Music

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present folk music duos Sons Of Town Hall and Alice Howe & Freebo on Friday, March 7 at 7:30 pm at Next Stage.

Sons of Town Hall, the transatlantic folk duo of American songwriter/author David Berkeley and British songwriter/producer Ben Parker, is creating an entirely new performance genre. Part live concept album, part performance art, they conjure their timeless mythic universe under the aliases Josiah Chester Jones and George Ulysses Brown, 19th-century vagabonds who travel the world in a hand-built boat to escape troubled pasts and search for adventure and love. Designed as a live companion experience to their gorgeous radio-theater podcast “Madmen Cross The Water,” The Sons weave their wild and hilarious stories between their heartbreaking and rousing songs, taking audiences on a deeply imaginative trip every show. Both the Sons of Town Hall concert and the podcast offer escapes from the everyday, temporary relief from the woes of the modern world. Listeners and concertgoers alike are left transfixed and transformed, in awe of Sons of Town Hall’s harmonies, and drunk on adventure and the tragic beauty of the human condition.

Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present roots music trio Laura Cortese & The Dance Cards, plus singer/songwriter Emily Margaret, on Friday, February 28 at 7:30 pm at Next Stage.

Laura Cortese is a prolific songwriter, vocalist, and fiddler who artfully blends American roots music with indie, electronic grooves, and pop powerhouse vocals – all the while appealing to a broad audience from millennials to seasoned folkies. Along with Laura, Valerie Thompson and Isa Burke feature a nearly symphonic hybrid of countless traditions and influences, full of rich interplays of virtuosic string instrumentation. Drawing upon their combined decades of experience in a rich variety of styles, the trio uplifts songs with orchestral string arrangements and layered vocal harmonies.

Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present an evening of Québécois music from Canada and the US by two trios – É.T.É and Yann Falquet with Emily Troll and Eric Boodman – on Saturday, February 8 at 7:30 pm at Next Stage.

É.T.É transforms the nostalgia of a kitchen party into an unforgettable concert experience that celebrates the joie de vivre of Québécois culture. With soaring vocal harmonies, a deep groove, step-dancing, and rich instrumentation, the trio creates their own trad universe with original compositions and unique arrangements of Québécois and Acadian repertoire. Since winning the OPUS prize for “Discovery of the Year 2017-2018,” Élisabeth Moquin (fiddle, step-dancing, vocals), Thierry Clouette (bouzouki, podorythmie, vocals), and Élisabeth Giroux (cello, vocals), have shared their original, lively take on Québec traditional music with audiences worldwide.

Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present New England’s acclaimed folk/roots quartet Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem at Next Stage on Saturday, February 1 at 7:30 pm.

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem feature 4-part vocal harmonies, indelible songs, fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, and a homemade percussion kit of cardboard boxes, tin cans, caulk tubes, packing-tape tambourines, bottle-cap rattles, Mongolian jaw harps, and a vinyl suitcase. Over the past 20 years, the quartet has toured its uplifting, healing performances to concert halls, festivals, and residency engagements across North America, and has released seven CDs on Signature Sounds. From the Newport Folk Festival to California World Music Festival and beyond, this band’s steadfast brew of wit, camaraderie, and musicality leaves audiences everywhere humming and hopeful, spirits renewed.

Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present a dance party with roots and world music quintet The Gaslight Tinkers at Next Stage on Friday, January 24 at 7:30 pm. Blending African, Caribbean, Funk, Reggae, and Latin grooves with traditional fiddle music, the quintet creates the genre-bending future of the music of the past.

The Gaslight Tinkers’ mix of global rhythms creates a joyous world beat sound around a core of traditional New England old time and celtic fiddle music, merging boundless positive energy with melody and song. Drawing from their extensive musical backgrounds in traditional folk, Caribbean, old time, Celtic, and rock, I-Shea, Clara, Garrett, Elie, and Peter craft a sound that brings world traditions together.

Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present an evening of contemporary folk music with Antje Duvekot and Goodnight Moonshine (Molly Venter and Eben Pariser) on Saturday, December 14 at 7:30 pm at Next Stage.

Antje Duvekot is a German-born, American-raised singer/songwriter whose songs have been critically praised for their hard-won wisdom, dark-eyed realism, and street-smart romanticism. Her bicultural upbringing and relative newness to English have helped shape her unique way with a song, giving her a startlingly original poetic palette. They are the keys to the powerful, even revolutionary, empathy that informs everything she writes. She has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the Kerrville Folk Festival Best New Folk Award, and the Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act.