Hard Luck Café: Halley Neal -and- Sam Robbins

Nashville-based singer-songwriters Halley Neal (https://halleyneal.com/) and Sam Robbins (https://samrobbinsmusic.com/) will kick off the 2023-2024 season of the monthly Hard Luck Café series co-presented by the Folk Music Society of Huntington and the Cinema Arts Centre (423 Park Avenue, Huntington) in the Cinema’s Sky Room on Wednesday, September 20, from 7-10 p.m. An open mic, for which sign-up is at 6:30 p.m.,  precedes the concert. Tickets are $20 ($15 for Cinema Arts Centre/FMSH members) and can be purchased online at https://cinemaartscentre.org or at the box office now through the evening of the event. 

Halley Neal

Halley Neal, who cites Joni Mitchell and Shawn Colvin among her inspirations and whose sound is influenced by classic folk music and modern-day singer-songwriters, was recently named the winner of the SolarFest 2023 Singer-Songwriter Showcase. Since graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2019, she has released two albums featuring her original songs.  Neal performed at the Kerrville Folk Festival in the Texas Hill Country this year as a finalist in the prestigious Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition, as well as in Colorado as part of the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriter Showcase and the Telluride Troubadour competition. Closer to LI, she shined during the Grassy Hill Emerging Artist Showcase at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Goshen, CT. 

Sam Robbins

Sam Robbins describes himself as an “old soul singer-songwriter.”  His music evokes that of classic 1970s singer-songwriters like James Taylor and Neil Young, while he adds a modern edge to the storyteller-troubadour persona.  An avid performer who plays more than 150 shows a year across the country, Robbins has gained recognition from his extensive touring and as a winner in the Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters in 2021. This summer, he performed at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival as one of the artists voted “Most Wanted to Return” following last year’s Grassy Hill Emerging Artists Showcase. Like Neal, he is a 2019 graduate of Berklee College of Music, also originally hails from New England, and has released two albums.