The other night, May 6th to be exact – and almost exactly 6 years to the day after our junior prom, incidentally – we were honored with a prestigious ARTY award from the Plymouth Cultural Council. We really can’t express how truly honored we are to receive such recognition for the work we’ve done in our hometown. Thank you to everyone, especially our good friend and co-founder Harry Quinn, all the friends and family members who’ve helped us over the years, all the amazing musicians we’ve worked with, and another ARTY award-winner last Friday, Donna Curtin of the Plymouth Antiquarian Society. Also a big thank you to local artist Carly Tefft for performing at the event (she’ll be playing 8/5 at the Hedge House too!).

But just because we got a really cool award doesn’t mean we’re stopping! Get ready for a crazy summer of free concerts, for one thing, and check out a short film we just helped shoot, “Clean Pop”, directed by Jon Dorn, starring members of the Eagle Hill Band and Nick A (production photos up soon).

Check out the ARTYs photos!

1) The 2010 free concert series came to an anticlimactic conclusion when we had to cancel the final 2 shows, making the (awesome) show w/ Greg Loftus and Steve MacDonald on 8/20 the last for the year. We’ve got big things in the works for 2011, so keep on the lookout for clues.

2) We did side-stage sound at the Black Mountain Music Festival in Jackson, NH this past weekend (feat. Rustic Overtones, Barefoot Truth, Audio Kickstand, and more), and it went great…..until we tried to drive home. On our way home, we had a big truck problem and we had to get towed back to Plymouth from NH. Fortunately AAA Gold covered the towing distance for free. Unfortunately, those AAA free miles don’t apply to trailers – so we had to pay to get the trailer towed back. It was quite a bit.

3) We’ve got 3 events on the calendar at the moment: A kids concert in Boston, the Canton Fall Classic road race, and the PSHS Talent show. Should be a great fall – keep your eyes peeled for more shows!

Toodles.

Jon & the Brewster team

All shows at the Showmobile stage have been saved! The Chamber of Commerce now owns the stage and has contracted us to operate it.

Hey everyone. We have great news that just broke today in the Old Colony Memorial. We’ve been contracted by the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce (new owners of the Showmobile mobile stage) to open and close it for all events this summer. What does this mean? It means that us and every other event planner (like Project Arts and Lenny Vaz) no longer needs to worry about covering the cost of opening the stage – and not because someone has come to the rescue with the money, but because a real solution was found, and no one will have to worry about the DPW fees in the future.

Here’s the OCM article from today:

But the town has given its portable stage, known as the Showmobile to The Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce, which is working with a private organization that will open and close the stage for a nominal fee that will not be passed on to event organizers.

Jon Dorn of Brewster Productions said his company is poised to sign a contract with the Chamber. Brewster Productions was founded by a group of Plymouth South High grads and is locally known for the School’s Out Summer Concert Series, which offers some shows on the Hedge House lawn and others performed from the Showmobile in Pilgrim Memorial State Park. CONTINUE READING HERE…

NOTE: For concert series news, photos, updates, go to the concert series web site: brewsterproductions.com/concertseries – we’ll only be adding Brewster Productions-specific posts here throughout the summer!

There are only a few days til opening night of the School’s Out Summer Concert Series 2010, and obviously we’re quite excited. I’m going to keep this one short. First, the the show is Friday May 28 at 6pm, featuring The Eagle Hill Band, Doug Logan, and (just added today) our great friend Ben Carter. Check out the rest of the shows and get your lawn chairs and blankets ready!

The Eagle Hill Band
w/ Doug Logan + Ben Carter
6pm @ The Hedge House Lawn
126 Water St.
FREE, all ages, outdoors

FOR RAIN AND CANCELLATION UPDATES, FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! That is in all caps because it’s very important. The only way you’ll know the show is cancelled the second we decide is to follow us on Twitter – as soon as we call a show because of rain (hopefully this won’t happen at all!), we use our cell phones to update Twitter. Otherwise, you’ll just get there are see no concert. Who wants that? I certainly wouldn’t.

Also, please pledge some money to help support the concert series! Click here to find out what cool things we’re giving away for donations, like CDs, backstage tours, and autographed posters.

See you at the show! Rock & roll!

- Jon

Founded in 2007 by Jonathan Dorn, Scott McEwen and Harry Quinn, Brewster Productions’ mission was to empower the youth of Plymouth to engage in musical and creative expression. The series began as a fundraiser for Plymouth schools with six young bands participating in an all-day event. It was called Schoolhouse Rock and soon morphed into the Schools’ Out Summer Concert Series. Alternating between Pilgrim Memorial Park and the Hedge House lawn, the series continues to allow the best in high school and college talent the opportunity to band together for unique artistic expression. Brewster Productions has expanded its boundaries to include producing venues in other states to help promote the talents and expand the careers of young original performers.

Thank you to the Plymouth Cultural Council for the finalist nomination. And be sure to come see BEN CARTER & SHAUN DEVER this Thursday at Sweetwater Cafe!!

- Jon

Greg Loftus at Sweetwater Cafe March 5, 2010. Presented by Brewster Productions.

The rad tunes were pouring out of a little room downstairs in an alleyway club tonight in Boston. Greg Loftus and Nate Cristofori, two of south-of-Boston’s finest, tuned up Sweetwater Cafe’s downstairs stage tonight. Nate started off the show with some great sing-alongs with his contagious piano-ing, and Greg closed out the evening with some incredible bluesy guitar and singing work. Check out the photos. Good night, and see you next week.

Nate Cristofori at Sweetwater Cafe March 5, 2010. Presented by Brewster Productions.

