The Barrington-based bluegrass duet Green Heron’s summer performance slate recently included a show as part of Francestown Old Meeting House concert series, which they performed despite torrential rain and flash flood warnings outside.

Consisting of husband-and-wife duet Betsy and Scott Heron, Green Heron performs across New England and relies heavily on the revenue from summer gigs. The remainder of their summer schedule features several shows spread across Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Through Sept. 3, the band will perform five times across three states, as opposed to in October, which will feature four shows clustered modestly between Somersworth and Hampton, N.H., and Kittery, Maine.

Much of this seasonal travel disparity can be observed in performances across New Hampshire and New England. Artists of all varieties rely on the fiscal opportunity of summer, including Green Heron. 

“Well, for us, I mean, summer is definitely the busiest time. So we have... the most concentration of gigs are in probably June, July, August, September,” said Betsy Heron. “ So it's important in that way for obviously, financial reasons, but also, that's also when we do a lot of our booking for the fall and the next spring. So it's kind of like a rolling thing.”

Along with the monetary facet of summer performances, the opportunity to meet and connect with other artists is paramount for local acts. 

“If we go to a festival or fairs or something, that's also a great networking, opportunity, and you get to play music with all kinds of people,” said Betsy. “And then you meet a bunch of people and a lot of the opportunities we've had are just from meeting people organically by going out and doing stuff. And so that I think, [in] the summer months, people have more of that [networking] mindset, which is nice.”

Betsy Heron grew up with a professional country singer as her father. He occasionally plays electric guitar with her other current musical group, the Green Sisters. With her father, three sisters and husband all involved in music professionally, the world of performing is something she has been steeped in Betsy for decades, and she has seen this world grow increasingly dynamic in the years during and after the pandemic. 

“What I noticed was when COVID happened initially, the summer was actually even more important because we could do outdoor stuff. It was just a couple months, but that was really kind of a saving grace in a way because people didn't want to gather indoors, obviously,” she said. “I would say now it's kind of back to how it was before. Although it seems like the types of events like festivals and outdoor concerts people seem to be coming to more this year in particular. I don't know why, but I don't know if it's like a post-pandemic excitement.”

Despite Green Heron being a large facet of the couple’s lives, Betsy and Scott both work other jobs to supplement the slow seasons of the year. They work flexibly as to allow themselves every opportunity to play. 

“I would say that the summer has a larger number of gigs, but it's not like we're never not playing,” said Betsy. “The other side gigs that we have are pretty variable, like Scott does web design and I do art commissions and stuff. It kind of goes up and down throughout the year.” 

Green Heron will be performing across twice in the Monadnock region in September, at the Francestown Labor Day celebration on Sept. 4 and at the Dublin Community Center on Sept. 16.