Rhythm & RailsNorthampton and the Railroad – A Social History in Tales and Tunes
The Red Skies Music Ensemble
Event Details
Sold Out
Roosevelt Room, Union Station
125 A Pleasant Street
Northampton MA
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Event registration is full.
- Registration is required
- Sliding scale admission, $15-$40
- Card to Culture discounted ticket available
- All seating is general admission
- Doors open at 6:30
After a sold-out performance this spring, we’re proud to bring Rhythm & Rails back for two more performances at the perfect venue: Northampton’s Union Station.
Rhythm & Rails is a multimedia performance that animates the complex history of railroads in America with narration, theatrical cameos, archival images, and railroad-themed music.
Here in Northampton and across the country, railroads changed the pace of life, the movement of people and goods, and the country’s economic and social history. These changes were recorded in letters, photographs, literature, and in thousands of songs—from American roots, folk and rag time to blues, jazz, pop, and rock. Come hear this social history in tales and tunes performed by some of the Valley’s most talented musicians and actors!
Rhythm and Rails is the product of the creative vision and authorship of Trudy Williams.
In developing Rhythm and Rails, Williams researched the archives and resources of Forbes Library and Historic Northampton and other local and regional institutions. She collaborated with noted area musicians Jim Armenti (Music Advisor) and Jerry Bryant (Music Director) on selecting songs and tunes for the show, and with cast member singer/actor Tracy Grammer on writing the theatrical vignettes.
Musicians and performers include: Jim Armenti, Jerry Bryant, Joe Blumenthal, Tracy Grammer, Ron Grosslein, Indë Francis, Rose Jackson, Cindy Naughton, Mark Roberts, Dan Scott, Tom Scott, Adrienne Wade, Rebecca Weiss, with Bill Cutler and Shirley Van Kanin, as well as special appearance by Maryliz Maldanado and Will Messier from the children’s Corn Stalk Fiddle Choir directed by Cindy Naughton; and Ujima Singers Ella Elliot, MawuLisa Thomas-Adeyemo and Min. Tyrone Bowie Jr., directed by Indë Francis.
Trudy Williams is the Artistic Director and co-founder with George Boziwick of The Red Skies Music Ensemble. In 2024 she wrote and produced Corn Stalk Fiddles: Soundscape and Place in 19th Century Hadley, which was performed in Hadley and sponsored by the Hadley Historical Society and Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum.
In all her shows she is dedicated to a performance model of public musicology that weaves together toe-tapping and expressive music, narration, theater, arts, and historical images to animate facts and interpretations of American public history and culture.
Her other shows about American history and culture have been performed in Washington DC (Library of Congress), New York (Lincoln Center Public Program Series / NY Public Library for the Performing Arts), the Long Island Museum of Art and History (a Smithsonian affiliate), Cambridge, MA (A.R.T Oberon Special Program Series / Harvard Houghton Library), New Haven (Yale University), the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA, the Hadley Public Library (sponsored by the Hadley Historical Society and Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum), Forbes Library, and the Northampton Center for the Arts.
A musician herself, Williams plays bass in the Fiddle Orchestra of Western Massachusetts / Valley String Band and the Machine Shop Jam Band. She recently received a grant from the Northampton Cultural Council for a theatrical project in development for 2027. In 2019 she received the American Antiquarian Society’s Baron Fellowship for Creative and Performing Artists and Writers. After spending many years in New York City, she moved to Leeds, Massachusetts in 2018.