Here’s what’s going on next weekend: The two big shows are THE OKAY WIN 3/12 and 3rd LEFT 3/13, both at Sweetwater Cafe. Also next weekend, Team Brewster will be tackling the Nike Indoor Nationals track meet as the official sound team. We’re going to tweet about the wacky time we’re having the whole time with fun photos, so stay tuned to that if you feel like reliving your former athletic days through a sound production company. Which reminds me: Follow us on Twitter! Who knows, maybe we’ll end up like that girl @lovelybutton if Conan discovers us.

Photo gallery and video below!!

- Jon

PS – HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY TO SCOTT!

We really enjoy what we do at Brewster Productions, and we work very hard at it. And while we’re always the people who’ll take the satisfaction of the work over recognition, everyone likes some recognition sometimes, right? Well here’s our chance to get a little bit o’ props. The PLYMOUTH CULTURAL COUNCIL is accepting nominations for the ARTY Awards in May. We’d love to win the ARTY for music, and to be frank, we think we deserve it. (See the School’s Out Summer Concert Series) So, if you have a few minutes to write out an e-mail, please nominate us for this award. The award and your nomination would mean a whole heck of a lot to us. Thanks! Here’s the info:

CRITERIA:

Among the criteria considered by the Council are 1) broad support to various arts activities and/or organization(s), 2) strong financial and/or in-kind support, 3) recognition to arts and artists in Plymouth, 4) overall influence on making the arts a vital part of community life, and 5) artistic achievement as an individual or an organization. Your nomination letter must be postmarked or e-mailed no later than March 27.

E-mail your nomination to Plymouthculturalcouncil@yahoo.com or send it by regular mail to Plymouth Cultural Council, P.O. Box 1785, Plymouth, MA 02362. Remember to include your contact information.

A cell phone picture of Scott (right) working hard on the wireless mic setup. Coach Infa on the left.

Yesterday Scott, Steve Infascelli and I spent the better part of the afternoon at the Reggie Lewis Center doing the first of what will be a few test runs for our big Nike Indoor Nationals sound production gig. For those of you who don’t know, the Reggie is an indoor track/giant athletics field house at Roxbury Community College. We’ll be producing the sound for the big national high school indoor track meet there on March 12-14, which is sponsored by Nike. So yesterday we fiddled around with a bunch of wireless mic stuff, a ducking system, and the giant expanse that is the Reggie Lewis Center, and surpisingly, pretty much on the first try, everything sounded great even with the wacky acoustics.

So that’s the Nike Indoor Nationals update for now. We’ll take lots of pictures and tweet and blog about our experience and such when the meet comes around.

And remember, we’ve got TONS OF SHOWS coming up in March so don’t miss them.

- Jon

It’s just about that time a year to get out the jingle bells and wrapping paper, so what better way to kick off the season and help out some people than to put out a benefit CD. Mark Bryant, of Plimro Records (Jake Hill, Patmos Brothers Revival), COOL102, and some other cool cats put together a 22-band Christmas benefit CD featuring the likes of local favorites 3rd Left, Jake Hill, Shaun Dever and more.

Featured on the CD is a new song by a new band, featuring 4 of our good friends: Shaun Dever, Nick Amendolare (both formerly of Comboguy, and Shaun frequents our stages), Nate Cristofori (you’ve seen him on the waterfront with his piano), and Tyler Kinsherf (formerly of our old friends, the Side Street Bandits). The band, The Juicebox Graduates, and the song, “The Real Kris Kringle”. You can check it out right here at Brewster Productions! http://www.brewsterproductions.com/kringle .

The sale of the CD will benefit the Cranberry Hospice and the Fragile Footprint Pediatric Palliative Care Program. Here’s the tracklist: http://www.thecheapseats.net/a_christmas_miracle-back.jpg

There are going to be a few release parties in Plymouth and Hyannis, and we’ll let you know more about how to purchase the CD.

Happy shopping!

- Jon
BP

We’ve been working for a while on our brand new Web site, and we’re pretty proud of it – please take a look around and enjoy. This week we are wrapping up our 2nd season of the School’s Out Summer Concert Series, and making a smooth transition into the fall, so get ready for some great things to come!

Starting this fall, not only will we keep doing more shows all around New England, but we are officially open for business and offering sound production and promotion services for hire! We’re really excited about this – so the next time you’re putting on a big (or small) party, a charity event, a road race, a keynote speaker, corporate picnic, etc. and need a band or just a PA to get you heard….come to us. We’re experienced, enthusiastic, efficient, and best of all: CHEAP. Like really cheap.

So, let’s take a look at a few new things on the site. On the right side, you’ll see our schedule which will be constantly updated so check back, links to our concert series and good friends, a google advertisement, a place for your business to advertise (like everything else, cheap), and our Twitter feed. On the top navigation bar, you can check out our services, media (photos, video, audio), get in touch with us, and find out more about us.

Lucas Carpenter (on tour with Mark Rose of Spitalfield) performed August 7 at the School's Out Summer Concert Series

A few things we have in the works for this coming year: Class of ’05 Memorial Scholarship, Nike Indoor Nationals, lots of shows.

Please make yourself at home, bookmark us, subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter…..and whatever other things you crazy kids are doing these days on the World Wide Interweb. Just make sure you keep checking back for more shows and events, services, and if you’re in a band: E-mail us about doing shows!

That’s all for now. Stay tuned in the coming week or so for more updates. Make sure you don’t miss the last summer concert series show of the year: Chris Albert and Semester Abroad will be rockin’ the Hedge House Lawn this Friday 9/4!

Keep it real,

Jon Dorn
Brewster Productions

(pictured above: Lucas Carpenter, on tour with Mark Rose (of Spitalfield), performs at the School’s Out Summer Concert Series August 7)