Meeting House Presents

Meeting House Presents

Unitarian Society of Hartford Concert Series since 2017

50 Bloomfield Avenue  Hartford, CT  06105

Sign up for our email list for monthly updates of concert announcements, updates, and links. Send a message to MeetingHousePresents@gmail.com. Put “subscribe” in the subject line. We send one or two emails each month.

Reservations:  Send a message to MeetingHousePresents@gmail.com. Put “reservations and the performer’s name” in the subject line and tell us how many.

Reservations can be held until 15 minutes before showtime.

Doors open after the soundcheck, usually 6:15 for a 7:00 show.

Upcoming shows in 2024:

7:00 pm Friday, March 15, 2024 at 7 PM Moonfruits

7:00 pm Friday, April 19, 2024 at 7 PM  The Hot Flashes (Amy Gallatin, Gail Wade, and Peggy Harvey and friends)

2:00 pm Matinee Performance Saturday, May 4th 2024 Holly Near,  $25 at the door

6:00 pm Friday, June 21, 2024 Outdoor* Concert with ResQ and Bluebyrd to Welcome Summer!

* if it rains we will move the show inside


Friday, March 15, 2024 at 7 PM Moonfruits

$20 donation at the door

email MeetingHousePresents@gmail.com for reservations – put “Moonfruits reservations” in the subject line.

… the future of roots music is in good hands.”   — Heather Kitching, Roots Music Canada

… a tremendous live act. They bring an emotional passion and authenticity that truly makes their show come alive … they absolutely brought the house down.”   — Jan Hall, Folk Roots Radio

moonfruits.ca           facebook           twitter          instagram

 

watch ‘Moon Cradle’    Twelve songs that weave stories of family, responsibility and loss in this era of climate change and deepening inequality, Salt is rooted and astral, tender and powerful, foreboding and hopeful, cradling all the convictions and contradictions of its songwriters. Transformation – personal, spiritual and political – is Salt’s guiding light.

Fronted by partners Alex Millaire and Kaitlin Milroy, Ottawa-based Moonfruits are makers of art-folk bilingue. In a forest of banjo, guitar, kalimba and glockenspiel, their voices burrow and soar. Here is a reverie, tender and powerful, beckoning listeners to elevate the stuff of everyday life.

Stingray Rising Star Award, SOCAN Award and Trille Or winners, Moonfruits have toured Canada coast to coast and are making their first forays into the US and EU, moving audiences with a live show that mixes French and English organically, playfully, intentionally. Their début full-length Ste-Quequepart (2017) \saint-kehk-pahr or Saint Somewhere\ is an elaborate small town fiction that explores the faces of gentrification, isolation and community.

What grows in the forest of Moonfruits’ imagination is a songcraft that is elastic and never fails to transport. Moonfruits have toured extensively as a duo and performed accompanied by double bass, drums, keys and chamber instruments. Whether as a larger ensemble or with naught but their log and lamp, changes of scenery inspire Moonfruits, for they are as at home in your living room as they are in a concert hall.

Moonfruits was recently nominated at the Canadian Folk Music Awards – for Best Emerging Act & Production – and we’re delighted to announce they are heading east this March & April on a loop bringing them to and from the event in St. John’s, Newfoundland, with a swing to the Northeastern US. The nominated release, Salt (2022), is an English-language harmony-first record whose guiding light is transformation – physical, spiritual, political – and is also a recent winner of Ottawa’s Capital Music Awards.

 

 


Friday, April 19, 2024 at 7 PM  The Hot Flashes (Amy Gallatin, Gail Wade, and Peggy Harvey and friends)

$20 donation at the door

email MeetingHousePresents@gmail.com for reservations – put “Hot Flashes reservations” in the subject line

An exciting trio of female vocalists ~~ The Hot Flashes ~~ has reunited after thirteen years to once again feature their tight vocal harmonies and solid instrumentation. The Hot Flashes are Amy Gallatin, who with her expressive, soulful singing has made a name for herself on the Americana music scene both in the USA and in Europe; award-winning singer/songwriter Gail Wade, and multi-instrumentalist Peggy Harvey, founding member of the long-running bluegrass group Traver Hollow and who performs with Gail in her band Turning Point.

