Singing Oak is thrilled to continue our collaboration with our friends at Unity Concerts in Hyannis, to bring you a sizzling line-up of sensational singer/songwriters this summer.
We're hosting 5 amazing artists on the 2nd Fridays from May to September. We contrinue our series on June 13th with Anne Hills!
Anne Hills is one of the most beloved voices of the contemporary folk music scene, receiving awards and recognition for her live performances, her unique solo and collaborative recording projects, and her overall artistry and benefit work.
Her song “Follow That Road” was the title cut of the Martha’s Vineyard Songwriter Retreat and has been a certified folk classic since the late 1990s.
Whether she is singing her own songs, the words of six-year-old Opal Whiteley, or her song settings of the Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley; accompanied with her guitar, banjo, or simply a Tibetan bell, she puts her whole heart and soul into the moment.
You won’t want to miss a chance to hear her songs and stories in person. She tours extensively, winning over audiences with her warm, lively and humorous performances.
Anne Hills "Follow That Roadl"
The AllMusic Guide says, “A stunning soprano tone has made Anne Hills one of contemporary music’s premiere vocalists … Her knack for writing heartfelt songs [has] brought her to the upper echelon of her craft.”
Tom Paxton says, “Anne Hills is such an exquisite singer that it’s understandable that people might be swept up in the pure beauty of her voice and thereby overlook her writing. That would be a mistake. For me, Anne’s writing, in songs like ‘Follow That Road’ and many others, is as direct, melodic and deep as any work being done today. She is quite simply one of my absolute favorite songwriters.”
Please visit the website of Anne Hills at annehills to learn more about this amazing performer.
We contrinue our series on Friday, July 11th
with John Flynn!
John Flynn is an American singer-songwriter and activist known for his powerful music and tireless efforts on behalf of the lost and the lonely, the shackled and scarred. His career has embodied an authentic troubadour odyssey that moved legendary folk DJ Gene Shay to call Flynn "the most quintessential folk singer in my life", and Deana McCloud, Executive Director of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma to write, "John Flynn is the real deal. His work follows in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, and other social justice troubadours as he speaks the truth and gives a voice to society's disenfranchised. His work fills your heart and opens your eyes as he continues to walk the walk of a true advocate for equality, justice, and peace."
John Flynn "Kris's Rules"
Please visit the website of John Flynn at johnflynn to learn more about this amazing performer.
Since her 2006 breakthrough album, "My Remembrance of You", Diana Jones has been a major literary voice in contemporary song. “Songs come in a flurry of inspiration. I don’t understand it but I’m grateful.” But a journey of adoption and reunion as mysterious as her songwriting led to the gritty, authentic, Americana storytelling that has become her life’s work and her live show.
Within her first two years on the scene Jones gained critical acclaim, international radio play being championed by major radio legends. She played sold out concert venues, toured with Richard Thompson and Mary Gauthier, opened for Peggy Seeger and Nick Lowe, appeared on BBC4 Folk America with Seasick Steve, played the Cambridge Folk Festival Main Stage and was a guest on the Jools Holland Show. Joan Baez recorded “Henry Russell’s Last Words” on Day After Tomorrow, the Grammy-nominated 2008 album produced by Steve Earle.
Joan Baez, in an interview for the New Your Times, said that writers of Ms. Jones’s caliber come along only every so often. “There’s some kind of channeling from some other lifetime going on, I don’t know the answer to these things, but all I can think of is that it must come from some mysterious part of her soul.”
Diana Jones "Pony"
Please visit the website of Diana Jones at dianajones to learn more about this amazing performer.
We close out the Summer Music Series with the amazing Claudia Schmidt on Friday, September 12th!
Claudia Schmidt has recorded folk, jazz, blues and spoken word albums. She has appeared numerous times on the radio program, A Prarie Home Companion.
Schmidt has been a well-known fixture in the folk/acoustic music scene since her earliest days performing in the late 1970s. She began performing at the Amazing Grace Coffeehouse in Evanston, Illinois.
In 2001, she ventured off into independent status with her first full-fledged jazz recording, Live at the Old Rectory PubShe has since recorded other independent efforts including two jazz CDs, and folk/acoustic CD, and a spoken word CD.
Schmidt has also made a name for herself in musical theater around the midwest. She has scored the music for several plays including a Joseph Jefferson Award winning effort for A Good Person of Szechuan mounted by the Goodman Theater in Chicago in 1992.
In 2006, Schmidt recorded the soundtrack for a new documentary Motherhood Manifesto, by John deGraff author of Take Back Your Time. She also starred in a musical telling of the Edmud Fitzgerald tragedy titled The Gales of November. This theater piece tells the tragic story of the sinking of this mighty ore ship from the point of view of the wives of several fated crew members.
Claudia Schmidt "Timeless Love"
Upcoming Artists
UNITY CONCERTS HOSTS
Summer of 2025 Music Series
On the 2nd Fridays from
May to September,
music will fill the house at
Unity Concerts!