Touring in support of his recent CD Bright Sunny South, Vermont-born folksinger Sam Amidon performs in the Olin Arts Alive music series on Tuesday, Sept. 10, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

The Maine country songwriter Wesley Allen Hartley and his band Traveling Trees open for Amidon at 7:30 p.m.

Admission is $12, available at . For more information, please contact 207-786-6163.

Folksinger Sam Amidon. Photo credit: Terry Magson.

Bright Sunny South, Amidon’s fourth CD and Nonesuch debut, is “a lonesome record,” says the singer and multi-instrumentalist. The folk songs, shape-note hymns and country ballads that he performs deal with the darkest, most fundamental issues. Yet there is beauty and comfort in these time-tested words and melodies and in Amidon’s simple, emotionally direct delivery.

These songs constitute a patchwork portrait of Amidon himself, each representing a facet of his history, travels and discoveries. Witness his version of “Weeping Mary,” a shape-note hymn his parents, Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, recorded with the Vermont-based Word of Mouth Chorus for Nonesuch Records in 1977.

Amidon is known for reworking traditional melodies into striking new forms. He delivers these songs in a plainspoken voice that encompasses sadness and stoicism, vulnerability and wisdom. As a writer for Pitchfork said, “his interpretations are so singular that it stops mattering how (or if) they existed before.”

Amidon started out on fiddle and picked up guitar during a sojourn in New York City. If his foundation is in folk music, he brings influences ranging from free jazz to avant-garde to Irish to Bartok. He also incorporates storytelling and movement, particularly a kind of intense “liturgical” dancing, into his shows, and has appeared at experimental venues like Chelsea’s The Kitchen as well as on more conventional folk stages.

Wesley Allen Hartley (second from left) & The Traveling Trees.

Wesley Allen Hartley & The Traveling Trees are a country band based in Portland, Maine. Their debut album, Narrow Gauge Quad Trains (Burst & Bloom Records) was named one of the top 10 local albums of 2010 by the Portland Phoenix.

In June 2010, the band recorded its second album, Don’t Peel Your Bloomers Off Just Yet, currently self-released.

The Traveling Trees have played numerous shows and festivals from Maine to Texas.

Jason Marsalis, the vibraphone-playing member of New Orleans’ first family of jazz, and Vermont-born folksinger Sam Amidon launch the 2013-14 Olin Arts Alive music series at �ֲ���ý College with separate concerts in early September.

The Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet performs at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Amidon performs on Tuesday, Sept. 10, also in the Olin Concert Hall. The Maine country songwriter Wesley Allen Hartley and his band Traveling Trees open at 7:30 p.m.

Admission for Marsalis is $18. To reserve tickets for either concert, please visit . Free Marsalis tickets are available for the first 100 seniors or students. Please reserve via olinarts@bates.edu.

Amidon admission is $12. For more information, please contact 207-786-6163.

Jason Marsalis

Jason Marsalis.

The Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet is touring in support of the first official release by the band, In a World of Mallets, issued in February on Basin Street Records.

From a young age it was clear that Marsalis had the goods. He is the son of pianist and music educator Ellis Marsalis and the youngest sibling of jazz notables Wynton, Branford and Delfeayo. Together, the four brothers and Ellis comprise New Orleans’ venerable first family of jazz.

Jason Marsalis is well-known as a drummer, working with his father’s trio as well as the Marcus Roberts trio — two of the most demanding settings in modern jazz. Since 2000, he has also been a mainstay on the New Orleans scene as a bandleader and vibraphonist. Rounding out the Marsalis Vibes Quartet are Austin Johnson on piano, Will Goble on bass and Dave Potter on drums.

Marsalis, wrote a New York Times reviewer, “makes infrequent…self-produced records that are always worth hearing … Jazz often wants to be acceptably cool. Here there’s a sense of an excellent musician trying out something risky without embarrassment.” On World of Mallets, he steps behind marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells, vibraphone and xylophone with a healthy mix of original compositions, work by his up-and-coming band members, and dedications to former jazz greats.

Sam Amidon

Bright Sunny South, Amidon’s fourth CD and Nonesuch debut, is “a lonesome record,” says the singer and multi-instrumentalist. The folk songs, shape-note hymns and country ballads that he

performs deal with the darkest, most fundamental issues. Yet there is beauty and comfort in these time-tested words and melodies and in Amidon’s simple, emotionally direct delivery.

