March Music Month - Cape Ann Guitar Society and the Rocky Neck Art Colony have partnered to bring an intimate guitar concert series to the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck in Gloucester. Join us as we listen to these four distinct guitarists in one of Gloucester’s best listening rooms. All tickets available at this link.
Sunday, March 8th, 3:00 pm: Classical guitarist Daniel Villela in concert. The recipient of Boston Classical Guitar Society’s Frank A. Wallace Memorial Fellowship, Daniel Villela is a performing classical guitarist and student at The University of Rhode Island, pursuing an undergraduate degree in classical guitar performance and Mandarin Chinese. Tickets here.
Sunday, March 15th, 3:30 pm: Fingerstyle guitarist Jason Ji is an Australian-Chinese fingerstyle guitarist and composer specializing in acoustic fingerstyle guitar. He combines percussive guitar with Travis thumb-picking, building his band on one acoustic guitar. Originally classically trained, Jason mixes classical techniques with folk, pop, rock, blues and jazz influences. Jason has a series of narrative-based compositions that draw from the Romantic-era tradition of program music, transforming solo guitar into a symphonic storytelling experience full of intrigue and surprises. Tickets here.
Sunday, March 22nd, 3 pm: Jazz guitarist and Cape Ann resident Steve Lacey is a performer, recording artist, multidisciplinary instrumentalist, and educator. We are excited to have his unique voice on this series. Tickets here.
Saturday, March 28th, 5 - 6 pm: Blues guitar workshop with Andy Cohen, Eleanor Ellis and William Lee Ellis. From Andy Cohen: “In the workshop, we will be going over a number of straightforward songs in the key of C: Freight Train, Louis Collins, Come Let Us March, Gary Davis’s Candy Man, and if we get that far, I will teach Davis’s Buck Dance, which is a little more complex than the others. You’ll learn how to keep your thumb going, count while playing, And learn how to play a scale in major and minor sixths.”
Saturday, March 28th, 7:30 pm: Acclaimed acoustic performers Andy Cohen, Eleanor Ellis and William Lee Ellis return as a trio with this new album, WHISTLIN’ PAST THE GRAVEYARD. Released on Cohen’s Riverlark label, the ambitious project is a 21-track tour-de-force of old-time blues, gospel, ballads, ragtime, and country song that surpasses their previous high bar, the 1993 Marimac outing, Preachin’ in That Wilderness.
All three musicians have established themselves as noted artists in the folk and blues worlds, both on stage and in the studio: Eleanor records for the Patuxent label, Andy for Earwig Music, and William for Yellow Dog, where his latest solo album, Ghost Hymns, earned a Blues Music Awards nomination for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year.
Produced by William Lee Ellis and River Hartley (Ghost Hymns), Whistlin’ is a truly unique listen, one that fits no single musical category; rather, it explores with finger-picked verve and joy the expansive palette of America’s musical past, still relevant and very much alive in the sound of this remarkable trio.
Tickets here.
Thursday, March 19th, 6:30 pm: Strum and Sing at the Community Center at Rocky Neck. This month’s theme: hammers. Spotify playlist, YouTube playlist.
Previous Events
2026
February strum and sing
2025
Free Music Workshop with Goodnight Moonshine
Klezmer Workshop with Abigale Reisman - Click here for recordings of the song we learned!
December Strum and Sing
November Strum and Sing
October Strum and Sing
September Strum and Sing
Folk Week
August Strum and Sing
July Strum and Sing
June Strum and Sing
May Strum and Sing
April Strum and Sing
March Strum and Sing
January 18th, 2 pm: Boubacar Diabate workshop.
