STUFF YOU SHOULDN'T MISS

      ArtBits always features a calendar of the goings on of Franklin County artists. Check out these events around Franklin County. Each issue includes the entire text of our weekly newspaper column.

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      Stop in for the AAC CoffeeHouses at 7 p.m. on the first and third Thursday of every month. These gatherings bring new opportunities, gossip, "show-and-tell" and workshops. We come together on the first Thursday for a booked musical performance and an art exhibit at Simple Pleasures in St Albans. On the third Thursday come to the Kept Writer in St Albans for acoustic Open Mike Night featuring music, readings, and more from the best new artists in Vermont.

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FROM OPRYLAND TO OPERA HOUSE

      Vermont native and Nashville singer/songwriter Kelly Moore will perform at the Opera House at Enosburg Falls on Saturday evening. Kelly brings acoustic and classical guitar arrangements to his own original contemporary folk, folk/jazz and Celtic music. He will play many of the popular songs from his three albums.
      "I had gone a circuitous route playing music from New Hampshire to Philadelphia to Atlanta to Kansas City to Massachusetts and back to Atlanta," Kelly said. He landed in Nashville the evening the Braves lost the National League Championship to the St Louis Cardinals in 1982.
      Thanks to a contest his band won in Atlanta, he went to Nashville to cut a record and began working in Country Music USA, a seasonal show at the Opryland Park, with Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl. After a few years there, "I pulled back from playing music." He had grown up around the theater, and took jobs as an assistant engineer for film and television companies.
      Music kept calling him.
      "I got back to writing a lot and traveling to folk festivals and coffee houses and on the college circuit. I finally put together Gypsy Wind," a 6 piece band with studio musicians he had known in Nashville. "We had a good run, but I got married and we had a baby boy and decided to come back home to Vermont where we had grown up." Kelly's seven year old son now comes in when he rehearses and "bangs on the guitars and the piano." Since returning to Vermont, Moore has also performed with Woods Tea Company and with Elisabeth von Trapp.
      His original songs include the driving folk-rock Shadowland, the finger-picked ballad No One Else But You, and the Latin rhythms of Follow My Heart. Samples of Awaken, his latest CD, can be heard on www.awakenrecords.com.
      "My music is about the experience that I had within me, that joy and peace is within, that what we are looking for is within us, not based on external events. It is always there. Every time I go to the music, it is always there. That is such a precious thing. That is why life is so precious, such a pure experience for me."
      He has also built a seminar series around his music. Listen To Your Heart is an inspirational program that develops his ideal of discovery within. He designed it for middle school and high school students.
      When he read about the Columbine and Arkansas shootings, he felt a need "to go out there where these kids are and tell them straight out, Look, there is something very precious inside of you." The seminar reinforces the respect theme now taught in Vermont schools. He uses his songs to discuss "my own experience of fears of failure and fears of success, of fears of being loved and fears of being hated." He also features Don't Laugh At Me with permission from Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul & Mary), a song Peter uses in his Help Teaching Tolerance Curriculum.
      The Kelly Moore concert is at 8 p.m. on Saturday in the Opera House. It is a special event, outside of the Millennium series, to promote Vermont artists. Call 933-6171 for info and tickets.

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CALLS FOR ARTISTS

      We have several upcoming gigs for artists and musicians. The AAC CoffeeHouse needs performers and fine art on the first Thursday of every month at Simple Pleasures as well as open mike performers for the third Thursday at the Kept Writer. We have also begun booking for the summer festivals. If you have a favorite band, a favorite painter, or if you play or paint and want a job, E-mail the All Arts Council .

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      The Miami University annual Young Painters Competition for the William and Dorothy Yeck Award closes November 3. This competition seeks out paintings created by the best American artists aged 21-32 and creates the venue for Miami University to collect and document the development of painting throughout the 21st Century. One painting will be selected for a purchase award of $10,000. Entry fee. For info, e-mail
      Entry forms are available at the St Albans Area Chamber of Commerce.

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STUFF YOU SHOULDN'T MISS

ST ALBANS--The Kept Writer is keeping busy this week with Bob Keller tonight at 6 p.m. and Josh Brooks tomorrow at 7 p.m. Admission is free but donations are appreciated.

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JEFFERSONVILLE--Cambridge CoffeeHouse presents singer songwriters Greg Ryan and Bruce Jones in a new venue at Dinner's Dunn at the Windridge Bakery on Wednesday, November 1, 7-9 p.m. The Cambridge Arts Council sponsors the CoffeeHouse. Admission is free but donations are appreciated. e-mail for info.

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CLICK HERE: ART SITE OF THE WEEK

      Regular readers might wonder why passive voice is considered particularly bad and how to avoid using it. The English Department at Purdue has crammed a site full of handy stuff.


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FRANKLIN COUNTY BOOKSHELF

      ArtBits features a quick weekly peek at the bookshelf or night stand of the folks you know in and around Franklin County. That popular feature has a page of its own at the Franklin County Bookshelf here on the AAC site.

SUPPORT LIVE ARTS IN YOUR TOWN!

Dick Harper, Chair

All Arts Council of Franklin County
P.O. Box 1
Highgate Springs, VT 05460
e-mail us