The Eagle Hill Band jams out at our June 4th show this year, with guests Ben Carter, Doug Logan, and Nate Cristofori.

1. FULL BANDS! Yep, that’s right, you just might see a drum kit or two on the Hedge House Lawn this summer. This year we’re stepping up to full-band status – yes, the shows are still acoustic in nature (we’re keeping the drum kits small – like a stripped-down “Unplugged” sort of thing), but this new addition is going to be really cool. We’ve got acoustic bands like Anika Scribbling, Westerly Whales, Jake Hill & Deep Creek, and Ben Carter which will be thoroughly awesome, and we’re also super excited about is this: We’ve got some bands playing extra-special acoustic shows just for the Acoustic Nights series! Bands like The Okay Win and Large are putting together one-time-only unplugged sets for their shows at the Hedge House, and it’ll be really cool to hear their music in a different context.

In the summers to come, we’re planning to expand on this and get even more up-and-coming bands like The Okay Win to do a stripped-down set for us. This summer’s going to be an exciting one – we can’t wait to see you at the shows!

FIRST SHOW: Anika Scribbling w/ Steve Capachione and Large, July 15th

2. New artists!! This is a big one (hint: #1 is along similar lines) – we’ve always sought to feature new artists each year, though we’ve always got room for the musical friends we’ve made along the way to play again, but this year we’re taking it a step further. For the 2011 concert series, we’ve made a point of pulling in as many artists as we can who have never played at the series before – and boy is it fun. One of the most rewarding parts of putting on the concerts is getting to meet new musicians, give them a show, and help introduce them to a new audience (or if not a new audience, then a new venue – and all modesty aside, the Hedge House Lawn is pretty damn cool).

Nationally-touring Cambridge singer-songwriter Sarah Blacker performs August 12th w/ Jake Hill.

Check out the new guys and gals who will be playin’ on the grass this summer: Sarah Blacker, Lucas Carpenter, Jared Salvatore, Carly Tefft, Anika Scribbling, Steve Capachione, Large, The Okay Win, Nanci Hobson, Westerly Whales, Lonesome Jukebox, Brian Sances, The Lindsays, Closer Than We Appear, Reverend Bastien……and surely the list will grow as we toss additional awesome performers into the mix over the course of the summer.

Stay tuned for the #1 cool new thing at the 2011 Acoustic Nights Free Concert Series…

3. New schedule! This year we’re running from July-September, which will give us less rain (knock on wood) and a tighter schedule. In our past 3 years at the Hedge House, we started on Memorial Day weekend – the awesome part was we had a crazily long summer of shows. The bad part was that ’round these parts it tends to rain in June – or at least the weather tends to be completely unpredictable (yeah, even more than usual, believe it or not). For example, our 2nd year, we had the first 4 shows rained out. Yikes!

We started late this summer because Scott (3rd from right) got married. We're probably gonna stick with this schedule.

So we get to this year, and Scott (co-owner of Brewster, concert series organizer and sound engineer) was getting married June 23rd, and going on his honeymoon until the first week in July. So to relieve Scott and his now-wife Erin of any additional stress, we put off the concerts til July 15th. But, as we tend to do, we got antsy and threw in a show June 4th – but it was freezing cold, bolstering the weather theory.

Lo and behold, the concert series runs from July – September, and we’re most likely going to keep it that way. After all, that’s when the real summery stuff happens, and we’ll have more time in May and June to prepare for the shows and, who knows, go on vacation (what’s that?).

Stay tuned for the top 2…

4. Lights, camera, action! We’ve got a lovely new lighting setup, and sweet new camera on staff this summer. We’re finally able to document all the concerts like we weren’t able to before – we’ve got a new camera, Jon’s Canon 60D to be exact, and we’re going to light the Hedge House stage for cinematography. That is, we’re going to make it look really classy and pretty – not just the colored PAR lights anymore (though they’ll still be there). Expect lots of great HD video, and maybe even a fun documentary-type movie recapping the summer. Here’s a video from our June 4th show (no lights, because it was an afternoon show):

“Cambridge” – Ben Carter, Live June 4, 2011 from Jon Dorn on Vimeo.

Stay tuned for #3…

5. New names! “Acoustic Nights Free Concert Series” and “Plymouth Independent Music Festival” – like a band changing it’s name, it’s time for a fresh start so we can keep on growing. The shows were previously the School’s Out Summer Concert Series, and Schoolhouse Rock, reflecting our initial focus on the cause of public education – we haven’t abandoned the cause though! This year, we put on No More Pencils, No More Books, a free graduation day concert at the Hedge House to celebrate the graduates of Plymouth Schools and show our appreciation for the school system that produced us.

Stay tuned for #4…