Goodnight Moonshine is a guitar and vocal duet, and a musical marriage in all senses. The duo combines the evocative voice and songwriting of Molly Venter, known for her sublime singing in the prominent female-vocal-group Red Molly, with Eben Pariser – who cut his teeth as a street performer in New York City, playing guttural music of New Orleans with his band Roosevelt Dime. The result is folk music with a depth of improvisation and tonal subtlety usually reserved for jazz. NPR’s Jedd Beaudoin comments: “Pariser’s harmonic sensibilities are wide, imaginative, while Venter’s singular voice recalls pre-diva singers who could lay out emotions without melodrama.”

Venter’s voice, which can be called both “biker-chick smoky” (New Haven Register), and “like silk” (American Songwriter Magazine), has taken her career to highlights including Tønder Festival in Denmark, Kate Wolf Fest in CA, and multiple placements on television and film. In Goodnight Moonshine she is in full force as a songwriter. Her trance-induced stream-of-consciousness writing style results in compositions that probe the depths of her inner experience.

Starting as a blues guitarist in his teens, Pariser’s imagination was quickly captured by classic jazz, which he studied at the Oberlin Conservatory. “Pariser’s harmonic sensibilities are wide, imaginative” (NPR), and his career has involved singing lead and playing bass with Roosevelt Dime, playing drums and being musical director of Red Molly – but his love of jazz and improvising is what’s on display in Goodnight Moonshine.

Guitar and vocal duos are rare and few come to mind, but the ones that do, such as Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and The Milk Carton Kids, have achieved and integration between singular talents in a format that is both genreless and grounded in the commonness of two guitars, two voices. Goodnight Moonshine is taking their own stab at this unusual and deeply personal approach. Their show is punctuated by songs and banter that openly explore the complexities of their relationship to each other, the Creator, birth, life, death, and what happens when, “the honeymoon ends?” For Venter and Pariser, It is the way they make space for each other while staying true to themselves that defines this music, and marriage.

The Howlin’ at the Moon Concert Series is thrilled to feature Goodnight Moonshine!

Admission is $10 at the door. Beer and wine will be available for purchase.

Located in New York’s Capital Region, Everest Rising is a tightly-knit quintet influenced by bluegrass, Americana, rock, jazz and more. Together they create progressive acoustic music that is unique, powerful, and comfortably familiar. With a wide dynamic range, Everest Rising’s material spans from heartfelt laments to all out jams, all executed with instrumental finesse and thoughtful story-telling.

As this summer’s host of the Howlin’ at the Moon Concert Series, Everest Rising aims to support an authentic musical experience for both audience and musicians. Music traditions are meant to be fluid and evolving — this concert series nurtures local and regional musical talent while providing opportunities for cross-pollination of musical ideas, all in an authentic setting that inspires and reminds us of our place within history.

The oldest farm in the Mohawk Valley (1705), Mabee Farm Historic Site was originally settled by Daniel Janse VanAntwerpen around 1670, who established it as a fur trading post to meet Native American traders before they reached Schenectady. In 1705 the property was sold to Jan Mabee and it was handed down to generations of Mabees for 300 years. The farm complex comprises of a 17th Century Dutch House, Inn, Brick Building, 1760 Dutch Barn (originally built in Johnstown, NY), English barn, Mabee family cemetery and other outbuildings, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Depending on conditions, concerts are held either in the hand-pegged 1760s Dutch Barn or under the pavilion behind the George E. Franchere Education Center, both located at the Mabee Farm Historic Site.

Address

Mabee Farm Historic Site
1100 Main Street
Rotterdam Junction, NY 12150

Map