PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music will present contemporary folk singer/songwriter and comedienne Cheryl Wheeler, plus Lizzy Mandell, at Next Stage on Friday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m.
According to her website, “it has always seemed as if there were two Cheryl Wheelers. … There is poet-Cheryl, writer of some of the prettiest, most alluring and intelligent ballads on the modern folk scene. And there is her evil twin, comic-Cheryl, a militant trend defier and savagely funny social critic.”
According to the site, Wheeler's songs of love and loss contrast the prosaic landscapes of her native small-town America with the rootless life of the traveling performer. Her tunes have been hits for such mainstream stars as Suzy Bogguss and Dan Seals, and have been recorded by the likes of Bette Midler, Maura O'Connell, Peter Paul and Mary, Kenny Loggins, Holly Near, and Garth Brooks.
The site describes Wheeler's comedy as skewering contemporary culture while avoiding sanctimony.
In 2012, The Times-Argus/Rutland Herald named Mandell its “Singer/Songwriter of the Year” and her “Made For Flying” CD “Best Album of the Year.” She will be accompanied by fiddler Phil Bloch.