The fiddle-and-piano duo of Audrey and Clayton will headline the monthly “Third Friday” concert at the Andover Community Coffeehouse on June 17, beginning at 7 PM To be held in the Highland Lake Grange Hall in East Andover, the event is open to the public at no charge (although donations are always gratefully accepted).
Classically trained Audrey Budington has played the violin since age four, and now focuses on her “true love, jazz and funk fiddle.” Said to have “a magnetic and endearing stage presence,” she also plays piano and sings, and is known for her creative compositions on fiddle and piano. Pianist and composer Clayton Clemetson studied classical piano, but quickly found that his interests lay in composing and improvising rather than playing other people’s music.
As a duo, Audrey and Clayton perform “spirited yet heartfelt genre-defying original compositions on fiddle and piano,” and have played at fairs, contra dances, restaurants, weddings, markets, house parties and homes for seniors throughout New England. They have released one CD, The Cat Has No Time for You, which is comprised entirely of their original, uplifting tunes. Individually, each has composed music for orchestras, ballets and film scores.
For more information, go to www.audreyandclayton.com/.
Also appearing onstage will be up to a dozen open-microphone performers, whose contributions in previous months have ranged from the spoken word to a cappella, show-business, jazz, folk, bluegrass, and country-and-western tunes.
Doors to the Grange Hall will open at 6 PM for food purchases offered by the Andover Congregational Church, and for open-mic sign-ins on a first-come, first-serve basis. Sponsor for the evening is New Horizons Hair Stylists, 170 Main Street, Andover, whose donation covers rental of the Grange Hall.
Coming up on Friday, July 15: Upper Valley quartet Mo’Combo, delivering “tight percolating rhythms, tasteful instrumental interplay, improvisational journeys and accomplished vocalists – each distinctive, each with their turn to shine, and at other times all pouring their hearts into irresistible, soulful harmonies.” For more information, go to: www.mocomboband.com/
NOTE: For July and August, the Coffeehouse will move outdoors, to the amphitheater behind Andover Town Hall (between Hamp House and the skateboard park) on Routes U.S. 4 and N.H. 11. The concert will begin at 6:30 PM, and food will be available for purchase beginning at 6. Attendees are invited to bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating. There will be no open-mic segments at these two concerts.
Andover Coffeehouse events since January 2015 have drawn near-capacity audiences and a full complement of open-mic candidates on the third Friday of each month. The venue was chosen by the editor of New Hampshire Magazine as “2015 Best of New Hampshire Open Mic Night.” In this year alone, queries from would-be featured performers have been received from as far away as Nashville, Paris and London.
Information about future dates and scheduled performers, and a photographic record of past performers, both headliners and open-mic participants, are shown on the Coffeehouse Web site at andovercoffeehouse.org, or on the Facebook page “Andover Community Coffeehouse.”
Video recordings of past programs are shown on a number of community-access channels across the state and may be viewed at any time on Andover’s town Web site at www.andover.nh.us/ by clicking on “Town Information” and then “Video Archive.” The video programs are produced by volunteers at Andover Community TV.
The handicapped-accessible coffeehouse venue, a former grange hall, is now the property of the Andover Congregational Church, which is located next door at the intersection of Route 11 and Chase Hill Road in East Andover.
Directions: From Franklin, take State Route 11 West (Franklin Highway) toward Andover for about five miles. Turn left onto Chase Hill Road, immediately after the Andover Congregational Church, also on the left. The Grange Hall is across the parking lot from the church. From Andover village, take State Route 11 East (Franklin Highway) toward Franklin for about five miles. Turn right onto Chase Hill Road just before the church.
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