REGIONAL – This fall, the North Shore can enjoy some great music from a wide variety of musicians.
Thanks to the 206th Topsfield Fair, running Oct. 4 to 14, fair goers may feel like they are in Nashville, TN enjoying the music of the southern rock band 38 Special, plus Three Dog Night and the multi-Platinum country duo, Maddie & Tae.
Belleville Roots Concerts in Newburyport will continue its tradition of bringing great music to the North Shore. Canadian favorite Le Vent du Nord will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Belleville Congregational Church, and Martha Spencer, a singer-songwriter and dancer from Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains will enthrall audiences on Nov. 16.
At the Topsfield Fair, the All-American classic band 38 Special will perform in the Grandstand at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10.
Three Dog Night, which had more top 10 hits between 1969 and 1974, will perform on the Grandstand at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9.
The CMA and CMT Award-winning duo, Maddie Font and Taylor Kerr, who broke out in 2013 with their chart-topping counter to bro-country, Girl In A Country Song, will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11.
“We are excited to welcome Maddie & Tae to the Topsfield Fair for the first time,” said James O’Brien, general manager of the Topsfield Fair. “I know that fairgoers will enjoy this free concert and hope they come early and stay late to explore all the Topsfield Fair has to offer.”
All the Topsfield Fair concerts are free with paid fair admission, which is $20 every day. Discounted admission tickets are available at www.topsfieldfair.org through Oct. 3.
Le Vent du Nord, which has built a following in greater Newburyport, is a leading force in Québec’s Francophone folk movement. The group’s vast repertoire draws from both traditional sources and original compositions, while their highly rhythmic and soulful music is rooted in the Celtic diaspora.
On stage these five friends, Nicolas Boulerice, André Brunet, Réjean Brunet, Olivier Demers and André Gagné, have performed more than 2,200 concerts on four continents and released 12 albums.
Martha Spencer grew up in the musical Spencer family and learned to play the guitar, fiddle, banjo, bass, dulcimer and mandolin. But it is her dancing that audiences often cite when they talk about her performances.
Tickets cost $40 in advance, $45 at the door, $10 for those 18 and under. Seating for Roots Concerts this fall is limited because all shows will be held in the stage room while the meetinghouse is undergoing renovations.
The Belleville Arts Foundation, whose purpose is to maintain and renovate the Belleville Church, has been awarded a $35,000 feasibility and technical assistance grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. This matching grant will fund a study to transform the Belleville Meetinghouse at 300 High Street into a financially and administratively self-sufficient community arts education center.
The center, while preserving the historic features of the building’s exterior, will offer students, performers and audiences modern amenities and comfortable interior spaces for learning and performance.
