A dozen or maybe 20 of us straggled into Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall last Labor Day Sunday, hoping to snag good seats for the second mainstage concert of the New World Festival.
Then the first act, the Boston-based folk sextet Night Tree, caught our ears, with its alternately joyous and haunting blend of jazz, classical, klezmer, Scandinavian and Latin rhythms that afternoon.
“Who are these kids?” we asked each other. “They’re a-maz-ing!”
Joe Clifford, director of Lebanon Opera House, reacted the same way in November, at the annual showcase of performers that the New England Regional Folk Alliance stages for managers of concert venues. He quickly booked the Night Tree lineup of percussionist Julian Loida, violinist Lily Honigsberg, string player Chris Overholser, saxophonist and singer Zach Mayer and Swedish accordionist and singer Sunnival Brynnel, for a St. Patrick’s eve tuneup Friday night at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon.
“I was taken by their youthful energy and weaving of global folk traditions with Celtic music at the core,” Clifford recalled this week. “I often see artist showcases in less-than-stellar venues — hotel conference rooms — so when artists rise above beige walls, fluorescent lighting and terrible acoustics, I take notice.”
A Midwesterner by upbringing and education, Loida is grateful for the reception that Night Tree, made up mostly of graduates and current students of Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music, have encountered since venturing beyond greater Boston.
“When I was an undergrad at Indiana University, people just didn’t care about this kind of music, didn’t bother,” Loida said. “The people of the Northeast, on the other hand, really supported us, really inspired us. That’s why we’ve got to get out there now, to keep giving it to them.”
Night Tree performs at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon on Friday night at 7:30. For tickets ($10 to $20) and more information, visit lebanonoperahouse.org or call 603-448-0400 or drop into the box office at City Hall.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com or 603-727-3304.