Live Wire: Happy Accidents to play benefit concert at Marigold Theater

EASTHAMPTON — For Nicole Turner, Happy Accidents isn’t just the name of the band she sings with, it also describes how she joined the group.

The band was playing an open mic night, but their singer at the time had a bad cold so she couldn’t perform. Guitarist Don Sonn, with whom Turner had sung with before, asked her if she could fill in at the open mic night.

“He gave me a couple of songs, and that was the first time I ever sang with them,” she said.

When the band later parted ways with the original vocalist, Turner was a natural choice to fill the slot.

The band will play a benefit show for the Scarlet Sock Foundation at the Marigold Theater in Easthampton on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20.

The band includes Turner on vocals, Sonn on guitar and vocals, Erik Gagne on lead guitar, Brian Hoffman on bass and Zach Addington and drums. The benefit show will also feature guest vocalist Misty Carter.

Turner generally describes the band’s repertoire as “yacht rock,” but also mentioned that they cover artists that lie beyond that category, including Linda Ronstadt, The Beatles, Brandi Carlisle, and Alison Krause. How the group chooses the songs they play is democratic.

“After we play a show, we recap and look at what the crowd liked and then we all throw out a couple of options and decide whether we’re going to keep certain songs or not,” Turner said. “With new songs, we practice them a few times, and if it works, we keep it. And it’s a more complicated song, even if it’s not perfect, we still go for it if we know the crowd will like it.”

While the band tries to sound as close as possible to the original recordings, Turner said there are songs where they might add their own twists to.

“With some songs, like one by the Eagles, we try to be faithful. But there are songs we try to put our own spin on,” she said. “But most of the time we try to be as faithful as possible to the record.”

Bassist Hoffman arranges most of the songs.

“He’s our musical director because he has an amazing ear,” Turner said.

Hoffman is also the group’s connection to the Scarlet Sock Foundation.

The foundation was started in memory of Laura DiPillo, who died at age 15 in 2014. Laura had great love for social justice theater, and so the foundation supports local social justice theater projects. The name comes from a description of Laura as someone who affected everyone around them, like a red sock that gets mixed up in the laundry and turns everything else pink.

Laura’s mother, Margaret Russo, serves as president of Scarlet Sock. Russo is a hospitalist at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, where Hoffman is an orthopedic surgeon.

“She’s an all-around amazing person,” Hoffman said of Russo. “As individuals, we’ve supported her foundation and been to her events as well. We thought it would be nice to do something formal for them, and her fundraiser seemed like a great opportunity.”

Hoffman said doing the gig was a perfect fit for both the band and the foundation.

“Besides being friends and colleagues with the folks involved, we all think it’s so important at any scale to support the performing arts, which is the mission of Scarlet Sock, especially these days,” Hoffman said. “What better way than with performances of our own? Everyone in the band has a day job; we’re doing this for the love of the music, our passion for performing, and our desire to see Margaret’s foundation thrive.”