Concerts on the Quad 2014: Lady Lamb the Beekeeper

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper. (Shervin Lainez)

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper. (Shervin Lainez)

One-of-a-kind songwriter Lady Lamb the Beekeeper performs a Concert on the Quad at Bates at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14, on the Coram Library porch on the Historic Quad, College Street and Campus Avenue.

The concert is open to the public at no cost. Audience members are encouraged to bring picnics and chairs or blankets. The rain site is the nearby Peter J. Gomes Chapel, 275 College St. For more information, please call 207-753-6953.

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper — aka Aly Spaltro — began her music career in what she calls the “cocoon” of the night shift at a used video store in Brunswick. After hours, she would practice her music, write songs and develop her voice until she was ready to send her music out into the world. Or at least into Maine.

Publicizing her work locally and often through nontraditional channels allowed Lady Lamb to develop a style unlike any other, making her a longtime favorite of the Portland music scene. A true solo endeavor, writing all her songs and arrangements, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper’s debut recording Ripely Pine is a collection of some of her most earnest music to date.

With music described as both “folk-twinged” and “unabashed rock,” Lady Lamb is an endeavor that defies classification, with Spaltro preferring to exist somewhere in the margins. Her commitment to having her mark on everything, from guitar to lyrics to banjo to arrangement, makes Spaltro’s music starkly personal. Lady Lamb has earned fiercely supportive followers, while as a breakout success in folk-rock she has collected praise from institutions such as The Boston Globe and CMJ.