HV Folk Guild’s Open Mic & Concert

of all genres, what I like to call Opera to Opry, Jams to Jazz.”

Collabonation’s intent is to carry forward the musical legacy of Nutshell Hall by booking both national artists and local talent to help ensure the Hall’s former psychedelic rock reputation gets the respect it deserves while opening doors to new generations of fans and different stylistic tastes.

Joe adds, “We are confident that between an invigorated concert schedule and improved patron experience, Nutshell Hall can harken back to the days as a club where bands want to perform.

On the heels of a very successful Fall season, Collabonation has launched their Spring series of weekly concerts, Saturdays Live from Nutshell Hall

You can follow Collabonation on Instagram, Facebook, or visit www. collabonationproductions.com for details and tickets for weekly Saturday shows.

Nutshell Hall is at 6692 Route 52, Lake Huntington. Doors open at 7:00pm. Entertainment continues until 11:00pm. See calendar page 13 for April concerts.

“We have returned to in-person and open mic performances on the second Saturday of every month, weather and pandemic permitting,” announced Maureen Black, president of the Rock Tavern chapter of the Hudson Valley Folk Guild. “Open mic performances are available to all. Signup begins at 7:00pm and open mic begins at 7:30pm.”

Music has always been a part of Andy Shapiro’s life. Born into the folk world, he studied classical, rock, blues, country, jazz...he’s all mixed up, and his music reflects that. He loves weaving all of what he’s taken in into his music. His songs have received honorable mention at the Post Music Awards, and he is working on his second album. Shapiro will perform his songs for you as part of his pre-CD release tour at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Rock Tavern, 9 Vance Road, Rock Tavern, on April 8. The performance is expected to begin at 8:30pm For information call 845-464-2526.

Meet Dr. Cook in Grahamsville

Born in Hortonville, Frederick Albert Cook (1865-1940) was an American explorer, physician, and ethnographer who claimed to have reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. That was nearly a year before Robert Peary, who similarly claimed to have reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909. Both men’s accounts have been disputed ever since.

Focusing on preserving the legacy of Dr. Cook’s outstanding accomplishments, Carol Smith, Director of the Frederick

Cook Society, will give an illustrated talk on photographs taken by Dr. Cook on his expeditions between 1897 and 1908. The collection includes Arctic and Antarctic wilderness, exploration ships and portraits of the native Inuit. Frederick Cook, Arctic Explorer will be presented on April 30 at 2:00pm in the Time and the Valleys Museum, 332 Main Street, Grahamsville. For information, call 845-985-7700 or visit: www.timeandthevalleysmuseum.org.

City Winery: Chris Knight/Chris Berardo

For the past 20 years, Chris Knight has only made music his own way. He’s released eight albums, played thousands of electrifying live shows and built generations of fervent fans from Texas honkytonks to Manhattan rock clubs. He’s been hailed as “the last of a dying breed...a taciturn loner with an acoustic guitar and a college degree,” - New York Times and “a storyteller in the best traditions of Mellencamp and Springsteen.” - USA

Today

“It’s hard to know how people are gonna react,” Chris Knight says of Almost Daylight, his ninth album and first new recording in over seven years. “I’ve written songs about a lot of different things going all the way back to my first record, and some folks still think ‘somebody kills somebody’ is all I write about. Maybe that’s why I was bound and determined to get these particular songs on this album. If people like them, then we’ll be fine. But I wasn’t gonna do it any other way.”

Chris Berardo’s quarter-century of music making has been a pure, emotional outpouringa triumph of authentic songcraft and storytelling over careerism, fashion and hype. “I never really was the type to chase fame,” he says. “It was that I wanted to do this stuff. It was more I want these opportunities to sing these songs for people.”

Over the course of three albums and countless roadhouses, honkytonks, close calls and lost weekends, Berardo and his longtime band The DesBerardos have earned a loyal fanbase and peer respect for the sheer quality and sincerity of their rootsy Americana rock. It’s a nuanced, genre-straddling sound that resonates widely through both pop sensibilities and outlaw attitude.

City Winery Hudson Valley, 23 Factory Street, Montgomery, is presenting Chris Knight featuring Chris Berardo on April 7 at 8:00pm See ad page 9.

DVAA: Duo Exhibition

Joni Wehrli’s sculptures reference the landscape of our internal anatomy and biomorphic forms in nature.

Desmond Beach is influenced by the African storytelling tradition. His work symbolizes one’s sense of duality: Black, American; two thoughts, two souls, two feelings, unresolved strivings, and contradictory beliefs in one’s dark skin, which is held intact solely through its purposeful power.

The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance will feature Wehrli and Beach in an exhibition running from April 1 to May 7. The opening reception is on April 1, from 4:00pm-6:00pm at DVAA, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg. www.DelawareValleyArtsAlliance.org

SUNY Orange Students: “Expressions”

The 19th annual SUNY Orange Student Art Show is here again with paintings, drawings, photography, graphics and theatre art.

Expressions runs

April 3-28, with an opening reception on April 4, from 2:00pm4:00pm. Music will be provided by the Spring Jazz Quartet: Megumi Kinoshita, piano; Leo Betcher, alto sax; John Parodi, electric bass, & Kim Peralta, drums.

Presented by the Arts and Communication Department and SUNY

Poetry to Honor Prof.

The SUNY Orange English Department Poetry Committee will be holding a Memorial Reading celebrating the work and life of SUNY Orange English Professor Emeritus Sandy Graff in the Great Room on the Newburgh Campus Professor Graff loved.

Sandy earned a Bachelor’s degree from SUNY Albany and a Master’s degree in English Education from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She served as a Jesuit Volunteer before working at alternative high schools in Newark, New Jersey. She also taught at St. Peter’s University, Sussex County College, and finished the last 23 years of her teaching career at Orange County Community College, retiring as a Professor Emeritus in May of 2021.

The committee will be reading from her chapbooks This Big Dress and Girl

Orange Cultural Affairs, the remarkable works can be seen

Monday-Thursday from 8:00am-8:00pm; Friday from 8:00am-5:00pm, and during performances in the theatre and gallery in Orange Hall

Free parking is at the corner of Wawayanda & Grandview Avenues, (GPS: 24 Grandview Ave.) on the Middletown campus of SUNY Orange. For info, call the Arts & Communication Department at 845-3414787 or Cultural Affairs at 845-341-4891.