BERLIN — St. Kieran Community Center for the Arts, with series support from Eversource and Bryant Funeral Home, is excited to present fiddler, Patrick Ross, and guitarist, Doug Perkins on Sunday, January 22. Tickets for the 3 p.m. show are now available at the arts center office by calling 603.752.1028 or at the door on the afternoon of the performance. Doors will open at 2 p.m.

Patrick Ross Photo by Paul Rogers / paulroger

A fiddler since age 5, Patrick Ross knows what it means to be a music-loving kid. As one of Vermont’s busiest acoustic roots musicians, he has brought traditional music to audiences of all ages, always giving it a fresh, captivating feel. A DJ, composer, singer, and producer as well as superb multi-instrumentalist, Ross is the very model of the modern traditional musician! He grew up near the Canadian border, and his grandparents came from Quebec, where there’s a strong tradition of fiddling. At age 12 he caught the attention of a Smithsonian Folkway Records team documenting regional folk music, who ended up recording him on the front porch of his family’s home. He won the Vermont-State Fiddle Championship at age 14 and has been performing professionally since age 19 when he joined Smokin’ Grass, a Vermont bluegrass band that blended elements of folk and roots rock. Now in his mid-30s, Ross has toured with a variety of music ensembles, worked in Nashville with a Celtic band, performed at the Grand Ole Opry and the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., and shared stages with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Paul McCartney. He’s established himself as one of Vermont’s top session musicians. He tours the state regularly, has started an annual music festival, and opened his own recording label, Rock Farmer Records, dedicated to “roots” music. Always busy, Ross performs with The Fellers with Rusty DeWees and guitarist Doug Perkins, the bluegrass band Mountain Money, and bands Hot Flannel and Atlas Key. His solo concerts include a worldwide range of fiddle styles as well as songs he has written for guitar, banjo, mandolin, and cello.

Doug Perkins

Doug Perkins of Washington, Vermont is a virtuosic acoustic guitar player, whose high-octane chops have enlivened many of Vermont’s most popular bands, over his several decades as a working musician in the state. His powerful and subtly expressive technique and composing in diverse genres including jazz, bluegrass, and classical, was recently recognized for its excellence when his first solo effort Music for Flat-top Guitar on Thunder Ridge Records was designated “Best Instrumental Album” of 2012 by the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. Doug is an unparalleled master of the steel string guitar and has brought the instrument into a new relationship with modern styles of music. Doug is also well known regionally for his collaboration with mandolin player Jamie Masefield of the Jazz Mandolin Project. Having performed together for 15 years in the Northeast, this dynamic duo performs in an original, intuitive manner that sets itself apart from Nashville and West Coast styles. They are frequently joined by bassist Tyler Bolles and, for added punch, Phish drummer Jon Fishman. Their repertoire typically includes pieces from the likes of Django Reinhardt, Bill Monroe, Miles Davis, and Antonio Jobim blended seamlessly with performances of their own jazz-grass compositions.

Programming at St. Kieran Community Center for the Arts is made possible by the support of the NH State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and The Neil & Louise Tillotson Fund, Eversource and Bryant Funeral Home.