Now well into its second decade, the annual event affectionately known simply as “Mini Mud” has become a community institution, celebrating the talent of youths from across the region in song, dance, theater, and other surprises. The performers range in age from 6 to 18.

Longtime Chandler favorites Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy continue to bring their fans on a musical and personal journey. For this special visit to Vermont on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, they’ll feature their children alongside dancers and singers from the Celtic-flavored traditions of their Cape Breton and Ontario homelands. This spirited evening highlights the unique talents, influences, and stories of the first family of traditional fiddling through dancing, singing and, of course, world-class music-making.

Video: Natalie MacMaster, Donnell Leahy & Family (Live at Canada’s East Coast Music Awards, 2017) –

A much-loved community event, the Mud Season Variety Show returned to Chandler Music Hall last season, delighting longtime fans and newcomers alike. This fun-filled evening spotlights the diverse talents of our adult friends and neighbors from throughout the region.

Fixtures on the international jazz scene for nearly 50 years, the New Black Eagle Jazz Band returns to Chandler Music Hall, bringing the high-spirited sounds of traditional New Orleans jazz to springtime in Vermont. Masters of the music of Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Cole Porter, and the signature blues and rags of the Jazz Era, the “Black Eagles” are revered worldwide as “the Keepers of the Flame.”

Audio: “Weary Blues” –

Video:  “Live on Cape Cod, 2016”

Enjoy an evening of thoughtful songs and familial harmonies with Grammy Award-winning song crafter Loudon Wainwright III, teamed with his “ex,” acclaimed songwriter Suzzy Roche of the enchanting folk sister act, The Roches, and their daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche, a stellar songmaker in her own right. Loudon dropped out of college to partake of San Francisco’s fabled “Summer of Love” and wrote his first song in 1968. His colorful, satiric, and often confessional takes on life have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, Earl Scruggs, Mose Allison, and his son, Rufus Wainwright, among others. Suzzy Roche enjoys singing on the road with her daughter Lucy; together, the duo snagged the Best Singer-Songwriter Album of the Year honor at the 2014 Independent Music Awards.

Video: “Meet the Wainwrights,” Loudon (Live at McCabe’s in Santa Monica, 2017) –

Audio:  “White Winos,” Loudon Wainwright III

Audio: “Swimming Song” – Loudon Wainwright III

Audio: “Song for Wayward Saints,” Suzzy Roche & Lucy Wainwright Roche –

The Ladies of Laughter features four of the nation’s hottest established and emerging standup comics, spotlighting the diverse styles of humor of America’s funniest women. Host comic Kelly McFarland has headlined the Boston Women’s Comedy Festival and appeared on television’s Last Comic Standingand Gotham Comedy Live!Leighann Lord offers up smart, sexy, savvy humor, inspired by the brilliance of Rita Rudner and the late, great George Carlin. Leighann won a NYC Black Comedy Award for the most thought-provoking black female comic and served as Harlem Week’s “official comedian” for two consecutive years, a distinction previously held only by Richard Pryor. Patty Rosborough is a top New York City comic with a long list of credits, including headlining at Montreal’s world-renowned Just for Laughs Festival and co-hosting Comedy Central’s Short Attention Span Theater with Jon Stewart. This trio of cool comics will be joined by the 2018 winner of the National Newcomer Competition, to be announced by The Ladies of Laughter later this year.

Kelly McFarland –

Leighann Lord –

Patty Rosborough –