The Nields Play a Back Porch Concert and Cookout at Hancock Shaker Village

July 11, bar and cookout 5:30pm, concert 6pm | Pittsfield, MA

Hancock Shaker Village hosts its Back Porch Concert and Cookout on July 11 with the Nields, the western Massachusetts folk-rock duo of sisters Nerissa and Katryna Nields, who have been making music together for nearly 35 years and are deeply woven into the Pioneer Valley's cultural fabric.

The sisters grew up in Washington, DC, the daughters of folk-music-loving parents, and were singing together before they started school. Nerissa went to Yale, where she studied English; Katryna went to Trinity College in Hartford, where she studied religion. The band came together in 1991, recorded its first album named for a house in Williamstown where they lived, and spent the decade touring the country in a van named Moby, performing alongside luminaries such as 10,000 Maniacs, The Band, James Taylor, and the Indigo Girls. The full five-piece version of the band wound down in 2001; since then Nerissa and Katryna have performed primarily as a duo, though occasional full-band shows still happen.

The sisters' voices individually display great flexibility, but in harmony they seem to draw strength from each other—a blood harmony quality that has been compared variously to the Everly Brothers, the McGarrigle Sisters, and the Roaches. Nerissa writes the songs; Katryna sings lead. They have released 21 albums, the most recent being Circle of Days in 2023, a collection organized around the calendar year and the changing seasons, written during daily walks with their dogs to a nearby lake during the pandemic.

Woodlife Kitchen will be grilling cookout classics starting at 5:30pm, alongside a full bar. The concert begins at 6pm.

Hancock Shaker Village, 1843 West Housatonic St., Pittsfield, MA. Tickets at hancockshakervillage.org.