Old Hippies will again play music from boat in concerts that start Friday
Band will play six concerts in four days
File photos by Tom Rivers – The Old Hippies play a concert from on top of a packet boat last July in Medina. The band is calling itself itself “The Traveling Towpath Troubadours” for the canal concert series.
MEDINA – When the canal was mostly drained in Orleans County last week for emergency repairs to a culvert in Hulberton, Bill McDonald worked on a backup plan for a series of concerts he had planned by boat.
McDonald and the other members of the Old Hippies were performing in Albion last Thursday for the village’s canal concert series. McDonald said the band could tell the canal was slowly refilling. The state Canal Corp. and its contractor made the fix in Hulberton.
McDonald and the band wouldn’t have to drive to concert sites after all. That was the back up plan. They will travel to the canal communities from a house boat and perform from the vessel.
Those concerts start Friday in Lockport and continue until Sunday with performances also in Middleport, Medina, Albion and Holley.
This is the second straight year McDonald, a Batavia resident, has organized the concert series. The Old Hippies will be the “The Traveling Towpath Troubadours” for the concert series, which this year has expanded to two performances in Lockport.
“The canal is so underutilized,” McDonald said today. “We want to promote it and try to get more utilization out of it.”
The Traveling Towpath Troubadours will be back performing in Medina’s Canal Basin on Sunday at 3 p.m. A grant through the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council is helping to fund the concerts.
The schedule starts on Friday with 6 p.m. concert at Lockport Historical Society, followed by another concert in Lockport at 11 a.m. Saturday for the Lockport Farmers Market. The music moves to Middleport for a concert by the canal at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
The Troubadours first perform in Orleans County on Sunday with a concert in Medina’s Canal Basin at 2:30 p.m. The band then travels by house boat to Albion for a 6 p.m. concert on Sunday.
The music concludes on Monday with a concert in Holley at 6 p.m. at the village’s canal park.
McDonald said the concerts were popular last year, with Medina drawing the biggest crowd. The band received such good feedback and is back for another series along the canal, with an expanded slate of concerts including the two in Lockport.
