Club Passim

CAMBRIDGE -- "Hallelujah, some things never change," Ellis Paul sang softly, closing Thursday's homage to Club Passim at Sanders Theatre. The song was about his native state of Maine, but he dedicated it to the small Harvard Square basement that has hosted the folk music haven since 1970 and that was also the final home for legendary '60s coffeehouse Club 47. Both legacies were feted in a nearly five-hour concert featuring five decades of Boston...

 "For the Love of the Music: The Club 47 Folk Revival" sheds a lot of light on the historic Cambridge venue. To dig deeper, we asked Millie Rahn, a folklorist who has studied and written extensively about Club 47 and its legacy, to share some facts most people wouldn't know about the fabled listening room. The original Club 47 was opened by Joyce Kalina and Paula Kelley at 47 Mount Auburn St. near Harvard Square on Jan. 6, 1958, as a European-style coffeehouse and jazz club.

"Sad songs cheer me up," said Diana Jones at Club Passim Sunday night. "I'm hoping they cheer you up, too. " If not, then at least the audience couldn't say it wasn't warned. It was right there in the name of the show - "Songs of Sorrow and Salvation From the American South" - and Jones and Mary Gauthier came prepared to bring the house down, one way or another. Jones took the first solo set, switching between a standard acoustic and her cherished four-string tenor guitar.

VANESSA TRIEN AND THE JUMPING MONKEYS The Boston singer-songwriter will entertain with tunes from her two kid-bewitching albums "Carnival Day" and "Hot Air Balloon. "10:30 a.m., April 14. $10. Regent Theatre. 781-646-4849, www.regenttheatre.com BILL HARLEY The Grammy award-winning performer and storyteller will spin his clever tunes and tales at a benefit for the Montachusett Interfaith Hospitality Network. 3 p.m. April 22. Adults: $10. Students: $5. Weston Auditorium, Fitchburg State College.

JOHNNY FLYNN & THE SUSSEX WIT On “Been Listening,’’ his sophomore album released in October, Flynn proved particularly adept at updating his influences, namely traditional British folk and blues. For this full-band performance, Flynn will be joined by Caitlin Rose and James Mathé. May 30, 9 p.m. Tickets: $15. Middle East Downstairs. 617-864-3278, www.ticketweb.com DARRELL SCOTT The last time Boston audiences heard him, Scott nearly stole the show from Robert Plant.

VANESSA TRIEN AND THE JUMPING MONKEYS The Boston singer-songwriter will entertain with tunes from her two kid-bewitching albums "Carnival Day" and "Hot Air Balloon. "10:30 a.m., April 14. $10. Regent Theatre. 781-646-4849, www.regenttheatre.com BILL HARLEY The Grammy award-winning performer and storyteller will spin his clever tunes and tales at a benefit for the Montachusett Interfaith Hospitality Network. 3 p.m. April 22. Adults: $10. Students: $5. Weston Auditorium, Fitchburg State College.

Rose Cousins is not from around here, but she might as well be. When she's not on the road, the Canadian singer-songwriter lives in Halifax. But her respect for Boston's folk community, dating back to the mid-1990s when she was listening to artists like Melissa Ferrick and Kris Delmhorst, is palpable and poignant on her new album. "We Have Made a Spark," which will be released on Tuesday, is a record less about its maker and more about the connections and community she has fostered.

In the vanguard of a thriving new folk revival are second-generation folksters such as the Mammals, Sarah Lee Guthrie, and Johnny Irion, who played to a packed Club Passim on Thursday night. They were raised in the folk world that grew out of the '60s revival, so they were literally born to the music, and they wear it like a second skin. The Mammals are to old-time string-band music what Nickel Creek is to bluegrass. The trio consists of Pete Seeger's grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, fiddle legend Jay Ungar's daughter Ruth, and former ska-rocker Michael Merenda, the...

CAMBRIDGE - Monday night, Mary Gauthier returned to what she calls her "home club," Club Passim, where she started and the place she credits with nurturing her when she "really sucked. " She's a long way from that state now; her new release, "Between Daylight and Dark," which provided the bulk of the evening's 90-minute set, is the latest, and maybe the strongest, testament to that fact. Although this was billed as a solo show, she brought local singer-songwriter Mark Erelli onstage to accompany her with his stellar guitar-playing and harmonizing for most of her set (and graciously...

 "For the Love of the Music: The Club 47 Folk Revival" sheds a lot of light on the historic Cambridge venue. To dig deeper, we asked Millie Rahn, a folklorist who has studied and written extensively about Club 47 and its legacy, to share some facts most people wouldn't know about the fabled listening room. The original Club 47 was opened by Joyce Kalina and Paula Kelley at 47 Mount Auburn St. near Harvard Square on Jan. 6, 1958, as a European-style coffeehouse and jazz club.

