Culture

Twilight Music and Next Stage Arts Project present International Bluegrass Music Association award-winning mandolin prodigy Sierra Hull and her Tennessee-based bluegrass quintet Highway 111 at Next Stage on Sunday, October 26 at 7:30 pm.

Sierra Hull is a leading light in the new generation of bluegrass musicians. Her phenomenal mandolin playing, eloquent vocals and musical maturity well beyond her years have drawn comparisons to Alison Krauss. A seasoned performer, Sierra has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” and the Grand Ole Opry radio and television shows, as well as at numerous music festivals including Merlefest, the Newport Folk Festival, Rockygrass and the Carnegie Hall Family Concert Series. She has shared the stage with the likes of Alison Krauss, Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs, Bobby McFerrin and Edgar Meyer.

All Souls Day falls on Sunday, November 2, and marks a collaboration between Brattleboro Area Hospice and Friends of Music at Guilford. FOMAG’s “Rest in Peace” concert, co-directed by Tom Baehr and Amy Cann, begins at 3:00 p.m. that afternoon in the sanctuary of Guilford Community Church. Two song series and a few instrumental interludes are featured in this first of four arts programs—including music, art, film, and theater—scheduled during the “Love Lives On” series honoring Hospice’s 35th Anniversary in November.

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present singer, guitarist, fiddler and banjo player Sam Amidon and his band at New England Youth Theatre on Wednesday, October 22 at 7:30 pm.

Sam Amidon grew up immersed in folk as part of a musical family based in Brattleboro, VT. His parents, Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, perform and teach traditional forms of song, dance and storytelling, and his brother Stefan plays drums with the Sweetback Sisters. Sam started on fiddle at the age of three and by eleven had formed a band called Popcorn Behavior, with childhood friend Thomas Bartlett and younger brother Stefan, to play New England fiddle tunes. They toured internationally, gathering attention from NPR, CNN and The Boston Globe, and released five albums. Sam’s first solo album, released in 2001, was a collection of traditional Irish fiddle tunes, simply titled “Solo Fiddle.”

Saturday, October 18th, the Brattleboro Farmers’ Market hosts live music by Mary Lea and friends from 11-1.

As always, there’s lots of great produce at the market and this time of year there are bountiful apples, pears, cider, donuts and pies from local orchards, plus pumpkins, winter squash (including bulk sales!), potatoes, onions, hardy fall greens, fresh lettuces and bunched carrots and beets, and lots more.

Brattleboro singer/songwriter and guitar instructor, Lisa McCormick, is teaching the world to how play the guitar. Senior faculty with the leading online guitar education provider, GuitarTricks, McCormick’s comprehensive new Guitar Fundamentals course went live on the internet on October 10. 

“Hundreds of thousands of people are going to learn to play the guitar from this course,” says Jon Broderick, Founder and CEO of GuitarTricks. The online education site has a subscription base of over two million members. 

McCormick has been teaching guitar in the Brattleboro area for over 20 years, combining her professional music skills with her Bachelors of Science degree in Education.