• Lucy Kaplansky with Meghan Cary, two wonderful performers who know how to captivate an audience, will be performing Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Bryn Mawr Gazebo in Bryn Mawr.
Kaplansky started out singing in Chicago folk music clubs as a teenager. Then, barely out of high school, she took off for New York City. There she found a fertile community of songwriters and performers such as Suzanne Vega, Steve Forbert, The Roches and others.
With a beautiful flair for harmony, Kaplansky was everyone’s favorite singing partner, but most often she found herself singing as a duo with Shawn Colvin. People envisioned big things for them before Kaplansky left it all behind. Convinced that her calling was in another direction, she left the musical fast track to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology.
After completing her degree, Kaplansky took a job at a New York hospital working with chronically mentally ill adults and started a private practice. She was often pulled back into the studio by her friends, wanting her to sing on their albums. She harmonized on Colvin’s Grammy-winning “Steady On” and on Nanci Griffith’s “Lone Star State of Mind” and “Little Love Affairs.
” She also landed soundtrack credits, singing with Vega on “Pretty in Pink” and with Griffith on “The Firm,” and several commercial credits as well. Meghan Cary didn’t mean to be a musician. But when her fiancé unexpectedly died, she picked up his guitar, figured out how to play it and wrote her debut record, earning her Billboard Magazine’s esteemed Critic’s Choice Award.
With masterful storytelling and award-winning songs, Cary creates a live music experience that is healing, inspiring and outrageously joyful. Her message of unity and the power of raising our voices together infuses every show, and her song, “Sing Louder,” has become an anthem for the music-loving community. General admission is free for those 12 and younger; 13 and up is $16.
For more information, see tixr.com/groups/brynmawrtwilightconcerts/ . • Peach & Ice Cream Festival, an event that will be sure to fill you up with delicious treats, is set to take place place Saturday from noon to 9 p.
m. at the Oley Fire Company Fairgrounds. The Peach & Ice Cream Festival will be providing plenty of food and fun for the whole family.
A key staple will be the return of the peach dessert contest. It is recommended you start searching for your favorite peach dessert and doing some test runs to be ensure that your dessert will have you coming out as the winner. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top five contestants courtesy of Lumina Settlement Services.
Details will be posted on how you can enter. Other fun events that will be taking place are corn hole and 50/50 bingo. The festival is looking for volunteers to spend an hour or two helping out.
This is not a rain or shine event. For more information, visit oleyfirecompany.com/events .
• Lamb of God & Mastodon: Ashes of Leviathan Tour, celebrating 20 years of Ashes of the Wake and Leviathan with special guests Kerry King & Unearth, is set to perform tonight at 6 p.m. at the Santander Arena in Reading.
Lamb Of God has grown over the course of its career from basement shows and grimy DIY venues to arenas. The new wave of American heavy metal architects earned a reverence akin to musical forefathers Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth. Timeless songs like “Laid to Rest,” “Redneck,” “Walk with Me in Hell” and “Now You’ve Got Something to Die For” became anthems in the heavy metal songbook, with gargantuan vocals born from both righteous anger and devotion, and unrivaled riffs for the ages.
Atlanta’s Mastodon is one of the most original and influential American metal bands to appear in the 21st century. Their wide-angle progressive approach encompasses stoner and sludge metal, punishing hardcore and metalcore, neo-psych, death metal and more. The group’s playing style incorporates technically complex guitar riffs, lyric hooks, long, melodic instrumental passages and intricate, jazz-influenced drumming with syncopated time signatures.
Since 1998, Massachusetts metalcore outfit Unearth have been American standard-bearers for a sound that combines European-style death metal, hardcore punk, melodic thrash and machine-gun breakdowns. Though its lineup has evolved, founding members and guitarists Ken Susi and Buz McGrath and vocalist Trevor Phipps have been constants. The band has placed five albums in the Top 200 and scored big on both the rock albums and hard rock albums charts.
Their approach to musical evolution is, to say the least, gradual. Their sound has been stubbornly consistent, from the maniacal urgency of 2001’s iconic “Stings of Conscience” through to 2011’s “Darkness in the Light.” Unearth are considered pioneers who have never caved in to changing trends.
Kerry Ray King is an American musician, best known for being the co-lead guitarist and songwriter of thrash metal band Slayer. He co-founded the band with Jeff Hanneman in 1981 and was one of two members to stay with the band for its 38-year existence, along with lead singer and bassist Tom Araya. After Slayer’s disbandment in 2019, King went on to pursue a solo career, with his first album intended for a 2024 release.
Ticket prices start at $25. For more information, go to santander-arena.com/events/ .
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