It’ll be Alex Smith, from the Adirondacks of New York and Leicester, Vermont, headlining the show at the May 18 “Third Friday” Andover (N.H.) Community Coffeehouse concert beginning at 7 p.m. in the Highland Lake Grange Hall at 7 Chase Hill Road in East Andover.
Who’s singer-guitarist-songwriter Alex Smith? His website offers this description: “Alex is a wonderful poetic writer who captures words full of meaning, matching them with creative music that creeps quietly into the past at the same time as dancing with the present, and sneaking a peek at the future.”
Another reviewer put its this way: “He builds songs from a blend of traditional folk harmony and strikingly modern lyrics, confronting today’s most pressing issues with grace while paying homage to the masters who came before him.”
For more, go to Smith’s website at www.alexsmithlonglakemusic.com/
Also appearing onstage will be up to a dozen open-microphone performers, whose contributions continue to range from the spoken word to show-business, jazz, folk, bluegrass, and country-and-western tunes, often to standing ovations.
Doors to the Grange Hall open at 6 p.m. 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 May event is Tilton Medical Associates. Sponsor donations defray room-rental costs and, along with pass-the-hat audience donations, enable the Coffeehouse to offer performances at no charge.
Coming up: On Friday, June 15, the six-person British-American roots/revival band Floyds Row will “explore early, folk, and classical idioms on an array of modern and period instruments. Fusing a variety of styles, Floyds Row’s repertoire includes both original material and pieces pulled from the early British folk tradition and English Renaissance.”
A June sponsor has not yet been identified. Organizations and businesses interested in supporting a “Third Friday” concert are invited to send an email to lbchase@nullaol.com
Information about future dates and scheduled performers, and a photographic record of the performers, both headliners and open-mic participants, are shown on the Coffeehouse website 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 are available for viewing anytime on Andover’s town website at www.andover.nh.us/ by clicking on “Town Information” and then “Video Archive.”
The 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. The Andover Community Coffeehouse operates under the umbrella of the Andover Community Association (ACA).
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.