Hard Luck Café Concert Series at Cinema Arts Centre, Oct. 15

Caroline Cotter and Jay Hitt are Featured Performers 

Two talented touring singer-songwriters – Caroline Cotter (Portland, Maine) and Jay Hitt (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) – are the featured artists during the Folk Music Society of Huntington’s Hard Luck Café concert series at the Cinema Arts Centre (423 Park Avenue, Huntington, NY) on Thursday, Oct. 15. The 8:30 p.m. concert in the Cinema’s Sky Room will be preceded by an open mic at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are  $15 ($10 for Cinema Arts Centre and FMSH members). For more information, visit www.fmsh.org or call (631) 425-2925.

Caroline Cotter is a travel-inspired singer-songwriter. Music has always been at the heart of her life, alongside an insatiable passion for travel and global exploration. Over the past ten years, Caroline has lived in and traveled to 27 countries on five continents. While writing and recording her first national release, Dreaming As I Do (which reached #5 on the Folk DJ chart earlier this year), she spent the last few years working for the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) in Portland, Maine. CIEE provided amazing opportunities for international community and travel, and further inspired Caroline’s songwriting.

Prior to joining CIEE, Caroline spent time working in France, Portugal, Spain, and Thailand; studying yoga in India; and traveling in South America. In addition to writing songs in English, she sings in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Sanskrit, and is always looking for beautiful ways to bring the world to her audience and to connect inter-culturally through her music. With a captivating soprano voice and award-winning songwriting, Caroline’s music takes you all over the world: from a Parisian salon, to an Indian ashram, to a bluegrass festival campfire, to the depths of the human heart. 

Jay Hitt is a Pittsburgh, PA-based singer-songwriter whose musical versatility and down-to-earth folk style speaks to his audiences of the simple joys found in everyday life. A talent for vivid storytelling combined with crisp and delicate acoustic melodies makes it easy to understand why Jay’s songs so effortlessly touch the hearts of his fans.

Jay has performed in many venues throughout the United States both as a solo artist and as a member of various bands. He impressed listeners at this summer’s Huntington Folk Festival and as part of the juried Emerging Artists Showcase at the 2015 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Jay has also written commercial music for radio advertising and a theme song for television. He’s received several songwriting awards and was a winner of the New Folk Competition at the New Jersey Folk Festival at Rutgers University in 2003. Jay has several albums of original songs to his credit — including his most recent release, Greetings From the Wilderness (2013).

Established in 1973, the Cinema Arts Centre seeks to bring the best of cinematic artistry to Long Island and use the power of film to expand the awareness and consciousness of our community. LI’s only not-for-profit, viewer-supported, independent cinema presents a wide array of films that are often accompanied by discussions and guest speakers.

Now in its 47th year, the Folk Music Society of Huntington (www.fmsh.org) presents two monthly concert series, a monthly folk jam and an annual folk festival in conjunction with the Huntington Arts Council.  Its First Saturday Concerts series resumes Oct. 3 at the Congregational Church of Huntington in Centerport with singer-songwriter and consummate entertainer Vance Gilbert and continues on Nov. 7 with Bumper Jacksons, a jubilant DC-based roots band.