Slaid Cleaves, the award-winning folk singer, plays this week at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township in his fourth appearance at the Sanctuary Concert Series. Cleaves started his singing career in the 1980s as a street singer in County Cork, Ireland. He won the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1992, an honor previously bestowed on Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle. Since then he has recorded five albums and is currently touring to promote his sixth album, "All You Love Will Be Taken Away." Cleaves and his opening act, James Maddock, play at the Sanctuary Concert Series…

The Sanctuary Concert Series presents Irish-American soprano Cathie Ryan in concert at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township Saturday night. According to Scott Sheldon, coordinator of the Sancutary Concert Series, Cathie Ryan spent seven years as the lead singer of the all-female group Cherish the Ladies, where she developed a reputation as one of Celtic music's most enduring singer-songwriters. Her original songs have been recorded by various Irish singers, including Frances Black and Mary Black. The Los Angeles Times recently dubbed her "one of the leading voices in Celting music," …

The Sanctuart Concert Series kicks off a new season with three performers voted "Most Wanted" by concert-goers: Seth Glier, Julie Gold and Amy Speace. Seth Glier, a 22-year-old Massachusetts native, has performed with Edwin McCain, The Verve Pipe and James Taylor. According to his official biography, he typically performs over 200 dates per year. A dedicated environmentalist, he traveled a recent tour route in his hybrid Toyota Prius, organized tree planting parties and promoted carpools to his concerts. Julie Gold is a singer and songwriter from Philadelphia. She is best known for her song "…

The Sanctuary Concert Series and Chatham Patch have teamed up to offer two pairs of tickets to see The Burns Sisters in the last Sanctuary Concert of the 2010-2011 season. The Burns Sisters are made up of Annie, Marie and Jeannie (the seventh, eighth and ninth of 12 children). The sisters come to the Sanctuary Concert Series on a night off from their current tour with Arlo Guthrie. Together the sisters have released eight albums as a group, and each of them have released individual albums as well. Their music has been called a "blend of sweet vocals, countrified pop-rock, and diary-inspired …

If you're at a loss for how to spend your Saturday, try competing in the Chatham Patch and Sanctuary Concert Series Ticket Give-Away! This week, the Sanctuary Concert Series hosts the Canadian singing duo Dala at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township at 8 p.m. Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine met in high school in 2002 and formed a band name taken from the last two letters of their first names. They have been nominated for five Canadian Folk Music Awards, a Toronto Independent Music Award for Best Folk Group, and their album "Everyone is Someone" was called the Album of the Year by …

Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame will perform Saturday with his daughter Bethany as part of the Sanctuary Concert Series, and Chatham Patch has two pairs of tickets to offer readers! Yarrow, a five-time Grammy winner, wrote some of the biggest hits recorded by himself, Mary Travers and Paul Stookey in the 1960s, including "Puff, The Magic Dragon," "Day Is Done," and "Light One Candle." His song about a loveable dragon frollicking in the land of Honahlee was based on a poem by one of Yarrow's college friends and was eventually turned into three television specials which earned Yarrow …

Chatham Patch and the Sanctuary Concert Series have teamed up to offer two pairs of free tickets to see singer Chris Hillman, a folk and country musician whose band had a single reach No. 1 when he was 21 years old. Hillman got his first guitar from his mother while still a child, but soon afterwards he became more interested in the mandolin. Throughout the early 1960s he was in several bands, and in 1964 he was invited to become part of a new band, The Byrds. Their first single, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tamborine Man," reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Along with Gram Parsons…

The Sanctuary Concert Series brings top performers to Chatham, and Chatham Patch has teamed with the series to offer free tickets to the first readers who can answer a trivia question. On Saturday, April 9, New Jersey native Richard Shindell performs at the Sanctuary Concert Series. Shindell studied at both a Zen monastery and a theological seminary before he was signed with the New Jersey record company Shanachie Records. He has released nine albums as an individual artist and as part of a performing group, and made up one-third of the trio Cry Cry Cry along with Lucy Kaplansky and Dar …

This week the Sanctuary Concert Series features Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett, two musicians who have performed together and independently for over 35 years. The two played together on the Little Feat album "Dixie Chicken" (1973) and subsequently became full members of the band. They have also worked with Taj Mahal, The Wallflowers, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt and Carly Simon, among other artists. Barrere and Tacket will play together as an acoustic duo Saturday at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 each, but Chatham Patch and the Sanctuary Concert Series have …

This Saturday, the Sanctuary Concert Series presents another fantastic musical line-up featuring legendary rockers Graham Parker and Garland Jeffreys. Parker, a British musician, has been recording tracks since 1975. With his band Graham Parker and The Rumours, he gained a reputation for memorable live performances before embarking on a solo career that has lasted over 20 years. He is one of the few artists to have two albums on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of Top 100 Albums of All Time. Jeffreys majored in arts at Syracuse University, where one of his classmates was Lou Reed. Since 1969, he…

The Sanctuary Concerts Series presents comedian and comic songwriter Cheryl Wheeler this Saturday at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township. The concert begins at 8 p.m. and begins with opener My Sweet Patootie. Sanctuary Concerts chair Scott Sheldon called Wheeler "perhaps the funniest stand-up comedian, the wittiest comic songwriter, and the most heart-wrenching author of fine-tuned emotional ballads whom you've ever heard." Chatham Patch and the Sanctuary Concert Series have joined up to offer a pair of free tickets to the concert to the first two people to e-mail Chatham Patch Editor…

The Sanctuary Concert Series and Chatham Patch are giving away two pairs of tickets to see Chris Smither and opener Tracy Grammer Saturday at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township. Smither released his first album in 1970 and since then has released twelve more albums over forty years. His current tour is in support of his thirteenth album, “Time Stands Still.” Smither draws from blues and folk music for a “haunting” and “Delta-drenched fingerpicking guitar style,” said Scott Sheldon, the chair of Sanctuary Concerts. He performs with no band or other accompaniment, only his voice and …

The three New Jersey sisters who perform as The Roches are making a rare trio appearance at The Sanctuary Concerts at Chatham High School on Saturday. Two lucky people will win free tickets if they can correctly answer this trivia question: In their 1979 song "We," The Roches also refer to a time in the 1970's when they did not perform regularly as a trio.  The lyrics are: Guess which two of us made a record. Guess what the other one did instead. The two who made the record Have been a singing group for ten years And now a trio we are Born on the fourth of December. Which two of them made a …

Musician Jonathan Edwards will perform Saturday at 8 p.m. in the latest of the Sanctuary Concert Series, and Chatham Patch has tickets to give away! Edwards has been making music for over 35 yearswill perform with his acoustic quartet. His biggest hit from the 1970s, "Sunshine (Go Away Today)," captured the sentiment of nation fed up with the Vietnam War and made Edwards into a chart-topping singer. Since then Ewards has recorded 13 more albums, and now appears at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township on Southern Boulevard with an opening performance by New Jersey native Nora Jane …

The Sanctuary Concert Series and Chatham Patch are giving away two pairs of tickets to see Cherish The Ladies on Saturday at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township. The first two readers who comment below with the answer to this question win a pair of free tickets to Saturday night's concert: Cherish the Ladies are a 10-piece Irish folk band. Six of the members sing and play instruments. What do the other four performers do?