Music in the Stacks- Concert Series

Free monthly concert series, a spin-off of the popular Music in the Stacks concerts. On the 4thThursday of the month, there will be a different local band or solo artist playing their music in the library's Fireside Room.  

This month's concert features Loose Change, made up of perennial favorites Gary Simpkins, Kris Baldwin & Tony Cook. 

Gary Simpkins has been around the folk/rock, singer/songwriter scene since the ’60’s, cutting his teeth on the Open Mic scene in his college days in New Haven. He’s played gigs all over the Northeast, notably at the Bitter End in New York City, Club 47 (Now Club Passim’s) in Cambridge, the Exit in New Haven, and Salt in Newport (where he opened for Maria Muldaur).  Gary moved to Arizona in the ’80’s and for the past 30 years has been playing folk festivals and shows throughout the region in and around the Verde Valley.  He has also almost continuously run open mikes since the ’60’s,  including the current weekly version at the library on non-holiday Mondays, and is dedicated to giving new musicians the same mentoring that he had when he started out in New Haven.  The monthly Music in the Stacks series that Gary brought to Camp Verde Community Library has been the library’s longest most successful adult program. 

Kris Baldwin is the bassist and singer for this ensemble and a wonderful singer/songwriter in his own right. Although Herman's Hermits did open for Kris’s band SkyDrive once upon a time,  those glory days have mellowed with the passing of time and now he is happily engaged as a bass side man for many players in his musical circles both here in Arizona and back in Canada. He enjoys writing original tunes and performing many styles of local music from the acoustic folk sounds of Loose Change to the blues renditions of the Salt Miners as well as supporting open mic players in the Verde Valley. 

Tony Cook is known throughout the highest echelons of country music in Arizona, bringing a massive catalog of styles, techniques, and influences to any and anyone he plays with