The evening will begin unaccompanied, with Tony Trischka alternating fearlessly between five banjos. You’ll hear the music of Pete Seeger, John Hartford, Earl Scruggs, but also originals and other diversions.

Frequently the Woods are Pink is Trischka’s Emily Dickinson song cycle. Back in 2014, he was invited to perform for a podcast at the Dickinson home in Amherst, MA. On the drive up, attracted by the title of her poem “Frequently the Woods are Pink,” he set her words to music and performed it in her bedroom. (The podcast’s host invited artists to create there, just as Dickinson herself had done.) This setting proved to be the impetus for a unique, creative out-pouring. Over time, five more matings of music to poems followed, resulting in the song cycle you’ll hear tonight interpreted and sung by the exceptionally talented, Jill Sobule, Maeve Gilchrist, Hannah Read, and Tracy Bonham.

"the great banjo liberationist" – Tom Ashbrook, NPR