Add two more series of live music to the already busy summer scene in downtown Lebanon.
First, the outdoors: Starting this weekend, jazz guitarist Billy Rosen is hosting the Pop-Up Music Series on the pedestrian mall, between Three Tomatoes Trattoria and Salt hill Pub, on Friday and Saturday nights through Sept. 7.
“I tried to come up with an eclectic mix of music, not just jazz,” Rosen said on Tuesday. “We didn’t want heavy rock ’n’ roll. It’s not so much dance music as dinner music.”
And now the indoor option: Next Friday, June 7 and again on June 21, the Anonymous Coffeehouse will feature three area folk and roots acts at First Congregational Church of Lebanon. The Americana duo of Rob Oxford and Dave Clark kick off next week’s opener, followed at 8:15 by Harmony Hotel and at 9 by Derek Burkins.
“We’re going for more of a listening-room experience,” coffeehouse organizer Adam Sorscher, a Thetford resident and member of the folk band Never Too Late, said this week. “There’s not a lot of options, especially for a live-music venue that is alcohol-free.”
While the coffeehouse will pay musicians with donations from listeners — “We’re going to be kind of like public radio,” Sorscher said — Lebanon-area businesses are sponsoring pay and the meals for the Pop-Up series’ performers.
“With that kind of arrangement, it was not hard to get good players,” Rosen said. “Some of these players are really A-level.”
The Chris Kleeman Blues band opens the outdoor series this Friday, and performers and faculty from the annual Interplay Jazz Camp complete the June schedule on the 29th. The current schedule calls for Sensible Shoes to play the last show on Sept. 7.
Last summer, Three Tomatoes proprietor Robert Meyers hired Kleeman, among other musicians, to perform under a small tent next door to the restaurant, paying for their meals and drinks.
“On top of the $20 bills in the tip cup, it was just a very al fresco scene, pretty unique,” Kleeman said. “You’re out in the middle of the courtyard. There’s not much more to like than sitting out on a summer evening, singing your heart out and getting a good reaction.”
And thanks to preseason consultation with Salt hill co-owner Josh Tuohy, the Pop-Up series this summer, running from 6:15 to 9, will no longer conflict with the Friday- and Saturday-night shows at Salt hill, which start at 9.
Depending on the audience response in June, both organizers foresee extending their seasons — the outdoor concerts into 2020, the indoor into this fall.
“That would be our hope,” Rosen said. “I think the crowd will really enjoy it.”
The Chris Kleeman Blues Band opens the Pop-Up Music Series of free concerts on the mall in Lebanon on Friday night at 6:15, and the jazz trio of singer Dixie Eastridge, guitarist Billy Rosen and fiddler Thal Aylward performs there on Saturday night at 6:15.
The Anonymous Coffeehouse folk-roots series debuts on June 7 at 7:30 at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon. Admission is by donation. To learn about performing at the coffeehouse, visitanoncoffee.org or email recordings and information toanoncoffeehouse@gmail.com.
Orford soul singer-songwriter Senayit Tomlinson and fiddler/singer/live-looping artist Emma Back serenade the season-opening Feast and Field Market on Thursday night at 5:30, at Fable Farm in Barnard. Admission is by donation.
■More than a dozen accomplished Upper Valley actors parade around the stage of the Fairlee Town Hall auditorium this weekend, in three performances of a comedy-and-music revue benefiting Fairlee resident Sierra O’Leary. Admission to the shows, which will mix classic 1960s skits of Elaine May and Mike Nichols with songs of Cole Porter, is by donation to a fund to buy an adaptive car for O’Leary, a Rivendell Academy senior who was paralyzed in a 2017 ski accident. On Friday and Saturday nights at 7 and on Sunday afternoon at 2, Robert O’Leary and Susan Gyorky lead a cast that include many versatile performers from the recent run of the musical Working, including Lebanon resident Memory Apata Brady, Newbury, Vt.’s Richard Waterhouse and Norwich’s Katie Kitchel.
