Founder/lead singer Craig Fuller will be joined by longtime bassist and leader Mike Reilly, guitarist Curtis Wright, and Nashville sideman supreme Fats Kaplin on pedal steel, fiddle, mandolin, washboard and accordion.

Hobokenite Amy Speace is an Americana singer/songwriter who "combines the best parts of Lucinda Williams and Roseanne Cash...with an unflagging sense of 21st-century hipness." (Vintage Guitar Magazine).

Tickets: $30

Our Two Hundred^th Concert!

"I think we are all born singing Tom Paxton songs." - Nanci Griffith

"Tom’s songs have a way of sneaking up on you. You find yourself humming them, whistling them, and singing a verse to a friend. Like the songs of Woody Guthrie, they're becoming part of America." -Pete Seeger

From the 1960's, when he would leave his army base at Fort Dix, NJ to haunt the Village folk clubs at the height of the Great Folk Boom, through some four decades as probably the most widely-known folk songwriter since Woody Guthrie, Tom Paxton has been the beloved voice of a generation...addressing issues of injustice and inhumanity; laying bare the absurdities of modern culture; and celebrating the most tender bonds of family, friends and community. He is often outspoken, often wonderfully funny, and always accessible and warm-hearted.

Dozens of Tom's songs have become absorbed into our oral tradition: "Ramblin' Boy," "Bottle of Wine," "Whose Garden Was This," "The Last Thing On My Mind," "Goin' to the Zoo," and "The Marvelous Toy" are just a few. He's recorded 34 albums, published 16 children's books, and had his songs covered by hundreds of artists as diverse as Pete Seeger, Willie Nelson and Placido Domingo. He's also a Grammy nominee and an ASCAP Lifetime Achievement Award winner.

Special guests Hot Soup are a quirky vocal trio from Maryland. One presenter gave this recipe: ""Mix the tight, intricate harmonies of the Hills, Herdman, Mangsen trio with the stylistic variety of the Four Bitchin' Babes, then add the zaniness and energy of the Chenille Sisters. You've just made Hot Soup!"

Please join us for Birthday Cake at intermission, to celebrate The Sanctuary Concerts' 200th Concert!

Tickets: $25

"One of the real, real geniuses." -Sammy Cahn

"One of the most innovative and proficient songwriters of our generation." -Billy Joel

There is no shorthand way to sum up the first 35 years of Jimmy Webb's career. He's known worldwide for the instant classics he wrote for Glen Campbell (“By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” “Where’s The Playground, Susie”), Richard Harris (“MacArthur Park,” “Didn’t We”), the Fifth Dimension (“Up, Up and Away,” “This Is Your Life”), The Brooklyn Bridge (“Worst That Could Happen”), Art Garfunkel (“All I Know”), Linda Ronstadt (“Easy For You To Say”), Joe Cocker (“The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress”) and countless others from Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney to Urge Overkill, Reba McEntire, and R.E.M..

He's the only artist ever to receive Grammy awards for music, lyrics, and orchestration. He's been elected to the National Academy of Popular Music Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Songwriters. “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” and “Up, Up and Away” are among the fifty most-performed songs of the past fifty years ("Phoenix" is Number Three).

As a performer of his own songs, he's recorded ten albums and appeared in theaters and high-end cabaret rooms around the world. And, he brings with him a lifetime of stories and the passion and playfulness of his own compositions. There is nothing like hearing Jimmy Webb sing Jimmy Webb.

Special guest Machan Taylor is a New Jersey-based jazz/pop performer who first found fame as the "Margret" in the fondly-remembered jump-jazz group Grover Margret & Za Zu Zazz. She went on to sing with artists as diverse as Foreigner, Sting, Pink Floyd, George Benson, and Govt Mule. Her recent solo work shows off her love for Brazilian jazz.

