January packed at Buttonwood Tree

MIDDLETOWN >> The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts & Cultural Center, at 605 Main St., Middletown, has scheduled a wide variety of musical entertainment through the month of January.

For tickets and information, visit www.buttonwood.org or call 860347.4957

• Jan. 6: Story City Troupe — Storytelling, 8 p.m., $10. Story City is a troupe of storytellers based in the Hartford area and trained by Matt Dicks, one of The Moth’s champion storytellers. Story City Troupe uses The Moth Formula: all are true, personal stories, often funny, sometimes amazing, poignant or ironic and based on a single theme for the evening.

The troupe members range in age from their 20s to their 70s, proving you can come up with a good story at any age.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll identify! The audience is invited to enter their names for a drawing, and one audience member will be chosen at random to tell their own approximately 8-minute story. Following the last storyteller, they will open the floor for questions and answers.

• Jan. 7: Bop Tweed Jazz & Blues Quartet, 8 p.m., $10. Bop Tweed is comprised of Steve Roane of Madison on guitar and vocals, Jason Apostoleris of East Haddam on percussion and Tim Barry of Stony Creek on bass.

They are all seasoned musicians, playing a mixture of original songs and jazz & blues standards.

• Jan. 8: John Basinger — Paradise Lost Book 1 — Live Theater, 3 p.m., donation. Basinger started committing all twelve books of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” to memory in 1993.

Since then, he has performed them at a variety of venues across the country. He will be performing Book 1 at The Buttonwood Tree.

• Jan. 13: Tiny Oceans & Murderous Chanteuse: Little Girls with Big Mouths — Electro Pop, 8 p.m., $10. Jennifer Hill of Murderous Chanteuse and Kierstin Sieser of The Tiny Ocean combine talents for a night of “Little Girls with Loud Mouths.”

Tiny Ocean brings in a vibe reminiscent of Mazzy Star, with her lilting vocals and grungy guitars. Murderous Chanteuse mixes soul, electro and pop together to create an atmosphere that both Debbie Harry and Bowie would be comfortable in.

• Jan. 14: Seat of Our Pants (SOOP) - Contemporary Acoustic Folk, 8 p.m., $10. Seat Of Our Pants (SOOP) has been playing their own brand of contemporary acoustic folk by the “seat of their pants” for the past five years.

Don’t let the name fool you. Carolyn, Jeff, Mark, and Mike have the whole package with tight vocals, guitar, bass, violin, percussion, and two CDs under their belts.

They deliver a fabulous combination of original material and unique covers of current and not so current tunes, with genuine ease and grace.

And they are no strangers to the stage at The Buttonwood tree, with three previous standing-room-only appearances since 2013.

• Jan. 19: Mark Normand Comedy show, 8 p.m., $20. Doors open at 6:30 for refreshments. So far, in addition to opening regularly for Amy Schumer, Mark has done a Comedy Central half-hour special, has appeared on TBS’s “Conan” four times, “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and released an album with Comedy Central records titled “Still Got It.”

Mark now does comedy clubs and colleges across the country and has been involved in many festivals including Portland, Seattle, DC, Boston, Vancouver, Melbourne and in 2013 was featured as a New Face at the Montreal Comedy Festival.

• Jan. 20: Free at Last Players — Theater, 8 p.m., donation. The mission of the Free At Last Players is to bring such people back to the rest of the world.

By showcasing their firsthand perspectives of mental illness via poetry, music, comedy and drama, the Free At Last Players entertain and educate as to the realities of “mental illness”.

• Jan 21: Warren Byrd & Saskia Laroo — Organic Jazz, 8 p.m., $10. From a soothing background pad, a party-rousing tandem, to a grand showpiece.

Saskia Laroo, hailed by American public and press at large as “Lady Miles of Europe,” is one of the few women trumpet stylists, blowing for more than three decades.

Warren Byrd, a native of Hartford, CT. is a pianist, vocalist and composer whose music could be called indescribable except, “He sounds like a lot of jazz pianists we’ve all dug!”

• Jan. 27: Carl Bartlett Jr. Duet, Touring Jazz Standards, 8 p.m., $12. The evening will feature a Jazz Duo (Saxophone & Piano) and an audience Q&A.

Carl Bartlett Jr. has seen an abundance of success, in what is a blossoming career.

His music has been very well received by a national and international audience, and his band, The Carl Bartlett Jr. Ensemble, is in the midst of touring Eastern USA, performing at major jazz clubs, cultural venues, and festivals in NY, NJ, CT, PA, FL, and Washington, D.C.

• Jan. 28: Moto — Reggae, Rock, R&B, 8 p.m., $10. A moto performance features new Soca music from Trinidad, traditional roots reggae and creative interpretations of rock, R&B and soul music with elements of jazz, salsa and afrobeat.

With their collective years of experience playing all types of music, what comes out is always new and unique.