Peggy made guest appearances with Amy Gallatin & Stillwaters for many years during and after her Traver Hollow years, and Gail and Amy were drawn together through music, their mutual love of horses, and the Western life. All three share a passion for acoustic music, and together they have amassed a wealth of beautifully performed songs drawn from the bluegrass, folk, vintage country, swing, jazz, and blues genres, with a few cowgirl and traditional tunes thrown in for good measure.

Backed by the solid chops of mandolinist/guitarist JD Williams, Dobro veteran Roger Williams—both from Gallatin’s band Stillwaters–and bassist John Urbanik, the instrumentation also includes the occasional clawhammer banjo. As a group these six veteran musicians meld their collective experiences, voices and instruments into a unique and rousing musical experience as the three women fuse their distinct voices into one soaring, harmonious musical element.

website http://www.thehotflashesmusic.com/index.htm

 


Saturday, May 4th Matinee Performance Holly Near,  $25 at the door

website https://hollynear.com/

After 50 years of bold work, Holly Near is still one of the most consistent and well informed voices for change. Her work is loving, challenging, funny, thought-provoking, and remains rooted in the global community. As an outspoken singer and ambassador for peace, Holly brings a unique integration of world consciousness and self-evaluation, always growing and sharing experience humbly and boldly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ybiOjndA1ghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ybiOjndA1g

Holly discovered her unique and recognizable voice at an early age, learning to sign along with recordings of some of the world’s great singers. After graduating high school, Holly attended UCLA but her academic journey ended after just a few months when she was spotted by agents and drawn into the world of film and television. She did guest spots on TV shows like The Partridge Family, Room 222, All in the Family, and played supporting roles in films like John Cassavetes’ Minnie and Moskowitz and George Roy Hill’s Slaughterhouse-Five. She moved to New York and performed for a short run in Hair on Broadway but soon turned to singing full time, as a soloist as well as sharing the stage with her sisters Laurel and Timothy. Throughout her career she has enjoyed collaborations with such artists as Mercedes Sosa, Ronnie Gilbert, Inti Illimani, Emma’s Revolution, and her long-time songwriting partner, the late Jeff Langley.

In her early twenties, Near traveled with the Free The Army Show and the Indochina Peace Campaign; an experience that enabled her to learn about the function and consequences of the military industrial complex. While on the FTA tour in 1971 Holly was first introduced to the concept of global feminism. By 1974 she was crossing paths and sharing songs with the wave of new lesbian feminist performers such as Meg Christian, Cris Williamson, Linda Tillery, Mary Watkins, and Alive! Near dove into the feminist movement, trying to understand the depth of sexism and homophobia by turning those lessons into song

Holly is known for the anthemic quality of some of her songs. As a songwriter she takes up the challenge of turning big concepts into small, personal stories. In response to the slaughter of the students at Kent State, she wrote It Could Have Been Me.  And following the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in San Francisco, she penned Singing For Our Lives, which has become an anthem for the LGBTQ community and appears in the Unitarian Church hymnal. The chilling disappearance of people in Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship brought forth Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida to commemorate the women who had “been disappeared.”

In 2019, Near began a website project called Because of a Song, an online historic archive that documents some of the influential artists that rose from the feminist lesbian music scene in Oakland, California. The site can be viewed at www.becauseofasong.com.

A recipient of dozens of awards from organizations such as the ACLU and the National Organization of Women, Holly was one of Ms Magazine’s Women of the Year recipients and has been nominated for Grammys as well as the Legends of Women’s Music Award.


Friday, June 21, 2024 at 6 PM – starting early for more fun

Outdoor* Concert with and Bluebyrd to Welcome Summer!

* weather permitting – come even if the weather is bad because we can easily move indoors

Bring a picnic and chairs or a blanket and have a sundae!

$20 donation for the concerts, sundaes $5, our premises are smoke-free and alcohol-free.

Vivien Stembridge – Vocals

Bob Trebra – Guitar

Charlie Newcomb – Bass

Mike Fortunato – Drums / Percussions

Kevin Gallagher – Guitar, Mandolin, Slide

ResQ  is a band made up of seasoned musicians who come together with an eclectic selection of songs. They play blues, country, bluegrass, rock & pop- putting their own spin on some familiar classics. Depending on the venue, ResQ can be seen playing acoustic or electric. They incorporate songs by The Chicks, Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, Stone Sour, The Bangles, and many others.

