This week the Guthrie Center in Great Barrington announced its summer music line-up. They are hosting 14 music performances beginning Memorial Day weekend and continuing through the end of September. All of the shows are on Saturday evenings. All the performances will be worth attending, but we’ve highlighted a few you’ll want to consider adding to your calendar.
Kicking off the season on May 27 is Chris Merenda and the Wheel, a seasoned performer who is hard to categorize, drawing influences from Rock, Folk, Ska, Reggae, Punk, Americana, Blues, and Bluegrass. You can listen to him here on YouTube.
On June 10, Eric Andersen, the artist Bob Dylan said “is a great ballad singer and writer,” will be performing. His songs have been recorded and performed by world-renowned artists such as Ricky Nelson, Judy Collins, Sandy Denny, Fairport Convention, The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, The Grateful Dead, Linda Thompson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Francoise Hardy, plus many others in Europe, Australia, England, and Japan.
Lucy Kaplansky will be performing on July 1. Lucy was part of the folk supergroup Cry Cry Cry with Dar Williams and Richard Shindell (which The New Yorker dubbed “a collection of lovely harmonizing and pure emotion”). Their album was an astonishing success in stores and on radio, resulting in a national tour of sold-out concerts and a national sold-out reunion tour in 2018. Her recording of Roxy Music’s “More than This” has over 12 million streams on Spotify.
Kate Taylor, the sister of James Taylor, will be performing on July 22nd. She is returning from a long hiatus with a new studio album, WHY WAIT!, which reunites her with Russ Kunkel, Danny Kortchmar, and Leland Skar, who backed her on her 1971 debut, SISTER KATE.
Grammy nominee and winner of five Independent Music Awards Seth Glier will perform on August 26th. He has shared stages with diverse artists, including Ani DiFranco, James Taylor, Lisa Marie Presley, Martin Sexton, Ronnie Spector, Marc Cohn, and more. He also recorded a duet with American Idol alum Crystal Bowersox.
The final three shows of the season feature local favorite Billy Keane, who will perform on September 9, followed by three-time Grammy Award winner Tom Chapin on September 16. Another local favorite, Misty Blues, will close out the season’s 14th and final show on September 30th. It’s going to be an amazing season of live music at Guthrie Center in Great Barrington.