At least once a calendar year, you can count on Celia Woodsmith to unleash her vocal chords and her guitar on a stage in her native Upper Valley.
This time — Friday night at the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph — she’s finally bringing her girlfriends in the Grammy-nominated bluegrass band Della Mae.
“I usually try not to look at our schedule too far in advance — sometimes it scares me,” Woodsmith, who grew up in Norwich, said during a telephone interview last week. “But I couldn’t help looking forward to this one. Della Mae doesn’t get to Vermont that often, anywhere, except occasionally Burlington.”
The ensemble’s debut at the Chandler is the third stop of a marathon tour through the spring and summer, which started on Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., After hitting Sellersville, Pa., on Thursday night and Randolph on Friday, Woodsmith, fiddle player Kimber Ludiker, mandolinist Jenni Lyn Gardner and upright bassist Zoe Guigueno are scheduled to play on Saturday in Cambridge, Mass., and on Sunday in Portland, Maine — allowing a rare overnight at her home in nearby Kittery — before their first break.
Speaking of breaks, Woodsmith made the most of the hiatus that Della Mae took from touring and recording between fall 2016 and late spring 2018 by performing and recording with her Boston-based roots-rock band Say Darling.
“I really like the variety,” Woodsmith said. “It keeps you on your toes. You have to employ different skill sets. It’s nice to sort of enjoy different genres and play different venues. With Say Darling, we play a lot of smaller venues, including dive bars. Della Mae is past that kind of venue now, but I don’t ever forget where we came from.”
They’re coming to the Chandler from a stint of recording 12 songs in Nashville for their upcoming, as-yet-unnamed album.
“We’re going to let the lyrics and the content percolate a little bit, but we might try out some of the tunes on this tour,” Woodsmith said. “There are a couple of fun and funky ones.”
Della Mae performs at the Chandler Music Hall at 7:30 on Friday night in Randolph. For tickets ($36 to $41) and more information, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
The laugh-meisters of Valley Improv cast their comedy nets around the ArtisTree Community Arts Center’s Grange Theatre on Friday night at 7. General admission $10.
■Lebanon-native soprano Mary Bonhag, bassist Evan Premo, pianist Annemieke McLane and Jeremiah McLane perform French jazz and chamber music at the United Church of Strafford on Friday night at 7. Admission is by donation, 20 percent of which goes to the Manheim Fund for upkeep of the church steeple.
■City Center Ballet marks its 20th year this weekend, with two performances at the Lebanon Opera House. Each show begins at 7:30 Friday and Saturday nights with a staging of Harald Landers’ classical Etudes. And after intermission, the company premieres contemporary works of New York City choreographers Alexander Brady, Michelle Manzanales and Jere Hunt. To reserve tickets ($12.50 to $20) and learn more, visit citycenterballet.org or call 603-448-0400 or drop into the opera house box office at City Hall.
■Folk singer-songwriter Bill Staines plays the Seven Stars Arts Center in Sharon on Friday night at 7. Admission is $12 to $25.
■An all-star quintet of Upper Valley actors animates the cast of The Parish Players’ production of the comedy 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche over the next two weekends, at the Eclipse Grange Theatre on Thetford Hill. The play co-stars Thetford residents Kay Morton and Perry Allison, Lebanon’s Memory Apata, Norwich’s Katie Kitchel and Hanover’s Jenn Langhus. Performances both weekends are scheduled for 7:30 on Friday and Saturday nights and at 3 on Sunday afternoon. To reserve tickets ($10 to $20) and learn more, visit parishplayers.org.
■Acclaimed classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein plays works of Schumann, Couperin, Philip Glass and Erik Satie at the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph on Saturday night at 7:30. For tickets ($15 to $41) and more information, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
■The touring company of the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences performs Me … Jane, a musical re-imagining of primatologist Jane Goodall’s teens, at 3 on Sunday afternoon at Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium in Hanover. For tickets ($13 to $23) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
■Folk singer-songwriters Garnet Rogers, Natalia Zukerman and Crys Matthews appear at 4:30 on Sunday afternoon at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley in Norwich. Admission $20 in advance, $ 25 at the door. To reserve tickets, visit uucvu.org.
Once, performances Thursday afternoon and eve ning through May 19 at Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. Admission $19 to $59.
■Author Peter Money, reading from new novel Oh When the Saints, at 6 on Thursday night at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon.
Patinoire, one-man show by Quebecois clown/acrobat Patrick Leonard, at 7 on Thursday night at Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium. Includes adult language. Admission $12 to $25.
The Fairy Circus, Tanglewood Marionettes, performances at 10 on Saturday morning at South Pomfret’s ArtisTree Community Arts Center (admission $5 to $10), and at 3 on Saturday afternoon at CSB Community Center in Claremont (admission free).
