Celebrate the rich heritage of American music at Hart Square on Thursday nights at 6 p.m. on the Education Center lawn in June. This series focuses explicitly on original musicians and writers who are inspired by the traditions of the past. Tickets to individual shows are $15 and a supporter pass helps us to bring regional and national talent to our rural area as well as providing entry to all four shows. If you support original music, we hope you will consider a $60 Supporter Pass.
Bring your lawn chair or a quilt. Food, beer, and wine will be for sale at all shows. Please look at each show below to learn more about each vendor.
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Thursday, June 6th, 6:00 p.m.
Viv and Riley - $15
Thursday, June 13th, 6:00 p.m.
E'Lon JD - $15
Thursday, June 20th, 6:00 p.m.
Buffalo Nichols - $15
Thursday, June 27th, 6:00 p.m.
Missy Raines & Allegheny - $15
About the Artists
Viv & Riley
The pair have been collaborating since 2018, honing their sound by playing hundreds of shows across the US, UK, and Canada. They’ve recorded and released multiple albums to critical acclaim from the likes of NPR Music, Rolling Stone, and No Depression, and have garnered nearly six million streams on Spotify. A bittersweet nostalgia lies at the heart of Imaginary People, the new album from Viv & Riley, released September 15, 2023 on Free Dirt Records.
The songwriting has evolved from the world-weary, stripped-down country songs they’re known for to indie songwriting at turns sweetly sad and gently sardonic. Ultimately, Imaginary People is about carrying and honoring our pasts, about letting that inform our new steps forward. This balancing act is familiar territory for Viv & Riley, who also play in The Onlies, an award winning old time stringband that Riley co-founded in Seattle at age 7. In that role, they serve as co-artistic directors of The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. In both preserving traditional music and bringing their own original folk music to new territories and audiences, it is clear that Viv & Riley have much to do with the present and future of roots music.
E'Lon JD
E’Lon JD is an American progressive soul artist, bass player, songwriter, and educator. He has found inspiration from artist such as, Jimi Hendrix, Andre 3000, and John Legend to name a few. His sound combines elements of soul, funk, jazz, and rock and could be described best as melodic driven, feel good music. E'Lon has performed on stages as far east as Almaty, Kazakhstan and as far west as Los angeles, California and can be found on tour anywhere in between.
He has recorded with acts such as, Phony Ppl, and The Gregory Bros., and has shared the stage with Belá Fleck, Members of Snarky Puppy, Victor Wooten, and Weedie Braimah. He is the bass player in the internationally touring band Jonathan Scales Fourchestra. They have performed on the NPR Tiny Desk Concert series and for large audiences at several major Jazz festivals. He will be performing with his trio at Hart Square.
Buffalo Nichols
Nichols’ vision for the blues is a form of music intimately tied to everyday life in our current times. He proved he could succeed on his terms on his self-titled 2021 debut, whose songs, Bandcamp Daily said, “seem to flow from some great repository of emotion and insight.” On his recent album, The Fatalist, Nichols’ dusky take on Blind Willie Johnson’s “You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond” is a fantastic reinterpretation.
Throughout the album, Nichols sings about his life in the first person and his desire to forge his individuality in a world and a music industry that makes it nearly impossible. Ringing through The Fatalist is a simple question: Do I have any say in how things will go? It’s the question behind so much of the physical and psychic pain in the blues, and in a frustrating age that preaches self-empowerment and shames the disenfranchised, it’s a stridently modern question, too. By playing his music the way he wants to play it, by refusing to give up his creative control or accept anyone else’s definition of the blues or, indeed, his own life, Carl Nichols has tried to forge an answer. He will be performing with his trio at Hart Square.
Missy Raines & Allegheny
Throughout her storied career, Raines has garnered some of the biggest accolades in the music industry, including 14 International Bluegrass Music Association honors, with 10 being awarded for “Bass Player of the Year.” Raines’ 2018 release Royal Traveller was also nominated for a Grammy Award for “Best Bluegrass Album” in 2020.
Her latest album, Highlander brings together some of the finest musicians in Nashville and beyond, including country star and fellow West Virginian Kathy Mattea; fiddle virtuosos Michael Cleveland, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Darol Anger and Shad Cobb; renowned bluegrass vocalists Danny Paisley, Dudley Connell and Laurie Lewis; with dobro wizard Rob Ickes and banjo great Alison Brown also making guest appearances.
Refund Policy
Hart Square does not offer refunds for ticketed events unless the event has been canceled.
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