ResQ Facebook site: ResQ | Manchester CT

 

Bluebyrd was created as a duo when now husband and wife team Steve and Bette Haskell first met at an open mic, playing in support of an art show opening in 2006. Steve, originally from Avon, CT, moved to San Francisco in 1971, drawn to the sounds of the San Francisco bands. He played in the Bay Area until 2006 when he returned to CT and met Bette. Bette, an Enfield, CT native, loved to sing and taught herself to play guitar as an accompaniment. She played extensively in recreational therapy and joined various duos and bands.

 

Bette and Steve began collaborating on songs they mutually enjoyed from their era, creating their own arrangements with guitars and vocal harmonies. Over the years they have been joined by other musicians augmenting their sound.

 

With them tonight are multi-instrumentalist Kevin Gallagher, Keith Toohey on bass and vocals, Jill Toohey on percussion and vocals and Mike Fortunato on drums.

 


We are saddened with the loss of Rod Muck in December 2023. He will be missed. The video is from a December 2022 Meeting House Presents show.

 

 



 

Meeting House Presents at the Unitarian Society of Hartford

50 Bloomfield Avenue  Hartford, CT  06105


Archive 2017-18  Meeting House Presents Shows

  • May 2017                Jack Williams
  • Oct. 27, 2017          Sam Moffett Quartet
  • Nov. 24, 2017        David Massengill
  • Jan. 19, 2018          Jacques Lamarre
  • Jan. 26, 2018         New World Trio
  • Feb. 23, 2018         Dennis McCorkle with Idalberto Perdomo, Edilio Bermudex, Desiree Negron-Carrero and Adèle Paxton.
  • March 23, 2018     JP Cormier
  • March 30, 2018    Susie Burke and David Surette
  • Apr. 27, 2018        An Evening with Mary Gauthier

Archive 2018-19  Meeting House Presents Shows

  • Sept. 14, 2018          Jill Friedman, Tang, Self-Suffice, David Giardina, and friends
  • Sept. 29, 2018         Peter Mayer
  • October 26, 2018   Charlie King
  • Nov. 30, 2018         Lula Wiles
  • Dec. 28, 2018          Sarah Harmon McKenzie and Ellen Iovino
  • Jan. 18, 2019           Hubby Jenkins (of the Carolina Chocolate Drops)
  • Feb. 22, 2019          Citizen U
  • March 22, 2019      Belle of the Fall
  • April 5, 2019           Mackie and Me
  • Saturday, May 4, 2019 Pete Seeger Birthday Party Sing-Along Gathering with Annie Patterson & Peter Blood, Sally Rogers, Magpie, and Charlie King

Archive 2019-20  Meeting House Presents Shows

Closed from April 2020 through May 2021 due to Covid-19 precautions.


Archive 2021-22  Meeting House Presents Shows

Special Saturday Show

Archive 2022-23  Meeting House Presents Shows

  • Thursday. October 20, 2022     Calan, co-sponsored by the Welsh Society of New England
  • Friday, November 18, 2022      Van Manakas on Jazz Guitar with Rave Tesar on Piano
  • Friday, November 18, 2022      Cosmic Legends, featuring Sylvie Degiez and Wayne Lopes
  • Friday, December 2, 2022        Oldies Rock & Roll Show with Rod Muck
  • Friday, March 17, 2023             Celtic Melody
  • Friday, March 17, 2023            Jerry Jacques and Nancy Fightlin (intermission set)
  • Friday, April 28, 2023              Meetinghouse
  • Friday, May 19, 2023                Horizon Blue

Archive 2023-24  Meeting House Presents Shows


Contact information:

  • Email us at MeetingHousePresents@gmail.com
  • Phone the Unitarian Meeting House at (860) 233-9897, Office Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10:00-3:00
  • Phone Laura and Paul Cipriano at (959)223-0590
  • Check this web page or subscribe to our email list for notification if shows are sold out or rescheduled

Our email includes concert announcements, updates, and info about folk music events in the area. Subscribe to Meeting House Presents Email  send a message to MeetingHousePresents@gmail.com. Put “subscribe” in the subject line. We send one or two emails each month.


Folknotes.org  is a comprehensive web site maintained by Brent Hall  listing folk music events in Connecticut and southern New England.


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