Another Labor Day weekend, and another festival of roots music is coming to the Upper Valley.
South Newbury, Vt., fiddler Patrick Ross’ Camping & Music 2017 extravaganza, on Saturday and Sunday at Harvest Moon Farm in Newbury, joins a parade that already includes the 13th Plymouth Folk & Blues Festival at the Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, Vt., and the 25th New World Festival of Celtic and French-Canadian performers, in Randolph.
The crowded weekend music scene is fine with Plymouth Festival co-founder Jay Ottaway, who doesn’t sound worried about potential audiences choosing one of the other venues over his.
“The more the merrier,” Ottaway, a singer-guitarist and a seasonal resident of Plymouth, said this week. “We’ve seen festivals come and go in the time we’ve been here. The more music is in the area, the more people we get. Sunday we might get a little less, what with New World, but we’ve had pretty healthy crowds on Sunday. We used to get 150 in the early years, and lately it’s been more like 220 to 225 a day.”
While sampling all three festivals requires following routes up, down and around ridges and valleys that border on can’t-get-there-from-here, each rewards the effort. For example, fans of Bow Thayer can catch Stockbridge, Vt.’s resident Americana troubadour at two venues: After co-leading a jam session around the campfire at Camping & Music in Newbury on Saturday night, Thayer will play the final set of the Plymouth festival at 4 on Sunday afternoon.
An overall summary of the options follows:
Plymouth Folk & Blues Festival
Admission is free to this low-key gathering at the Coolidge homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vt., where on Saturday afternoon the southern Vermont-based duo Hungrytown opens the festivities at 2. Next come Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Alastair Moock, a festival regular, at 3 and Burlington folkies The DuPont Brothers play at 4.
On Saturday night at 8, festival organizer Jay Ottaway hosts a jam session at the Five Corners Pub and Brewhouse in nearby Bridgewater Corners.
The Sunday afternoon lineup features bluesman Eric French at 2 and Danielle Miraglia, guitar-hero and singer-songwriter of the year at the 2015 Boston Music Awards, at 3, before Thayer closes the proceedings at 4.
Activities during the festival also include wagon rides on Saturday, face painting and crafts for kids on both days and a variety of food options, including barbecue. Another plus: the historic site’s visitor center is a short walk from the stage, affording a historical overview of Coolidge’s upbringing, presidency and legacy as well as a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains and forest. And no small thing: The site’s restrooms are clean and plentiful, too.
To learn more about the festival, visit plymouthfolk.com.
Camping & Music 2017
The gates at Harvest Moon Farm in Newbury, Vt., open for campers at 4 on Saturday afternoon, and the music begins at 7:30 with a jam led by fiddler and festival founder Patrick Ross, Stockbridge’s Bow Thayer and bassist Alex Abraham.
And on Sunday morning, the gates open at 10 and the music begins at noon, with a lineup that includes Burlington-based singer-songwriter Senayit Tomlinson and her eponymous band, singer-guitarist (and Newbury Elementary School principal) Chance Lindsley, guitarist Doug Perkins and the ensembles Atlas Key and The Hat Collection.
“I choose the artists based on their ability to play well with others,” Ross said last week. “At Camping & Music, people will not only be able to hear music from some of their favorite performers, they will also get to experience the magic that can happen when artists get together backstage and create new music on the spot. … We also are inviting attendees to bring their own instruments to participate in whatever types of jam circles might pop up.”
Activities during the weekend also include hiking, kayaking (for paddlers who bring their own vessels), yoga, field games and servings of craft beer.
Admission is limited to 400 spectators. The combined fee for camping and music is $35 for the weekend. Spectators coming for the music alone pay $25. To reserve a campsite and learn more, visit rockfarmerrecords.com.
New World Festival
Sunday’s New World Festival runs from noon to midnight on Main Street in Randolph, in and around the Chandler Center for the Arts and Bethany Church.
Headliners in what festival music director Kevin Dunwoody calls “the strongest lineup we’ve ever had” include Celtic fiddlers Liz Carroll and Wendy MacIsaac. The Chicago-based Carroll, who last performed here in 2014, plays in the main Chandler Music Hall at 2 p.m. and again at 9, between which she’ll lead a 3:30 workshop on Irish fiddling in the sessions tent on Main Street. MacIsaac, from the family of violin masters on Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island, plays in the dance tent at 1:45 p.m., in the music hall at 4 and in the sessions tent at 6.
New World also is welcoming back the Franco-Celtic trio Ten Strings and a Goatskin from Canada’s Prince Edward Island, which took the festival by storm in 2014 and 2015 and has been traveling the world ever since. In addition to their concerts in Bethany Church at 3 and in the music hall at 7, the ensemble, all in their 20s, will join forces with the Quebecois ensemble Les Poules a Colin to send festival goers home with ringing ears and weary feet.
“When (Les Poules co-founder) Marie (Savoie-Levac) heard that Ten Strings was coming, she asked me, ‘Is it possible to hire us, and then have the two bands combined play the closing dance?’ ” Dunwoody said on Wednesday. “That final dance is going to be killer. That’s one of the reasons we’re extending back to midnight, after closing at 11 the last few years.”
New World’s youth movement also includes the Celtic bands Connla (Bethany Church at 1 p.m. and the music hall at 6) and Coig (Bethany at 2, music hall at 8). Connla, from Northern Ireland, also will tune up for the festival this week at tonight’s Feast and Field Market in Barnard, starting at 5:30, and at Randolph’s One Main Tap & Grill on Saturday night at 8. And on Sept. 9, Coig, from Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island, will play Lebanon Opera House.