■Christmas Revels, auditions Friday and Saturday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in White River Junction. Annual winter-solstice pageant scheduled for Dec. 21 to 23 at Lebanon Opera House.” To register for auditions, visit revelsnorth.org.
Le Vent du Nord, Quebecois roots, at 7 on Thursday night at Court Street Arts’ Alumni Hall in Haverhill. Admission $20 to $22. Cafe opens at 5:30.
■Rick Ceballos and Daddy Longlegs, Americana, at 7 on Friday night at Sunapee Community CoffeeHouse in Sunapee Harbor. Admission by donation.
■Hungrytown, folk-roots, at 7 on Friday night at Silsby Public Library in Charlestown. Admission free.
■Kentucky Warblers Piano Trio and Sostenuto Piano Quartet, chamber works of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, James Horner, and folk compositions of Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, at 7 on Friday night at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Hanover. Admission by donation to HEADREST.
■Singer-songwriter-guitarist Tom Pirozzoli serenades the season-opening Norwich Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning and afternoon.
■Bel Canto Chamber Singers, two “Sudden Light” concerts of works of Handel, Ola Gjeilo, Thomas Juneau and Z. Randall Stroope: at 7:30 on Saturday night and at 5 on Sunday afternoon at First Congregational Church of Lebanon. Admission $10 to $15.
■Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble, Dreams and Imagination, at 8 on Saturday night at the Hopkins Center’s Spaulding Auditorium. Admission $9 to $12.
■Dartmouth Glee Club, opera, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, at 2 on Sunday afternoon at Rollins Chapel in Hanover. Admission $9 to $12.
Dartmouth Dance Ensemble, free performance of Get Up and Dance!, at 11 on Saturday morning at Hopkins Center’s Alumni Hall.
Saxophonist Fred Haas, organist Norm Yanofsky and guitarist Billy Rosen, jazz, from 6 to 8 on Thursday at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover.
■Chris Comeau and 25 Junction, Americana/country, at 6 on Thursday night at Peyton Place in Orford.
■Never Too Late, folk/roots, at 7 on Thursday night at Windsor Station; Off the List, Americana, at 9:30 on Friday night; The Gully Boys, roots-rock, at 9:30 on Saturday night; Dave Richardson, roots-Americana, at 6 on Tuesday night.
■Guitarists Billy Rosen and Steve Ellis, jazz, at 7 on Friday night at Inn at Weathersfield in Perkinsville.
■Sensible Shoes, rock and pop, Friday night at 8 at Crossroads Bar and Grill in South Royalton.
■Bassist Peter Concilio, pianist Eugene Uman, saxophonist Michael Zsoldos, drimmer Tim Gilmore, jazz, Skunk Hollow Tavern at 8 on Friday night; Tres Amigos, Latin-flavored rock and soul for Cinco de Mayo, at 6 on Sunday night.
■Party Crashers, danceable rock, at 9 on Friday night at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon; Carlos Ocasio, soulful rock, at 9 on Saturday night.
■Arthur James, blues, at 9 on Friday night at Salt hill Pub in Hanover; Toby Moore, rock, at 9 on Saturday night.
■Shrimp Tunes, New Orleans-flavored rock, at 9 on Friday night at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon; Occasional Jug Band, roots-Americana, at 4 on Saturday afternoon; Conniption Fits, Cinco de Mayo-oriented rock, from 7 to 9 on Sunday night.
■Hey Dana & T-Good, rock covers, at 9 on Friday night at Salt hill Pub in Newport; Rebel Collective, Irish pub rock, at 9 on Saturday night.
■Jim Yeager, rock/funk, at 7 on Monday night at Woodstock Inn’s Richardson Tavern.
■Saxophonist Michael Parker with bassist Peter Concilio and guitarist Billy Rosen, jazz, at 5:30 on Tuesday evening at Carpenter & Main in Norwich; with guitarist Norm Wolfe, jazz, at 6 on Wednesday night at Quechee Inn at Marshland Farm.
■Jazz pianist Sonny Saul, at 6:30 on Wednesday night at On the River Inn in Woodstock.
Alec Currier’s weekly open-mic at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, at 8 on Thursday night.
■Joe Stallsmith’s weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass, at 6 on Monday night at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Fiddler Jakob Breitbach’s weekly acoustic jam session of bluegrass, Americana and old-timey music, at 7 on Tuesday night at Filling Station Bar and Grill in White River Junction.
■Jim Yeager hosts open mics at The Public House Pub in Quechee at 6 on Tuesday night; at Skunk Hollow Tavern on Wednesday night; and at ArtisTree Community Arts Center at 7 next Thursday night .
■Tom Masterson’s weekly open mic, at 7 on Tuesday night at Colatina Exit.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Send entertainment news to highlights@vnews.com.