When folk rockers Eavesdrop and singer-songwriter Grayson Ty come to the Iron Horse on June 28, the fellow Valley artists won’t just be sharing the bill: They’ll be celebrating a reunion of sorts, looking back to the night a little over eight years ago that they first met, when they also played the Northampton club.

The connections go even deeper, as that was the night that Ty met his wife, Laura Buchanan, one of the trio of female singers who make up the heart of Eavesdrop.

The Iron Horse show, which begins at 7 p.m., will also showcase the power of vocals. Eavesdrop is built around the close harmonies of Buchanan and fellow singers Kerrie Wert and Kara Wolf, while Ty brings a strong and versatile voice to his songs, reflecting his folk, soul, pop and, most recently, country influences.

The artists will also be showcasing some new material at the concert. Eavesdrop, with backing from several other musicians, released a new EP this spring, “Evergreen,” on which they expanded their Americana-based sound to include elements of funk and R&B-flavored pop. The full band will also be at the Iron Horse.

And Ty has just released a new EP, “Bloodline,” on which he’s taken something of an opposite tack, offering five songs with a distinct country/Americana vibe. “Distant Star,” a single from the disc, sounds like it could have come right out of Nashville, with driving drums and bass and heavy, chugging guitar riffs.

In an email, Ty said the new songs delve into his family’s lineage, “highlighting some of my Jewish heritage and uncovering stories of several notable ancestors along the way.”

In “Distant Star,” for instance, he invokes a great-great-grandfather who “fled his home at 24 when he buried his faith / He set sail for Massachusetts / Boston-bound with lots to prove … I’ve been trying to find a little bloodline / That I can hold onto.”

Ty’s new EP was recorded with a full band, and he’ll bring those players to his Iron Horse gig — where he and Buchanan, who last year recorded an album of their own, “Sonaura,” will also join forces to sing some of the songs from that disc.

 

Signature Sounds Presents, the production arm of the Northampton record label of the same name, has now ceded presentation of the Green River Festival to DSP Shows of Ithaca. But Signature is still presenting plenty of music, including an expanded edition of its Black Birch Vineyard Series, from early July to early August.

Started in 2020 when the pandemic shut down indoor music, the shows, held at Black Birch Vineyard in Hatfield, feature a range of mostly acoustic artists and groups, and they’ve grown a bit in recent years.

This year’s lineup includes nine acts, including the seminal songwriters Loudon Wainwright III and Lori McKenna, as well as Valley favorites The Sweetback Sisters, who we can assume will be drawing from their rich playlist of country songs — both originals and imaginative covers — rather than singing Christmas tunes.

The first show in the series takes place July 5 at 6:30 p.m. with folk veteran Livingston Taylor, younger brother of James, and a skilled songwriter and singer in his own right (and probably a better guitarist; he’s a longtime teacher at Berklee College of Music in Boston). Opening the show is singer and songwriter Pete Muller.

And on July 12, also at 6:30 p.m., banjoist Nora Brown and fiddler Stephanie Coleman join forces for an evening of old-time American roots and folk music, centered on the sounds of southern Appalachia.

Keep a watch, too, for Mark Erelli, the veteran singer and songwriter and support musician for other players (like Lori McKenna), who will play Black Birch on July 19 with backing from some top New England string players.

 

Speaking of string players, the New Directions Cello Festival returns this weekend — June 28-30 — to the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity in Florence. The annual series, begun in 1995 in New York City, brings together cellists from many countries to swap music and ideas, especially those who play outside the classical canon or enjoy improvising.

The festival, expanded this year from two days to three, offers workshops and jam sessions for the cellists as well as several public performances, which begin at 7 p.m. June 28-29 and at 3 p.m. on June 30.

The performers’ resumes are all over the map. British native Catherine Bent, for instance, has gigged with pop artists as diverse as Joe Jackson, Kanye West and Rod Stewart, and she also specializes in Brazilian choro music, which she teaches at Berklee. She’ll play June 28 at 8 p.m. with Brazilian cellist and mandolinist Ian Coury.

Also playing that evening at 9 p.m. is Empire Wild, two cellists and a pianist who fuse “pop, folk, Broadway and more into their songwriting and composition,” according to program notes.

More details on all the performers and shows can be found at bombyx.live.

More music on tap

Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield launches a new monthly free concert series tonight at 5:30 p.m. with music in the building, while games, food trucks and other good stuff will be available on the Town Common. First artist up is Sen Morimoto, a Japanese-American singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer who mixes jazz, hip-hop production, and more.

Carrie Ferguson and the Grumpytime Club Band play a free show on June 29 at 10:30 a.m. at The Drake in Amherst to kick off the Jones Library’s Summer Reading Program for kids. You can register for the program at the concert.

The Marigold Theater in Easthampton features a ska and punk mini-festival on June 29 at 7:30 p.m. with five bands, while jazz is on the agenda June 30 starting at 7:30 p.m. with Wanda Houston & the HBH Band and Juke Joint Jazz.

The Iron Horse recently hosted Lez Zeppelin, an all-women Led Zeppelin tribute band. Now the Shea Theater in Turners Falls will give a hard rock salute on June 29 at 8 p.m. with Four Sticks, a Zeppelin tribute from Berkshire County.

CitySpace in Easthampton is hosting RedFest2 on June 29, from 3 to 10 p.m., with eight bands from multiple genres performing.

Folk, soul and jazz-influenced singer and songwriter Amos Lee comes to Tree House Brewing in Deerfield on July 8 at 7 p.m.

Electric accordionist Cory Pesaturo and pianist Nahre Sol will play the West Whately Chapel on July 10 at 7:30 p.m. as part of Watermelon Wednesdays.

Hannah Mohan, a co-founder of indie pop favorites And the Kids, released a new solo album this spring and will play songs from it on July 12 at 7 p.m. at the Iron Horse. Northampton native Stefan Weiner, a queer indie folk singer-songwriter now based in New York, opens the show.

Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.