■After months on the festival circuit, Barnard filmmaker Josh Melrod brings his feature fable Major Arcana home for its Upper Valley premiere on Friday night at 7 at Woodstock’s Town Hall Theatre. The movie stars Barnard resident Ujon Tokarski as a troubled young man who comes home to his rural community and encounters still more trouble. The cast also includes veteran TV actress Tara Summers (Mercy Street, Boston Legal, Madame Secretary) as the protagonist’s love interest, and, in a supporting role, Bridgewater-native actor-comedian Collen Doyle. Melrod answers questions after the screening. Admission is by donation.
■Singer-pianist Julie Ness, bassist Dave Wysocki and guitarist Tristan Bellerive reprise their Joni Mitchell tribute concert, “An Evening of Blue,” on Saturday night at 7:30, at Court Street Arts’ Alumni Hall in Haverhill. Since debuting the show in Hartland last fall, the trio has been selling out performances of the 10-song cycle from Mitchell’s seminal Blue album, among them A Case of You, Carey and California. For tickets ($17 to $20) and more information, visit courtstreetarts.org or call 603-989-5500.
Singer-songwriter Phoebe Legere, roots-folk, Friday night at 7 at Sunapee Community CoffeeHouse in Sunapee Harbor. Admission by donation.
■Cellist Frances Borowsky, violinist Emmanuel Borowsky and pianist Daniel Weiser, chamber performances on theme of “The Folk Spirit” on Friday night (house concert; $35 admission) in Hanover, and on Saturday night at First Congregational Church of Lebanon ($18) and on Sunday afternoon at Damon Hall in Hartland ($18). To reserve tickets and learn more, visit classicopia.org.
■Samara Piano Quartet, chamber music, Friday night at 7:30 at First Congregational Church of Lebanon; admission by donation.
■Cantabile women’s chorus, concert on theme of “The Sun, the Moon and the Stars,” on Saturday afternoon at 4 at Norwich Congregational Church and on Sunday afternoon at 4 at First Congregational Church of Lebanon. For advance tickets ($5 to $15) and more information, visit cantabilewomen.org/june-2019-concert.html.
Singer-guitarist Will Gardner, Thursday night at 6 at Peyton Place in Orford; singer-songwriter Chris Comeau, Sunday night at 6.
■Still Hill, bluegrass Thursday night at 7 at Windsor Station.
■Singer-songwriter Ean Ray, Friday night at 7 at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover.
■ Frydaddy, rock and soul, Friday night at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland.
■Plush Foot, funky rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon.
■Singer-songwriter Ken Macy, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■ Marko the Magician, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Newport.
■John Lackard Blues Band, Saturday afternoon at 5 at Harpoon Brewery in Windsor.
■Doc & Tom, roots/Americana, Sunday afternoon at 2 at SILO Distillery in Windsor.
■Jim Yeager, rock/funk, Monday night at 7 at Woodstock Inn’s Richardson Tavern.
■Saxophonist Michael Parker, guitarist Billy Rosen and bassist Peter Concilio, jazz, Tuesday night at 7 at Carpenter & Main in Norwich.
■Jazz pianist Sonny Saul, Wednesday night at 6:30 at On the River Inn in Woodstock.
Alec Currier’s open-mic at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, Thursday nights 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.
■Tom Masterson’s weekly open mic, Tuesday night at 7 at Colatina Exit.
■Jim Yeager hosts open mics at The Public House Pub in Quechee on Tuesday night at 6; and at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland on Wednesday night at 8.
For Barn Arts’ November production of Other Desert Cities, auditions at 6:30 on Wednesday night and next Thursday night at First Universalist Church and Society of Barnard. To learn more, visit barnarts.org or email director M. Carl Kaufman at mcarlkaufman@gmail.com.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Send entertainment news to highlights@vnews.com.