The Low Lily trio of Lissa Schneckenburger, Liz Simmons and Flynn Cohen make beautiful folk music together onstage and in the studio.
They also share a domestic harmony.
“One of the things that helps Low Lily work is that we’re all very understanding of a parent’s schedule,” Schneckenburger, the band’s fiddler and the mother of an adopted son, said recently. “Liz and Flynn (who were married in 2008) and I are all on the same page. We’re not going on tour for two months at a time. We’re at a point where we can mostly work on the weekends, and have a good family life.”
This weekend’s work includes a concert Friday night at Randolph’s Chandler Center for the Arts, where Schneckenburger’s husband, Corey DiMario, will contribute his bass lines to the cause.
Randolph is an easy hop from Brattleboro, the couples’ home base since Low Lily formed, and part of a schedule that Schneckenburger, a Maine native, could hardly have imagined while touring mostly solo from 2000 to 2015.
Just when Schneckenburger was trying to carve out a family life, Simmons and Cohen, with a child of their own, were disbanding their Boston-based Celtic/Americana ensemble Annalivia. They’d known Schneckenburger since she and Cohen performed in the band Halali, and needed a fiddler.
“We’d considered her a friend for years, we loved her fiddle-playing, and it just made sense to join forces,” Simmons said. “We were moving in a new direction, and she was stepping back from touring.”
Low Lily’s self-titled first album earned favorable reviews, and demand for their live performances picked up quickly, particularly among festival directors and audiences. While they occasionally venture beyond the Northeast — rarely for more than a week — they’re finding plenty to do in New England and its neighbors, with Brattleboro as a convenient base.
And Schneckenburger still finds time to advocate for foster and adoptive families like her own, through the Vermont Consortium for Adoption and Guardianship. That offstage passion led to Thunder in My Arms, the solo album that she’s releasing in mid-May.
“Foster and adoptive parenting has unbelievable trials and rewards,” Schneckenburger said. “I’d been meeting families and getting stories from different people, and I started writing songs from different people’s perspectives. It just sort of evolved.”
Low Lily performs in the Esther Mesh Room at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph on Friday night at 7:30. For tickets ($38) and more information, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
Expect Folk singer-songwriter Patty Larkin to wields her wit and pick her guitar with equal sharpness at the Flying Goose Brewpub & Grille in New London on Thursday night at 8. Admission $25; reservations recommended by calling 603-526-6899.
■Singers from Opera North rev up their voices for the company’s Summerfest by performing opera and musical-theater songs inspired by Shakespeare, during the company’s Spring Fling Gala at the Quechee Club on Friday night at 6. The admission of $50 includes a buffet dinner. To reserve tickets, visit operanorth.org/special-events.
■Next up in Hanover Strings’ Upstream Live series of live-streamed concerts, the Windsor-based band Faux in Love performs its mix of rockabilly, garage punk and old-timey music on Friday night at 7:30. To view, visit upstreamlive.tv.
■Revels North hosts a session of Pub Sing Bingo, with a focus on the music of The Beatles, on Sunday afternoon at 5 at The Engine Room in White River Junction. Revels North Executive Director Brian Cook describes the game as follows: “Players use custom-made Beatles Bingo cards on which songs are randomly chosen and then sung by all, until the lucky winner shouts ‘Ringo!’ ” Admission is free for spectators; Bingo cards cost $10 a set, with proceeds benefiting Revels programs. To learn more visit Revels North on Facebook.
■In observance of May Day, folk-singer and storyteller John O’Connor shares songs and stories celebrating the working class and the labor movement on Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 at Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock. Admission free.
Once, performances this afternoon and tonight through May 19 at Northern Stage’s Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. Admission $19 to $59.
■“The Locals: Music, Magic and More,” variety show on Saturday night at 7 at Claremont Opera House. Admission $10.
Patinoire, one-man show in which clown/acrobat Patrick Leonard juggles, balances and tumbles through an obstacle course of audio equipment, Wednesday night and next Thursday night at 7, at Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium. Includes adult language. Admission $12 to $25.
Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, works of Bach, Brahms and Schubert, Thursday night at 7 in Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium. Admission $20 to $70.
■Singer-songwriter Brooks Hubbard, Thursday night at 8 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■ Zeichner Trio, folk/roots, Saturday night at 7 at Seven Stars Arts Center in Sharon. Admission $8 to $20.
■Vermont Philharmonic, works of Dvorak, Delius and Vermont composer Joseph Marcello, Saturday night at 7:30 at Chandler Music Hall in Randolph. Admission $5 to $20.
■ Kearsarge Chorale concert, “It Might as Well Be Spring,” Sunday afternoon at 3 at Colby-Sawyer College’s Sawyer Center Theater in New London. Admission $5 to $15; visit kearsargechorale.org.
■So Percussion quartet, free concert on Sunday night at 8 at Dartmouth College’s Faulkner Recital Hall. Pre-performance talk at 7.
Atlantic Crossing and caller Don Stratton, Muskeg Music contra dance on Saturday night at 8 at Tracy Hall in Norwich. Admission $8 to $12.
The Dinosaurs, folk/roots/rock, Thursday night at 6 at Peyton Place in Orford.
■Out in the Valley, queer Happy Hour and mixer, Thursday night from 6 to 8 at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover; Bow Thayer, Americana/roots, Friday night at 7; singer-songwriter Matt Seiple, Saturday night at 7.
■Better Days, rock, Friday night at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern.
■Dougie & Rudder, rock, Friday night at 8 at Salt hill Pub in Newport.
■Singer-songwriter Tad Dreis, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover; John Lackard, blues, Saturday night at 9.
■Singer-songwriter Jim Hollis, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon; Mark and Deb Bond, folk-rock, Saturday afternoon at 4.
■Unbalanced, rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon; Boneshakerz, roots-rock, Saturday night at 9.
■Jim Yeager, rock/funk, Friday night at 9 at Margaritas restaurant in Lebanon, and Monday night at 7 at Woodstock Inn’s Richardson Tavern.
■Saxophonist Michael Parker with singer Randy White, rock and soul, Friday night at 8:30 at Crossroads Bar and Grill in South Royalton; and with guitarist Norm Wolfe, jazz, Wednesday night at 6 at Quechee Inn at Marshland Farm.
■Jazz pianist Sonny Saul, Wednesday night at 6:30 at On the River Inn in Woodstock.
■ Trifolium, folk-roots trio, Wednesday night at 6 at Kedron Valley Inn in South Woodstock.
Jim Yeager hosts open mics at ArtisTree Community Arts Center on Thursday night at 7; at The Public HousePub in Quechee on Tuesday night at 6; at Skunk Hollow Tavern on Wednesday night.
■Alec Currier’s weekly open-mic at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, Thursday night at 8.
■Joe Stallsmith’s hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass, Monday nights at 6 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Fiddler Jakob Breitbach’s weekly acoustic jam session of bluegrass, Americana and old-timey music, Tuesday nights at 7 at Filling Station Bar and Grill in White River Junction.
■Tom Masterson’s open mic, Tuesday nights at 7 at Colatina Exit, in Bradford, Vt.
The Parish Players will stage the comedy 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche on May 3-5 at the Eclipse Grange Theatre on Thetford Hill. Details at parishplayers.org.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Send entertainment news to highlights@vnews.com.