rise up singing new bedford!

Due to organizational difficulties, the monthly New Bedford open sing is on hiatus until we can get things straightened out. For more info, please contact Dan at danrharperAT aol DOTcom.

On Friday, December 5, from 5-9 p.m., there will be a holiday open sing in the same place where we usually sing. This event is being organized by Chuck Dade, one of our regular singers at Rise Up Singing. Here’s the info:

First Fridays New Bedford Presents: Holiday Carol contest and Sing-along

Dec. 5th, 5-9 p.m., Bistol Hall, 752 Purcahse Street, New Bedford, MA.

Prizes for:
Best original holiday song.
Best original holiday lyrics for adapted song.
Best (cover) performance of holiday song.
Best Rancho performance.

FREE!

Sign up: talentAT firstfridaysnb DOTorg.

Chuck says this event will be more of a coffehouse setting than an open sing, but he says we can expect plenty of opportunities to sing along to holiday music.

Every third Friday. We’ll be singing in downtown New Bedford, Massachusetts, on Friday, November 21, from 5-7 p.m.!

Join us in the lobby of the Bristol Building, at 752 Purchase Street. Use the door right next to the Green Bean coffeehouse (Green Bean is open until 6 p.m., so you can buy one of their yummy sandwiches and a cup of coffee before coming to sing). We’ll be singing right there in the lobby of the Bristol building.

We’ll be singing from Rise Up Singing — there will be loaner copies available, but please bring your own if you have a copy. Bring your voice, and you’re also welcome to bring your guitar, banjo, dulcimer, fiddle, string bass, or what-have-you.

Since there has been some confusion about this — we are in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in the U.S.

Now on THIRD FRIDAYS. We’ll be singing in downtown New Bedford on Friday, October 17, from 5-7 p.m.!

Join us in the lobby of the Bristol Building, at 752 Purchase Street. Use the door right next to the Green Bean coffeehouse (Green Bean is open until 6 p.m., so you can buy one of their yummy sandwiches and a cup of coffee before coming to sing). We’ll be singing right there in the lobby of the Bristol building.

We’ll be singing from Rise Up Singing — there will be loaner copies available, but please bring your own if you have a copy. Bring your voice, and you’re also welcome to bring your guitar, banjo, dulcimer, fiddle, string bass, or what-have-you. There will be a piano available for us as usual.

We’re changing to THIRD FRIDAYS.* We’ll be singing in downtown New Bedford on Friday, September 19, from 5-7 p.m.!

Join us in the lobby of the Bristol Building, at 752 Purchase Street. Use the door right next to the Green Bean coffeehouse (Green Bean is open until 6 p.m., so you can buy one of their yummy sandwiches and a cup of coffee before coming to sing). We’ll be singing right there in the lobby of the Bristol building.

We’ll be singing from Rise Up Singing — there will be loaner copies available, but please bring your own if you have a copy. Bring your voice, and you’re also welcome to bring your guitar, uke, bodhran, fiddle, mandolin, or what-have-you. There will be a piano available for us as usual.

* More about this change here.

We had fewer singers than usual this month, but we had a good core group. We started out with some favorites, like the MTA Song, Home on the Range, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, etc. We spent a quarter of an hour in the Golden Oldies section of Rise Up Singing, singing Heart of My Heart, Give My Regards to Broadway, For Me and My Gal, etc. We sang The Soup Song, He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, The John B. Sails, Jamaica Farewell, and many more.

We took a break at 6 p.m., and decided to change a few things about Rise Up Singing New Bedford….

1. We’ll be changing from the first Friday of the month to the third Friday of the month. We liked sharing the Bristol Building with the New Bedford First Friday event, but we couldn’t compete with the other musicians (they use amps, and we don’t). Thanks to Chuck Dade for letting us piggy-back on First Fridays for the past six months — and a big thanks to Mark and Marybeth Truran, the owners of the Bristol Building, for letting us move to third Fridays. Next sing is Friday, September 19.
2. We talked about publicizing Rise Up Singing, and decided to concentrate on newspaper listings, posters and postcards, and email notifications. There will be posters (8.5×11 in. flyers) available on September 19.
3. Someone suggested that we bring potluck refreshments, and we decided to try it — snacks and beverages, not a full meal.

Hope to see you on Friday, September 19!

We’ll be singing in downtown New Bedford on Friday, September 5, from 5-7 p.m.!

