Press Releases

 
P.O. Box 92398
Rochester, NY 14692
www.goldenlink.org


Media contact (not for publication): Dave Townsend, (585) 467-8690

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2025

Eclectic vocal trio Mad Agnes opens Golden Link 2025–26 concert series

See below for a list of concerts through May 2026 

Rochester, NY – Golden Link is excited to welcome back the delightful, genre-bending trio Mad Agnes. Margo Hennebach, Adrienne Jones, and Mark Saunders deliver smart songwriting and passionate performances, and have an ease with one another on stage that invites the audience into their world of human connection and spontaneous fun. Mad Agnes will be performing on Saturday October 25, 2025, at 7:30 pm at the Greece Baptist Church, 1230 Long Pond Rd, Rochester. 

Mad Agnes transports listeners with well-crafted instrumentation – using guitars, mandolin, ukulele, piano, and keyboard – witty lyrics, and three-part harmonies as tight as jeans from the dryer. The three weave contemporary folk with a nod to Celtic, an element of vocal improv, and top-notch arrangements into an exciting, inclusive performance. Their current iteration sees them using only one microphone, around which they form and re-form, early-radio style. Mad Agnes’ latest recording, Likely Story, was released in 2024 and hit the top 10 albums of the month on the Folk Alliance International folk chart.

“A refreshing adventure for those who enjoy well-sung and well-written acoustic music ... smooth and edgy at the same time, a rare feat.” – Sing Out! Magazine

“Their music is at once intricate, precise, mesmerizing, whimsical, eclectically intellectual ... but, above all, utterly human.” – Dirty Linen

Online ticket sales end at midnight on October 24.
General Admission: $25 ($27 at the door)
Golden Link Members: $20 ($22 at the door)
Students: $10
Children under 12: $5

See below for calendar listings for this and other upcoming concerts.

Photos of the performers are available at:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1itUdQ1VH1dNEzcbkvGIhjdS6kc9BfsQK?usp=sharing

Phone or email interviews with the performer(s) can be arranged. 

Founded in 1971, the Golden Link Folk Singing Society is dedicated to presenting, promoting, and preserving folk music in the Rochester area. Golden Link is a volunteer-operated and member-supported 501(c)3 not-for-profit arts, cultural, and educational organization.

CALENDAR LISTINGS

Mad Agnes
Saturday, October 25, 2025, 7:30 pm
Greece Baptist Church, 1230 Long Pond Rd, Rochester NY 14626

Golden Link is excited to welcome back the delightful, genre-bending trio Mad Agnes. Margo Hennebach, Adrienne Jones, and Mark Saunders deliver smart songwriting and passionate performances, and have an ease with one another on stage that invites the audience into their world of human connection and spontaneous fun

Tickets: General Admission: $25 ($27 at the door), Golden Link Members: $20 ($22 at the door), Students: $10, Children under 12: $5. For more information, visit www.goldenlink.org.

John McCutcheon
Thursday, November 13, 2025, 7:30 pm
Rochester Christian Reformed Church, 2750 Atlantic Ave, Penfield NY 14526

Folk music’s renaissance man, John McCutcheon is a master instrumentalist, powerful singer-songwriter, storyteller, activist, and author. As an instrumentalist, he is a master of a dozen different traditional instruments, most notably the rare and beautiful hammer dulcimer. His songwriting has been hailed by critics and singers around the globe.
Tickets: General Admission: $30 ($32 at the door), Golden Link Members: $25 ($27 at the door), Students: $10, Children under 12: $5. For more information, visit www.goldenlink.org.

Christine Lavin
Sunday, December 7, 2025, 6:30 pm
Greece Baptist Church, 1230 Long Pond Rd, Rochester NY 14626

Christine Lavin is a witty songwriter-storyteller – as well as guitarist, author, and videographer – with a flair for the creative, the dramatic, and the humorous. She has more than 25 albums to her credit, along with her memoir (or mem-WHA?), Cold Pizza for Breakfast. Based in New York City since 1984, Lavin is especially known for her sense of humor, which is expressed in both her music – songs like “Sensitive New Age Guys” and “Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind” – and her engaging performances, which might incorporate baton twirling and wind chimes. An alum of SUNY Brockport, Lavin was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2019.

