Vance Gilbert
“If Joni Mitchell and Richie Havens had a love child, with Rodney Dangerfield as the midwife, the results might be something close to the great Vance Gilbert", says Richmond Magazine. Vance was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. Noted not only for being the ever consummate performer, Gilbert has recorded 13 albums, including 5 for Philo/Rounder Records. Along with being opener of choice for artists as varied as Arlo Guthrie, Anita Baker, The Milk Carton Kids, and Southside Johnny, the mid 2000’s found Gilbert opening 150+ shows for comedian George Carlin. 30 years into his career, the songwriter’s influence can be felt all over the contemporary Folk and Americana realm as he has helped pave the way for many of the BIPOC artists who have followed.
Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen
Folk singer, songwriter and educator Sally Rogers has performed from coast to coast for forty years! She has performed for audiences around the world at festivals, concerts, schools, and most any other public place you can imagine. Sally is equally talented at stirring a crowd to sing, or at using music to draw out even the shyest child in a classroom to become an active and enthusiastic participant. Widely known for her crystal clear voice, Sally accompanies herself with guitar, banjo and mountain dulcimer. Many of these instruments are used in her solo performances, as well as in duo performance with her husband Howie Bursen. At the Sounding Board, Sally and Howie will perform together. We are thrilled to welcome them back!
The Portable Folk Music Festival - 50th Anniversary Concert
The Sounding Board loves welcoming the Portables to our stage. Audience favorite The Portable Folk Music Festival (affectionately known as "The Portables") represent the "house band" of the Sounding Board Coffeehouse. Brace yourself for a stage full of talented singers and instrumentalists who present traditional folk and acoustic music from the American songbook. This concert marks their 50th anniversary as a band! Proceeds will benefit the Sea Music Festival.
Ellis Paul and Danni Nicholls
Ellis Paul is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. Born in Presque Isle, Aroostook County, Maine, Paul is a key figure in what has become known as the Boston school of songwriting, a literate, provocative, and urbanely romantic folk-pop style that helped ignite the folk revival of the 1990s.
Paul will perform with Danni Nicholls. Hailing from Bedfordshire, England, singer/songwriter Danni Nicholls has been paving her way in UK Americana for over a decade, building a loyal fan base and much critical praise.
Join us for a great night of music!
John Gorka
Join us for a wonderful night of folk music by one of the finest folksingers performing today. From New Jersey, John Gorka is a world-renowned singer-songwriter who got his start at a neighborhood coffeehouse in eastern Pennsylvania. His rich multifaceted songs full of depth, beauty and emotion gained increasing attention from critics and audiences across the country, as well as in Europe where his tours led him through Italy, Belgium, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Switzerland and Germany.
The Jolly Beggars
The Jolly Beggars bring the rich tradition of Celtic folk music and storytelling to modern day audiences. Based out of Connecticut, their traditional songs and musical arrangements have exposed many to the joys of Celtic music. They tell traditional stories from Irish folklore and intersperse their musical arrangements with traditional reels and jigs. Characterized by their tight harmonies and use of guitars, mandolin, tin whistles, octave mandolin, mandola, tenor banjo, double bass, bodhran, spoons, and more, The Jolly Beggars have quickly built a solid following and continue to spread their music around the east coast.
The band performs music that is largely Celtic in origin (Irish and Scottish), with some pieces coming from an extension of that music in other cultures.
Goodnight Moonshine
Goodnight Moonshine is a guitar and vocal duet, and a musical marriage in all senses. The Duo combines the evocative voice and songwriting of Molly Venter, with Eben Pariser’s adventurous guitar playing. The result is folk music with a depth of improvisation and tonal subtlety usually reserved for jazz. Molly is well known for her sublime singing in the prominent female-vocal-group Red Molly, while Eben cut his teeth as a street performer in New York City, playing guttural music of New Orleans with his band Roosevelt Dime.
Guitar and vocal duos are rare and few come to mind, but the ones that do, such as Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and The Milk Carton Kids, have achieved and integration between singular talents in a format that is both genre-less and grounded in the commonness of two guitars, two voices. Goodnight Moonshine is taking their own stab at this unusual and deeply personal approach. Their show is punctuated by songs and banter that openly explore the complexities of their relationship to each other, the Creator, birth, life, death, and what happens when, “the honeymoon ends?” For Molly and Eben, It is the way they make space for each other while staying true to themselves that defines this music, and marriage.
Melanie Champagne (Melanie Mauchaud) from Collinsville, CT will open. Champagne is a singer-songwriter, artist, and art educator based out of Collinsville, Connecticut. Her songs stem from personal experience and as a result offer a reflective and dreamlike quality to them. Currently she is recording an EP, performing, and daydreaming while she finds her place in this world.