Events
Upcoming Concerts at the ArtsBarn!
Sat.,November 14, 2026 7p
Durham, NC’s Jon Shain is the 2019 International Blues Challenge winner in the solo duo category. Shain had the good fortune to learn directly from a number of NC’s older blues players, and became a member of Big Boy Henry’s backing band. He got his start playing his own music with NC roots rockers Flyin’ Mice. Jon was a finalist (along with FJ) in the 2009 International Blues Challenge in Memphis and the 2008 and 2018 winner of the Triangle Blues Society’s Blues Challenge and 2006 winner of NC’s Indy award for Best Folk Act. He has shared stages with the likes of Keb’ Mo’, John Hiatt, and Jackson Browne.
FJ Ventre and Jon began playing music together in 1982 when they met in high school. FJ went on to University of Massachusetts-Lowell, earning a B.A. in Music Performance and Sound Recording. He remained in the Boston area, performing in the city’s vibrant music scene. Since relocating to Chapel Hill, NC in 2000, Ventre has performed with his own group The Swang Brothers, as well as most of the Triangle’s roots acts. In addition to performing as a sought-after sideman, he spends his time behind the mixing board, engineering at his own Good Luck Studio. With Jon, they have become sought-after producers in the folk/Americana genre, producing several charting Folk albums in the last few years.
Fri, December 18, 2026 7p
Award-winning songwriter Steven Gellman is a quintessential Americana/Folk singer with “insightful original songs and homespun stories [that] provide a soul-warming folk rock respite in a busy, chilly world.” (Donn B. Murphy, The National Theater) His songs tell stories of everyday life wrapped in notes that will have you humming along in a style that Billboard Magazine has described as “intensely sensitive and impressively intelligent at the same time.” A lifelong storyteller, Gellman now brings that same lyrical sensibility to the page—his debut novel Somewhere in Nowhere will be published by NineStar Press in 2026. He has performed at acclaimed venues such as the Birchmere and Club Passim and has opened for the likes of Al Stewart, Richie Havens, Dar Williams, and Cheryl Wheeler among others.
Steven will be performing with Seth Kibel and Margaret Wolfe
Sat.,January 16, 2027 7p
Jae Jin is an independent singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has self-released 4 full-length albums of original music {Kairos (2015), Baltimore Boulevard (2017), Letters and Drinks (2018), and The Seasons In Between (2022)} and will be releasing his 5th full-length album in 2026. Over the past few weeks, he has released the first two singles (‘Through The Waves‘ & ‘Crayons‘) along with their respective Music Videos. Crayons has also been playing on radio stations across the country over the past week!
His songs across all albums have received GRAMMY consideration, numerous accolades, and songwriting awards (including the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Award and 1st place in the International Songwriting Competition).
sat., February 27, 2027 7p
Rupert Wates is a London-born, award-winning songwriter who signed an exclusive publishing deal with Eaton Music in the late 1990s and has been writing full-time ever since. Since relocating to the U.S. in 2006, he has released eleven acclaimed full-length albums, earning airplay across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Israel, and Australia. His work has inspired over 50 songwriting awards and more than twenty cover recordings by other artists, including two full tribute albums recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles. Performing an average of 120 shows a year across North America and Europe, Wates continues to captivate audiences with his haunting, melodic brand of acoustic art-folk.
Saturday, April 10, 2027 7pm
A.T. and Lauren Cason were born in different parts of the Carolinas and met while studying music in college in the early 2000’s—they have been singing and playing together ever since. Both hold Master’s degrees in music yet maintain the heritage of their place and people, having grown up in musical families that embodied the traditions of the area. The combination of their training and the roots of their Carolina Piedmont upbringing helped the couple naturally craft a unique and authentic American folk music sound that’s as current and innovative as it is steeped in the folk, country, and blues music influences of the American South. The sound of Songs of the Folk is aptly described by Folk and Honey, one of the UK’s leading folk music publications:
Their original songs have a slick, contemporary musicianship underlying them..their tasteful instrumentation always helping to bring their rootsy subject matters to life.”
Having performed for years throughout the Eastern US, the Casons moved to England where they spent several years touring extensively in the UK, making a name for themselves within the music circuit of England by playing in a variety of venues from historic folk clubs in Cambridge, Colchester, and Norwich to internationally-recognized venues such as the Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead and the Queen’s Hall Theatre in Kent. They have also achieved international acclaim for their song, A Feeling I Get, a semi-finalist in the 2024 International Songwriting Competition.
sat., April 24, 2027 7p
Spirited, jazzy, retro, soulful, award-winning group VERONNEAU defy categorization. At the core, the husband-and-wife duo – Quebecoise vocalist Lynn Veronneau and UK guitarist Ken Avis – translate the themes of their musical journeys into captivating multilingual performances with original songs and classics from the worlds of bossa nova, French chanson, folk, blues and pop.
VERONNEAU delights through Lynn’s spectacular voice, her heartfelt and artful delivery of the lyrics and through Ken’s brilliant and vibrant playfulness on the guitar. They play off one another, carefully choosing songs for their powerful melodies and imagery. They have built a devoted following through tours, performing in international festivals, legendary clubs and intimate theaters. VERONNEAU have toured in Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Sweden, the UK, USA and Canada, appearing live on BBC radio, and at prestige venues such as Kennedy Center, Strathmore, The Hamilton, as well as festivals such as the DC Jazz Fest, and the Florida Folk & Acoustic Music Fest
