Story Archives of 'Summer Arts Series'

As part of The Front Porch Summer Arts Series, singer songwriter Liz Carlisle will sing and play in the studio with some backup help. Liz is a Montana-based country singer who's been compared to Ani De Franco, Dar Williams and Faith Hill. She's 22 and has a 2006 summa cum laude degree from Harvard, a new CD, and she'll be playing at Tupelo Music Hall on September 1st.

The Jazz group Trio Encompas describes its sound as energy-driven avant groove jazz. Jonathan Blakeslee, Mike Walsh, and Thom Keith make up the trio and do time on stand-up bass, drums, and saxophone respectively. As part of the Front Porch Summer Arts Series, the three Seacoast jazzmen will play in the NHPR studios and talk about the development of their sound and their place in the world of Jazz.

Boston-based Catie Curtis has become a regular fixture at the biggest folk festivals in the northeast and throughout the country. Her new CD "Long Night Moon" is the first recording she's made since adopting two children. She'll play in the studio and talk about the effect being a parent has on her music and about the impressive mix of musicians she's got behind the new work.

This episode of the Front Porch is not available on CD or Cassette

Tonight on The Front Porch, we're playing highlights from the 5th Annual Great Waters Folk Festival. The Winnipesauke event attracted a huge range of artists last Saturday including Judy Collins, Bill Morrissey, Mary Gauthier and lots of other performers. We're going to hear some of the best moments from the event.

Tonight's show is part of the Front Porch Summer Arts Series.

All of the full performances from the Great Waters Folk Festival(except Judy Collins) are available on-line, along with some great photos from the event. Click here to visit the NHPR Folk Show page and check them out.

And be sure to join Kate McNally for The Folk Show on Sunday, September 3rd from 7:00 to 10:00 pm for more excerpts of some of these great sets. Kate will bring you a portion of that exclusive Judy Collins performance in the 9:00 pm hour and Ms. Collins' entire set will be available for download that night.

Massachusetts native Lori McKenna sings and strums with the kind of twang you don't usually associate with the northeast. Three of her songs caught the attention of country star Faith Hill who put them on one of her records. Lori is headlining the annual Prescott Park Folk Festival in Portsmouth this Sunday, July 23rd. She'll play and sing tunes from her new CD "Bittertown" in the Front Porch studio to preview the event.