And we all start to laugh
And the people start to stare thinking
Them kids are in a funny way
Livingston Taylor
— from Carolina Day
Along with singing folk songs old and new and telling stories from nearly half a century on stage, Livingston Taylor will be scrutinizing his audience — and himself — at Woodstock’s Town Hall Theatre next Thursday night.
“It really is research,” Taylor, a professor at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, said of his touring schedule last week, during a telephone interview from his home on Martha’s Vineyard. “I teach on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and for about 90 gigs a year I am on the road. I am feeling what it means to be in my 60s and make music. I am in research mode constantly.”
One of three brothers and four siblings of nine-time Grammy-winning troubadour James Taylor, Livingston first started practicing the art and science of performing in front of audiences around Boston in 1968.
After touring and recording for 20 years, during which he scored his biggest hit with I’ll Be in Love with You in 1978, Livingston Taylor fielded a call from Berklee Vice President Rob Rose, inviting him to teach a course in stage performance. Taylor started with one class of eight students in 1989, and now works with about 40 — while many more populate the waiting list.
“I was on it, right away,” the 67-year-old Taylor recalled. “It’s really been fun to examine in minutiae and detail the nuance of being on stage, the idea of standing up in front of a group of people and saying what you want to say.”
He’s also been refining his act in the process of teaching.
“I have always believed that the best way to learn was in fact to teach,” Taylor said. “My curiosity has raged unabated. … The core of all of this is that the audience … it’s not their job to listen. It’s your job to make them listen. Even people who don’t particularly care for my music are absolutely dumbfounded by how at ease I am on stage and how at ease they are in my presence.”
A few years into his teaching career, Taylor wrote a textbook, Stage Performance, based on what he taught and learned with his first class at Berklee. He revised a third edition, due out shortly, while recording his 19th studio album, Safe Home, which was released earlier this year.
How much material he plays from the new record next Thursday in Woodstock will depend on the audience.
“It’s hard for me to tell what I’ll play at a given show,” Taylor said. “I’m aware that I need to be more mindful of playing songs from my early time, that’s strongly imprinted on people.
“Notwithstanding, I love the adventure of the now. I’m very much interested in today. I love current events. I love the fact that the American people were able to elect Barack Obama. I’m equally enthusiastic about their electing Donald Trump. I love their experiment. I love the idea that they want to try new things.”
Livingston Taylor performs at Woodstock’s Town Hall Theatre next Thursday night, in a concert benefiting the Ottauquechee Health Foundation. The Burlington-based indie folk-rock duo The Dupont Brothers open for Taylor at 7:30 p.m. To reserve tickets ($35 to $45) and learn more, visit pentanglearts.org or call 802-457-3981.
Best Bets
Using instruments designed by Dartmouth College engineering students, the percussion trio TIGUE join guest singers to premiere Molly Herron’s Hopkins Center-commissioned composition Assembly this afternoon at 5, in the Glycofi Atrium of the Thayer School of Engineering in Hanover. Admission is free. To learn more, visit hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/stemarts2017.
Language teacher Maura Naughton leads her class of students of Irish in a session of storytelling at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon tonight starting at 7. The gathering also will include music and conversation. Admission is free.
With Strafford singer-actor Becky Bailey narrating, pianist Annemieke McLane and accordionist Jeremiah McLane perform their arrangement of Francis Poulenc’s musical setting of the children’s book The Story of Babar on Friday night at 6:30 at the Upper Valley Music Center in Lebanon. The McLanes also will play works of Ravel, Debussy and Bizet. Admission is $15 at the door for ages 19 and older.
City Center Ballet presents four performances of Cinderella at Lebanon Opera House this weekend, starting Friday night at 7. Subsequent shows are scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 1, Saturday night at 7 and Sunday afternoon at 2. To order tickets ($9 to $32) and learn more, visit lebanonoperahouse.org or the box office in City Hall, or call 603-448-0400.
The Newport Opera House Association stages Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun at the opera house on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 and on Sunday afternoon at 2. For tickets ($15 to $20) and more information, visit newportoperahouse.com or call 603-863-2412.
Louis Burkot directs the Dartmouth College Glee Club and a chamber orchestra through excerpts from Handel’s opera Semele and from Haydn’s Te Deum, on Sunday afternoon at 2 at Rollins Chapel in Hanover. The glee club also will tackle the Ralph Vaughan Williams suite Four English Folksongs. For tickets ($10) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
On the subject of “On This Earth Together,” the Thetford Chamber Singers spend the first two weekends of May performing music that blends the work of composers such as Gwyneth Walker and Henry Purcell with writings of Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson and Wendell Berry. The tour begins on Sunday afternoon at 4:30 at the United Church of Strafford. Subsequent performances are scheduled for May 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Woodstock’s North Universalist Chapel and for May 14 at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church on Thetford Hill. To reserve tickets ($8 to $12) and learn more, visit thetfordchambersingers.org. Admission at the door is $15.
Session Americana plays roots music at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction on Sunday night at 7. To reserve tickets ($20) and learn more, visit yellowhousemedia.com.
