6:00pm-7:15 pm $FREE$. Lemont Village Green. 

Combining tradition with innovation, Simple Gifts creates some of the finest arrangements in folk music today: swing fiddle creeps into a Romanian dance, spoons show up in an Irish reel, and a blues lick introduces a Klezmer melody. Drawing on an impressive variety of ethnic folk styles, this award-winning duo plays everything from lively Irish jigs and down-home American reels to hard-driving Klezmer frailachs and haunting Gypsy melodies, spicing the mix with the distinctive rhythms of Balkan dance music, the lush sounds of Scandinavian twin fiddling, and original compositions written in a traditional style.

“Few musicians can match the warmly personal stage presence Simple Gifts possesses. Their performances are noted for the infectious enthusiasm and sprinkling of good humor that come through.” —Jennifer O’Callaghan, Celtic Classic Festival, Bethlehem PA.

Information about our Fall concerts and COVID-19 safety measures. We all miss our Acoustic Brew gatherings. We miss seeing familiar, friendly faces and we miss the uplifting experience of enjoying great live music together. Since March, the crew of volunteers that run our Acoustic Brew Concert Series have been exploring ways to bring you the music that you love and keep you safe. The Center for Well Being is a great place for music, but we cannot arrange the space to keep everyone safe. So, here is our plan: The Lemont Village Green is large enough for us to fit up to 72 people with social distancing. We are inviting all of our Acoustic Brew regulars (this email is your invitation), but will not advertise these concerts to the general public or on the radio until next week, if necessary. The shows will run 60-75 mins without an intermission. If it rains, we will cancel the show – there won’t be a rain date. There will be a few other changes to the way we do things. Since we are outside, you will need to provide your own chairs if you want them and you can bring food and drink if you’d like. Brew Volunteers, wearing Acoustic Brew t-shirts, will act as ushers to help everyone with social distance seating and the wearing of masks as we get settled in chairs or on blankets. There is a Port-o-Potty on site with hand sanitizer, but running the shows straight through will make it more feasible to use your restroom at home and to return home before you need a bathroom again! Tickets We are still paying the artists, plus the cost of the sound system and a donation to the Lemont Village Association for the use of the Green. Please order tickets in advance here. Our usual ticket prices are around $20, but we are offering these concerts for free. We ask you to click on the Add Donation button when you are checking out and make a tax-deductible contribution of whatever you can afford. If your income has been reduced, please pay what is appropriate for you. If your financial situation allows, and you can do a little extra to help cover expenses, we appreciate any contributions. We will let you know through the Brewlist if the concert is "sold out". If you pay at the "door", we will have donation baskets in several places around the Village Green the night of the concerts.

6:00pm-7:15pm $FREE$. Lemont Village Green 

Joe Jencks is an 20-year veteran of the international folk circuit, an award-winning songwriter, and celebrated vocalist based in Chicago. Merging conservatory training with his Irish roots and working-class upbringing, Joe delivers engaged musical narratives filled with heart, soul, groove and grit. Having penned several #1 Folksongs including the ever-relevant Lady of The Harbor, Jencks is also co-founder of the harmony trio, Brother Sun. From Festivals like Falcon Ridge, Kerrville, Mariposa, and Old Songs, to venues like Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, Jencks has enthralled diverse audiences with his approachable style. Joe is noted for his unique merging of musical beauty, social consciousness, and spiritual exploration. Blending well-crafted instrumentals and vivid songwriting, Jencks serves it all up with a lyric baritone voice that has the edgy richness of a good sea-salt caramel.

"If one can master a craft after investing 10,000 hours, Joe Jencks’ hours are showing! I am literally stunned by this new album. Poets, Philosopher, Workers & Wanders tells our stories, his story, and the untold stories, as an American folk master can &ndash with heart and unfettered perfection. Add this one to the folk canon! " – Mary Sue Twohy, The Village SIRIUS XM Radio

