2023 Concert Lineup
Wednesdays
6:30 Showtime
Food will be available for purchase.
(Click the performer name to visit their web site.)
- July 5—FLYNN—Award-winning Myra Flynn won the hearts of the crowd at the Middlesex Bandstand two years ago, and the Bandstand is thrilled to have her back this season. With four albums to her credit—the most recent of which, Never Mind the Mourning, Seven Days called “arguably her best”—her indie/soul songs combine with a powerful and lyrical delivery that will have fans on their feet. In 2021, Flynn joined Vermont Public as an engagement producer.
- July 19—NOMFUSI—Nomfusi is a world-renowned singer whose music is a beautiful and fearless mix of the Xhosa sounds of her childhood in the squatter camps of South Africa, ballads touched by gospel and American soul, and Afropop. She has appeared at prestigious festivals in North America and Europe, performed with Angelique Kidjo and opened for Lionel Richie, and portrayed Miriam Makeba in the 2014 film “Long Walk to Freedom,” about the life of Nelson Mandela. Nomfusi is in the United States on a State Department Center Stage tour, and the Bandstand is very honored to have her perform in Middlesex.
- July 26—BUFFALO ROSE—Buffalo Rose is a charismatic six-member modern folk/Americana band from Pittsburgh. In the words of one music critic, “Don’t be surprised if the vocals give you goosebumps.” Another has described the band as “a must-listen for everyone with ears.” With two albums and four EPs to their credit, Buffalo Rose has co-written songs with folk music legend Tom Paxton, and in 2022 the group won top honors in the 18th Annual International Acoustic Music Awards.
- August 2—WESLI—Wesli—the stage name of Wesley Louissaint, a Haitian-Canadian musician—built his first guitar out of an old oil can and nylon shoelace when he was eight years old. His current band unites Haitian voodoo and rara with roots, Afrobeat and hip-hop in an exciting and richly engaging sound that “conquers the heart of his audience.” Among other accolades, in 2020 he won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Artist of the Year and the Independent Music Award for World Traditional Song, and in 2019 he received Canada’s Juno Award for World Music Album of the Year.
- August 9—NICK CASSARINO—Vermont-born guitar prodigy and singer-songwriter Nick Cassarino is a master of a staggering range of musical genres, among them rock, folk, jazz, classical, gospel, soul, hip-hop, funk and world music. Most recently, he has toured internationally with the super-group The Nth Power. “A powerful … front man, unfurling love-struck lyrics with a style that complements his superior guitar chops” (Seven Days), Nick “oozes more soul in one finger than most guitarists could create in a lifetime.” (Royal Artist Group)
- August 16—A2VT—Voted Vermont’s best hip-hop group in 2022, A2VT (short for Africa to Vermont) brings together members of the African diaspora who came to Vermont from Somalia, Congo, Tanzania and Burundi, and made the state their home. Performing their songs in eight languages, they weave together an exciting mix of African musical and dance roots and Western pop and hip-hop. In the words of one of the group’s founders, “There’s a message for everybody in our music, especially young people. Music is a form of human connection.”