About Summer Concert: Deb Talan, Kris Delmhorst, and Heather Maloney
For one night only, three legendary songwriters will share the same stage for an incredible night of music at Fruitlands Museum. Deb Talan (formerly of the Weepies), Kris Delmhorst, and Heather Maloney will share some of their incredible catalogues of songs.
Deb Talan has been writing songs since she was 14 years old. Granted, her style has changed a bit since writing the forever-unknown smash-hit “Through the Window” about feeling numb, like life was going on somewhere out there but not accessible to her (at 14. so jaded.) She played clarinet, wrote songs on piano, later taught herself to play guitar in college, got obsessed with Shawn Colvin, was a vegetarian for 4 years, ended that with a hotdog and a swim in lake Michigan, started a band in Portland, OR with her friend Mark, named it Hummingfish, wrote a lot of fun songs that people danced to ‘til they were all sweaty in that hipster/grungy/geeky Northwest kind of way, moved back to the east coast 6 years and a divorce later and began playing solo in Boston coffee houses (read: 4 different Starbucks that she also poured espresso at) opened shows for Catie Curtis (a songwriter hero of hers) met up with Steve Tannen and formed The Weepies, played shows all over the country and the world, toured in a real tourbus! moved to LA, got married to Steve, made 5 records and 3 amazing boy-children together with him, had songs placed in loads of movies and tv shows, moved to Iowa, got breast cancer, got chemotherapy and relied heavily on marijuana for pain and nausea relief(Legalize, for gods’ sakes, can we grow up as a country, please?) recovered from breast cancer, made a solo album, struggled with mental health issues (Childhood Incest Survivor, lucky to be alive, music has helped, and so have many blessed healers) and relationship issues for 6 years, got divorced from Steve. She has a lot she could say these days. She prefers to listen. But playing songs for people is a close second. Music heals. Songs can be prayers.
Deb Talan is some lovely damn proof of that.
You don’t have to believe in anything mystical to feel the molecules around you shift just a little when you listen to Kris Delmhorst. Her songs transform like breath turning to mist on a cold, clear night; the inner made visible. Her voice holds memories, like smoke lingering in a sweater from last summer’s campfire. Twining through every layer of consciousness, her music weaves together the magical and the mundane with the strange logic of dreams.
Called “bold and brilliant” by the Boston Globe and “transcendent” by the LA Times, Delmhorst is a veteran of the indie Americana world, with vivid songwriting, soulful delivery, and adventurous arrangements that stretch the limits of genre. She’s been compared to artists as various as Anaïs Mitchell, Lucinda Williams, and Juana Molina – though she cites Rickie Lee Jones, in all her fearless joy and complexity, as an artistic north star.
With Long Day in the Milky Way, her eighth album (out August 14 2020), Delmhorst takes a surefooted stride forward. Lush with layered vocals and immersive instrumentation, it finds the gifted lyricist at the height of her craft and working with a strong sense of purpose. World-weary but hopeful, the songwriter responds to a time of global anxiety with a missive straight from the chest. Delmhorst invites the listener to look both out and in, to take in the full kaleidoscope of life’s contradictions – persistence, frustration, heartbreak, love – and to locate the grace within the struggle, the beauty in the dark.
The Massachusetts-based “writer song-singer” found music in the midst of three years at a meditation center, honing a sound moored in days of silent reflection and reverence for storytellers like Joni, Rilke, Ken Burns, and the anonymous authors of Zen parables. And while she eventually traded the quiet, structured life as a yogi for the kinetic life a touring musician, the core of her songwriting remains centered around same curiosity about our inner world and the desire to articulate it through storytelling. She now has eight studio album releases under her belt, each one marked by inspiring collaborations with musicians, songwriters and producers.
After over 1,000 live shows and more than a decade of touring behind studio albums, Heather Maloney released her first live album, “No Shortcuts | Live at the Academy” in June of 2022 on the celebrated indie label, Signature Sounds. On Heather’s 2019 album, Soil In The Sky, her “ability to channel emotion is radical” (PopMatters) and the tracks are stacked with special guests who help her deliver an immense range of sound and sentiment in 12 songs; there’s a duet with Dawes front-man Taylor Goldsmith on the Walt Whitman-inspired love song “We Were Together”, an appearance by Rachael Price on the album’s opening track “Enigma”, and Jay Ungar lends his legendary folk fiddle to “Oklahoma Lullaby”, a song inspired by Ken Burns’ documentary The Dustbowl. (Ungar composed Ashokan Farewell in Burns’ The Civil War). The all-star band includes drummer Griffin Goldsmith (Dawes), and multiple members of the Amos Lee band.
Heather’s songs have played on NPR stations across the country and her live appearances have aired on syndicated programming like eTown and AudioTree. Her song “Nightstand Drawer” was used in the season finale of the CBS TV series “Elementary”, and her songs have also been featured on a number of editorial Spotify playlists & Starbucks’ in-store nationwide playlists.
Heather has toured throughout the US & Canada as a headliner and also in support of acts including Lake Street Dive, Shakey Graves, Gary Clark Jr., Rodrigo y Gabriela, Colin Hay (Men at Work), Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, Dar Williams and many more.
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Concert begin at 7PM, Gates Open 6pm
This outdoor picnic concert is presented on the lawn on Fruitlands. Bring your blanket, lawn chairs and picnic basket. There is plenty of room on the concert lawn to spread out and get comfortable. Before the concert starts, enjoy a picnic on the lawn and visit the exhibitions on view in the Art Gallery which will be open from 6-7pm.
Pre-order meals will be available for advance purchase through the Hyve at the Fruitlands Cafe or purchase food through our onsite vendor during the event itself. A bar will also be available for wine and beer. Please note, outside alcohol is not permitted.
At our picnic concerts, dogs are welcome to join and must be kept on leash at all times.
Please purchase your tickets online in advance
Member Adult $28. Member Child $16.
Nonmember Adult $35. Nonmember Child $20.
Any questions? Contact Catherine Shortliffe at cshortliffe@thetrustees.org
This is an outdoor event. In the event of severe weather, any changes will be communicated directly to ticket holders via email.
Register
