Fri 12/5 @ 8PM
Vocalist/guitarist Claire Lynch was already a well-known and respected musician in the traditional acoustic bluegrass scene by the time she released her first solo record 21 years ago. She came up in the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, leading the Front Porch String Band, back when women weren’t as common in the bluegrass scene as they are now. Her pure, transparent vocals have been much praised and made her much in demand as a backup vocalists for the likes of Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless, Ralph Stanley and Emmylou Harris.
Conveniently, her new album is — what else? — a Christmas album. Titled Holiday! and released on her own Thrill Hill label (she still records her regular stuff for the respected folk/bluegrass label, Compass), it features tracks like “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” “White Christmas,” “We Three Kings” and even a Chanukah song “In the Window.”
Lynch and her band — bassist Mark Shatz, guitarist/mandolinist/vocalist Jarrod Walker and fiddler/mandolinist/guitarist Bryan McDowell — will be at Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Happy Days Lodge to perform their holiday music, and very likely some bluegrass tunes as well, as part of their heritage music series.
Tickets are $22 for adults, $17 for conservancy members, and $7.50 for kids.
conservancyforcvnp.org/claire-lynch-band-bluegrass-holiday-12-5-14