9 September 2016

Harvey Reid & Joyce Andersen with special guest Dave Mattacks

Joyce Andersen and Harvey Reid will open the season at the me&thee coffeehouse on Friday, September 9. This amazing husband-wife acoustic duo from Maine have invited their good friend, Marbleheader Dave Mattacks, to join them for the show. Harvey and Joyce have compiled impressive solo careers and they often combine their talents in shared concerts. This show with drummer extraordinaire, Dave Mattacks, makes for a dynamite way to start the fall season at our legendary coffeehouse.

Concert starts at 8:00 pm

Harvey Reid and Joyce Andersen

Harvey Reid started playing guitar in his early teens in Maryland, and fell in with the now-legendary DC-area bluegrass scene. After street-fiddling and playing old-time and bluegrass music for close to eight years, he moved into his van in the late 1970s and began pursuing solo acoustic songs & instrumental music, primarily fingerstyle acoustic guitar and autoharp. After stints in a bluegrass band in Colorado, playing Telecaster in a country band in Virginia, and a winter in Nashville, Reid migrated to Northern New England, playing five nights a week on the “blue-collar” folk circuit in Maine and New Hampshire, while developing his own personal blend of American acoustic music.

Reid’s skills and versatility on the guitar alone mark him as an important new voice in acoustic music. He won the 1981 National Fingerpicking Guitar Competition and the 1982 International Autoharp competition. Yet he’s also a veteran musician with a long list of studio and band credits, a strong flat picker who has won the Bean Blossom Bluegrass guitar contest, a versatile and engaging singer, a powerful lyricist, prolific composer, arranger and songwriter, a solid mandolin and bouzouki player, and a seasoned performer and captivating entertainer. And he plays the 6-string banjo and the autoharp like you’ve never heard. Guitar geeks know Harvey as being in the forefront of the partial capo and specialized guitar tunings; he’s written numerous books related to his guitar wizardry secrets. He needs to be seen to be believed.

Photo of Harvey & Joyce by Amanda Kowalski

. . .

Joyce Andersen’s live shows and recordings showcase her versatility as a vocalist and violinist who thrives on writing and interpreting songs across many genres from old-time, rock and Americana, to folk, pop and swing. She’s been a “side-gal” fiddler playing in country bands (out of Nashville) as well as swing, bluegrass and Celtic groups and playing a dizzying number of studio sessions, Joyce Andersen moved swiftly to center stage as a solo artist. She has many critically-acclaimed CDs (many collaborations with husband Harvey Reid) which shine the spotlight on her guitar, her sophisticated songwriting, her haunting and unique voice, and her powerful fiddling. Her clear and powerful vocal/fiddle duets are a sound that is all her own. Joyce does it all. Period.

. . .

As if this show wasn’t going to be spectacular enough, Harvey and Joyce have asked their good friend, Dave Mattacks, to join them. Dave is one of the most respected drummers in the music world. His resume is almost too incredible to be true. But, yes, he has played with Richard Thompson as part of Fairport Convention and he’s also played with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Billy Joel, Roseanne Cash, Jethro Tull, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Elton John, XTC, and on and on.

  • Harvey Reid is a one-man history of acoustic music. The Missoulian
  • Reid is truly a giant of the steel strings . . . wonderful twists of originality and emotional depth . . . a wealth of techniques and ideas. GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE.
  • . . . a folk-style artist deserving of wider popular recognition . . . Unlike some virtuosos, he brings wit and panache as well as technique to his music. BOSTON GLOBE
  • . . . Reid dazzles an audience with an array of stringed weapons. DENVERPOST
  • 

An incredible solo guitarist. . . . Reid plays mandolin, funky slide guitar blues, ethereal 12-string and scorching electric with equal authority; and the best part is, he’s really fun.
 L.A. WEEKLY
  • . . .
  • That neo-traditional current is starting to be felt among the ranks of New England songwriters . . . among the hottest . . . New Hampshire fiddler-singer Joyce Andersen. Boston Globe
  • . . . places her right up there with any of the songwriters out there performing their songs today. Sing Out!
  • Youth and strength flow through her voice. She’s got power and conviction. . . She’s writing new songs and retelling old stories, and there’s still something mysterious in her music that sounds like comes from an ancient and pure source. Minnesota Public Radio

TOP ↑