Rose Cousins is not from around here, but she might as well be. When she's not on the road, the Canadian singer-songwriter lives in Halifax. But her respect for Boston's folk community, dating back to the mid-1990s when she was listening to artists like Melissa Ferrick and Kris Delmhorst, is palpable and poignant on her new album. "We Have Made a Spark," which will be released on Tuesday, is a record less about its maker and more about the connections and community she has fostered.

PICK OF THE DAY The long and short of it All eyes will be on Ms. G when the groundhog tells us if we can get our flip-flops ready. After the prognostication at Groundhog Day, kids warm up with hot chocolate, a story, crafts, and snacks. Starting at 11:30 a.m., activities include learning how animals stay warm in winter. Feb. 2 at 9:30 a.m. Free (9:30 a.m. forecast and 10 a.m. ‘‘Critters and Crafts"); activities starting at 11:30 a.m. are $7, $5 ages 2-12. Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary, 208 South Great Road, Lincoln.

Tom Weber is a Harvard man, class of '72. During his years in Cambridge he spent countless hours at Club Passim, the Unicorn Coffee House, and other venues that hosted singer-songwriters. He saw Jackson Browne, John Prine, Tom Waits, and many other performers who went on to stardom. "I got to see all my heroes up close and personal," says Weber, who now lives in Pennsylvania. Four decades later, Weber is still attending acoustic-music shows. For the past 10 years, he's done so with a digital video camera in hand.

GENTICORUM At: Club Passim, Thursday, 8 p.m. Tickets: $13-$15. 617-492-7679, www.clubpassim.org. Quebec’s traditional music scene is one of North America’s best-kept musical secrets, a thriving, multifarious grassroots community that sails under the cultural radar even in Canada. “It’s not that well known even in Quebec,’’ says fiddler and vocalist Pascal Gemme, 37, a founding member of the trio Genticorum, which performs Thursday at Club Passim. “Everybody knows the style, but they don’t know how vibrant the scene is. The only time you hear it on...

JOHNNY FLYNN & THE SUSSEX WIT On “Been Listening,’’ his sophomore album released in October, Flynn proved particularly adept at updating his influences, namely traditional British folk and blues. For this full-band performance, Flynn will be joined by Caitlin Rose and James Mathé. May 30, 9 p.m. Tickets: $15. Middle East Downstairs. 617-864-3278, www.ticketweb.com DARRELL SCOTT The last time Boston audiences heard him, Scott nearly stole the show from Robert Plant.

The word on Laura Marling — and it’s exceedingly good — is that this English singer-songwriter is wise beyond her years. She is, and all those comparisons to early Joni Mitchell aren’t for naught. What you don’t hear about this 20-year-old musician is that she acts her age but happens to write about matters of the heart with a precocious and graceful honesty. It is not hyperbole to say Marling is already one of the most important voices of her generation, even if most people probably will never even know one of her songs.

PICK OF THE DAY The long and short of it All eyes will be on Ms. G when the groundhog tells us if we can get our flip-flops ready. After the prognostication at Groundhog Day, kids warm up with hot chocolate, a story, crafts, and snacks. Starting at 11:30 a.m., activities include learning how animals stay warm in winter. Feb. 2 at 9:30 a.m. Free (9:30 a.m. forecast and 10 a.m. ‘‘Critters and Crafts"); activities starting at 11:30 a.m. are $7, $5 ages 2-12. Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary, 208 South Great Road, Lincoln.

CAMBRIDGE - Gordon Lightfoot has written some of the most enduring and iconic songs in the folk-rock canon. "Sundown," "If You Could Read My Mind," "Carefree Highway" - songs that take their time to tell stories you don't soon forget, with melodies that inexplicably sound as evergreen today as when they ruled the charts in the 1970s. Maybe that's why it was so jarring and vastly disappointing to hear him blaze through 15 songs in just 50 minutes at Sanders Theatre Friday night.

CAMBRIDGE - Gordon Lightfoot has written some of the most enduring and iconic songs in the folk-rock canon. "Sundown," "If You Could Read My Mind," "Carefree Highway" - songs that take their time to tell stories you don't soon forget, with melodies that inexplicably sound as evergreen today as when they ruled the charts in the 1970s. Maybe that's why it was so jarring and vastly disappointing to hear him blaze through 15 songs in just 50 minutes at Sanders Theatre Friday night.