New Hampshire seacoast-based comedian Josh Day headlines the parade of stand-up artists performing at the Engine Room in downtown White River Junction on Wednesday night at 7:30. The roster also includes Eric Dreiblatt, Chad Blodgett, Nick Conner, Jared Hall, Randy Williams and Daniel Gilbert. Admission is $5.
Looking Ahead
Monday is the deadline to order tickets to the May 13 performance at Bethel Town Hall by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s string quartet. Admission is $25 for the concert alone, and $100 for spectators planning to attend the fundraising dinner preceding the show. Proceeds go toward construction of the town recreation center’s new skate park. For tickets and more information, email dpjmg@hotmail.com.
Theater/Performance Art
Northern Stage continues its production of Mamma Mia! over the next week, starting with performances this afternoon at 2 and tonight at 7:30. To order tickets ($14 to $54) and learn more, visit northernstage.org or call 802-296-7000.
JAG Productions and Pentangle Arts lower the curtain on their presentation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences at Woodstock Town Hall Theatre with performances tonight and Friday night, Saturday afternoon at 2, Saturday night at 7:30 and Sunday afternoon at 2. To reserve tickets ($17 to $30), visit jagproductionsvt.com/fences.
Music
The Tabor Valley Singers are inviting women with choral aspirations to their first weekly rehearsal this afternoon at 3:30, at the United Presbyterian Church in East Topsham. The ensemble performs Broadway tunes, spirituals, ballads and multicultural songs at senior centers and retirement homes between May and October. To learn more, contact Linda Duxbury at lindux@tops-tele.com.
The Freelance Family Singers Community Chorus performs at Woodstock’s First Congregational Church on Saturday night at 7 and on Sunday afternoon at 3. While admission is free, donations of non-perishable food are welcome, for the community food shelf.
The Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble plays works of 20th-century composers William Schuman, Vincert Persichetti, Karel Husa, Frank Ticheli and David Maslanka on Saturday night at 7, in Faulkner Recital Hall at the Hopkins Center in Hanover. To reserve tickets ($10) and learn more, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
The North Country Chorus performs the Felix Mendelssohn oratorio Elijah at 7:30 on Saturday night at the Wells River Congregational Church. Advance tickets cost $5 to $12 by ordering from catamountarts.org or $15 at the door.
Bar and Club Circuit
Soulfix performs at the tavern of the Lyme Inn tonight starting at 6.
Singer-songwriter Charlie Chronopulos plays at the Taverne on the Square in Claremont tonight at 7. Next to the microphone over the weekend are the soulful rock duo SIRSY on Friday night at 9 and the Shana Stack Band with a country set on Saturday night at 8.
The Mammals co-founder Mike Merenda joins Robt Sarazin Blake at Windsor Station tonight at 7:30 for a session of Americana music. Soulfix plays Friday night at 9:30, and Funkwagon, Binger and Maiden Voyage collaborate on the Cinco de Mayo party on Saturday night at 10. The Brattleboro-based duo Ruby Street performs folk-rock on Tuesday night at 6.
Ted Mortimer plays guitar at the Canoe Club in Hanover on Friday night at 6. Musicians following him to the venue with 6 to 9 p.m. shows over the coming week are the Sensible Shoes duo of Barbara Blaisdell and Tim Utt on Saturday and multi-instrumentalist and genre-straddling singer Joseph Stallsmith on Wednesday.
The Wheelers rock The Public House in Quechee on Friday night starting at 6.
Singer-songwriter Dan Masterson kicks off the weekend of music at the Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Friday night at 8. And on Saturday night at 9, GrooveSum rocks the house.
Stuart Ross & The Temp Agency perform at Lebanon’s Salt hill Pub at 9 on Friday night, followed on Saturday night at 9 by the Blues Brothers Revue.
The Conniption Fits hail Cinco de Mayo at Salt hill Pub’s new branch in West Lebanon on Friday night at 9.
Alt-rocker Andrew Merzi plays the Salt hill Pub in Newport on Saturday night at 8.
Dead Set channels the Grateful Dead at the Skinny Pancake in Hanover Friday night at 9. Performers from Revels North lead a pub sing on Saturday night at 6, the Vermont Bluegrass Pioneers play the Bluegrass Brunch on Sunday from noon to 3 and Bow Thayer performs his weekly set of Americana on Wednesday night at 7:30.
Sixteen-year-old singer-guitarist Quentin Callewaert performs at the Sunapee Community Coffeehouse on Friday night at 7. While admission is free, donations are welcome.
Royalton singer-songwriter Alison “AliT” Turner and saxophonist Michael Parker perform at Big Fatty’s Barbecue in White River Junction on Saturday night at 6.
Faux in Love provides an indie-rock soundtrack for the opening of the outdoor patio at SILO Distillery in Windsor on Sunday, noon to 5.
Open Mics
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic at 7:30 on Thursday nights. Participants get a free large cheese pizza.
String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
Joe Stallsmith leads a weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass at Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Monday nights at 6.
Bradford’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic Tuesday nights at 8.
Jim Yeager hosts his open mic at Hartland’s Skunk Hollow Tavern at 8:30 on Wednesday night.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.