“I’m really psyched about all the young groups that are coming up,” Dunwoody said. “I haven’t seen an infusion like this since the mid-1970s. “They’re not only strong musically, and know their tradition, but they’re also mixing it with very high-quality writing.”
From closer to home, festival veterans returning to Randolph on Sunday include Pomfret native Tristan Henderson with the Vermont ensemble Pete’s Posse (music hall at 3 p.m., Bethany Church at 7) and former Nightingale singer-string player-composer Keith Murphy (Bethany Church at 4, singalong in the Chandler’s Upper Gallery at 7:30).
Admission to the New World Festival costs $35 through today, and $40 from Friday through the day of. Attendees ages 13 to 18 pay $12. After 6 Sunday night, the entry fee is $28. To reserve tickets, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
Best Bets
Enfield-native acoustic rocker Brooks Hubbard swoops in from his adopted home base of Nashville to play Salt hill Pub in Newport tonight at 8.
Pianist Sonny Saul leads bassist Peter Concilio, clarinetist Quincy Saul and drummer Tim Gilmore through a sampling of his compositions and the works of Bill Evans and Earl Zindars at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners, on Friday night from 8 to 11. To reserve a table, call 802-436-2139.
Lebanon Opera House joins theaters around the world on Wednesday night in screening Slipknot: Day of the Gusano, a documentary of the heavy-metal supergroup’s Knotfest performance in Mexico City in December 2015. Admission to the movie, which starts at 7, is $10. For more information, visit lebanonoperahouse.org.
Looking Ahead
Fiddling phenom Jeremy Kittel will play roots, jazz, Celtic and bluegrass rhythms at Barrett Memorial Hall in South Strafford on Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m. Joining him for the concert will be mandolin player Josh Pinkham and guitarist Quinn Bachand. Admission is $10 to $15 in advance and $12 to $20 at the door. To reserve tickets and learn more, visit yonasmedia.com.
Theater/Performance Art
The ArtisTree Music Theatre Festival continues its production of Always … Patsy Cline at the new Grange Theatre in South Pomfret with performances at 7:30 tonight and Friday night, at 3 Saturday afternoon and at 7:30 Saturday night, at 2 on Sunday afternoon and at 7:30 next Thursday night. The musical runs through Sept. 10. For tickets ($15 to $25) and more information about this and subsequent festival productions, visit artistreevt.org or call 802-457-3500.
The New London Barn Playhouse wraps its 2017 season with stagings of On Golden Pond at 7:30 tonight and Friday and Saturday nights and at 5 on Sunday afternoon. resident and Emmy-winning actor Gordon Clapp stars as the crusty Norman Thayer in this adaptation of Ernest Thompson’s family drama. To reserve tickets ($20 to $40) and learn more, visit nlbarn.org or call 603-526-6710.
The New York-based Stand Up Shakespeare company stages a “Bard-Based Variety Show” at the Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, Vt., on Saturday at noon. Admission is free.
Music
Bethel guitarist Spencer Lewis serenades the Lebanon Farmers Market, which runs from 4 to 7 this afternoon in Colburn Park.
Singer-songwriter Senayit Tomlinson leads her eponymous band to the Denny Park gazebo on Main Street in Bradford, Vt., tonight at 6.
Live at the Fillmore plays tribute to the Allman Brothers Band on Saturday afternoon at 3:30, during the final Cooler in the Mountains free concert of the summer at the Killington Mountain ski area’s Snowshed Base Area.
The Shana Stack Band delivers a country sendoff to summer from the Flanders Stage in Sunapee Harbor, on Saturday afternoon from 5 to 7.
The Newmont Band performs Sousa marches and other rousing tunes on Sunday afternoon at 2, in the final concert of the season at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish. Admission is included in the historic site’s $10 entrance fee.
Bar and Club Circuit
The Zookeepers pull into Windsor Station tonight at 7:30 to play a set of electronic body music. Following them to the venue over the coming week are the Northeast Kingdom funk ensemble The Mangroves on Friday night at 9:30, The Damn Truth on Saturday night at 9:30 and the roots duo Strangled Darlings on Tuesday night at 6.
Singer-guitarist Joe Smallsmith brings a surprise lineup of friends to the tavern at Jesse’s restaurant in Hanover on Friday evening at 5.
The Sensible Shoes Trio rocks The Public House in Quechee on Friday night at 7 and SILO Distillery in Windsor on Sunday from noon to 2.
Saxophonist Mike Parker leads his Soulfix ensemble into the Farmer’s Table in Grantham on Friday night at 7 and to Claremont’s Taverne on the Square on Saturday night at 8.
Acoustic rocker Chris Powers kicks off the weekend of music at Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Friday night at 8. And on Saturday night at 9, multi-instrumentalist River Glen joins members of the Blackberry Bushes for a session of roots music.
The weekend lineup at Salt hill Pub in downtown Lebanon features singer-songwriter Jim Hollis on Friday night at 9 and The Party Crashers with a wide mix of dance music on Saturday from 9 to midnight.
River Glen plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin and other instruments in collaboration with members of the roots band The Blackberry Bushes at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon, on Friday night at 9. Saturday night at the same starting time, Second Wind’s Terry Ray Gould and Suzi Hastings perform a set of folk music.
Acoustic rocker Chris Powers performs at the Salt hill Pub in Newport on Saturday night at 9.
Open Mics
Jim Yeager leads an open mic in the Hayloft at ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret tonight starting at 7.
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 a weekly open mic at 8:30 Wednesday night at Hartland’s Skunk Hollow Tavern.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Entertainment-related news and announcements also can be sent to highlights@vnews.com.