BELLOWS FALLS-Four contemporary singer-songwriters — John Gorka, Patty Larkin, Cliff Eberhardt, and Lucy Kaplansky — will perform an evening of music, “On a Winter’s Night,” Thursday, Jan. 8, at the Bellows Falls Opera House.
“In 1994, folk-music den-mother, Christine Lavin, first gathered a group for a songwriting and performing retreat under that monicker,” wrote organizers in a news release. From what became a series of concerts, a best-selling Rounder Records disc appeared in 2004, then a tour, then another.
Thirty years after that first concert, “On a Winter’s Night,” is “like a mini folk festival all-star lineup on stage,” says Charlie Hunter, one of the presenters of the event, “except without the mosquitoes and tick bites, and you’re in a comfortable seat, and you don’t have to use a port-a-potty.
“Seriously, though,” Hunter added, “this is just a really great lineup of writers and performers whose work has stood the test of time.”
The Jan. 8 date marks the first of the 2026 Ray Massucco Concert Series, named after the late Bellows Falls booster, attorney, part-time concert promoter, and full-time music lover. After Massucco’s death in 2022, a group of Vermont friends who had worked with him on the 20-year trajectory of the Roots on the River music festival coalesced around the idea of a concert series.
“Ray loved music,” says Ezra Veitch, production manager of Ray’s the Roof, presenter of the series, “And Ray loved Bellows Falls. I think he’d be thrilled to see how successful the series has been, and continues to be.”
The 2026 series continues April 17 with the return of Garrison Keillor, this time accompanied by long-time Prairie Home Companion pianist Richard Dworsky; features the return of Fred Eaglesmith on Oct. 17; and concludes with Dar Williams on Dec. 4.
The Bellows Falls Opera House is at 7 Village Square, Bellows Falls, VT. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets, which range from $32.00 to $57.00, and more information can be found at bellowsfallsoperahouse.com/special-events.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.