'Music At The Ridge' Concert Series Will Debut Next Month In Danbury

DANBURY, CT — In the surest sign yet that pandemic worries are mostly in the rearview mirror, a new series of live acoustic folk music performances will debut in Danbury next month.

Eight weekly performances are planned for the inaugural series of Music at the Ridge. Husband and wife duo Pete and Maura Kennedy, former members of Nanci Griffith's Blue Moon Orchestra, will kick off the concert series on Oct. 2.

"The Ridge" is the nickname for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury, located at 24 Clapboard Ridge Road. Performances will be held in the church's Main Hall.

The hall seats 150, but each performance will also be recorded and made available on demand. Ticket sales for both the live and recorded internet on-demand shows are being handled by EventBrite. Proceeds will be split between the congregation and the musicians.

"There aren't that many live music venues in Danbury, so I feel like we're not bringing coals to Newcastle," organizer Nancy Hershatter said.

Hershatter is a big folk music fan, and the idea for Music at the Ridge came to her while she attended a folk concert with some other members of the congregation. She wondered what it would take to bring such a concert to UUCD, and brought the matter before the church's Board of Trustees.

"They said 'go for it!'" she told Patch. The Board, and the rest of the congregation, has remained extremely supportive of the fledgling venture.

Hershatter is a life-long folk fan, and has been promoting the music nearly all that time. As a teenager in Branford she started a folk-music infused coffeehouse, and did the same while a student at Connecticut College, in the basement of the chapel. As one of many volunteers running a folk club on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, she was instrumental in introducing Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin to New York City audiences before they became genre superstars.

The concerts, all on Sundays, will begin at 4 p.m. and conclude by six. Ticket prices will vary from show to show. Ducats for The Kennedys concert start at $15. Snacks and beverages will be available to purchase.

The pandemic is not too a distant memory. Hershatter said that several of the artists have requested audience members remain masked during their performance, and the venue will require proof of vaccination at the door for all concerts.

The promoter hopes her new concert series will not only attract Danbury residents in droves, but also reflect their character.

"I remember when my son was in [Danbury] high school, 16 years ago that, that there were 44 languages spoken by the students in the high school. And that number always stuck with me as sort of a reflection of what a diverse community this is. And I would like to reflect that both in the audience that we attract, and then eventually in the music that we offer," Hershatter said.

Upcoming shows in the Music at the Ridge series are:

• Pat Wictor, Nov. 6
• Geoff Kaufman, Dec. 4
• Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen, Jan. 8
• Lui Collins with Anand Nayak, Feb. 5
• Betty and the Baby Boomers, Mar. 5
• Hudson Valley Sally, Apr. 2
• David Roth, May 7