NJ-based Ortolan will take the stage at 8:15pm August 14. They're hot off rave reviews at SXSW and a European tour.

First off, I must say congratulations to the newly-engaged Scott McEwen and Erin Hollenbeck. Scott founded the concerts and Brewster Productions with Harry and me several years back, and Erin is always helping out with the shows and being all around awesome. We’re all very happy for the two lovebirds, and you should be too.

Now onto the big FREE music festival we’re putting on this Saturday. When I say big, I mean real big. We’ve got 9 bands. The headliner Ortolan just finished their first European tour, and is hot of rave reviews at South By Southwest in Austin, TX this year. The eight local bands sharing the stage with them are an incredible bunch themselves, including: Emma Ate the Lion, Doug Ratner & the Watchmen, Boston & Bosco, The Okay Win, BarRoom Heroes, Pride of the Atlantic (with guys from the Widescreen Edition), One Way Karma, and The Hiding Spot. Go to the Schoolhouse Rock page for all the links and even more info: http://brewsterproductions.com/concertseries/schedule/schoolhouse-rock/

If the incredible amount of awesome independent music from cool young local bands wasn’t enough, there’s going to be a GUITAR RAFFLE! Yes, we’ll be raffling off a Takamine acoustic guitar, and 4 weeks of free guitar lessons, both courtesy of Thunderbolt Music. Buy your tickets for $1 early and often from our table – the more you buy the better chance you have to win.

You will also have an opportunity to donate to a great cause, Vh1 Save the Music. This foundation helps support music education programs throughout the county’s public schools.

A huge huge thank you goes out to our co-presenter this year, Tranzmission, the indie music blog by Ryan Wood. He’s helped us out a ton in bringing Ortolan to the show and putting the whole thing together. Also thank you to Thunderbolt Music on Main St. in Plymouth for donating a guitar and lessons.

See you at the festival! (don’t forget, it’s FREE!)

- Jon

NJ foursome Ortolan, fresh of rave reviews at SXSW, will hit the Plymouth Waterfront for Schoolhouse Rock August 14th.

They were just down in Austin, TX for South By Southwest, the gargantuan music and film festival, and get this: New Jersey folk quartet ORTOLAN will be rocking the stage in Plymouth this summer! Ortolan, a talented group of 3 sisters and 1 sister-in-law will bring their melodic folk music to the stage at this year’s SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK, thanks especially to Ryan Wood of the indie music blog TRANZMISSION. This will be the 4th year we’ve put on the show (the first on July 27, 2007 was the spark that started Brewster Productions). We’ll be taking donations for the Vh1 Save the Music Foundation in support of a very important cause: Music and arts education, especially in under-served urban and rural schools. In addition to Ortolan, the SHR10 stage will be rocked by Boston & Bosco, The Barroom Heroes (a punk band of middle school kids), and Doug Ratner & His Watchmen, plus a couple more to be announced.

Keep checking our Schedule page for near-constant updates. We’ve also just added The Eagle Hill Band acoustic on 5/28 to kick off the season, and Jesse Boncek, playing with Nate Cristofori on June 11 at the Hedge House.

Summer’s coming soon, and so are we. Get ready for School’s Out!! And while you’re at it, go to some Brewster Productions shows – we’ve got at least 1 a week up in Boston, and lots more at various places and times.

- Jon

Mark Rose (Spitalfield) performed at the main stage August 7, 2009, and put on an unreal show alongside touring partner Lucas Carpenter.

Yes, you heard it right, it’s only November 17th and we already have our 5 main stage summer concert dates lined up. This means that if you’re in a band and you want to play on the big stage in Plymouth next summer, give us a shout! We’re starting everything way ahead of time this year, and our 3rd summer of concerts is going to be the best yet. Here are the 5 main stage dates, we’ll be adding the Hedge House shows soon – there will probably be about 10 of those:

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Friday, July 9, 2010

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Saturday, August 14, 2010 (4th Annual Schoolhouse Rock, all-day charity show)

Keep checking back here for updates, and if you haven’t got OUR NEWSLETTER (look to the right of this page), you definitely need to sign up for that. It’ll hit your inbox periodically throughout the year, giving you updates on all things School’s Out Summer Concert Series and Brewster Productions. And by the time summer hits, you won’t want to miss it, because we’ll be giving away cool stuff, and doing other real cool exclusive things with the newsletter. (PS: It’s totally FREE, just sign up on the side of this page, over there —>).

Also, we’re really hoping to have a reasonable amount of funds going before the shows even start, so please help support the concert series with a donation of ANY amount (literally any amount – seriously, if you give $1, you are an incredible human being in our book). You can donate here using PayPal and your credit/debit card – it couldn’t be easier!

So that’s it from us for now. Keep checking back here as we update everyone on the goings on, sign up for the newsletter, and PLEASE DONATE! Even just a dollar or two.

Thank you for the support. Keep it real.

- Jon

PS – go to the Plymouth South HS Talent show on Thursday 11/19. We’ll be there running sound – it’s going to be a great time.