PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present contemporary folk singer/songwriter and comedienne extraordinaire Cheryl Wheeler, plus Americana duo Willa Mamet and Paul Miller, at Next Stage on Saturday, Sept. 9, at 7:30 p.m.
According to a news release, “it has always seemed as if there were two Cheryl Wheelers, with fans of the New England songwriter relishing watching the two tussle for control of the microphone.”
Wheeler writes “some of the prettiest, most alluring and intelligent ballads on the modern folk scene,” and also performs as a comic - “a militant trend defier and savagely funny social critic.” As the poet and comic forces join, Wheeler emerges as “a delightful, gifted, and openhearted performer,” according to the release.
Wheeler's deceptively plain-spun songs have been hits for such mainstream stars as Suzy Bogguss and Dan Seals, and have been recorded by the likes of Bette Midler, Maura O'Connell, Peter Paul and Mary, Kenny Loggins, Holly Near, and Garth Brooks.
In her comic persona, Wheeler “comes on like Groucho Marx-in-a-housecoat; a fiercely everyday woman with a barbed-wire tongue. Shredding the mores of our gossipy, greedy, trend-obsessed culture, Wheeler always aims enough darts at herself to never seem sanctimonious.”
Vermont and California-based Willa Mamet and Paul Miller play a mix of Americana, folk, country, and grassy soul music. Over the past 40 years, Miller has performed with Coco and the Lonesome Road Band, Bluebird, Andy Shapiro, Breakaway, and the Bluegrass Gospel Project.
Mamet grew up making music with her family and community around Randolph, and has been singing with Paul for nearly 15 years. Together, they have won the Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus “Tammy” Award for Best New Album in both 2013 and 2015.