After a two-month summer break, the Andover Community Coffeehouse will return on Friday, September 20, featuring live performances by the fiddle-and-cello duo Oliver the Crow, as well as by up to a dozen area “open-mic” performers.
Music by the featured performers begins at 7:00 PM in the Highland Lake Grange Hall at the intersection of Chase Hill Road and Route 11 in East Andover. Doors to the Grange Hall open at 6 PM for simple supper food and beverage purchases, and for open mic sign-ups on a first-come, first-served basis.
Admission is free, although the hat will be passed, and donations – which are shared with the featured performers – are gratefully accepted. The sponsor for September’s concert is Ragged Mountain Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, based in Andover.
Cellist Kaitlyn Raitz and fiddler Ben Plotnick will lead off with a half-hour set and come back around 9 PM to close out the evening. In between, local musicians and spoken-word performers will each get ten minutes in the spotlight during the open-mic segment.
Nashville-based Oliver the Crow has been called “inspired,” as this quote from the duo’s website (oliverthecrow.com) indicates: “Oliver the Crow navigates effortlessly between the gravitas of chamber composition, the longing of folk music, the near dreamlike quality of atmospheric sound art, and above all, pop music’s candy-sweet escape. It’s no wonder NPR Music has named their duo ‘an inspired collaboration.”
For more information on Oliver the Crow as well as the coffeehouse, go to www.AndoverCoffeehouse.org. The coffeehouse is located at the intersection of Route 11 and Chase Hill Road in East Andover. It operates under the umbrella of the Andover Community Hub, located at 157 Main Street in Andover.
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 Andover’s town website at www.andover-nh.gov and then “community videos.” The videos are produced by volunteers at Andover Community Cable.