2018 Stroll Weekend Entertainers
Here are details about our 2018 entertainers. Check out the entertainment schedule here!
Alan Greenleaf and the Doctor
Alan Greenleaf, guitarist and songwriter, and Jonathan Kaplan, pianist, have been playing together for more than 10 years and are one of the more unique musical pairings in Vermont. Both talented musicians and both former farmers, they blend musically and personally to give life to Alan’s original songs. Alan has been described as the quintessential Vermont song writer by Robert Resnik, the quintessential Vermont music supporter. His blues-folk-rock n’ roll influenced North Country sound covers a range of styles. His words are thoughtful, humorous, poignant and, on occasion, hopeful. His continued commentaries on the human condition remain unvarnished but they are sweeter and his insights into the workings of the rural heart seem to grow with time. Want to know what rural life in Vermont is like? ….just listen to Alan’s songs. And lest we forget, Alan also wrote the theme for The Strolling of the Heifers more than 10 years ago. This year he and the Doctor look forward to premiering his latest song for the Stroll, Love Your Farmer!! Visit their website and Facebook page.
Bad To Be Good
The music of Bad To Be Good is characterized as “Eastern Country and Northern Blues.” Led by songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Marvin Bentley, the all original repertoire of this group establishes Vermont country blues as a rival to Nashville and Memphis. With Marvin’s robust and burly voice, Dennis Waring’s wailing saxophone, Marvin Bentley II’s thumping bass and Pat Kelly’s grooving drums, this group’s infectious spirit makes you want to shout and dance. Other songs make you want to cry. This band defines a whole new style of Vermont-grown down-home music with lots of soul.
Becky Graber, Songs and Stories
Down on the Farm – Old favorites and new: chants, songs, stories, and singing games about rural living. Plenty of chances to join along on songs, story refrains, and movements as we sing of farm animals and of planting and harvesting fields.
Becky Graber has been teaching and entertaining young children and their friends and families for over 40 years. She offers chances for community fun through music, music, and verse. Becky is the founder and director of the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus.
Brattleboro School of Dance
Dancers express themselves through movement in a creative and fun performance that features our Junior Company. This piece is choreographed by the dancers and is based on the question: what is dance to you? brattleboroschoolofdance.com
Brattleboro Women’s Chorus
The Women’s Chorus is presents a program of songs from Vermont and/or written or arranged by Vermonters. Songs include the Vermont Farmer’s Song; Maple Sweet, a Vermont song about sugaring; and These Green Mountains, the state song of Vermont.
The Figments
The Figments incorporate an eclectic mix of styles into their inspired performances of music for dancing or listening. Whether grooving on an Old-time, Irish or French Canadian fiddle tune, trading daring improvisations on a swing number, or exploring the nuances of a graceful waltz or elegant English country dance tune, this trio of versatile musicians makes dynamic, spontaneous, and electrifying music.
Fly Boy Mystro
MyStro born in Vt Raised in Ny (Upperstate but we float down South Alot..) he’s amazing songwriter, producer and preformer. Humble Talented, & Ambitious…
The Interactive Comedy Magic of Jonas Cain
We all want to achieve success, yet much of life is out of our control. What if there was a way to achieve positive outcomes regardless of circumstances? With Positivity Magic, Jonas Cain will share three principles and practices that you can start using immediately to develop and foster positivity to excel in your work, in your home, and in your life. This is much more than just a magic show…it’s a Life Show!
Lisa McCormick and the Brattleboro Ukesters
Singer/songwriter Lisa McCormick takes the stage with her merry band of ukulele players, for a fun singalong set of contemporary and traditional folk music favorites.
The Moondogs
The Moondogs play original instrumental music with a mix of contemporary styles. Their unique sound has been described as world folk, bluesy jazz, gypsy groove and bohemian classical. Though defying easy categorization, it is a sophisticated music played in a deceptively easy-going style, appropriate for receptions, art openings, private parties, wine tastings, cocktail hours, wedding ceremonies, anniversaries, and many other social occasions. They play throughout Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Moondogs are available as a Duo, Trio or Quartet. Dante Corsano composes the songs and plays finger style guitar, Dennis Waring on vintage silver clarinet delineates the melodies, bassist Dave Rountree provides the foundation and Adam Gebb fills out the sound with tasteful percussion.
