Nashville Artists Coming To Huntington's Cinema Arts Centre For Concert

HUNTINGTON, NY — Halley Neal and Sam Robbins, a pair of singer-songwriters from Nashville, are set to kick off the 2023-24 season of the monthly Hard Luck Café concert series in Huntington, the Cinema Arts Centre announced.

The show is scheduled for 7 to 10 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Cinema Arts Centre's Sky Room, located at 423 Park Ave., Huntington. The series is co-presented by the Folk Music Society of Huntington.

An open mic, for which sign-up is at 6:30 p.m., precedes the concert. Tickets are $20 ($15 for Cinema Arts Centre/FMSH members) and can be purchased online or at the box office now through the evening of the event.

Neal, who cites Joni Mitchell and Shawn Colvin among her inspirations and whose sound is influenced by classic folk music and modern-day singer-songwriters, was recently named the winner of the SolarFest 2023 Singer-Songwriter Showcase. Neal graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2019 and has since released two albums featuring her original songs.

She performed at the Kerrville Folk Festival in the Texas Hill Country this year as a finalist in the prestigious Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition, as well as in Colorado as part of the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriter Showcase and the Telluride Troubadour competition. Closer to Long Island, she shined during the Grassy Hill Emerging Artist Showcase at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Goshen, Connecticut.

Robbins describes himself as an "old soul singer-songwriter." His music plays on 1970s singer-songwriters like James Taylor and Neil Young while adding a modern edge to the storyteller-troubadour persona. He plays more than 150 shows a year across the country and has gained recognition from his busy tour schedule. He was a winner in the Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters in 2021. This summer, he performed at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival as one of the artists voted "Most Wanted to Return" following last year’s Grassy Hill Emerging Artists Showcase. Like Neal, he is a 2019 graduate of Berklee College of Music. He originally hails from New England and has released two albums.

The upcoming show will mark the Long Island show debuts for both artists.

The Cinema Arts Centre, established in 1973, seeks to bring the best of cinematic artistry to Long Island.