The Great North Woods Committee for the Arts will be hosting a Civil War era program on Jan. 29 at the Tillotson Center in Colebrook. The Hardtacks will present a participatory coffeehouse concert featuring the music and voices of the Civil War era in a unique combination of period music, primary source texts, and visual materials. The Hardtacks is Marek Bennett and Woody Pringle, both of southern New Hampshire. The show is being sponsored by Granvyl G. Hulse, Jr.

The Hardtacks duo was formed in 2012 to perform folk music of the Civil War era as a N.H. Humanities Council's "Humanities To Go" program. Since then, they've played at libraries, historical societies, schools, encampments, and other events around New England. From an initial focus on Appalachian banjo and fiddle music (both songs and tunes), the Hardtacks' repertoire has expanded to include parlor songs, rally cries, spirituals, hymns, bawdy camp parodies, and more. Their wide-ranging programs take inspiration from the participatory culture of the Lyceum movement and several other folk traditions, engaging audiences in immersive explorations of history as a sung, spoken, and lived experience. Audience members not only get to experience the historical music and ideas, but they will also take part in performing them.

New Hampshire native Marek Bennett is an award-winning cartoonist and musician who teaches and performs comics and music at schools and libraries throughout New England and beyond. He holds B.A.s in Music and Mathematics (Brown University) and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction (Keene State College), and is a rostered teaching artist with the N.H. State Council on the Arts, Children's Literacy Foundation, and the Arts Alliance of Northern N.H.

Woody Pringle is both a musician and educator teaching at many New Hampshire colleges and organizations. His credentials include a B.A. in Social Science from Johnson State College and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His band, Bradford Bog People, often airs on N.H. Public Radio's Folk Show and on many radio stations throughout the country.

"This will be something completely new for the GNWCA," said Great North Woods Committee for the Arts President Charlie Jordan. "Hosted in the intimate setting of the Tillotson Center first-floor gallery, the audience will have a front row to history as Marek and Woody recall the songs and images that were a part of one of the most important chapters in our country's history."

The show begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 each and are available at Fiddleheads Gift Shop in downtown Colebrook or at the door on the night of the event.

For more information on this and other upcoming GNWCA events, call 237-9302 or 246-8998, visit www.gnwca.org.