Rob Lutes, winner of the 2018 Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Singer of the Year for his album, Walk in the Dark, will grace the Andover Community Coffeehouse stage as featured performer on Friday evening, March 15.
The performance will begin at 7 PM in the Highland Lake Grange Hall, 7 Chase Hill Road in East Andover. Admission is free, although donations — which are shared with the performers and the Andover Community Church, owner of the Grange Hall — are gratefully accepted.
Who is Rob Lutes? His website (www.roblutes.com) explains:
“Since the release of his first album ‘Gravity’ in 2000, Rob Lutes has steadily built a collection of exquisite songs that inhabit the intersection of blues, folk, Americana, and the contemporary singer-songwriter genre. As skilled at delivering a Piedmont blues classic as he is performing his own acclaimed original songs, Lutes’s masterful finger-style guitar work and soulful voice bring an unmistakable intensity to his live performances.”
About his award-winning album, one reviewer writes: “Walk in the Dark is an exquisite collection of songs that highlight Lutes’s unmistakable voice and literary writing style.”
Also appearing onstage will be up to a dozen open-microphone performers, whose contributions in previous months have ranged from the spoken word to show-business, jazz, folk, bluegrass, and country-and-western tunes.
Sponsor for the March concert is the Andover Elementary/Middle School, “fully committed to helping all children of Andover prepare for the challenges of our constantly changing society.” Sponsor support helps to underwrite coffeehouse expenses.
Doors to the Grange Hall open at 6 PM for food purchases offered by the Andover Community Church, and for open-mic sign-ins on a first-come, first-serve basis.
About the Andover Community Coffeehouse:
Now in its fifth year of offering free concerts to the public, the Coffeehouse is managed and staffed entirely by volunteers. New volunteers are always needed to help with duties such as talent bookings, community outreach, audiovisual support, venue arrangements, and the like. Those interested in joining in the fun should contact andovercommunity03216@nullgmail.com.
A photographic record of past Coffeehouse performers, both headliners and open-mic participants, is shown on the Coffeehouse website at andovercoffeehouse.org, and on the Facebook page “Andover Community Coffeehouse.” The website also lists future bookings through the end of 2019.
Video recordings of concerts are shown on a number of community-access channels across the state, and are available for viewing anytime on the Andover town website at www.andover-nh.gov and then “community videos”. The videos are produced by volunteers at Andover Community Cable.
The coffeehouse is located at the intersection of Route 11 and Chase Hill Road in East Andover. The Andover Community Coffeehouse operates under the umbrella of the Andover Community Hub.