PUTNEY — On Saturday, May 30, at noon, Jesse Peters will come to the Putney Public Library to kick off his “Tour350: Music, Words, Images Library Tour.”
In the spring of 2010, Peters embarked on a cross-country bike trip with the goals of completing a solo, self-contained ride, playing as many gigs as possible, and raising awareness of climate change.
That August he crossed the Sierra Nevadas into California, having ridden more than 4,000 miles and performed about 25 times, in settings ranging from roadhouses to campgrounds. He had dubbed the ride “Tour350” (with the blessing of Bill McKibben, the author who coined the term, which refers to the acceptable amount of CO2 in the atmosphere), and completed it on an old Giant mountain bike pulling a small trailer, with a combined weight of 100 pounds - in addition to camping gear and supplies, there was the matter of a full-size Dreadnaught guitar and a laptop.
In the nearly five years since this journey, he has worked with the song fragments and ideas gathered on the trip, creating a body of work that he will share with his community this spring.
The presentation will combine images projected onto a screen with live performance of the music and brief readings from the travelogue. There is also an interactive component, with questions from the audience welcomed. This short presentation (about an hour) is dense with imagery, story, and song, and is appropriate for adults and children.
The show is free and open to the public. CDs will be available for sale.
After his Putney show, Peters plans to play at libraries in Windsor, Woodstock, Rutland, and Manchester over the first week of June.