Most years, The Moonlighters Big Band waits till the end of its season of concerts to help out the Hartland Food Shelf by performing for a fall dance at Damon Hall.
This year, the band is providing some urgent help earlier than usual, opening its 2019 season on Saturday night at Damon Hall by playing swing standards such as In the Mood and ballroom classics like Stardust, along with a wide range of pop favorites from the 1960s and 1970s.
“We decided to do it now, after learning of a recent need to provide weekend meal packs for 25 Hartland children,” Moonlighters leader Janet Hewes said last week.
Hartland’s Unitarian-Universalist Church hosts the town’s food shelf, with help from the Hartland Congregational Church. The shelf is open on Friday mornings and organizers make arrangements on an as-needed basis.
In addition to the $12 admission fee for dancers and listeners, Saturday night’s dance will raise money from the sale of refreshments and of tickets for a raffle of maple syrup, gift certificates, a handmade afghan and other donations. Organizers also are encouraging dancers and listeners to donate non-perishable food.
Before the dance begins in earnest at 8, there will be free lessons in waltz and foxtrot at 7. For more information, visit moonlightersbigband.com or call 802-436-2069.
Guest singer Ali McGuirk, perhaps Boston’s leading exponent of smoky-voiced blue-eyed soul, accompanies Session Americana at Court Street Arts’ Alumni Hall in Haverhill on Saturday night at 7:30. Admission $20 to $22. Call 603-989-5500 to reserve seats.
■ Shira Kline, aka ShirLaLa, plays two free shows on Saturday featuring what she describes as “outrageously hip Jewish kiddie rock.” The first show takes place at 11 a.m. in Dartmouth College’s Alumni Hall in Hanover. And at 3 p.m., she appears at the CSB Community Center in Claremont.
■The Upper Valley roots quartet Out on a Limb, with multi-instrumentalists and singers Erin Smith, Melissa DiSiervo, Steve Glazer and Rick Barrows, serenades the Chelsea Public Library’s Chili Challenge this Saturday evening from 5 to 7 at Chelsea Town Hall. Admission is by donation.
■The Zimbabwe-based world music band Mokoomba perform two Woodstock-area concerts this weekend, starting Saturday night at Suicide Six ski area in South Pomfret; doors open at 7, and the New World Fusion Project opens at 7:30 before Mokoomba takes the stage at 8:30; admission $15 to $40. Mokoomba’s singers will perform a cappella during the Sunday service at 10 at the North Universalist Chapel in Woodstock, then lead a workshop after the 11:30 lunch.
■The Ladies of Laughter trio of Kelly MacFarland, Patty Rosborough and Leighann Lord take turns piercing the mud-season gloom, and possibly some sacred cows, when their “Funny & Fabulous” tour hits the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph on Saturday night at 7:30. Admission $32 to $37.
■The English Concert brings its production of the Handel opera Semele to the Hopkins Center’s Spaulding Auditorium on Wednesday night at 7. The celebrated Baroque orchestra will be joined by the New York City-based Clarion Choir (led by Dartmouth graduate Steven Fox. Soprano Brenda Rae sings the title role and mezzo Elizabeth DeShong plays the role of the goddess Juno in what the Hop describes as a “semi-staging” of the English-language opera. Admission $20 to $70.
The Taming, comedic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, staged by Shaker Bridge Theatre at Whitney Hall in Enfield. Performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons through April 14. Tickets cost $16 to $35.
■Lebanon High School’s Wet Paint Players perform the musical comedy Bright Star at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction on Thursday and Friday nights at 7, and on Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Comedian-musician Steve Martin and singer-songwriter Edie Brickell based the play on their Grammy-winning bluegrass album Love Has Come for You. General admission $2.
Northern Stage kicks off its production of Once next week, with previews on Wednesday and next Thursday and Friday nights at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. The musical, which adapts musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s 2007 movie about an Irish busker and a Czech emigre forming a bond and a band, opens officially on April 13 and runs through May 19.
Quentin Callewaert, Americana and gospel, Friday night at 7 at Sunapee Community CoffeeHouse, Methodist Church in Sunapee Harbor. Admission by donation.
■ Camerata New England Piano Trio, chamber works of Haydn, Mendelssohn and Joaquin Turina, Saturday night at 7 at First Congregational Church of Lebanon. To reserve tickets ($28 for ages 18 and older) and learn more, visit cameratanewengland.org or call 802-785-4833.
■Jazz singer Greta Matassa, Sunday at 4 p.m. at Center at Eastman in Grantham. Tickets $18 to $20. Visit josajazz.com.
■Pianist Matthew Odell, Prokofiev’s sixth, seventh and eighth War sonatas, Sunday afternoon at 4 at ArtisTree Community Arts Center.
■Vermont Chamber Artists, classical music on theme of “If Music Be the Food of Love,” Monday night at 7 at Seven Stars Arts Center and Tuesday night at 7 at First Congregational Church of Thetford. Admission $5 to $20 in advance, $10 to $25 at the door; proceeds benefit Norris Cotton Cancer Research Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Email vermontchamberartists@gmail.com.
Choreographer Camille A. Brown and her dance troupe stage ink in the Hopkins Center’s Moore Theater on Thursday night at 7 and Friday night at 8. The dancers employ a range of styles to tell stories about identity and self-empowerment in African and African-American culture. Tickets cost $19 to $50. After Thursday night’s performance, the dancers will mingle at a free reception at the Top of the Hop.
■The Old Sam Peabody Band plays family-focused contradance on Saturday night from 7 to 9 at Dorchester Town Hall. Admission free; beginners and music listeners welcome.
Landfill Harmonic, documentary, Saturday afternoon at 3 and 5:30 at Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock. Admission $6 to $11. Museum advises calling 802-457-2355 to reserve tickets.
Singer-songwriter Holly Furlone, Thursday night at 6 at Peyton Place restaurant in Orford.
■SIRSY, folk-rock duo, Thursday night at 8 at Salt hill Pub in Newport; singer-songwriter Jim Hollis, Friday night at 9; Mark and Deb Bond, folk duo, Saturday night at 9.
■Alec Currier, acoustic rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon; Chad Gibbs, rock, Saturday afternoon at 4.
■Mad Hazard, rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Mo’ Combo, rock, pop and jazz, Saturday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon.
■The Party Crashers, rock, Friday night at 9:30 at Windsor Station; Unbalanced, rock, Saturday night at 9:30.
■Sensible Shoes, rock and pop, Sunday afternoon 1 to 3 at SILO Distillery in Windsor.
■Jim Yeager, rock/funk, Monday night at 7 at Woodstock Inn’s Richardson Tavern.
■Saxophonist Michael Parker and guitarist Norm Wolfe, jazz, Wednesday night at 7 at Quechee Inn at Marshland Farm.
■Jazz pianist Sonny Saul, Wednesday night at 6:30 at On the River Inn in Woodstock.
■Jazz guitarist Billy Rosen, Sunday morning at 9:30 at The Old Courthouse restaurant in Newport.
■Saxophonist Mike Parker and singer randy White, rock and soul, Crossroads Restaurant and Bar in South Royalton.
Alec Currier’s weekly open-mic at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, Thursday night at 8.
■Joe Stallsmith’s weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass, Monday night at 6 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.
■Jim Yeager hosts open mics at The Public HousePub in Quechee on Tuesday night at 6; and at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland on Wednesday night at 8.
■Tom Masterson’s weekly open mic, Tuesday night at 7 at Colatina Exit.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Send entertainment news to highlights@vnews.com.