Register for
Vance Cannon on Friday, September 4 at 7:00 p.m.
The KC Sisters on Friday, October 2 at 7:00 p.m.
Spinn Music on Friday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m.
Wanda Houston and George Potts on Friday, December 4 at 7:00 p.m.
KML ANNOUNCES VIRTUAL MUSIC ACCESS SERIES
Press Release 8/24/20
(Kent, Connecticut) – The Kent Memorial Library is very excited about launching a new virtual program called Virtual Music Access to offer fall filled with coffeehouse style music on the first Friday of each month in the comfort of your own home. These events showcase artists residing in or with strong ties to Connecticut. The artists will be performing Americana, Folk, Country-inspired genres.
“In this time of uncertainty, Kent Memorial Library has shown the community that they are there in good times and in trying times; they will support the community just as the community supports them. Music really feeds the soul, I felt that in this current time the community could really benefit from accessing musical talent in the comfort of their own Family Room to enjoy with their families and forget about outside distractions even just for a moment,” said Amanda Myers, virtual event producer of this series.
Join us for these live online events.
Friday, September 4 at 7:00 p.m. Vance Cannon
Vance Cannon of Canaan, CT started playing the guitar at the age of eight. In the late ’70s and early ’80s he was active in western Connecticut’s music scene and from 1983 to 1986 he managed The Marble Dale Pub, a venue that remains legendary for its musical community. He remains active as a musician, even though he rarely plays to audiences. His musical influences include singer-songwriters like James Taylor, country blues artists of the ’20s and ’30s like Blind Blake, and folk music from around the world. He has played in clubs, at fairs, at funerals, in churches, for hospice, at weddings, in restaurants, at parties, for charity events, and for classrooms.
Raised in Sherman in the 1960s, he has been a public school teacher for twenty-two years. He lives in Falls Village with his wife, Carrie, a veterinarian, and more guitars than he probably needs.
Friday, October 2 at 7:00 p.m. The KC Sisters
Featured on Season 1 of Nickelodeon’s brand new show “America’s Most Musical Family,” Connecticut based, five-some, the KC Sisters – ranging in age from 16-22 – stir up an explosive Americana flavored vocal/instrumental mix of country, R&B, gospel and more.
The KC Sisters have shared their dynamic, harmony driven vocal and instrumental excitement in hundreds of performances across the northeast as well as in Hollywood and Nashville. The KC Sisters are now emerging as TikTok celebrities, give multiple performances on the virtual streaming App “Sessions” and are active participants in the online competition featured on the APP “OneUp.”
What sets The KC Sisters apart from any other group of musical siblings or indie bands is their musical diversity, transcendent ease with three and four part harmonies, and the fact that each sister is a multi-talented vocalist and musician skilled in a variety of instruments. Their shows include multi-harmonized vocals, country fiddling, A Capella hymns, pop, jazz, standards, country and original music.
Friday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m. Spinn Music. Opening – Kent’s own Haley Trapella.
Stephanie and Cheryl Lynn Spinner are city girls with country hearts, and while their New Jersey home may not be known for country music, they’re putting their cowboy boot imprint on the Garden State, and the rest of the country.
This past year Spinn Music won country music station NASH FM’s NASH Next regional competition – which featured over 750 bands – earning them a trip to Nashville to perform in the finals, and tour with the other Top 10 finalists from around the country. Brooks & Dunn’s Kix Brooks, who was one of the competition’s judges, was so impressed with the duo that he asked to be part of the Spinn Fan Club (other judges included Big Machine Label Group’s Scott Borchetta, Rascal Flatts’ Jay DeMarcus, and Season 4 winner of The Voice, Danielle Bradbery).
With two successful EPs already under their belt – A Little Crazy, and City Country – and a third, titled Freedom, Spinn Music are thoroughly enjoying living out their dreams, as they’re well on their way to being in rotation alongside the giants of the genre. One of Spinn Music’s favorite songs on the upcoming EP is Time, Love, and Freedom, which was inspired by the harmony they felt during a road trip to Bethel, NY – home of the original Woodstock festival site – and a desire to embrace, and spread, the ideals conveyed through the music of the Woodstock era. They describe the song as “a perfect summer song,” adding it will inspire listeners to “roll the windows down, and turn the music up.”
Friday, December 4 at 7:00 p.m. Wanda Houston and George Potts
Wanda Houston currently lives in the South Berkshires where she works as a private vocal coach and choral director. She, also, is the lead vocalist for a number of projects including the Mothership Trio, The VJC Big Band, The HBH Band and The Wanda Houston Band. For years, Houston sustained a bi-coastal career in theater and music that put her on stages with the likes of Barbara Streisand, Patti Austin, Joe Cocker, Celine Dion and Rick Astley. A private scholarship to study opera took her to the University of Southern California, but she soon found herself on tour with Motown legends like Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, and The Platters while performing with The Marvelous Marvelettes. Later she joined the cast in the Michael Jackson production of “Sisterella!” and toured through Germany, Austria and Australia. After returning from Europe, she made the move to New York City in the cast of “A Good Swift Kick” and was later cast in the New York company of “Menopause the Musical.” Wanda was the featured vocalist in the Roundabout Theater production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” that starred John C. Reilly and Natasha Richardson and was a soloist with the Broadway Inspirational Voices gospel choir that received a Grammy nomination for its Christmas album, “Great Joy.”
George Potts has been singing & playing music throughout Litchfield County for over 4 decades. After leaving a full-time music career in Chicago and relocating to Kent in June of 1976, he served for many years as the bassist for his father-in-law Dolph Traymon’s group, The Fife ’n Drum Trio. He also performed in the 1990s as a member of the Kent Singers, and as a solo guitarist & vocalist.
Since the late 90s, George has most often been seen as a member of the popular area quartet, the Joint Chiefs. The group enjoys a reputation for “tight harmonies and loose attitude.” Their headlining local performances at Infinity Hall, and other concerts opening for music legends like Judy Collins and Rodney Crowell, provide further testimony to the Chiefs’ ability to draw audiences into their unique musical embrace.
In between Joint Chiefs gigs, George continues to play in various duos & trios with the likes of singer Wanda Houston, and multi-instrumentalist Gordon Titcomb. But he still enjoys the chance to perform by himself, and that most often occurs back at the Fife. “There is something uniquely freeing about playing solo. Because you don’t have to be tightly locked-in rhythmically or vocally with other musicians, you can choose to pull a song into unexpected places; and that’s where my ‘musical goose bumps’ live. It also gives me the occasional opportunity to play material I may have written or arranged that might not quite fit into the Joint Chiefs’ style.”
Primarily a finger-style guitarist and tenor vocalist, George mines his solo material from many places: old church hymns, folk songs & bluesy tunes, reinterpretations of Motown & Pop hits, as well as a few dozen original songs he has written over the years. “I am certainly not a prolific writer, but since retiring a couple of years ago I have begun to re-focus on my writing a bit more. I’m my own worst critic; but thankfully a few of the new tunes have made it through my own personal gauntlet.”
The series will be presented on the first Friday of the month at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom. The events are free and open to the public. You must register to receive the zoom links online.