Information about our Fall concerts and COVID-19 safety measures. We all miss our Acoustic Brew gatherings. We miss seeing familiar, friendly faces and we miss the uplifting experience of enjoying great live music together. Since March, the crew of volunteers that run our Acoustic Brew Concert Series have been exploring ways to bring you the music that you love and keep you safe. The Center for Well Being is a great place for music, but we cannot arrange the space to keep everyone safe. So, here is our plan: The Lemont Village Green is large enough for us to fit up to 72 people with social distancing. We are inviting all of our Acoustic Brew regulars (this email is your invitation), but will not advertise these concerts to the general public or on the radio until next week, if necessary. The shows will run 60-75 mins without an intermission. If it rains, we will cancel the show – there won’t be a rain date. There will be a few other changes to the way we do things. Since we are outside, you will need to provide your own chairs if you want them and you can bring food and drink if you’d like. Brew Volunteers, wearing Acoustic Brew t-shirts, will act as ushers to help everyone with social distance seating and the wearing of masks as we get settled in chairs or on blankets. There is a Port-o-Potty on site with hand sanitizer, but running the shows straight through will make it more feasible to use your restroom at home and to return home before you need a bathroom again! Tickets We are still paying the artists, plus the cost of the sound system and a donation to the Lemont Village Association for the use of the Green. Please order tickets in advance here. Our usual ticket prices are around $20, but we are offering these concerts for free. We ask you to click on the Add Donation button when you are checking out and make a tax-deductible contribution of whatever you can afford. If your income has been reduced, please pay what is appropriate for you. If your financial situation allows, and you can do a little extra to help cover expenses, we appreciate any contributions. We will let you know through the Brewlist if the concert is "sold out". If you pay at the "door", we will have donation baskets in several places around the Village Green the night of the concerts.

7:30 pm $20. Center for Well-Being, Lemont. 

Joe Jencks is an 20-year veteran of the international folk circuit, an award-winning songwriter, and celebrated vocalist based in Chicago. Merging conservatory training with his Irish roots and working-class upbringing, Joe delivers engaged musical narratives filled with heart, soul, groove and grit. Having penned several #1 Folksongs including the ever-relevant Lady of The Harbor, Jencks is also co-founder of the harmony trio, Brother Sun. From Festivals like Falcon Ridge, Kerrville, Mariposa, and Old Songs, to venues like Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, Jencks has enthralled diverse audiences with his approachable style. Joe is noted for his unique merging of musical beauty, social consciousness, and spiritual exploration. Blending well-crafted instrumentals and vivid songwriting, Jencks serves it all up with a lyric baritone voice that has the edgy richness of a good sea-salt caramel.

"If one can master a craft after investing 10,000 hours, Joe Jencks’ hours are showing! I am literally stunned by this new album. Poets, Philosopher, Workers & Wanders tells our stories, his story, and the untold stories, as an American folk master can &ndash with heart and unfettered perfection. Add this one to the folk canon! " – Mary Sue Twohy, The Village SIRIUS XM Radio

7:30 pm $20. Center for Well-Being, Lemont. 

George Wirth is a singer/songwriter with a gift for telling human stories shaped by imagery and narrative. His unaffected, lived-in vocal style and guitar arrangements suit his songs perfectly, with images and melodies that resonate long after the music fades. Never one to grab a cheap cliche’, George’s lyrics capture moments from the lives of friends and strangers alike and make them real in their honesty. We know these people, even though we’ve never met, and while the songs are personal to George they become personal to the listener as well. Live, his songs are often interspersed with humorous stories, observations and rambles that take on a life of their own, resulting in further narrowing the gap between performer and audience.

Carolann Solebello’s smooth, compelling voice and warm acoustic guitar style surely nod to rural folk traditions, yet her decidedly urban sense of rhythm and sophisticated vocal phrasing bend those traditional forms into more contemporary shapes. Her lyrics, always sharp and incisive, delve deeper and wider than ever before on her latest release, Shiver (2018). In each of twelve well-crafted songs, Carolann digs into existential truth, revealing imperfect, uncertain, frightened, nostalgic, vulnerable, and sometimes unreliable narrators, whose stories – by design or by accident – occasionally intersect with her own.

7:30 pm $20. Center for Well-Being, Lemont. 

Andy Tolins, Richard Sleigh, and Bill Stetz are not strangers to Acoustic Brew patrons. Andy has graced the Brew stage 9 times in various configurations starting back in 1995. Richard’s been here at least 5 times as a headliner, but more often as an accompanist for various acts including twice with Susan Werner. Bill has probably sat in at one time or another with every local roots, blues, celtic and bluegrass groups, many of those on the Brew stage, too.

