While the members of Still Hill welcome every gig, mandolinist Cody Williams particularly jumps at invitations for the Upper Valley quartet to play its mix of roots and Americana music for community-oriented gatherings such as Saturday night’s Corinth Coffeehouse.
And when most of the proceeds go to a good cause — in this case, the Northeast Slopes ski area in East Corinth — it’s even more of a bonus, if not as lucrative a payday.
“It’s a cool crowd of people who value music,” Williams, a Norwich resident, said last week. “They tend to be much more attentive audiences.”
Audiences also have been paying enough attention, these past three years, for nightspots such as Windsor Station, Hartland Four Corners’ Skunk Hollow Tavern and Quechee’s Public House to invite them back as often as once a month.
And depending on the time of year, you’re likely to catch Williams, Thetford Center guitarist Rob Lees, Reading, Vt., guitarist/bassist Niles Franc and Hanover fiddler Jen Freise playing and singing at the likes of the Quechee Balloon Festival, the Norwich Farmer’s Market, apres-ski events at South Pomfret’s Suicide Six and on village bandstands.
“It’s fun to play at events we’d enjoy attending, at restaurants where we’d like to eat,” said Williams, whose day job is with a biotech firm at Centerra in Lebanon. “While I don’t think any of us would complain if we could do this for a living, right now it’s more about the companionship and the camaraderie. It also frees us up to play whatever songs we want.”
The current quartet, as well as members who have since moved on, were content early on to bounce bluegrass, folk, Americana and old-timey rhythms and rhymes off each other in band members’ homes between open mic performances.
“We sort of evolved from a couple of bands called Bitter Greens and The Few Remaining,” Williams recalled. “After those groups faded out from attrition, we kept jamming. There’d be weekly hangouts around dinner tables and fireplaces and in kitchens that would go until incredibly late sometimes.”
Then in 2016, they named their band for a road in the Northeast Kingdom and hit the roads of the Upper Valley. Along the way, they kept discovering, listening to and learning from dozens more fellow artists.
“I’d been here for something like four years before I heard about the New World Festival,” Williams said of Randolph’s annual celebration of Celtic and French-Canadian music. “There’s a shocking amount of music in this area, considering the size of the population. It requires a lot of attentiveness.”
Still Hill plays the monthly Corinth Coffeehouse concert on Saturday night at 7, at Corinth Town Hall on Cookeville Road. Admission is by donation to Northeast Slopes community ski area.
A couple of all-star jazz ensembles are serenading Valentine’s Day diners on Thursday night: Bassist Peter Concilio leads pianist Bob Merrill and drummer Jim Gilmore into Windsor Station at 6. And at the same hour at the Quechee Inn at Marshland Farm, saxophonist Michael Parker and guitarist Norm Wolfe perform. Lovebirds should make reservations: 802-674-4180 at Windsor Station, 802-295-3133 at Marshland Farm.
■Students, faculty and staff of the Vermont Law School perform The Vagina Monologues on Friday night at 7 at the school’s Chase Community Center in South Royalton. Playwright Eve Ensler wove the episodic comedy from interviews with more than 200 women about their sexual experiences. Admission is $5, with proceeds benefiting Safeline’s programs serving survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
■The BarnArts Center for the Arts stages The Clean House over the next two weekends at ArtisTree’s Grange Theatre in South Pomfret. This production of Sarah Ruhl’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated romantic comedy opens on Friday night and concludes on Feb. 24. Admission is $10 to $20.
■Carlos Ocasio leads Frydaddy to Farr’s Hill in Randolph on Saturday afternoon, to lend a soulful vibe to the Randolph Winter Festival. Free activities, between 1 and 7 p.m., include sledding, snow-tube bowling, a show of antique snowmobiles and a bonfire. The gathering closes with a fireworks display. Admission is free.
■In a free preview of its May concert, the Dartmouth College Glee Club sings excerpts from Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle (Little Solemn Mass) on Saturday afternoon at 2 at Top of the Hop in Hanover. Accompanying the ensemble will be Lebanon pianist Elizabeth Borowsky and West Lebanon mezzo-soprano Erma Mellinger.
