Connecticut River Watershed Council, 15 Bank Row, Greenfield, MA 01301, 413-772-2020
For more information contact: Tex LaMountain 413-834-2606 (c) or Pat LaMountain 413-772-2020 X 203 Tu and Th
August 13, 2012 F O R I M M E D I A T E R E L E A S E
Greenfield, MA. August 13, 2012. The Connecticut River Watershed Council, a Greenfield, MA environmental group, announces the program and the performers for its Goodnight Irene concert at Deerfield Academy’s Memorial Hall auditorium on Tuesday, August 28, 2012 at 7 pm. The concert is a benefit for the CRC’s annual Source to Sea cleanup September 29. Tickets ($10) are available at ctriver.org, and at CRC (15 Bank Row), World Eye Bookshop, and Raven Used Books (also Northampton), Greenfield; at Boswell Books, Shelburne Falls; at Turn it Up, Brattleboro; at Savages Market, Deerfield; and at Elmer’s Store, Ashfield.
Seventeen Irene-inspired songs will be performed by the writers and other guest performers. The Boxcar Lilies will join Katie Clarke of Conway, MA on her song, Loves Comes Back. Jennie McAvoy of Deerfield will sing Hancock, VT’s Leslie Blair’s A Road Home, a lilting celtic ballad about being cut off from the world, and, also, Vermont native (now of Munich, Germany) Michael Veitch’s folk tribute to a covered bridge: Irene Meets the Bartonsville Bridge. Greg Bullen of Towson, MD, former Deerfield Academy choral director, and an internationally-recognised and recorded composer, will sing and play piano on his folk-jazz song The River To Its End. Mark Fraser, cellist in the noted Adaskin String Trio, will play on four songs.
“We have been working with the musicians and getting into the songs for the last several weeks,” says Tex LaMountain. There’s a song here for everyone—such variety and moving music and stories.” Greenfield’s Charlie Conant will sing Irene, a haunting bluegrass response to the changes at his camp on the Green River; Roland Lapierre, also of Greenfield, will play Rising Up, a country-blues gospel-flavored anthem; John Currie of Orange has a heartfelt folk song, The Harvest is Plentiful, about the Deerfield River, Clesson Brook and surrounding farms; Sarah Pirtle’s evacuation from Shelburne Falls’ flooding inspired her song Keep Hold of the River’s Song. Pat and Tex LaMountain, concert producers, will sing their Down the River, a humorous reminiscence about their place on the Chickley River in Hawley, MA.
Vermonters have a variety of takes on Irene: Laura Molinelli from Jamaica, VT and her bluegrass group, the Bondsville Boys will perform Between the River and the Road and Water Wheel, a song of old loves reunited by the flood. Seventeen year old Larken Goode of Woodstock will sing and play piano on her modern lament Expressions Upon Thee. Quechee’s Dave Clark’s Starting All Over is a gypsy swing history of the storm; Steve Spensley of Pittsford sings Didn’t It Rain, a Woody Guthrie style sing along with a hook that you can take home; Victor Tremblay of Granby sings traditional country—That No Good Irene—Mother Nature’s fine but not her daughter. Dan Seiden of Brookline, VT a NYC transplant, sings Dramatic Sky, a rock weather report. Bridget Ahrens and Alana Shaw of Winooski, VT sing You Can’t Drown Out Vermont, an Indigo Girl-style comic folk song.
Expect guest performers throughout the evening: the house rhythm section, John White, bass, and Rick Mauran, drums and percussion, both from Greenfield; The Boxcar Lilies (Stephanie Marshall of Greenfield, Jenny Goodspeed of Ashfield, and Katie Clark), vocal harmonies; Jennie McAvoy, vocalist; Greg Bullen, piano; Tex LaMountain, guitar; Claire Dacey of Easthampton, violin; Mark Fraser, of Montague, cello.
The End
