MUSIC

As a follow-up to their performance at this summer’s Woods Hole Film Festival, the Chapin Sisters, daughters of singer Tom Chapin and nieces of Harry Chapin, will perform a benefit concert for the festival at The Spot Underground (15 Elbow Street, Providence) on Wednesday, October 13, at 7:00 PM. Renowned blues harmonica player James Montgomery and his band and Canadian vocal sensation NEeMA round out the bill.

The Chapin Sisters, Lily and Abigail, have been touring for the past year with the band She & Him comprised of actress Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. The New York Times recently wrote, “...(the Chapin Sisters’) own songs are perfectly delicate and charming, packed with frank lyrics, carefully plucked guitars and stunning three-part harmonies.” The sisters also starred in and sing the closing track in the short film THE SIRENS by Sarah Adina Smith at the 2010 Woods Hole Film Festival this summer, which will be shown at the concert. Filmmaker Smith will fly in from Los Angeles for the screening.

On September 15, the sisters released TWO, their fifth album, in the US and Canada. The music blog Reviewsic calls it "…a delicately spun collection of songs that evoke the particular kind of synergy that can only be found in family acts. Abigail and Lily have created a record that not only makes us wish we were more in sync with our own kin (and you know, musically talented) but also breathes fresh life into the idea of what a female singer/songwriter is."

Besides fronting his own band for thirty years, blues harpist James Montgomery has toured with many major artists, including Aerosmith, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, the Allman Brothers, Steve Miller and others. He has jammed on stage with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Charlie Daniels, Bonnie Raitt, Gregg Allman, Lavern Baker, Patti LaBelle, and Peter Wolf among others, including an impromptu session with Mick Jagger at New York's "Trax". He continues to be a vital presence in the blues world as one of the country’s most dynamic performers and as co-founder of the Woods Hole Film Festival’s The Reel Blues Fest.

NEeMA has just completed her second album, WATCHING YOU THINK , a collection of twelve stories seamlessly melding elements of world music, folk, and jazz with a good measure of pop. Produced in association with singer Leonard Cohen and Pierre Marchand (Sarah McLachlan, Ron Sexsmith), it contains songs of love, life and simple observations that read like parables and sound instantly familiar.