for traditional folk, and a refreshing sense of intimacy to their original songs.”

Joy Kills Sorrow (www.joykillssorrow.com) reign from Boston and met at Berklee School of Music.  Though comprised of traditional bluegrass instrumentation; guitar, bass, banjo and mandolin they have created a totally original sound that has been described as "fresh…creative and expressive, honest and sincere,  What sets them apart is how well they navigate the minefield that any artist in a pioneering genre faces: crafting intelligent music without sounding pretentious; paying tribute to immediate precursors without being derivative; charting a daring and original course without a whiff of preciousness". 

We'll be updating the Valley Stage website shortly with ticket information and other details about this year's festival.

Valley Stage Productions has other events in store during 2013. Be sure to check back here regularly for more information about these performances.  There's currently one booked for Fub. 10 at the Richmond Free Library which we'll tell you about within the next week or two.
   

Darol Anger/Joe Walsh & Friends
Richmond Free Library
Sunday, November 25, 2012
4:00 p.m.
 

    









This concert brings together four of the finest musicians found anywhere in the acoustic string world for a night of musical conversations. Darol Anger (fiddle), Joe Walsh (mandolin), Grant Gordy (guitar), and Karl Doty (bass) will draw on decades of collective experience with and mastery of bluegrass, jazz, old time and numerous string band styles to create a sound uniquely their own.

Tickets ($15 in advance, $20 day of show, children 16 and under $7/$10) are available by contacting Don Sheldon at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (mailto: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) , via phone at 802-434-4563 or by sending a check to Valley Stage, 246 Blackbird Swale, Huntington, VT 05462.  Please include your email address for confirmation purposes.

For the uninitiated here are some bios on the great lineup that'll be performing this one time show.  For those who already know of these guys, no introduction is required.

Darol Anger
Wildly adventurous Grammy-nominated fiddler Darol Anger is one of the most influential string players of the past fifty years, and is widely known for his own work as well as his collaborations with Bela Fleck, Willie Nelson, and Tony Rice, amongst many others.


Joe Walsh
Joe “not the guy from the Eagles” Walsh holds down the mandolin chair in the world-renowned bluegrass band The Gibson Brothers, with whom he recently won the “Entertainer of the Year” award at the International Bluegrass Music Awards conference, beating out Steve Martin and Alison Krauss


Grant Gordy
Denver based Grant Gordy is one of the most creative voices to emerge on the guitar scene in decades. Gordy is the guitarist in the legendary acoustic string band proving ground the David Grisman Quintet, and like his boss David Griman, Gordy has mastered jazz, bluegrass, and swing styles


Carl Doty
Upright bassist Karl Doty bridges the classical music and bluegrass worlds, and brings his impeccable musicianship to both. A founding member of both the pop-grass band Joy Kills Sorrow and the chamber orchestra A Far Cry, and frequently performs with Prairie Home Companion’s Heather Masse and the Grammy Award-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

We hope to see you this Friday!

Thanks to everyone who came out for "Terry Plays Monk and...." at the Flynn Space this past Thursday.  The outporing of love for this man and his and Monk's music was overwhelming.  Thanks to Terry, all of the musicians, the NRBQ community at large many of you who traveled from hundreds and in some instance thousands of miles.


Be sure to return to our home page for upcoming events over the Spring and Summer months leading up to the Valley Stage on Aug. 4.  

Valley Stage production wants to remind you that on Monday evening (3/26) tune in VPR.net (Vermont 107.9 FM) at 9:00 p.m. as George Thomas interviews Terry Adams in anticipation of his "Terry Plays Monk and..." performance at the Flynn Theater in Burlington, VT taking place on Thursday, April 5. Previously untold stories and reflections on Monk and his influence on Terry.


Listen to Interview

Hope you can consider checking out tomorrow's Brick Church Music Series in Williston with Queen City Bossa and Tom Cleary's Trio performing. This is a great intimate venue if you haven't had the opportunity to attend one of the monthly concerts. Advance tickets are $8, $10 night of the show.