Live Wire: Plenty of local musical sparklers for Independence Day
Activities surrounding Independence Day mainly focus on fireworks and food, but here in this column we like to highlight more events that feature folk or funk.
With that in mind, here is a list of diverse musical offerings that you can enjoy coming up over the Fourth of July weekend.
Starting on July 3, you might want to sit outdoors and hear the Expandable Brass Band at the Florence Summer Concert Series . The music starts at 6:30 p.m. and is held on the Florence Civic Center lawn at 90 Park St. in the Florence section of Northampton.
July 3 will also see the Hilltown Ham Hocks play at the Mount Holyoke Summit House in Hadley. The band plays modern folk with old-time roots, and will start at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance and can be found at friendsofmhr.org . There are just 110 advance tickets available for indoor seating. (There will be 60 "porch seating" tickets, available for $15 on the day of the show.) Summit House is at 10 Skinner State Park Road in Hadley.
Jazz is considered uniquely American music, so you might want to sample that genre for Independence Day. If so, you can find it on July 3 on the grounds of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art , where Ben Malynoski Plus 2, a saxophone trio, will play at 5 p.m. The venue is at 125 West Bay Road in Amherst.
On July 4 itself, most venues are closed, but you can head to J ust One Moor at The Boathouse (1 Alford St. In South Hadley) where Baird Souls will play acoustic music at 7 p.m.
The centerpiece of the weekend happens on July 5, when Australian country music star Kasey Chambers plays Northampton's Iron Horse Music Hall at 7 p.m. Chambers, who has been in the spotlight for more than 25 years, is touring behind her latest album "Backbone." Chambers has won 14 Australian Recording Industry Association Awards and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2018.
Also on July 5, you can catch Doomsday Ladies at Progression Brewing (9 Pearl St. In Northampton) at 7 p.m., All Troy's Fault headlining at Se7en's Sports Bar and Grill (75 Cottage St. in Easthampton) at 9 p.m., and Deadheads playing at The Silos (106 Mill Valley Road in Hadley) at 2 p.m.
The weekend wraps up on July 6 with a chance for dancing at the Marigold Theater in Easthampton. The Butterfly Swing Band will provide the rhythms for Swing Dance First Sunday, where attendees can get a bit of swing dance instruction at 3 p.m. before the band kicks off the dance party at 4 p.m. The cost is on a sliding scale between $15-$20. Marigold is at 84 Cottage St.
Read the original article on MassLive .
