You know it’s so hard to fight
On your own against the fading of the light
From the school to the church to the heartof the state
To the invisible power of the hidden hand of hate
— Johnny Clegg, from Asilazi (We Don’t Know the Day)
One fine day, maybe Johnny Clegg won’t need to travel the world singing about the pursuit of peace, love and understanding.
In this mean time, the South African ambassador of world music is finding plenty of material — even without Monday’s terrorist attacks in Belgium — to keep him writing and on the road.
“My music is about paradoxes and contradictions, contested issues,” Clegg said during a telephone interview last week, between the first and second stops of a North American tour that will reach the Lebanon Opera House on Tuesday. “I’m not kicking doors down. It’s a far better way to bring people into a conversation. It’s about critical reflection on what’s going on in the world as well as about entertainment.
“One has to find a balance between the two.”
Clegg has been striking, or at least seeking, that balance since forming the integrated band Juluka in the late 1970s, during the depths of the apartheid regime in South Africa, where the British-born anthropologist-turned-performer grew up. Throughout South Africa’s emergence from white-minority to black-majority rule, he’s also been watching the rest of the world with interest, not least the United States’ continued struggles to achieve racial, economic and political equality and the current, fraught presidential race.
“The politics of identity continue to come to the fore when you have a severe economic downturn like the one in 2008,” Clegg said. “I think there’s been a strong sentiment that the people responsible for this were never brought to book. It’s helped to stimulate a politics of the losers — lost jobs, lost homes. There’s so much global uncertainty about the future. In that atmosphere, identity politics become a strong rallying point, whether it’s by language, by religion, by race or even by class. This is a global phenomenon. Over here right now, you’ve got Donald (Trump) and those guys pointing at refugees from Mexico as the problem.
“When I look at America, I don’t see anything extraordinarily special, but part of a global meltdown.”
As usual on his every-other-year-or-so swings through the Upper Valley, Clegg will not beseech and preach and teach by song and dance alone next week. On Monday afternoon at Dartmouth College, he will lead a discussion in Haldeman Hall about the plight of migrant miners in southern Africa suffering from tuberculosis.
Then on Tuesday at the opera house, he and his band will provide relief, or at least a release.
“It’s a very energetic show, in your face,” Clegg said. “We’ll play some of the material from Jaluka and from (his second band, Savuka) as well as the more recent solo material. We’ve rearranged nine of the songs, and we’ll do some unplugged songs.”
They’ll be doing them without longtime backup singer and dancer Mandisa Dlonga, who had a previous commitment, but Clegg promises that the instrumentalists will pick up the vocal slack.
“Pepole want to hear the songs,” Clegg said. “I think the personalities behind them are secondary to the actual songs.”
Johnny Clegg leads his band into the Lebanon Opera House on Tuesday night. His son, rocker Jesse Clegg, opens the show at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($29.50 to $49.50) and learn more, visit the box office in City Hall or lebanonoperahouse.org/shows/, or call 603-448-0400. On Monday afternoon at 4:30 in 041 Haldeman Hall at Dartmouth College, Johnny Clegg will lead a discussion about efforts in southern Africa to help migrant miners suffering from tuberculosis.
As a benefit for the Strafford Recycling Center on Friday night, the Linda B and the Barn Cats ensemble of singer Linda Boudreault, guitarist Ted Mortimer, bassist Casey Dennis and drummer Marcus Copening — all alums of Dr. Burma — reunite at Barrett Hall in South Strafford. Admission to the show, which runs from 8 to 11, is $10
Still More Cats sets the soundtrack and the rhythm for dancing on Saturday night, during a Birthday Bash for Royalton Community Radio station WFVR-LP at the Royalton Academy Building in South Royalton. The $20 ticket price covers dinner, drinks, dancing and door prizes. The marking of WFVR’s third birthday runs from 6 to 10. To reserve tickets and learn more about the bash and about the station, visit wfvr.org or the South Royalton Market, or email folkbloke@gmail.com
The folk-rock ensemble Session Americana opens a new season of music at Alumni Hall in Haverhill on Saturday night at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($20 for Court Street Arts members, $22 for others), call 603-989-5500 or email info@alumnihall.org. For more information about this concert and the coming season, visit courtstreetarts.org.
AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon resumes its storytelling series, The Mudroom, next Thursday night with a session on the theme of “Going Home.” The doors open at 6:30, accompanied by music from the Etna Old Time Association, and the serving of cajun food and beer. The storytelling begins at 7. Admission, for adults only, is $5. To reserve tickets, visit avagallery.org/category/special-programs/mudroom. For more information, visit avagallery.org or email mudroom@avagallery.org.
The New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival begins a run of five films in Hanover next Thursday night at 7, with a screening of the documentary Rock in the Red Zone in room 013 of Dartmouth College’s Carpenter Hall. The movie follows a troupe of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East, struggling to make their music amid rocket attacks from Hamas on Sderot, an Israeli city on the border with the Gaza Strip. While admission is free, donations are welcome. Four subsequent movies are scheduled for between April 3 and 10, among them Raise the Roof, a documentary about the reconstruction of the art-filled Gwozdziec synagogue in Poland, on April 5. For more information on the festival offerings at Dartmouth, call 603-646-0460. For more information about festival screenings elsewhere in the state, visit nhjewishfilmfestival.org.
Folk singer-songwriter-guitarist Cliff Eberhardt will perform at Flying Goose Brewpub and Grill in New London next Thursday night at 8. Reservations are required. For tickets ($25) and more information, visit flyinggoose.com or call 603-526-6899.
The White River Indie Film Festival and the Main Street Museum in White River Junction will kick off “Alt: Cinema,” a monthly series of the political movies of maverick director Robert Altman, with an April 1 screening at the museum of Tanner on Tanner, the presidential-campaign satire that Altman assembled with cartoonist Garry Trudeau. Filmmaker, composer and writer Allan Nicholls, a friend and longtime collaborator of Altman’s, will introduce the movie, which starts at 6:30 p.m., and will answer questions at the end. Doors open at 5 for drinks and snacks. Admission is by donation of $2 to $20. For more information, visit mainstreetmuseum.org.
For its July production of Raggedy And, the Vermont Pride Festival will audition actors at the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph on April 2 from 1 to 3 p.m. and on April 3 from 5 to 7 p.m. The David Valdes Greenwood comedy follows the trials of a transgender woman chosen to recite a poem at the inauguration of the United States’ first woman president. To schedule an audition, email Joanne Greenberg jogreenvermont@gmail.com or call her at 802-734-1013.
The a capella ensemble Hyannis Sound will perform at the North Universalist Chapel in Woodstock on April 2 at 7 p.m. For more information, call 802-457-1919.
The New Black Eagle Jazz Band will fill Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall with the rhythms of New Orleans on April 3 at 2 p.m. For tickets ($5 to $20) and more information, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
Shaker Bridge Theatre in Enfield opens a three-week run of Sarah Treem’s The How and the Why tonight at 7:30. After stagings on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 and at 2:30 on Sunday afternoon, the drama, which mixes arguments about evolution with a woman biologist’s identity crisis, runs through April 10. For tickets ($16 to $32), visit shakerbridgetheatre.org or call 603-448-3750.
Northern Stage raises the curtain on its production of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction this week with preview performances at 7:30 tonight and Friday night, before opening night on Saturday at 7:30. The play reimagines the last night of civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, through a conversation with a maid at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis before King’s assassination the next day. Before the 5 p.m. matinee on April 3, on the eve of the 48th anniversary of King’s assassination, Dartmouth professor Derrick White will lead a 3:30 discussion of the historical and cultural context behind the play. Tickets for previews cost $30. For tickets from opening night through the closing night on April 9 ($20 on Tuesday night, $30 to $55 all other shows), visit northernstage.org or call 802-296-7000.
Young singers, dancers and performers from around central Vermont will stage the ninth annual Mini Mud variety show at Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall on Saturday night at 7:30. For tickets ($5 to $15) and more information visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
On Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 at the Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock, Opera North will stage a sneak preview of its future production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s comic opera The Telephone. Admission is free.
