SARATOGA SPRINGS — First brought together by Brooklyn’s tight-knit old-time music community in 2017, Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman share the creations of their musical partnership with Saratoga Springs in a show to be staged 7 p.m. on Jan. 7 at Caffe Lena. 

Brown plays banjo and guitar and has released three albums on Brooklyn-based Jalopy Records. She has performed across the US, Europe, and Japan including NPR’s Tiny Desk and TED EDU. 

Over the past two decades, Coleman has established herself as a highly respected and sought-after practitioner of traditional Appalachian and Midwestern style old-time fiddle. She holds the record for most ribbons won in the renowned fiddle contest at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, WV, and has recorded and toured internationally.  

Together, Brown and Coleman have performed at such venues as the Kennedy Center, Symphony Space, Philadelphia Folk Festival, and the Trans-Pecos Festival in Marfa, Texas. Their long-awaited EP is the culmination of six years spent playing tunes and honing their sound as a duo.

SARATOGA SPRNGS — Local residents may remember Michael Grant from his time in the community as co-operator of Saratoga Coffee Traders, as a photographer, as the co-curator of the Empire Film Festival, or in any of the other innumerable things the “accidental serial entrepreneur” entertained in and around Saratoga Springs. 

Now, add NOVELIST to the list. 

“Eve stormed across The Deerwood parking lot to fetch her paycheck, the magenta stripe in her dark hair twisting with the pounding fury of every step…”  

So begins Grant’s 472-page debut novel “The Limited Edition Bicentennial Cadillac Convertible Joy Ride,” newly published by Wordbinders Publishing, an imprint of Journey Institute Press.

“It’s a strong story that’s getting high praise from early readers, and I’m hoping that Saratogians and beyond will discover it,” says Grant, who these days lives in Connecticut with his husband, artist Jon Galt.

“Our 20 years in Saratoga were indelible, of course,” says Grant, “and part of my new novel takes place there.”  

The story takes place over the course of a week when a 16-year-old learns a dark family secret and then absconds with an elderly resident desperate to escape her managed care facility. The unlikely pair hit the road in search of the truth in a rare and pristine 1976 convertible Cadillac.

In a unique twist, the car itself serves as the omniscient narrator for the story. 

The car as narrator?

Early versions of the story were told in first-person using two narrators, Grant explains. “My husband asked if there was a way to simplify it with a singular narrator, and I jokingly said the only one who knows everything is the car. He said, ‘so what if it’s the car telling the story?’ 

“I immediately rejected the idea, fearing correlations to My Mother the Car and Herbie, but then I set my ego aside and considered it. It couldn’t be a talking, haunted or magical car,” Grant says.  “I’ve owned 19 cars in my short life, and every time I sold or traded one, I felt like I was saying goodbye to a friend who seemed to know me. I channeled that feeling, solidified the device, and then proceeded to completely rewrite the entire novel from this new perspective.”

The novel is available at a variety of bookstores, including via Northshire Bookstore Saratoga, and through the author’s website at: michaeljaigrant.com. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — An annual celebration of the music of classical guitar prodigy, rock band leader, poet, playwright and theater director Josh Chambers will be staged at Caffe Lena Friday, Jan. 5. Show time is 7 p.m.  

Performers include: Dave Bengle, Radio Junkies, and Michael Eck. 

Chambers, a Washington County native and Saratoga Springs resident died in 2021 at the age of 45. 

All proceeds from the event will benefit Caffe Lena, where Chambers often performed with his rock band, Throwdown Bouquet and developed his theater company, Fovea Floods, which later moved to New York City. 

Tickets: caffelena.org. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — With stops at Toronto Winter Jazz, WNYC Studios, The Kennedy Centre and Milk Boy In Philadelphia, Juno-Award winning duo OKAN appear for the first time in Saratoga Springs.

The show will be staged 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 at Caffe Lena. 

Fusing Afro-Cuban roots with jazz, folk and global rhythms in songs about immigration, resistance and love, OKAN takes their name from the word for heart in their Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria. 

With vocals in Spanish, English and Spanglish, OKAN is led by the Cuban-born violinist and vocalist Elizabeth Rodriguez and percussionist and vocalist Magdelys Savigne, both Grammy and Latin-Grammy nominees. 

OKAN’s third full-length album, Okantomi, was released by LulaWord Records in August 2023, melds Afro-Cuban forms including sacred Lacumi chants and rhythms with virtuosic jazz and classical performances.

Tickets, go to: caffelena.org. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Chicago, formed in 1967 and having recorded 38 albums, and Earth, Wind & Fire – formed in 1969 and having released 23 albums, bring their co-headlining tour across North America to Saratoga Springs next summer. 

The “Heart and Soul Tour 2024” will stage at Saratoga Performing Arts Center July 24. For tickets, go to: livenation.com.    

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Singer-songwriter Hank Williams Jr. has scheduled a stop during his 2024 on Aug. 23 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Supporting act Whiskey Myers is also slated to perform. Tickets on sale online at LiveNation.com.