Caitlin Canty shares the stage with Vermont Symphony Orchestra for upcoming show

The collaboration is a first for Canty, who will also be joined by Grammy-winning banjoist Noam Pikelny.

The concert will be a different presentation of Canty’s repertoire, adding full string accompaniment to songs from past albums and unreleased material.

She characterized the resulting sound as “dramatic.”

“I’ve never stood up in front of a string quintet and played like this,” she said. “It feels like a present for my songs to be presented this way”

Equally dramatic will be the venue, which offers views of the Taconic and Green mountains.

“It is one of my favorite views in Vermont,” she said.

Canty said the idea of working with the VSO came from Eric Mallette, executive director of the Paramount Theatre, which is producer of the concert.

Mallette said the show is an expansion of the theater’s regular programming.

“We’ve had interest in presenting at Pittsford Village Farm since first seeing its breathtaking views,” he said. “And the VSO have long been great partners of ours. When the opportunity to work with Caitlin — not ‘just’ a local but a first-class musician — was discussed, the fit seemed as natural as they come.”

While Canty hasn’t worked with a string section before, her sound, which draws from American folk, blues and country traditions easily lends itself to strings.

She noted her forthcoming album, slated to be released next year, features fiddle and mandolin, giving it a rootsy sound.

Adding strings to Canty’s songs fell to Matt LaRocca, VSO artistic adviser and project conductor, who co-wrote the arrangements with Kyle Saulnier.

LaRocca said the VSO has done a number of collaborations with non-classical artists in recent years, including Guster, Kat Wright and Francesca Blanchard.

“From our standpoint, it’s a lot of fun. It’s really great to bring these worlds together,” he said. “There’s a different type of playing that we get to do that is outside of our normal box in the concert hall.”

The ensemble joining Canty and Pikelny will include two violins, viola, cello and bass.

LaRocca said creating the arrangements was a conversational process, where he and Canty talked about what the songs meant to her.

“It gives … the song a different life,” he said. “For me, it’s really fun to have that imaginative process of figuring out what it could be, and how do we amplify and play with everything that is in Caitlin’s songwriting?”

LaRocca said he was particularly pleased with how the arrangement for the song “Where is the Heart of My Country?” turned out.

Released in 2020, the ballad is a melancholy reflection of life in America today.

Radio tower’s red light warning carried on the wind / In the shadow of the mountain a church bell’s ringing,” Canty sings. “From California’s burning forests to the New York island / Can you hear the chorus of voices asking / Where is the heart of my country?

“It’s a very, very powerful song,” said LaRocca. “And, for me, the beauty of adding strings to it is, it gets to push more along the emotions and feelings and everything that has been wrapped up into the words, into the music.”

Like the country, the past two years have also been a time of change for Canty.

In March 2020, a violent tornado devastated her Nashville neighborhood, barely missing her house.

Days later, the coronavirus pandemic forced the country into a lockdown, effectively putting her career on pause. Like other musicians, she pivoted to livestreaming concerts from home, as well as focusing on songwriting.

Amid all the upheaval and uncertainty, Canty and Pikelny found joy with the arrival of their son in July 2020.

“Everything changed so deeply and radically at once,” she said.

As the world began to open again, Canty booked more gigs. But things have changed, she said. The music industry, which under the best circumstances is hard, has only gotten harder. Since COVID, things have gotten less sustainable and more unpredictable — bandmates get sick, shows get canceled, travel is more expensive and difficult, fewer fans come out to shows.

“For me and my husband, the engine has been live touring. You write songs, and then you go share them on stage,” she said. “The reality is, a lot of what was there has changed beyond recognition. … It is really a moment of reckoning, I think. Every show I play, I feel like ‘Well, this could be my last.’”

But Canty has not given up. Rather, she has found joy in seizing every creative moment she gets, whether it’s playing a gig or practicing during her son’s naps.

She said she wrote six new songs during a recent retreat, giving her enough material for a new album.

In addition to Friday’s performance, Canty is doing a handful of one-off concerts around the Northeast this summer, including gigs in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York and Massachusetts. A full tour schedule is available at caitlincanty.com online.

“Every good opportunity that comes up, I leap on,” she said. “There’s something wonderful about this now-or-never feeling,” she said.

Caitlin Canty and Noam Pikelny will perform with the VSO String Quintet at at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Pittsford Village Farm. Tickets are $35 each. Admission is free for children ages 12 and younger. Visit paramountvt.org for more information.

jim.sabataso @rutlandherald.com