New England Center for Circus Arts
The New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) will offer demonstrations every 1⁄2 hour featuring advanced and professional level students. The Brattleboro based circus school attracts high level students locally and from around the world, and they will amaze and entertain you as they swing, leap and fly!
New England Youth Theatre
NEYT Presents Aululularia!
A mixed age troupe of NEYT players present an original adaptation of the comedy “The Miser”.
Aulularia means ‘a pot of gold’,
The title of a Roman play of old.
In that play, there’s just a little bit of cash,
In this version there’s a much larger stash!
The title should convey this kind of wealth,
Especially when the Miser hides it with such stealth.
He will not spend a single cent in town
And this has caused the rest of us to drown!
Aulularia doesn’t fit this play,
But, Alululululularia: The Sound Of Doomsday.
Pinedrop
Pinedrop‘s fresh Americana sound skillfully intertwines folk and bluegrass. This four-piece band from Brattleboro, Vermont features Derek Sensale’s mesmerizing songwriting and vocals, Dan Bisson on upright bass, Nick Paar on mandolin and Charlie Peckar on fiddle. Pinedrop has played venues and festivals near and far, including MASS MoCA’s acclaimed FreshGrass Festival.
Sandglass Theater’s Jana Zeller Kasper and the Cow
Kasper and the Cow is a hand puppet show based in the European fair ground tradition. Kasper’s effort to go on a journey is flustered by a cow who steals his suitcase. With the help of his best friend, the giant Augustin, Kasper goes on a rollicking chase to retreive the cow and his suitcase. Action packed and full of audience engaging humor, this show has been delighting children of all ages for 30 years! sandglasstheater.org
Sandglass Theatre’s Shoshana Bass: Fritzi’s Flea Circus
Fritzi’s Flea Circus welcomes audiences into a delightful world of puppetry circus feats, presented by a tiny flea with a big personality. In this 20 minute show, you will experience Fritzi as the strong man, the high diver and even watch as he is shot out of a cannon into the audience. This miniature world invites the power of imagination, play and ear wiggling, scalp tickling, heart-warming fun.
The Sky Blue Boys
The Sky Blue Boys have been playing traditional and original acoustic music throughout the Northeast for twenty-plus years. With two voices, guitars, banjo, mandolin, autoharp, 12-string, dobro and more Banjo Dan and Willy Lindner, founders of the celebrated Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys, deliver a lively program characterized by the passion of bluegrass, the authenticity of folk and the excitement of old-time string-band music. With a huge repertoire of ballads, vintage country numbers, Civil War-era songs, instrumentals and gospel, plus a few surprises thrown in along the way, The Sky Blue Boys consistently deliver a show full of energy and variety – good entertainment with a huge emphasis on fun.
The Speckers
Fiddle icon John Specker earned the title “Father of the Ithaca Sound” for his seminal influence upon multiple younger generations of upstate New York fiddle players. Defying the odds, he also has the rare good luck to front The Speckers, a fiddle trio featuring his two daughters. Family bands have a long and storied history in the annals of American music. The Specker family both honors and meddles with that fine tradition. Lila and Ida Mae inherited dear old dad’s hard driving style and subversive approach to fiddle music. Triple bows slice the air, heartfelt vocals tell it like it is and bodies sway in biological and stylistic synchronicity. The result is a singular take on “old-time,” anchored in tradition, audacious in originality.
Sunny Lowdown
Sunny Lowdown sings blues for the 21st century. It is a raw, deep blues, drawing from the music of John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jesse Mae Hemphill and R.L. Burnside. Sunny was only sixteen when he played his first professional gig backing John Lee Hooker. He has since worked with many of his favorite blues musicians: Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin, Muddy Waters pianist Pinetop Perkins, Chicago blues legends Otis Rush and George “Wild Child” Butler, Fat Possum recording artists R.L. Burnside and Cedell Davis, and others. “Sunny plays lovely guitar…you can see Sunny playing on street corners in your mind’s eye as you listen to these tracks.”
– Blues Matters Magazine
Tony Barrand, Jay Bailey and Andy Davis
Tony Barrand, Jay Bailey and Andy Davis will share songs from New England and the British Isles that are drawn from the rich store of music relating to farming and rural life. These traditions are brought to life through ballads, seasonal songs and country dance tunes.