Tickets: General Admission: $25 ($27 at the door), Golden Link Members: $20 ($22 at the door), Students: $10, Children under 12: $5. For more information, visit www.goldenlink.org.

Pepper and Sassafras
with Tim Burns and John Dancks 
Saturday, February 21, 2026, 7:30 pm
Greece Baptist Church, 1230 Long Pond Rd, Rochester NY 14626

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, grand prize winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, teams up with multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Wendy Sassafras Ramsay in the dynamic acoustic duo Pepper and Sassafras. Rodgers, also the founding editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine, delivers masterful band-in-a-box guitar work while Ramsay, harmonizer extraordinaire, adds flute, clarinet, guitar, accordion, and her quirky originals to the mix. For this Golden Link concert, the duo will be joined by long-time collaborators Tim Burns (guitar, mandolin, vocals) and John Dancks (upright bass). 

Tickets: General Admission: $25 ($27 at the door), Golden Link Members: $20 ($22 at the door), Students: $10, Children under 12: $5. For more information, visit www.goldenlink.org.

Low Lily 
Saturday, March 21, 2026, 7:30 pm
Greece Baptist Church, 1230 Long Pond Rd, Rochester NY 14626

With the energy of fiddle music, the introspective quality of contemporary folk, the precision of bluegrass, and the drive of Americana, the Vermont-based trio Low Lily (Liz Simmons, Flynn Cohen, and Natalie Padilla) combine their individual talents into one stunning soundscape. Low Lily has shared their signature sound with enthusiastic audiences throughout North America and the UK, garnering two #1 songs on international folk radio and two Independent Music Awards. 

Tickets: General Admission: $25 ($27 at the door), Golden Link Members: $20 ($22 at the door), Students: $10, Children under 12: $5. For more information, visit www.goldenlink.org.

The Clements Brothers 
Saturday, April 18, 2026, 7:30 pm
Greece Baptist Church, 1230 Long Pond Rd, Rochester NY 14626

The Clements Brothers are George (guitar) and Charles (upright bass), identical twins from the heart of New England. The two have been playing and writing music together for as long as they can remember, first entering the Americana music scene in 2012 as part of the internationally touring grassroots group The Lonely Heartstring Band, with whom they put out two albums on Rounder Records. This marks their first original project together, focused on capturing their singer-songwriter sensibilities in a unique blend, with harmonies only achievable by their identical voices, at once enthralling and intimate, groovy and serene.

Tickets: General Admission: $25 ($27 at the door), Golden Link Members: $20 ($22 at the door), Students: $10, Children under 12: $5. For more information, visit www.goldenlink.org.

Kray Van Kirk 
Saturday, May 2, 2026, 7:30 pm
Greece Baptist Church, 1230 Long Pond Rd, Rochester NY 14626

A fine finger-style guitarist with a precise baritone, Kray Van Kirk has a Ph.D. from the University of Alaska, but he set science aside to write songs, tell stories, and summon heroes. “We are driven by myth and the seasons of the heart,” he says. “The quest is to journey inside, find whatever it is that burns at the core of your soul, and bring it back into the light.” A charming, Quixotic, and decidedly eclectic performer, Van Kirk has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and toured the U.S. and Canada.

Tickets: General Admission: $25 ($27 at the door), Golden Link Members: $20 ($22 at the door), Students: $10, Children under 12: $5. For more information, visit www.goldenlink.org.

Garnet Rogers 
Saturday, May 16, 2026, 7:30 pm
Greece Baptist Church, 1230 Long Pond Rd, Rochester NY 14626

Born in Hamilton, Ontario to parents of Nova Scotian descent, Garnet Rogers spent many hours listening to Grand Ol’ Opry radio broadcasts and harmonizing with his brother, the late folk legend Stan Rogers. At 18, he was on the road as a full-time working musician with brother Stan, forming one of the most influential duos in the history of North American folk music. Since then, Garnet has courageously established himself as a formidable solo artist, performing across North America, everywhere from small town folk clubs to the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

Tickets: General Admission: $30 ($32 at the door), Golden Link Members: $25 ($27 at the door), Students: $10, Children under 12: $5. For more information, visit www.goldenlink.org.