The Salisbury Congregational Church will sponsor an evening of the lively traditional music of Atlantic Crossing. Having performed across the U.S. and UK, they have been designated “American Masterpiece Artists” by the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont Folklife Center. In this performance Rick Klein, Viveka Fox, and Peter Macfarlane, will be introducing a new fourth colleague, the multi-instrumental Donal Sheets. With their fiddles, banjo, mandolin, bouzouki, bodhran, and vocals they will continue to perform their special mix of songs from Quebec, Maritime Canada, the British Isles, and New England. In recent performances and recordings, they have introduced original songs based on regional lore and arrangements of songs drawn from the Flanders Collection of New England Folk Music at Middlebury College. Their performances and recordings (the most recent being “Glory of the Day,” 2016) testify, as one reviewer noted, to the complex and interwoven history of New England culture and music. All the traditions benefit from their rich harmonies, driving rhythms, emotional expression, and abiding sense of fun.

This will be the third event in Salisbury’s thirty-eighth annual Summer Performance Series, which will continue on Friday evenings through August 11 at the historic, but handicapped accessible, 1838 church in Salisbury Village. There is no admission charge; a free-will donation in support of the series will be appreciated. Any receipts in excess of the expenses for the series will be applied to the continued restoration of Salisbury’s landmark meetinghouse.