After a two-month summer hiatus, the Andover Community Coffeehouse will celebrate the arrival of autumn with a September21 “Third Friday” concert starting at 7 PM at the Highland Lake Grange Hall at 7 Chase Hill Road in East Andover. The concert is open to the public at no charge, though donations are gratefully accepted.
Featured performer will be Jamie Kallestad, longtime Minnesota-based songwriter, vocalist and guitarist with the bluegrass trio Saint Anyway. Now living in Boston, and one half of the New England Americana duo 90-Mile Portage, his new full-length album Songs from the North Country may be sampled at www.jamiekallestad.com/
Also appearing onstage will be up to a dozen open-microphone performers, whose contributions 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 PM. for food purchases offered by the Andover Congregational Church, and for open-mic sign-ins on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Sponsors for the September event are “Friends of the Andover Coffeehouse.” Sponsor donations defray room-rental costs and, along with pass-the-hat audience donations, enable the Coffeehouse to offer performances at no charge. Sponsorships are highlighted in all Coffeehouse publicity.
Next to appear in the spotlight: On Friday evening, October 19, Canadian-American roots-folk duo Dan Frechette and Laurel Thomsen, whose website characterizes as “prodigious players with songwriting that sets them apart,” and “lyrically refreshing and musically diverse, combining judicious violin [and] phenomenal guitar playing.” For more information go to
www.danandlaurel.ca/Home.html. An October sponsor is needed. For more information, send an email to andovercommunity03216@nullgmail.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.