Coyote Grace Bends 'Roots' Music in Stafford

There's a rare treat for you at the free Summer Concert Series in Stafford this Sunday, July 17. The three singer-songwriter-musicians in Coyote Grace hail from America's back roads, but in their own simple ways, bend the norms of music and gender alike.

Coyote Grace might draw you in with its romantically pure harmonies that put this listener in mind of Emmy Lou Harris and her closest country comrades. But don't be fooled. These beloved openers for the Indigo Girls may seem traditional but they've got their edge. And they broke records in those big-league tour collaborations for album sales by opening acts.

Ingrid Elizabeth and Joe Stevens started as a busker duo in Seattle in 2004, adding “Mr. Squeezebox” Michael Connolly much more recently. The threesome plays acoustic instruments – guitar, upright bass, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and accordion, in a mix of bluegrass, blues, soul and Southern twang. Their stage persona is musically adept but warm, sultry but modest in sensibility.

These performers test their own envelopes musically and socially. Co-founder Stevens draws from his transman experience, and Elizabeth calls herself the pink sheep of her Midwest family. Their music is “roots” oriented, their statement, fresh.

“Playing roots music doesn’t simply mean imitating old traditions,” Connolly says in a background piece on the group's Web site. “All of us have a strong sense of wanting to hold onto the past, to tradition – while still being unburdened enough to move forward.”

As Indigo Girls' Amy Ray says, “Coyote Grace plays with the heart of traditional country and Americana music, but tells their stories with a bold twist.”

The group has recorded four albums – “Boxes and Bags,” “The Harvey Tour, “Buck Naked” and “Ear To The Ground,” which this year reached No. 4 on the Roots Music Report's folk charts. You can hear samples and get more information on the Coyote Grace Web site.

“I am still in state of shock that they agreed to come to Stafford,” says Georgia Michalec, chair of the Stafford Arts Commission.

The show will go from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, July 17, at Heritage Park in Stafford. Rain location is at the Old Town Hall, 221 East St., Stafford.

Bob Steele at 100

Broadcast hero Bob Steele, who connected personally with his listeners for the better part of seven decades as the morning voice on WTIC, will be featured in a centennial birthday tribute Saturday, July 16, at Mary Cheney Library in Manchester. (He was born in Kansas City, Mo., on July 13, 1911, and died in 2002.) Steele's son, Phil, who compiled Bob Steele's Century: 1911-2010, a 10-volume collection of the Radio Hall of Famer's photos, articles, scripts, jokes and letters from listeners, will preside over the program.

Steele was no stranger to a pun, or to the English language, offering up tips and a Word for the Day. His shows were filled with humor, sports, brights called “Tiddlywinks,” birthday and anniversary milestones and weather reports. For most of his career he broadcast six days a week and continued to host a Saturday morning show until his death. Because of WTIC's muscular reach, Steele's fan base stretched to Australia.

The program will start at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 16, in the Howroyd Room at the library, 586 Main St., Manchester. No registration is necessary. For information, call 860-645-0821.

Silent Flights at Air Museum

A special program called “Feathers & Flight” perhaps will bring a hush to the crowd Thursday, July 14, at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks. The program is part of a silent theme this week that explores traveling on the wind and includes activities for building and flying kites, straw gliders and parachutes. “Feathers & Flight” features birds and their natural flying styles, demonstrated by Horizon Wings.

The program runs from 1-2 p.m. July 14 at the museum, 36 Perimeter Road, Windsor Locks. Other activities through the weekend include cockpit tours, creating flight demos, museum tours, a flight science discovery cart and flight simulation. For information call 860-623-3305 or visit the museum silent flight Web site.

And, in Not So Silent Flight...Hedwig

Harry Potter fans at the Friday, July 15, opening of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2” at Rave Cinemas Buckland Hills in Manchester will see Hedwig-like creatures up close. Horizon Wings, the Ashford raptor rehab and education enterprise, will bring a great-horned, barn, barred and eastern screech owl to the theaters at 6:30 p.m. Kids and their parents can ask Hermione type questions. It's not as if this movie event needs another attraction, and yet the Potter films have put the love of owls to full flight.

For information about Horizon Wings, visit its Web site.

Super Troopers as Comix at Foxwoods

Kevin Heffernan, a West Haven, CT, product, and Steve Lemme of the comedy troupe Broken Lizard will regale Comix at Foxwoods audiences Thursday through Saturday, July 14-16, with stories of their two decades of frat boy hijinks and “Super Troopers” filmmaking. Heffernan met many of his Broken Lizard cronies while in college and the dudes went on to make films, including the one about zany Vermont troopers worried about losing their jobs. Heffernan plays Farva, the butt of his co-cops' jokes. Others of their films include “Puddle Cruiser,” “Club Dread,” “Slammin' Salmon” and “Beerfest.” “Super Troopers 2” is in the works.

Shows at Foxwoods, which will draw from the group's Comedy Central standup and also include stories from the movie sets, will be 8 p.m. all three nights, with second shows at 10:30 added on July 15 and 16. Tickets are $25-50. For information, call 860-312-6649 or visit the Foxwoods comedy site.

Christmas in July

And you thought you had time to think about decorating for Christmas. Not if you want to see more than 175 new Hallmark Keepsake, limited-quantity or first-in-series ornaments, in which case you need to visit Amy's Hallmark at Evergreen Walk in South Windsor this weekend, July 16-17. It will make you feel cool, thinking about snow-covered scenes and being so ahead of the game for next December. And coming up at the same spot, look for the complete 2011 Hallmark collection and weekend-only offers Oct. 8-9.

For information, call 860-648-2511 or visit the Hallmark site.

Volcano Class in Tolland

There's something about to erupt in Tolland for young artist scientists. On Tuesday, July 19, kids ages 4-8 can create their own volcanoes in a summer program at Birch Grove Primary School. The structures can be built with papier-mâché and then painted under the direction of Jessica Salkeld. The class runs from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the school, 247 Rhodes Road, Tolland.

Cost is $25. For information, visit the town summer recreation Web site.