Please note: Many Artists will be offering their CDs and merchandise for sale and we invite you to take home the music and products of your favorite performers.

Local Artists Showcase: On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday afternoons beginning at noon, the Performing Arts Committee features local artists on the big stage at Crocker Park. We encourage you to stop by and support these artists.

Eric Russell is the legendary guitarist from the Boston area Alt-Rock Band the 360’s who burst on the scene in 1989. After many years performing locally and on the road, Russell can be found in the Marblehood sharing his extensive musical knowledge and shaping guitar students through his unique teaching style. Today, Eric brings two of his students to the big stage to play for us. Gus Egan is a 16 year old guitarist who has taken lessons with Eric for 10 years. Tyler Morgan is 20 year old student who has been working with Eric for the last 2 years.

In July, 2009, when Hayley Reardon first picked up a guitar, she uncovered both a deep passion and an obvious natural talent for songwriting. Boston's WUMB was the first to publicly recognize her emerging talen when, at age 12, she was a winner in the 2009 Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Contest. She has since received additional recognition in numerous national competitions and has showcased at many regional, national and international conferences including Indiegrrl and Folk Alliance International. She has released two EPs to date. For the past year Hayley has collaborated with the PACER National Center For Bullying Prevention to inspire other young people to believe that "the end of bullying begins with me." She recently began performing in middle schools and other peer settings throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Bullying awareness is a central theme in her Find Your Voice school show intended to encourage her middle school peers to express themselves to make a difference in their communities!

Jermain Martin has been a musician all his life. Beginning at age 7, the Jamaica born Martin travelled throughout the country performing with his mother and older brother developing his gifts of singing, playing the piano, saxophone and drums. Jermain later moved to the U.S. and is pursuing his BA in Music Education and Performance at Berklee College of Music. In 2009, Jermain became Coordinator and Director of the Marblehead Gospel Choir through the METCO program. He is also the Executive Producer for the annual Marblehead METCO Gospel Concert which aids funding the Tyrone Bumpers scholarship. Proceeds from the concert provide an annual monetary award to one Marblehead student and one METCO student. Jermain wishes to continue using his God given gift to glorify God and draw men unto God.

For the past three years, this Caravan of Thieves has roamed the North American continent recruiting a family of avid thrill seekers at their high energy shows. Driving gypsy jazz rhythms, acoustic guitars, upright bass and violin lay the foundation for mesmerizing vocal harmonies and fantastic stories. It’s theatrical and humorous. It’s musical and intense. It entertains, dazzles and defies classification while welcoming the spectator to join the band throughout the performance in momentary fits of claps, snaps and sing-alongs. If Django Reinhardt, the cast of Stomp and the Beatles all had a party at Tim Burton’s house, Caravan of Thieves would be the band they hired.

In the spring of 2008, vocal harmonizing, acoustic guitar spanking husband and wife songwriting duo Fuzz and Carrie Sangiovanni extended their family to include fiery violinist Ben Dean and double bass madman, Brian Anderson completing their colorful vision. Since then, the four of them ran away from home and never looked back. Within that first year, the Caravan of Thieves began to win immediate praise for their unique blend of gypsy swing and popular music. In 2009 they recorded and released the debut album “Bouquet”. To accompany this collection of dramatic and satirical tales, they built an interactive stage set of percussive junk and the ragtag quartet took their newly animated show on the road, sharing stages with world renowned artists.

The Caravan successfully connects with diverse audiences of all ages and musical tastes. For their Live 2010 release, “Mischief Night”, the band recorded one sold out show in May of that year – that recording highlights the first two years of their most outrageous and engaging onstage antics, original favorites and a few selections from their list of unexpected cover song reconstructions. In between their 2011 tour the band began working on their latest album which is sure to break new ground while continuing to satisfy the core family of “Freaks” they have been cultivating.

Consider yourself recruited…. run away with us for the night and join the Caravan!

If James Brown had a white son who cut his teeth playing the chitlin’ circuit, you might get something like Evan Goodrow, a soul-singing, blues guitar playing powerhouse.

Bottle fed on Blues and Motown, Goodrow’s tastes shifted as a teen to the fiery styling’s of Jimi Hendrix and then he continued his evolution pursuing formal studies as a jazz guitarist. He quickly learned, “nothing made me feel as good as the soul music I was raised on as a child,” so Evan returned to his soul roots, and with fresh perspective and he made it brand new again creating “Brand New Soul!.” Over the years, with an ever expanding fan base behind his EGB, he tirelessly toured the Northeast and branched a bit more each year.

To showcase Goodrow’s “Brand New Soul," he recruited his core band mates. Drummer Phil Antoniades is a San Francisco transplant weaned on early influences of Tower of Power, Earth Wind and Fire and Jazz. After a first early performing tour of Japan, Phil bagged a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music and began a long and conovoluted trip through the highs and lows of being a career musician. Touring around the world and across the country way too many times brought Phil to New England and the edgy Funk of EGB. It’s the funky grooves, varied dynamics, improv on the fly and surprises every night that make performing with EGB his favorite space to be in. John Cooke specializes in Hammond B-3 & Rhodes organs, Piano, or "just about anything with ebonies and ivories!” Cooke plays with a captivating fiery energy. An inventive songwriter, an animated and talented performer, John quickly lights up the stage and you can’t help feeling like you’re up there with him! Blowing along with Evan Goodrow and the band tonight are the smoking hot EGB Horns featuring Chuck Langford and Tim Mayer both on the tenor sax.

So there you have it…18 acts over four nights and three days. Thanks to MFoA President Lynne DeVoe and our entire Board of Directors for sharing the vision. And thanks to you for your support in dollars and in spirit to make it a reality!

(BSW/June ’11)

“Music is a world within itself with a language we all understand. With an equal opportunity for all to sing, dance, and clap their hands!”

Stevie Wonder, Sir Duke