Tickets: $25

Droll wit and Western swing-influenced musical chops still intact 40 years after his debut. -Detroit Free Press

A frosty-cool mix of utterly relaxed hep, excelling in jazz-tinged original flights and affectionate, slightly spindled versions of old-timey pop classics. -LA Weekly

Dan Hicks is a one-of-a-kind raconteur of swing, jump-jive, and Americana music, leading his high-octane band and the delectable Lickettes through scat vocals, roadhouse revelry, and sassy jazz tunes. He is a charismatic master of acoustic swing, and we expect him to bring down the house when he visits The Sanctuary.

Dan and the Licks recorded five ground-breaking and Billboard-charting records for the Columbia, Blue Thumb and Warner Bros. labels, appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine three times. More recently, they released "Beatin' the Heat," featuring collaborations with Bette Midler, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones and Brian Setzer, "Alive & Lickin," and 2008's "Tangled Tales."

Special guests The Two-Man Gentleman Band describe themselves as "original circus-country and dixieland-swing with plectrum banjo, string bass, dueling kazoos, foot percussion, and a triangle."  Their witty songwriting and retro-Vaudeville performances are as mischievous and sly as a vintage Warner Brothers cartoon. 

Tickets: $25

He's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  He had a string of top-ten hits with The Lovin' Spoonful, including  "Do You Believe in Magic", "Hot Time, Summer in the City," "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind," "Six O'Clock," and "Younger Girl." His song "Welcome Back" (for the television show Welcome Back, Kotter) reached #1. He played harmonica on The Doors' album Morrison Hotel. And, for forty years, he's been one of the hardest working and most treasured performers in pop music.

We love John Sebastian for all those things, of course...but what we really love is his boundless affection for Americana music, the never-ending twinkle in his eye, and his aw-shucks joy in performing his upbeat songs.

Tickets: $25

We are thrilled to welcome back Sanctuary favorite Slaid Cleaves, now touring in support of his new album Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away.

Slaid combines rootsy rowdiness with gothic twang, creating a one-of-a-kind folk-country style inspired by his musical heroes Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, the Everly Brothers, and Woody Guthrie. A teller of timeless stories of the hard times and good luck of folks riding along life's highways and dead-end streets, Slaid began his career as a "busker," singing and playing guitar on the streets of Co. Cork, Ireland in the mid-1980s.  In 1992 he won the prestigious New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival, joining the company of Robert Earl Keen, Steve Earle, and Lyle Lovett, and went on to record seven stellar albums, including the award-winning Broke Down (Rounder).

Tickets: $20

"An unrepentant romantic, with a razor-sharp mind, a biting sense of humor, and a quirky view of the world." Wood and Steel Magazine

"The Ultimate Crowd Pleaser...."  Performing Songwriter Magazine

Liv Taylor is a charmer. His exuberant and buoyant performing style is reminiscent of classic Tin Pan Alley. His warm-hearted concerts feature his entertaining and intelligent songs, including such Top Forty hits as "Carolina Day, " “I Will Be in Love with You” and “I’ll Come Running”; and, recorded by his brother James Taylor, “I Can Dream of You,” “Going Round One More Time,” and “Boatman” (from James' double-Grammy-winning album Hourglass). To his own songs, he'll often add heartfelt renditions of classics like Hoagy Carmichael's "Heart And Soul." 

Liv takes his job as an entertainer so seriously that he both wrote the book on stage performance ("Stage Performance" (Pocket Books 2000)) and teaches it as a full professor at Berklee College of Music. His ringing open guitar style is so distinctive that he teaches it in a series of popular instructional videos. He is also the author of two children’s books, Pajamas and Can I Be Good? Both were published by Harcourt Brace.

Liv will be touring in support of two new albums: a CD of new music recorded in Nashville, and a compilation called "Songs for the End of the Day" which contains Liv's light, gentle versions of favorite Broadway songs ("Where is Love," "Getting to Know You," "Maybe," "Wouldn't it be Lovely," "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" etc.).

Special guest Seth Glier is a 20-year-old pianist/songwriter whose heartfelt performances have led to raves like "He's gonna be huge!" (Ellis Paul), "The next generation is alive and well," (Livingston Taylor) and "One of the Best Albums of 2007" (The Village Voice).

Tickets: $25