Abbie Gardner, with her husband Craig Akin, and Goodnight Moonshine, the husband and wife duo of Molly Venter and Eben Pariser, are the featured artists during the Folk Music Society of Huntington’s monthly First Saturday Concerts series on Saturday, Feb. 3.
Gardner, a fiery dobro player, is a founding member of the all-female Americana trio Red Molly. After gracing stages from Denver to Denmark, and from Australia to Austin, the band took an indefinite hiatus in 2015. Although the trio has slated concerts for this year, Gardner is also having a blast doing gigs with different bands, backing up her friends, and stepping out into the spotlight on her own.
No stranger to solo performing, Gardner has three CDs to draw from — each with award-winning songs. Tales of love and loss, both gritty and sweet, ride the back of her by-now familiar and formidable slide guitar licks. She channels Lucinda Williams and Bonnie Raitt, but remains pure Abbie. Her first songbook was published in December 2016, while a new solo album, Wishes On A Neon Sign, has just been released by Akin, who performs with Roosevelt Dime and will accompany her on upright bass.
Venter and Pariser of Goodnight Moonshine are consummate performers who have traveled nationally and internationally, performing more than 100 shows per year with their respective bands, Red Molly and Roosevelt Dime. Co-writing often, Venter and Pariser explore what it means to be in a healthy, authentic relationship. Both wholesome and irreverant, they sing of joy and grief in equal measure.
Venter’s voice bends from a sweet moan to a gritty shout and back into a playful run in the space of a few bars, and “ it all goes down like silk,” according to American Songwriter magazine. “Few singers turn first-time listeners into eternal fanatics as effortlessly as Molly Venter.” The emotional potency of her voice is surrounded and supported by a lush landscape of harmonies and minimalist orchestrations conceived by Pariser on vocals and electric guitar.
The 8:30 p.m. concert at the Congregational Church of Huntington (30 Washington Drive, Centerport) is preceded by an open mic at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets, priced at $25 ($20 for FMSH members), may be purchased in advance online at www.fmsh.org, using a credit card, or at the door (cash and checks only). For more information, visit the website or call (631) 425-2925.
Now in its 50th year, the Folk Music Society of Huntington presents two monthly concert series, a monthly folk jam, and an annual folk festival each summer in conjunction with the Huntington Arts Council. Its Hard Luck Café series at Huntington’s Cinema Arts Centre will feature Long Island-based artists Ray Lambiase and Bill Lauter on Thursday, Feb. 15.