Andy Tolins is a guitarist, bassist and vocalist, who also plays dobro, mandolin and table steel. He is an accomplished songwriter, bandleader, and producer; winner of Billboard Magazine’s 1999 Best Unsigned Band award for ‘High Water’ by the Triple A Blues Band. Richard Sleigh is a harmonica player who also builds experimental harmonicas. If it’ called ‘roots’s, Richard plays it. He has appeared with numerous acts over the years, including Andy, of course, and Taj Mahal, Marshall Tucker, Bo Diddley, the Brighton Symphony Orchestra, and Susan Werner (on the Brew stage). Bill Stetz has added his expressive bass playing (both upright and electric) to a wide variety of ensembles in the central PA region for over 30 years.

Join us to hear these three virtuoso performers tickle our ears with the blues and more.

7:30 pm $22. Center for Well-Being, Lemont. 

Perhaps one of the only groups blending world rhythms and Global Folk with Americana, Folk Traditions, New Orleans Influences, alt grass, music of the 1920s and bluegrass. Nick Russo plays guitar, banjo, and resonator and was a sideman with Jimmy McGriff, Teddy Charles and Sonny Dallas, and has even had the honor to jam with Sir Paul McCartney. Betina Hershey appears as the principle dancer in Disney’s Enchanted and Mona Lisa Smile with Julia Roberts. Hershey performed on international and national tours of Broadway shows such as “West Side Story,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “The Fantasticks,” and “Pump Boys & Dinettes,” just to name a few. Besides dancing, she sings, composes music, and plays guitar.

"It underscores, too, how sounds from another time can be renewed and re-imagined, by creative minds and right hands, in the present moment. Banjo Nickaru & Western Scooches are ridiculously fun." – Rambles

Split Bill, 7:30 pm $20. Center for Well-Being, Lemont. 

Shimmering lyrics, deft finger-picking and soaring melodies—Ithaca’s Austin MacRae is a troubadour whose songwriting is characterized by poetic lyrics and poignant stories from rural upstate NY. He has performed at venues such as Club Passim, Kerrville Folk Festival (New Folk Finalist), Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (Emerging Artist), Turtle Hill Folk Festival (New Voices Showcase), Ithaca Festival, Oswego Music Hall, Homer Center for the Arts, Bill Knowlton’s Bluegrass Ramble Picnic and many other venues. His debut album, Bats in the Attic, won a Syracuse Area Music Award (SAMMY) for Best Folk Recording of 2015. His second album, Keeper, won a SAMMY for Best Americana in 2018. In 2017 he was one of three winners of the Vic Heyman Songwriting Award from the South Florida Folk Festival. He has opened for such artists as Keller Williams, Amy Speace, Cosy Sheridan and Toby Walker.

Raised in the heart of New York City by two accomplished musical parents, singer-songwriter Sophie Buskin started studying piano at age three and first set foot in the studio at four. While continuing lessons in guitar and voice, she poured herself into another lifelong passion, earning a specialized degree in visual art from New York City’s LaGuardia High School. In 2008 Sophie was accepted into the Berklee College of Music in Boston and fully embraced her musical side. She joined Berklee’s celebrated Gospel Choir and the Motown ensemble, and fell in love with collaboration. She wrote her first song in 2009 and began steadily writing and performing, often alongside her father, David Buskin. A decade later, Sophie is based in Brooklyn, appearing at venues such as Rockwood Music Hall, the Cutting Room, Passim, the Red Lion, and White Eagle Hall. She has performed with Judy Collins, Mason Jennings, Little Anthony, Livingston Taylor and Paul Schaffer and founded the songwriters’ circle at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn. Her first solo CD, “Sweet Creature”, recorded and produced by Jagoda and Neale Eckstein at Fox Run Studios, is a testament to her ongoing journey of artistic self-discovery. Recent accolades include a formal showcase at NERFA and performing at the Kerrville Folk Festival.

“Oh, my God… she is amazing! [This] CD should be everywhere!” – Judy Collins