April 14 is the deadline for singers, dancers and actors ages 7 and older to sign up to audition for North Country Community Theatre’s July production of The Secret Garden. The auditions are scheduled for April 16 and 17 at the Dance Collective in West Lebanon. To schedule an audition, email ncctetc@gmail.com. To learn more, visit ncct.org/home/the-secret-garden.
The Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph and the Chelsea Funnery are inviting aspiring actors ages 7 and older to three intensive workshops on Shakespeare’s plays during the week of April 18 to 22. For ages 7 to 11, the workshops on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream will run mornings from 9 to noon. For ages 12 to 18, a master class on scenes from Shakespeare’s work will take place afternoons between 1 and 4. The workshop on long-form improvisation for ages 14 through adulthood, is scheduled for 4:15 to 6:15 each afternoon. Tuition for each workshop is $50, with scholarships available. To register and learn more, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-431-0204 or email emily@chandler-arts.org.
The Old Church Theater in Bradford is inviting Upper Valley devotees of live theater to take its online survey of audience preferences. Those who do the survey are eligible for $50 in prizes, including store and food gift certificates and tickets to the theater’s 2016 season. For more information, visit oldchurchtheater.org or the company’s Facebook page.
Brownsville Community Church launches its series of free concerts on Friday afternoon at 1:30, with organist (and pastor) Christian Heubner, trumpeter Skip Downing and soprano Jennifer Alden performing works of Bach, Faure and Rutter. A brief Good Friday worship service will follow at 2:30.
British blues master John Mayall plays the Flying Monkey Performance Center in Plymouth, N.H., on Saturday night at 7:30. For tickets ($39 to $49) and more information, visit flyingmonkeynh.com or call 603-526-2551.
The University Chorus of the Upper Valley is looking for basses, baritones and tenors for spring rehearsals that begin Monday afternoon at 4 in the gathering room at Kendal at Hanover. Admission to the rehearsals is free. In preparation for its June sing-outs, the chorus will meet Monday afternoons at 4 through mid-June. For more information, visit kah.kendal.org.
For the final installment of the Woodstock Vermont Film Series on Saturday afternoon, the Billings Farm and Museum screens the 84-minute documentary Keep On Keepin’ On, which follows jazz legend Clark Terry’s mentorship of blind piano prodigy Justin Kauflin. To reserve tickets ($6 for museum members, $11 for others) for the 5 p.m. show, call 802-457-2355. For more information about the series, visit billingsfarm.org/filmfest.
Singer Lydia Gray and guitarist Ed Eastridge collaborate at the Canoe Club in Hanover tonight at 6:30. Following them to the microphone with 6:30 to 9:30 shows over the coming week are pianist Jonathan Kaplan on Friday, acoustic chameleon Joseph Stallsmith on Saturday, guitarist Bruce Gregori on Tuesday, pianist Bruce Kaplar on Wednesday and pianist Bob Lucier next Thursday. And on Monday night starting at 5:30, Marko the Magician performs his tableside sleight-of-hand.
Singer-songwriters Brian Warren and Seth Barbiero join forces at Jesse’s Restaurant in Hanover on Friday night at 5.
The Lil’ Orphans pull into Windsor Station for a set of cajun-infused rock tonight from 7 to 10. Next up in the coming week are Juke Joynt with a session of bluegrass, country and Americana on Friday night at 9:30, the Burlington-based Grundlefunk ensemble on Saturday night at 10 and rock/soul singer-songwriter Senayit Tomlinson on Tuesday night at 6.
Singer-guitarist Guy Burlage plays at Bentley’s restaurant in Woodstock tonight at 8. And next Thursday at 8, Clay Canfield takes the microphone for an acoustic set of country and blues.
The Jordan Tirrel Wysocki Irish Duo performs at Salt hill Pub in Hanover starting at 8 tonight.
Sensible Shoes sets the rhythm for dancing at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners on Friday night starting at 9.
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Participants get a free large cheese pizza.
String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
Joe Stallsmith leads a hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass at Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Monday nights starting at 6.
Bradford’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic on Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
The Seven Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon runs an open mic on Tuesday nights, beginning at 8.
Jim Yeager hosts an open mic at Hartland’s Skunk Hollow Tavern, at 8:30 on Wednesday nights.
On March 31 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret, Yeager will host an open-mic, for which no registration is required.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.