Fiddler Matt Cranitch from County Cork, accordionist Dónal Murphy from Limerick and guitarist and vocalist Tommy O’Sullivan from County Kerry perform live as Sliabh Notes.
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Early spring explorations near Stockbridge
Mill Brook Sugarhouse is boiling sap in a spring day around the corner from the Roaring Brook Trail, and Irish musicians are tuning up as I explore the Southern Berkshires.
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Suzi Stern celebrates women’s voices in jazz
As a vocalist, Suzi Stern has a long inside view of a rich and intense jazz scene in Austin, Texas — and from her new home in Lenox she is planning to bring her music to the Berkshires.
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Clay from an outdoor fire-pit carries ‘Volumes’
Wood-firing ceramics in an open-face pit is a volatile craft — Karlene Kantner can spend 12 hours and more stoking the fire when she makes the clay vessels she has shown at Berkshire Botanical Garden.
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Sunny Banks Ranch keeps visions alive
Bill Robinson and his son, Steve, work a 200-acre ranch in Becket. Clad in thick rubber boots, jeans and a plaid shirt, Steve was outside working near the stables and looked every bit the part of a cowboy.
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Q-Mob affirms queer community and connection
In a new year and an emergence of social activity after the peak of fear and isolation in Covid, a new community is taking root in Great Barrington — Q-Mob, Queer Men of the Berkshires.
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Hands-on celebrations for Valentine week
Imagine sitting side by side with a quiet man in a slip-spattered t-shirt, in front of an electric pottery wheel. He is teaching you to center a lump of clay.
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But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? — #Berkshireweekend
In the middle of February, a new friend is leaning on the counter and talking about theater games. We’re thinking about building trust and how to make something vast and wild out of almost nothing …
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Karlene Kantner shapes wood-fired vessels
On a slope in West Stockbridge, the air smells of wood smoke and frost and the unmistakable, clean sour scent of reduction — fire pulling oxygen from clay.
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Sourdough rises at Berkshire Mountain Bakery
Loaves of white bread are entering and leaving the oven on a long wooden paddle. Rounded boules cooling, rich with chunks of dark Belgian chocolate — and ciabatta, seven grain bread, potato and onion …
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