Barn Show, Manomet, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

The Barn Show Music Series is now in its fourth summer season of providing live music on the rolling hills of Holmes Farm in Manomet. It was another perfect summer evening to enjoy the outstanding musicians that promoter/organizer/musician Hayley Sabella booked for the event.

(Click on an image for a slightly higher resolution view if your device supports that action).

You may wonder what the name "Barn Show" means in this setting. I remember a few years ago, Hayley gathered some musician friends and locals together and crowded into this barn building. There were musty old couches, rickety old chairs, wooden boxes, and other barn accouterments - folks crowded in wherever a foothold could be placed. It didn't matter - it was music, it was live, it was real, and it was happening right here in Manomet. And it grew.



There is a big rock right under me. I climbed it, held my camera far over my head, and rotated in place to capture this panorama from 10-12 feet off the ground. (Probably not such a smart move for an old man).

Here's a link to my blogs from many of the previous shows if you'd like a trip down memory lane.



Holmes Farm is a working farm, and the sunflowers were in glorious bloom tonight.



The bees were busy as they could be bagging buckets of pollen. Some might say this image is overexposed but, I'd prefer to say it is a "high-key" technique. Yep, that sounds much better than overexposed......

But on to the music - lead-off solo performer, Eva Walsh......



.....followed by the duo, The Promise is Hope.



The last rays of sun before.....



...it disappeared in the west........



...and the Mallett Brothers Band took the stage.

I think I'd describe the Mallett Brothers Band sound as rousing, upbeat, driving rock, with a Maine and French Canadian flavor enhanced by the addition of fiddle and mandolin to complement the traditional guitars and drums. They had the happy crowd hootin' and hollerin' and on their feet filling the dance area in front of the stage.



I have seen/heard them a few times over the recent years and they never disappoint. They were just such great performers and the audience really connected strongly.

The Barn Show is an amazing place and creates a magical feeling sitting here in the middle of Holmes Farm with its rolling hills folding away towards the ocean, the gardens brimming with flowers and vegetables, the beautiful music rising out of the silence normally only punctuated by bugs and critters of the night. (Whew, nice run-on sentence).



It is a quintessential New England summer experience - live music, outdoors, on a warm evening, darkness gently enveloping the rolling hills, the stars filling the clear night sky.

It is extraordinary and a reflection of the underlying thirst for and spirit of creativity in Manomet that the Barn Show series has been so wonderfully successful.

In addition to the breathtakingly beautiful beaches of Priscilla, White Horse, and Manomet, artistic musical creative expression is finding a warm reception here in Manomet, a village in the town of Plymouth - "America's Hometown."

September 3rd is the final Barn Show this year. Come on down! Schedule and tickets at this link.