2024
December 20th - CAGS Upstairs on Main
Brendan Evans, Scott Moore, Night Owls perform upstairs at Shalin Liu
September 28th - Cape Ann Guitar Society’s first annual Guitar Festival
Join us at Windhover for this all day affair, with workshops and performances from these artists:
Workshops (in chapel)
12 pm Steve Lacey, Jazz
1 pm Nick Schillace, American Primitive
Performances (under tent)
245 pm Mariachi Cuerdas de Plata
345 Brendan Evans, Classical
445 Bill Gleason, Blues
545 Dinner/ soundcheck
715 Nick Schillace, American Primitive
815 Sambalolo, Griot
September 7-14, Five Cent Fireballs at the Manship Artists Residency
The Cape Ann Guitar Society proudly presents Five Cent Fireballs, an all female alt-bluegrass group, at the Manship Artists Residency from September 7th through the 14th. Based out of Charlottesville, Virginia, the Fireballs are coming up to Cape Ann for a week of composing and rehearsing material for their debut album, culminating in a concert on Friday the 13th. In addition to creating and performing their own work, the Fireballs will also teach two workshops while in residency at Manship.
September 9th, 7 pm: Bluegrass instrumental workshop - bring your guitar, banjo, mando, or fiddle, and learn tips, tricks, and tunes with the Fireballs. All levels welcome. Register here.
September 11th, 7 pm: Bluegrass vocal workshop - warmups, techniques, harmony, and joy. Register here.
September 13th, Five Cent Fireballs in concert! Doors at 6:30 pm, music at 7. Tickets available here.
July 5th and 7th: United Flamenco and the Cape Ann Guitar Society present workshops in flamenco guitar and dance at Windhover Center for Performing Arts. Bring your nylon string (steel is fine too) and learn the basics of flamenco guitar with maestro Guillermo Guillen at 5:45 pm on July 5th in the chapel, with a $25 suggested donation. Or, come to a free beginner dance workshop under the tent on July 7th at 1:30 pm. Read more about United Flamenco at their website: https://unitedflamenco.org/
June 29th - Cape Ann Guitar Society hosts its first monthly meetups for classical guitarists. Come to this informal salon type gathering to meet, listen to, and play for other local nylon players! No tickets, signups, or formal programs, just show up at 1 pm at the Community House at 58 Broadway in Rockport.
May 18th - Inaugural concert and launch party at Windhover Center for the Performing Arts.
Join the Cape Ann Guitar Society for its inaugural concert, featuring classical guitarist Brendan Evans playing Mysteries and Legends, a recital of guitar music conjuring strange and haunting tales from Turkey, Spain, and New England. Carlo Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba, a suite pastorale describing “the natural beauty of a little bay” overlooking the Aegean Sea, is inspired by Turkish music and the legend of the shepherd saint Koyunbaba. Selections from Manuel de Falla’s ballet El Amor Brujo, a tale of love, ghosts, and witchcraft, will include Fisherman’s Romance and the Song of the Will O’ the Wisp, arranged for solo guitar. Russian composer Nikita Koshkin’s Usher’s Waltz is a meditation on Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, which opens with the quote: “his heart is a suspended lute, as soon as it is touched, it resounds.”
5/18 Inaugural concert and launch party at Windhover Center for the Performing Arts.
Join the Cape Ann Guitar Society for its inaugural concert, featuring classical guitarist Brendan Evans playing Mysteries and Legends, a recital of guitar music conjuring strange and haunting tales from Turkey, Spain, and New England. Carlo Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba, a suite pastorale describing “the natural beauty of a little bay” overlooking the Aegean Sea, is inspired by Turkish music and the legend of the shepherd saint Koyunbaba. Selections from Manuel de Falla’s ballet El Amor Brujo, a tale of love, ghosts, and witchcraft, will include Fisherman’s Romance and the Song of the Will O’ the Wisp, arranged for solo guitar. Russian composer Nikita Koshkin’s Usher’s Waltz is a meditation on Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, which opens with the quote: “his heart is a suspended lute, as soon as it is touched, it resounds.”
This launch event will include a wine and cheese reception at 7:00 followed by the 7:30 performance, and details of Cape Ann Guitar Society’s projects and plans.
Limited availability. Don’t Wait.
9/7 - 9/13 Five Cent Fireballs in Residency at Manship Artists Residency.
Vocal and guitar workshops TBA.
https://fivecentfireballs.com/
https://www.manshipartists.org.
9/27 - 9/29 First annual CAGS Festival and Competition at Windhover Center for the Performing Arts.
https://windhover.org