The Horse Flies, Paula Poundstone, Natalie MacMaster to Perform in New Bellows Falls Series
Kingdom County Productions Announces Bellows Falls Performance Series
- The Horse Flies, Paula Poundstone, and Natalie MacMaster to Perform
Kingdom County Productions (KCP), working in association with the Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP) and Vermont Festivals, has announced a three-event series at the Bellows Falls Opera House, to warm fall evenings and help support Jay Craven’s new Windham County film, “Northern Borders,” produced with Marlboro College and scheduled for release next spring.
The KCP series will feature the alternative rock/folk band, THE HORSE FLIES (Friday, October 19); Emmy-winning comedienne, PAULA POUNDSTONE (Saturday, November 3rd); and Grammy-nominated Cape Breton fiddler, NATALIE MACMASTER (Thursday, November 29th). Tickets are now on sale for each event—by calling 802-748-2600 or online at BrattleboroTix.com or CatamountArts.org. Walk-up sales are also available at Village Square Books, Bellows Falls; Turn it Up, Brattleboro; and Misty Valley Books, Chester.
A longtime favorite of critics and fans, THE HORSE FLIES will open the series with their trademark blend of old-timey string band traditions with indie rock, Caribbean rhythms, jazz improvisation, and a fierce percolating groove to create what they've dubbed "neo-primitive bug music." The Flies’ six band members perform fiddle, guitar, banjo, uke, percussion, bass, accordion, Moog, organ, and vocals—creating a world of their own through creative songwriting and emotive, haunting singing of their original songs.
The Horse Flies have performed at American and European folk, rock, and bluegrass festivals; The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave series; and on NPR’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” Flies fiddler Judy Hyman and banjo ace Richie Stearns regularly tour with Natalie Merchant – and Stearns will play ten fall showcase dates with an all-star line-up of the most influential banjo masters performing today -- including Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka, Bill Keith (Bill Monroe, David Grisman, Peter Rowan), Pete Wernick (Hot Rize), and Noam Pikelny (Punch Brothers).
Band leaders Judy Hyman and Jeff Claus have also composed and performed the musical soundtracks for four of Jay Craven’s feature films (“Where the Rivers Flow North,” “A Stranger in the Kingdom,” “The Year That Trembled,” and “Disappearances”) and they will score the new Craven/Marlboro film, “Northern Borders.” They will also lead a daylong film-scoring workshop at Marlboro College on Saturday, October 20th. Workshop information is available by contacting Jay Craven (jcraven@marlboro.edu or 802-274-1974).
Comedienne PAULA POUNDSTONE is famous for her razor-sharp wit and spontaneity, drawing from her own complex life: three kids, 13 cats, motherhood, demanding job, crazy travel schedule, her frustration at getting older, and a bag of neuroses, including her famous inability to ever shut up. In other words: she’s just like many of us.
One of Comedy Central’s “Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time,” Paula Poundstone is a frequent guest on Leno, Letterman, A Prairie Home Companion, and the
NPR’s show “Wait Wait! Don’t Tell Me!” Poundstone is so quick that audience members often leave complaining that their cheeks hurt from laughter.
Equally at home on the concert stage or at a festival, Cape Breton fiddler NATALIE MACMASTER is one of the most versatile young musicians on both the folk and Celtic music scenes. MacMaster's many projects include collaborations and performances with Alison Krauss, Carlos Santana, the Chieftains, Paul Simon, Pavarotti, and Yo-Yo Ma. MacMaster will perform her CHRISTMAS IN CAPE BRETON holiday concert, an audience favorite that showcases her incandescent musicianship and boundless energy, featuring foot-tapping rave-ups, heart-rending ballads, inventive and affecting seasonal songs, and world-class step dancing.
Series proceeds will benefit the Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP), Vermont Festivals, and Jay Craven’s new film, “Northern Borders,” that tells the story of 10 year-old boy who is sent to live with his Vermont grandparents, whose thorny relationship is called “The Forty Years War.” The picture stars Academy Award nominees Bruce Dern and Genevieve Bujold, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick (“Moonrise Kingdom”), 2012 Tony nominee Jessica Hecht and 2012 Emmy nominee Mark Margolis.
Program support comes from The National Endowment for the Arts and Vermont Public Radio. For more information on the concert series or film, contact KCP’s Jay Craven (jcraven@marlboro.edu or 802-274-1974).