These songs constitute a patchwork portrait of Amidon himself, each representing a facet of his history, travels and discoveries. Witness his version of “Weeping Mary,” a shape-note hymn his parents, Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, recorded with the Vermont-based Word of Mouth Chorus for Nonesuch Records in 1977.

Amidon is known for reworking traditional melodies into striking new forms. He delivers these songs in a plainspoken voice that encompasses sadness and stoicism, vulnerability and wisdom. As a writer for Pitchfork said, “his interpretations are so singular that it stops mattering how (or if) they existed before.”

Folksinger Sam Amidon. Photo credit: Terry Magson.

Amidon started out on fiddle and picked up guitar during a sojourn in New York City. If his foundation is in folk music, he brings influences ranging from free jazz to avant-garde to Irish to Bartok. He also incorporates storytelling and movement, particularly a kind of intense “liturgical” dancing, into his shows, and has appeared at experimental venues like Chelsea’s The Kitchen as well as on more conventional folk stages.

Alexandre Tharaud. Photograph by Marco Borggreve.

Alexandre Tharaud, a rising French pianist known for his robust interpretation of the classics, performs at �ֲ���ý College at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Tickets are $12 and may be purchased at . Free tickets are available for the first 100 seniors and students who reserve by email at olinarts@bates.edu. For more information, please contact 207-786-6135.

With this concert Tharaud continues the college’s Olin Arts Alive music series, celebrating renowned and emerging international musicians. The program features works by Scarlatti, Ravel, Chopin and Liszt.

Tharaud’s career took off after winning second prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Since then, his imaginative approach to classical music, particularly French composers, has gained him a following throughout Europe.

“Tharaud is dazzlingly nimble-fingered and often admirably sensitive, without romanticizing,” wrote the BBC.

Described as “aristocratic and sensuous” by Gramaphone magazine, Tharaud now has his sights set on the U.S. Earlier this year he played to great acclaim at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. He returns to New York later this month to play Carnegie Hall.

Though best known for his sophisticated and inventive solo performances, Tharaud has played with a variety of chamber groups and orchestras, and has recorded several albums.

His most recent collection, Boeuf Sur le Toit: Swinging Paris (Virgin Classics, 2012), diverges from the classical to showcase France’s encounter with blues and American jazz in the early 20th century.

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Mirel Wagner. Photograph by Aki Roukala.

NOTE: �ֲ���ý learned the morning of Sept. 12, the day of her scheduled concert in the Keigwin Amphitheater, that Wagner has canceled the remainder of her North American tour. We regret any inconvenience.

A folk-blues singer who has stunned critics with her stark lyrics and bare-bones delivery performs at �ֲ���ý College at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12, at the Keigwin Amphitheater at Lake Andrews, adjacent to the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

Mirel Wagner launches the college’s Olin Arts Alive music series, emphasizing renowned and emerging musicians on the international stage, with this free concert. The rain site is the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. For more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

Born in Ethiopia, raised in Finland, Wagner “takes a minimalist approach to her music to create consistently captivating, haunting tracks,” wrote a reviewer for . “Wagner does not need complicated background melodies to make beautiful music; her strong, slightly husky voice and an acoustic guitar are enough.

“The simplicity in the sound allows [her] writing ability to stand out, as she weaves dark, heart-wrenching stories into each song. . . . Wagner questions relationships, family, religion and the value of living.”

Wagner began writing songs in her teens. An American music journalist living in Finland heard her at an open mic and helped open doors that led to the recording of her first album over the course of two days. This self-titled debut was released in Finland in spring 2011, and a year later in the U.S. (Friendly Fire).

If Wagner’s themes are bleak, her undramatic delivery renders them convincing. “I think it’s a bit lazy to say that I make sad music,” Wagner told the German edition of Rolling Stone magazine. “Of course you might say the lyrics are bizarre or dark. But for me, the songs are first and foremost filled with desire. And there’s this hope in them that love overcomes everything.

“What I find sad is the soulless music that is on the radio most of the time, music that is simply product. If there is no life in it . . . is this not much sadder than a melancholic song?”

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