ATHENS — The Athens Brick Meetinghouse Committee, in conjunction with the Athens Historic Preservation Society, is hosting an ice cream social and a concert featuring Bard Owl on Sunday, Aug. 8 at the 1817 Brick Meetinghouse on Route 35.
Doors will open at 4:30 p.m. with an ice cream sundae “buffet bar” set up on the lawn.
Concertgoers are invited to bring a picnic dinner to enjoy on the Meetinghouse Common prior to the concert.
Bard Owl is a Williamsville-based music duo: T. Breeze Verdant on guitar, vocals, and stomp box, and Annie Landenberger on vocals and percussion.
Bard Owl has been playing the region since 2016, offering “warm harmonies, driving rhythms, and an eclectic mix of old tunes, new, and original,” a news release describes.
Verdant and Landenberger have spent the past year-plus building their repertoire in the direction of blues-jazz types of tunes and finessing their sound, while working on recordings and a web presence. They will be joined for this concert by Eric Cantos on harmonica.
The Athens Brick Meetinghouse is historically significant to the Windham County region of Vermont, and particularly the 12 surrounding towns and localities that comprised the “Old Athens Circuit” - Grafton, Rockingham, Townshend, Londonderry, Weston, Chester, Acton, Springfield, Landgrove, Windham, Putney, and Mount Holly.
Circuit preachers from Athens traveled out to these towns to perform religious services. Quarterly camp meetings with congregants from these towns often lasted two days at this “Mother Church.”
The concert will start at 5 p.m. in the Meetinghouse. A donation of $10 is suggested.
Additionally, tickets for a raffle of 1 cord-plus of hard maple firewood will be available. You will also find information and can submit a bid for our silent auction on “a great load of local rough-cut hemlock donated by a friend of the Meetinghouse valued at approximately $400,” according to event organizers. Bidding starts at $100.