Each of the four nights of this year’s Millpond Live series will lead you on a musical journey filled with surprise and delight, stirring your soul and your spirit. The music will get your heart beating and your hips shaking. When we book the artists for Millpond Live we go for a variety of genres and exciting juxtapositions. We weigh authenticity, talent, and a certain something we can’t quite name to create a show that is more than the sum of its parts and that will stay with you. Then there’s the beer, food, craft vendors, friends and families that add up to the kind of gathering that we all need so much these days. It’s also free, thanks to generous donations and grants from organizations that support and depend on all of you and see the value in making possible an event that reminds us who we are as individuals and as a community.
Visit the event website at millpond.live.
Beau Sasser
The Beau Sasser Trio is an organ driven, hard hittin', boogaloo rooted funk with a rock 'n' roll spirit. Keyboardist Beau Sasser has been a staple artist in the live music scene for decades, beginning with his original project Uncle Sammy before moving on to tour as a side-man with the late great Melvin Sparks, Alan Evans Trio, and Ryan Montbleau to name a few. His bands include the progressive funk/fusion combo Kung Fu, and his own Beau Sasser Escape Plan. The Beau Sasser Trio is yet another outlet for Beau to pay tribute to the classic organ trio sound with soul classics in the boogaloo and acid jazz stylings. Beau and his trio pay tributes to the giants of the genre such as Charles Earland, Lou Donaldson, Melvin Sparks, Grant Green and so much more.
Judith Hill
After releasing the powerful album "Baby, I'm Hollywood" early last year, former Prince protégée Judith Hill is coming to Millpond to share those great new songs as well as material from 2015's Prince-produced "Back in Time,” recorded at his Paisley Park Studios. Judith Hill has been praised by Rolling Stone for her “stellar powerhouse vocals.” In addition to penning and performing her own material, Judith – who wrote her first song at the age of four – has backed such artists as Stevie Wonder and the late Michael Jackson. She has toured with Josh Groban, John Legend and Prince both in the US and the UK. A number of Hill's original ballads were featured in the 2012 Spike Lee film “Red Hook Summer.” Hers is one of the stories told in director Morgan Neville’s acclaimed “20 Feet From Stardom,” a film that shines the spotlight on the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of our time. The film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary and a Grammy for Best Music Film. Hill, who was also featured on the film’s soundtrack, was a contestant on season four of “The Voice.”
Misty Blues
2019 International Blues Challenge finalist, Misty Blues, is led by lead singer/band founder Gina Coleman. The band is based out of Berkshire County, Massachusetts playing original and traditional blues with hints of jazz, soul, funk and tent revival gospel since 1999. The band has recorded with Charles Neville and Joe Louis Walker, and opened for contemporary blues artists like Tab Benoit, James Montgomery, John Primer, Roomful Of Blues, Albert Cummings and Michael Powers. Misty Blues performs extensively throughout New England and has toured the continental U.S. and Canada. The band has been nominated for a few Independent Blues Music Awards and their original recordings have broad international airplay.
