BRATTLEBORO — On Friday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m., Rani Arbo, lead singer and fiddler, and her band, daisy mayhem, will team up with Brattleboro's Hallowell Hospice Choir in a first-ever collaboration at the First Baptist Church, 190 Main St.
These two musical forces have a common mission in their approach to the transformative power of music.
Both groups are well known in the area. For 12 years now, Rani Arbo, singer, songwriter and instrumentalist, and her band have played a mix of traditional, original, and contemporary sounds.
With Arbo's alto at the helm, the quartet sings in four-part harmony and employs fiddle, guitar, banjo, bass and a 100 percent recycled drum set to create lively rhythms and varied settings for their heartfelt songs. Daisy mayhem celebrates the rich musical traditions of the United States and brings them into the present with good humor, impeccable musicianship, powerful song writing.
The Hallowell Hospice Choir of Brattleboro, in existence since 2003, has been at the bedside of the dying singing songs that evoke images and emotion and bring comfort.
Picking up on Arbo's song setting of Tennyson's Crossing the Bar, music leader Peter Amidon created an arrangement for Hallowell that has since spread throughout the growing world of hospice choirs in the region. Subsequently, Arbo and the choir's leader, Kathy Leo, and music directors, Mary Cay Brass and Peter Amidon, discovered that their music intersected.
The Hallowell Hospice Choir will open with a set of music they might bring to a bedside sing, then will join Arbo and daisy mayhem on several songs, including Crossing the Bar. Arbo and her band will complete the evening concert with a set of their songs, some of which will highlight their latest artistic endeavor, the CD Some Bright Morning.
Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance and for seniors, $18 at the door. Advance tickets are available on line at Brattleborotix.com or at Everyone's Books, 23 Elliot St. in Brattleboro, or at World Eye Bookshop, 156 Main St., in Greenfield, Mass. Call 802-257-1571 for more information.