Join us in the lobby of the Bristol Building, at 752 Purchase Street. Use the door right next to the Green Bean coffeehouse (Green Bean is open until 6 p.m., so you can buy one of their fantastic sandwiches and a cup of coffee before coming to sing). Walk to the end of the lobby and turn left — we’ll be up the ramp, next to the door that goes on to Wing’s Court.

We’ll be singing from Rise Up Singing — there will be loaner copies available, but please bring your own if you have a copy. Bring your voice, and you’re also welcome to bring your guitar, banjo, fiddle, jaw harp, or what-have-you. There will be a piano available for us again this month.

About ten people showed up this evening (August 1) to sing. A newcomer introduced us to the song “Ain’t Nobody Gonna Turn Me Around,” which we liked so much we sang it twice!

Other songs that we sang included “Blowin in the Wind,” “Funiculi Funicula,” “If I Only Had a Brain,” “Five Hundred Miles,” “In the Garden,” etc. etc. We also sang a couple of songs with New Bedford connections — “Done Laid Around,” which was co-written by Paul Clayton, a New Bedford folksinger of the 1960’s — and “Blow Ye Winds of the Morning,” which mentions New Bedford in the second verse.

Instruments this month included two guitars and a piano. A couple of experienced singers chimed in with some harmony parts. Yet again, a good time was had by all!

We’ll be singing out in New Bedford on Friday, August 1, from 5-7 p.m.!

Nice weather location: If the weather’s nice, we’ll be outdoors in Wing’s Court. Wing’s Court is a small park off Union St. between Purchase St. and Acushnet Ave. (there’s another entrance to the park off Purchase St.). Look for us in the sheltered deck behind the Bristol Building.

Bad weather location: Join us in the lobby of the Bristol Building, at 752 Purchase Street. It’s right next door to the Green Bean coffeehouse, which will be open until 6 p.m., so you can buy one of their fantastic sandwiches and a cup of coffee and walk over and sing with us.

We’ll be singing from Rise Up Singing — there will be loaner copies available, but please bring your own if you have a copy. If you want to share a song that’s not in Rise Up Singing, please bring about 20 copies of lyrics, with easy chords. Bring your voice, and you’re also welcome to bring your guitar, dulcimer (either kind), fiddle, tin whistle, or what-have-you.

Today we had most of our core group of singers. Ted and Dan started off singing right at 5:00, and Chuck and Emily came over a few minutes later. Emily led a new song for us, one by Jean Ritchie. And a couple of the better singers got some harmony going on some of the songs we’re more familiar with.

We had some new faces walk in from the sustainability event that was happening at the same time in Wing’s Court. One man from Germany came up and sang with us, and he taught us a variation of Kumbayah with a driving rhythm and a somewhat different melody — it really rocked!

We sang a number of songs from the alternate song booklet that Dan put together, called “Songs Not in ‘Rise Up Singing’,” which, believe it or not, has a couple of dozen songs that are not in Rise Up Singing. We’re gradually posting lyrics for those songs (when the songs are in the public domain), or at least guitar chords, elsewhere on this Web site.

Make sure you come next month for plenty of good singing, whether you’ve never sung before, or you’re an experienced singer.

We’ll be singing out in New Bedford on Friday, July 4, from 5-7 p.m.! You have time to come sing with us before the kick-off concert for Summerfest folk festival in New Bedford (gates open at 6:00 p.m., it’s only a block away) — or what the heck, be a real folkie, skip the concert, and come make music with us! You’ll still be able to hear all the music on Saturday and Sunday.

Nice weather location: If the weather’s nice, we’ll be outdoors in Wing’s Court. Wing’s Court is a small park off Union St. between Purchase St. and Acushnet Ave. (there’s another entrance to the park off Purchase St.). Look for us in the sheltered deck behind the Bristol Building.

Bad weather location: Join us in the lobby of the Bristol Building, at 752 Purchase Street. It’s right next door to the Green Bean coffeehouse, which will be open until 6 p.m., so you can buy one of their fantastic sandwiches and a cup of coffee and walk over and sing with us.

We’ll be singing from Rise Up Singing — there will be loaner copies available, but please bring your own if you have a copy. If you want to share a song that’s not in Rise Up Singing, please bring about 20 copies of lyrics, with easy chords. Bring your voice, and you’re also welcome to bring your guitar, ukulele, tambourine, concertina, or what-have-you.

This month’s Singing Out! happened at the same time as the Garden Night event in Wing’s Court, so lots of those people wandered up to check out the small group of us who were singing, and some of them stuck around to listen, or to sing with us. It was a little too chilly to be outside — the guitarists found their fingers were getting cold — but we had fun anyway.