Circle of Friends Coffeehouse Revived!

One of the many casualties of Covid was the regular music programming at Circle of Friends Coffeehouse, an activity associated with the First Universalist Society of Franklin since its inception in the early 1990s.

At long last, according to a Facebook post, the next three Circle of Friends Coffeehouse concerts are on the schedule and tickets are available. 

• Feb 25 Tracy Grammer will perform with special guest Hana Zara
• April 1 SheGrooves - Boston's premiere female contemporary band featuring Franklin's own Kaye Kelly will perform, and,
• April 29 John Gorka, an established favorite locally, nationally, and beyond, will perform.

Circle of Friends is a second or third wave "child" of the  post-World War II folk revival that saw Greater Boston emerge as one of the primary 'scenes' nationally, with scores of young, and no-so young talents emerging from the 1950s to the 1970s, including BU student Joan Baez.  The movement saw dozens of coffee houses emerge as performance venues.

As a product of that time once explained, alcohol was deemed unhelpful to the experience, which encouraged devotees to listen deeply -- and feel deeply.

As the folk scene got subsumed within the bigger pop culture currents of the time, coffee shops faded -- but new ones came along, too. West of Boston, the Old Vienna Kaffeehaus in the center of Westborough got started in 1986. It featured a 125 seat listening room. But its heyday was relatively brief -- just a decade.

Its demise overlapped the launch of Circle of Friends, which has since  filled much of the gap for the region's folk and acoustic fans.

The Circle of Friends Coffeehouse is a non-profit organization, volunteer-run organization. For tickets and more information, please visit http://www.circlefolk.org/