The record by the New Paltz-based group is an unassuming winner: unfailingly sturdy and openhearted songs, rock-energized bluegrass propulsion in a no-fuss setting, sweet licks and a gang-chant communal approach to singing by some dudes who maybe didn’t pass the choir audition in high school.

About as decorated as a young, serious composer can be anymore, Yale’s Hannah Lash is featured in the next “Conversations with” series presented by Close Encounters with Music at the Hudson Opera House.

The legendary jazz trombonist and composer (and longtime local resident) Roswell Rudd has helmed some of the most outrageous and daring jazz ever recorded, but a certain sweetness, playfulness and accessible humanity have also characterized everything that he has done – not just his more user-friendly, song-oriented recent work. At 80, he’s going strong, and he has elected to celebrate his 81st birthday at the Falcon in Marlboro on Saturday, November 19 at 7 p.m.

The Hudson Valley Hullabaloo is a holiday-season crafts market, but it’s also a party with a hipster vibe, designed to lift people’s spirits just as the gloom of late November settles in.