Rosie Porter understands that there is no place like home. The country singer, a former resident of Greenfield, moved to California in 2024, and while she enjoys the West Coast and the move has positively impacted her career, she is eager to return to western Massachusetts for a three-week tour. The tour kicks off tonight, Thursday, July 24, at Shelburne Springs, 904 Mohawk Trail, from 6 to 8 p.m.

For these seven dates, Porter will be joined by pedal steel player Nick Green, who is flying in from California. She has assembled a local band for the tour consisting of AJ Del Negro on bass and Tom Del Negro on drums, who will perform on selected dates. The Del Negro brothers are best known for their past work with Lexi Weege, and they are the hosts of the popular Thursday night open mic at Floodwater Brewing Company in Shelburne Falls.

Porter established a fan base here in the Valley based on her work with her former band, the Neon Moons. They played numerous venues throughout the Valley, playing a mix of country classics and original material.

In 2023 Porter was visiting family in California and immediately fell in love with the area.

“I loved it so much in California that when I came home, I decided I was going to figure out a way to get myself out here,” Porter said in a recent phone conversation from her home in Los Angeles. “The Neon Moons had kind of ended, and there were all kinds of signs from the universe that it was time for a change – so I decided just to try my luck out here.”

Porter’s love of the Bakersfield sound, a genre of country music epitomized by Merle Haggard and Buck Owens that is heavily influenced by rock and honky-tonk, was a big factor in her decision in moving out to California.

However, the cross-country move was not without its difficulties.

“There was a lot of culture shock,” Porter said. “I was my early 30s, and I had gone from living in Greenfield to moving to one of the biggest cities in the country! The city was vast and intimidating, and there were moments when I wanted nothing more than to just walk across the Bridge of Flowers again.”

Breaking into the music scene in Los Angeles was also tough, and Porter endured a number of gigs at venues where the audiences were often indifferent and ignored her playing. This led her to a period questioning whether she had made the right move.

But it was that love of the Bakersfield sound that helped turn things around.

“The Bakersfield sound is one of the main reasons I came out here,” Porter explained. “There was this band that I made online friends with, and they were doing a Bakersfield revival playing Buck Owens and Merle Haggard and music that I love. I always wanted to see Bakersfield because it’s such an important place in the history of the type of music that I’ve been playing all these years.”

Exploring Bakersfield proved crucial, as it led to a meeting with pedal steel player Nick Green, a winner of the Bakersfield Music Award for his playing of that quintessential country and western instrument. They formed a partnership that led to better gigs and began writing songs.

“We just celebrated a year working and we’ve played 50 shows.” Porter said. “The thing I’m most proud of is we played the Whiskey a Go Go (in West Hollywood) and I felt like Stevie Nicks that night!”

The duo have played at various venues in California and have also toured Arizona. They released the songs “Space and Time” and “Be Kind to Me Sky” last October, under Rosie Porter’s name, on all the streaming services, and they also have a new song coming out on Aug. 1.

“The new song is called ‘Morongo Valley’ and will be credited to Nick and Rosie,” Porter said. “We had been playing near Joshua Tree National Park and we played a club called the Spaghetti Western. Every time we come out to the desert and hang with the Joshua Trees we seem to come back with fresh inspiration. We are big Gram Parsons fans and he frequented that a lot.”

Porter added that being out in California has allowed her to retrace the steps of her musical heroes and to have access to an incredible pool of music history.

“I’ve gotten to know this whole world of people who knew and even played with some of these people,” Porter said. “It is just incredible the access you have here to this pool of history. ”

While Porter told me that she has been enjoying playing the clubs out West, she is looking forward to re-visiting some of the old venues she has played back East.

“Once word got out that I was coming back, I started getting emails from some of the places I used to play,” she said. “It’s cool I still have these relationships that I have established.”

In addition to Shelburne Springs, Franklin County shows includes the Four Star Farms Brewery in Northfield on Aug. 3 from 3 to 6 p.m., and a full band show at Incandescent Brewing in Bernardston on Aug. 9 from 6 to 9 p.m. DJ Brewfoot will be on hand for that show spinning honky-tonk and more between sets.

For the full schedule, including dates in Brattleboro and Westfield, visit RosiePortermusic.com.

All of the shows are free of charge.

Porter will return in the fall for a full band show at the Big E in West Springfield on Sept. 26 and plans to play some more local dates at that time.

“Being away has taught me to really appreciate where I’m from,” Porter said. “We are very blessed to have the Pioneer Valley, it’s a beautiful land and I can’t wait to get back to have a maple ice cream cone from Hagers (Mohawk Trail). That’s my first order of business!”

The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever returns

If you happen to be at the Energy Park (Miles Street) in Greenfield this Saturday, July 26, around 6:15 p.m., expect to see a crowd of red-clad individuals engaging in some rather odd dance moves accompanied by blaring Kate Bush music. And if you wonder what this is all about, it is The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, the annual celebration of the British singer-songwriter and her most famous song, “Wuthering Heights.”

It all started back in 2013 when a group from Brighton, England, decided to recreate Bush’s 1978 “Wuthering Heights’’ video. This meant wearing a red dress with a black belt and learning a choreographed dance routine. Their goal in this doing this was to establish a world record of the most Kate Bush lookalike performers gathered together for one event. The initial performance inspired others around the world and it has become something of a formal event that takes place every year around Bush’s birthday.

Don’t worry if you don’t know the dance routine – there will be lessons between 5 and 6 p.m. with the dance itself scheduled to happen at 6:15. There will be drinks and dinner served at the Goldie Fox at 10 Fiske Ave., and at 8 p.m. there will be Kate Bush karaoke.

Don’t miss out on this unique event.

Drive-By Truckers at Tree House Brewing Co.

We are heading into the end of summer and if you haven’t been to the summer stage at Tree House Brewing Co. in South Deerfield, all I can say is what are you waiting for? Consider checking out southern rockers the Drive By-Truckers on Thursday, July 30, at 7 p.m. Founded by Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, the Truckers have released 14 studio albums and played more than 2,500 shows in the last three decades and are known for their blazing rockin’ shows. Joining them on this summer tour is Deer Tick and Thelma and the Sleaze. Tickets are available at DSPshows.com

Sheryl Hunter is a freelance writer who resides in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national publications. She can be reached at Soundslocal@yahoo.com.