Chester Concert Series Is A Big Hit
Excerpt from The Hartford Courant
By CHARLES STANNARD | Courant Staff Writer
July 1, 2008
Used by permission
CHESTER — - A local furniture restorer and a folk-rock performer who began her career in the 1980s New York City music scene have organized a concert series that is drawing growing crowds, showcasing area musicians and raising money for nonprofit causes.
The Small Town Concert Series is the brainchild of residents Matthew Male and Lauren Agnelli. The series, which began in 2007 with small shows that raised money for the Chester Fuel Fund and the Chester Public Library, has evolved into a run of shows paying tribute to the works of singer/songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.
A tribute to the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at the Chester Meeting House Saturday evening ended with an eight-piece band laying out rocking versions of songs like "Woodstock" and " Ohio." A show scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday at Chamard Vineyards in Clinton will feature the big band and various other performers doing songs from the early 1960s British invasion. A second tribute to the music of Leonard Cohen is planned for the meeting house in October.
The Small Town Concerts story began in 2004 when Male and Agnelli met at the Sage American Bar and Grill. Male was a divorced father of three daughters from Old Lyme who worked with endangered seabirds and restored antique furniture. Agnelli, a New York City native, had been a member of the Washington Squares, a folk-rock trio out of the Greenwich Village music scene that recorded two albums in the late 1980s, including one nominated for a Best Contemporary Folk Grammy in 1987. After the Washington Squares dissolved in the early 1990s, Agnelli moved to Connecticut to pursue a career in education………….
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