Daisy Nell, who for decades has entertained local audiences, will have a special guest at her annual coffeehouse concert Saturday night when daughter Miranda Russell shows up to perform a few duets.
Then Nell will return the favor when Russell and her band of five musicians perform two shows the following week at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport.
The two generations of singer-musicians bring with them the influences of their own generation influenced by their personal styles.
The first show, with Daisy Nell & Capt. Stan and the Crabgrass Band, takes place at the One World Coffeehouse in Essex.
Daisy and Stan will perform on banjo and guitar, playing their usual combination of traditional and contemporary folks songs, blues, gospel, and maritime material. Pat Conlon will perform on mandolin while Jack Schwartz plays the stand-up bass. The varied repertoire includes some audience sing-alongs, and the coffeehouse offers the usual coffee, teas and desserts.
"This is our spring show and it's time to stop hibernating to come out and play," said Nell. "The folk music we perform includes a large dose of salt because we like to sing songs about Cape Ann and you can't sing about Cape Ann without including the sea. We have fun. We're not bluegrass and that's why we call ourselves Crabgrass."
The show includes a new song about the Ardelle, a schooner under construction in Essex and expected to be launched this spring.
"Every schooner deserves a song," said Nell, an avid sailor and chairwoman of the Gloucester Schooner Festival committee. "So the subject is near and dear to my heart."
Nell is eager to perform a few songs with her daughter.
"There's nothing like the combination of people in the same family singing together," she said. "When we sing together, you can tell it's the same DNA."
The second generation
Miranda Russell, her daughter, has a background in voice and performing arts. She grew up in Essex and attending the Waring School in Beverly.
In high school, she played the flute and studied voice. After high school, she studied theater as an acting major at Emerson College. She toured Europe with a Newburyport theater troupe and worked a few years as an actor. She later attended Loyola University's College of Music in New Orleans where she studied classical operatic voice and music therapy.
Russell would return to Cape Ann over college summers and work in the orchards at Russell Orchard in Ipswich. It was there she met her future husband. She transferred to Lesley University in Cambridge and graduated with a degree in human services.
The mother of two, however, never left her music behind and created a lullaby CD, which has sold well over the years.
But next week's show will not contain any lullabies. The concert will feature a collection of jazz, folk and standards that Russell has been performing for the past 20 years.
"It's not just one genre. It's the songs I feel most connected to," said Russell. "So there will be a few Paul Simon songs, some Gershwin, some Joni Mitchell. There will be some bare-bones guitar and voice as well as the full jazz sound, and standards like Cole Porter. The band is just so versatile. I just can't wait for everyone to hear the band and just delight in their skills."
The band is comprised of John Hyde on keyboards and accordion, Joe Kessler on fiddle and mandolin, Justin Piper on guitars, Vinny Briguglio on bass and Leo Sharamitaro on drums.
Russell first worked with Hyde, a regular performer on Cape Ann, in 1991 at Theater in the Open in Newburyport. Russell goes way back with Sharamitaro and Briguglio, both of Gloucester; they worked together on musical tributes off-season at Gloucester Stage Company in the mid-1990s.
At Russell's two Rockport shows, Daisy Nell will be a special guest for a duet, and then Nell's husband, Stan Collinson, will join in for an a capella trio.
"You never know with your children what they will do and you want them to follow their own path," said Nell. "She is such a great singer. It defies categorization.
"She was clearly interested in music and theater and when I saw her evolving as a musician, it was clear early on that she was developing her own style," Nell said. "She has training and theatrical experience and she manages to combine them all in a way that I am stunned when I see her perform. When I hear her sing, I am transported and have to remind myself that I even know her."
Gail McCarthy can be reached at 978-283-7000 x3455, or at gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com
If you go
Daisy Nell & Capt. Stan and the Crabgrass Band
When: This Saturday, 8 p.m.
Where: One World Coffeehouse at Unitarian Universalist Church, street level entrance, at 57 Main St. in Essex.
Tickets: $15. Call 978-768-3690 for reservations. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. Miranda Russell will be a special guest.
Miranda Russell live in concert
When: Thursday, April 7, and Friday, April 8, both at 8 p.m.
Where: Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport.
Tickets: $18 to $32. Call 978-546-7391 or www.rockportmusic.org for tickets and information. There will be a guest appearance by Daisy Nell and Capt. Stan.
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