■The Minnesota-based duo Sound an Echo plays folk music of Scandinavian origins and inspiration on Sunday night at 7, at the Upper Valley Music Center in Lebanon. Before performing with singer-guitarist Rachael Kilgour, Sara Pajunen will lead a workshop on playing Finnish fiddle music at 5. Admission $15 for the concert and for the workshop. To learn more visit uvmusic.org.
Venus Rising, dramedy by Hanover playwright Marisa Smith, at Northern Stage through Sunday. Tickets $17.75 to $57.75.
Dry Powder, dramedy by Sarah Burgess, Thursdays through Sundays at Shaker Bridge Theatre through Feb. 24. Tickets $16 to $35.
■“Pieces of Work,” sessions of workplace storytelling at Eclipse Grange Theatre on Thetford Hill, Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30, Sunday afternoon at 3:30. Admission $10 to $20.
Franco-American folk-rock duo The Whispering Tree, Friday night at 7, at Sunapee Community CoffeeHouse. Admission by donation.
■Maple Jam, a cappella jazz septet, Friday night at 7:30 at the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph. Admission $21 in advance, $24 day of the show.
■Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble, “Let This Be Our Response” concert in tribute to Rosa Parks and to victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook (Conn.) Elementary School, Sunday afternoon at 2 at Spaulding Auditorium, $10 to $12.
Singer-songwriter Alison “AliT” Turner at Inn at Weathersfield, Friday night at 7.
■ Frydaddy, soulful rock, Friday night at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern.
■ Soulfix, with guest singer Josh Hall, Friday night at 8:30 at Crossroads Bar and Grill in South Royalton.
■Acoustic rocker Alec Currier, Friday night at 9 at Margaritas in Lebanon.
■B3 Brotherhood, soulful funk centered around Hammond organist Tom Caselli, Friday night at 9 at Bentley’s in Woodstock.
■Music lineup at Windsor Station features Jester Jigs on Friday night at 9:30, Diamond Special rock band Saturday night at 9:30 and singer-songwriter Carl Goulet Tuesday night at 6.
■At Salt hill Pub in Hanover, one-man rock band Shrimp Tunes on Friday night at 9 and acoustic rocker Ben Fuller on Saturday night at 9.
■Singer-songwriter Amanda McCarthy plays Salt hill Pub in Lebanon Friday night at 9, rock quartet Boneshakerz appear Saturday night at 9.
■At Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon, rocker Chris Powers on Friday night at 9 and acoustic country-rocker Mike Preston plays Happy Hour on Saturday afternoon at 4.
■ Roots-rockers GrooveSum on Friday night at 9, and acoustic rocker Chris Powers on Saturday night at 9, at Salt hill Pub in Newport, N.H.
■Jazz pianist Sonny Saul, Wednesday night at 6:30 at On the River Inn in Woodstock.
■ Out in the Valley queer Happy Hour and mixer at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover next Thursday night, 6 to 8.
Fu’Chunk bandleader Jim Yeager hosts bi-monthly open mic on Thursday night at ArtisTree Community Arts Center, and weekly session at Skunk Hollow Tavern on Wednesday night at 8
■Flew-Z frontman Alec Currier’s weekly open-mic at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, Thursday at 8 p.m.
■Weekly acoustic jam session on Friday night at 6:30, at BALE Commons.
■Joe Stallsmith’s weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass, 6 p.m. Monday at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Fiddler Jakob Breitbach’s weekly acoustic jam session of bluegrass, Americana and old-timey music, Tuesday night at 7 at Filling Station Bar and Grill in White River Junction.
■Tom Masterson’s weekly open mic, Tuesday night at 7 at Colatina Exit.
Wonders of the Shiny Dome, Hartford playwright Alan Haehnel’s rumination on life in the Upper Valley, runs from Feb. 21 to 24 at Eclipse Grange Theatre on Thetford Hill. Admission by donation to The Parish Players.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Send entertainment news to highlights@vnews.com.