Modern-folk duo Friction Farm, is a husband and wife team of traveling troubadours. Aidan Quinn and Christine Stay, combine storytelling, social commentary and humor to create songs of everyday life, local heroes, and quirky observations. Their lyrically rich, harmony-driven songs earned them spots as Kerrville New Folk Finalists, Falcon Ridge Emerging Artists, and South Florida Folk Festival Songwriter winners. Friction Farm’s latest CD, “Evidence of Hope ” , which reached #10 on the Folk Radio Chart, was inspired by the collision of strong political polarity with personal kindness, the intersection of fragility and breathtaking beauty.

Friction Farm spends a lot of time traveling. For Aidan and Christine that means a lot of reading. They decided to turn it into a project, discussing the book, seeing where the story would take them, and writing a song. It was fun & frustrating, invigorating & exhausting, but always interesting. They were inspired by true tales The Voyage of the Beagle and fictional works The Cellist of Sarajevo, a gift from a friend Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and a recommendation from a stranger The Glass Castle. Occasionally real life filtered in and begged us to re-read books Reading Lolita in Tehran and A Walk in the Woods. And always new books… The Nightingale, A Man Called Ove, Our Missing Hearts and more. Friction Farm will perform songs and describe how each book inspired a song. The songs are, for the most part, not about the books. The books provided a catalyst for creative thought sometimes a very direct path to a song and sometimes a very circuitous route connecting stories, real-life events, and imagination. More information and recordings can be found at https://frictionfarm.com/library/.

This free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Newark Free Library who are a volunteer non-profit organization bringing support to your library through funding and advocacy. You can visit their webpage HERE. The Friends of the Newark Free Library will also provide light refreshments before the program.