Northampton’s Parlor Room sponsors a series of Acoustic music events called the Parlor Sessions which serve up a winter’s worth of amazing roots music. A very special sense of community is built with this series featuring a concert followed by a jam session. Along with soup, bread and PIE! The shows all are scheduled for Sunday evenings and begin 1/20 all the way to St Patrick’s Day. Performers include Molsky’s Mountain Drifters, Stephane Wrembel, Seamus Egan Project, Michael Daves, Rani Arbo with Daisy Mayhem. March brings Jacob Joliff, Laura Orshaw, and finished with the celtic sounds of Nuala Kennedy, Eamon O’leary and Jefferson Hamer.

The series has a “who’s who in Valley acoustic music” to anchor the jam sessions (and to eat Pie!). The house band includes Gareth Buckley on bass, Lily Sexton on fiddle, Max Wareham on guitar and John Benjamin on mandolin. They were kind enough to spend an hour with me playing some old time and bluegrass tunes in advance of the Sessions and filling our listeners in on the upcoming series.

The set list includes “Green Light on the Southern” by the House band followed by Molksy’s Mountain Drifters’ latest  single, “Bright Side Somewhere”. The House Band did a lovely “Handsome Molly” which we followed with Stephane Wrembel’s “Bistro Fada”. Michael Daves’ version of “Darling Corey” is followed by a live version of “Doorstep to Trouble”. We also include Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem’s “Down by the Water” and Jacob Joliff’s latest set of instrumentals “Waitin on Gravey”. The House Band played the traditional “Red Wing’ while we finished the hour with Seamus Egan’s “Weep Not For the Memories”.

Make sure to check out these very community-oriented sessions from now till Spring, only at the Parlor Room on Sunday evenings. Tell ’em Nine Volt Heart sent you.