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Martin and Kelly on the Strand stage: two acoustic guitars, a row of stools and monitors, and the cinema screen for a backdrop. The room is small enough that nobody needed the screen.
The Martha's Vineyard Songwriters Festival, September 17 to 20, 2026: a free kickoff at Nomans and three nights of Nashville writers at the Strand Theatre in Oak Bluffs, with our photographs from inside the Strand, the night-by-night lineups and practical notes for next year.
The Martha’s Vineyard Songwriters Festival ran four days in Oak Bluffs in September 2026, September 17 to 20: a free kickoff on the lawn at Nomans on the Thursday, then three nights in the Strand Theatre on Oak Bluffs Avenue, each at 7 PM. The idea is simple and it works. Nashville writers who wrote hit songs for other people sit in a row with acoustic guitars and play those songs themselves, with the stories from the writing room in between. We were in the room at the Strand; the photographs are ours.
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The Sunday poster: CJ Solar, Joe Fox and Johnny Clawson, the list of artists who recorded their songs, and the island openers along the bottom.
The Strand is a small cinema on Oak Bluffs Avenue, a block up from the harbor, and it turns out to be a good listening room. The floor rakes down to a shallow stage with just enough depth for a row of stools, a keyboard and a drum kit; the film posters stay on the walls; the screen behind the players makes a plain white backdrop that suits a writers’ round better than any light show would. From the last row you are still close to the players. Between sets the lobby, painted a green that glows under the marquee bulbs, sells the tickets from one window and the popcorn from the other.
The Strand auditorium filling up before a show: blue seats on a raked floor, framed film posters still on the walls, and the stage set up under the screen.
The Strand lobby under its green light: the box office window on the right, the concession stand behind the French doors.
The songwriters’ round is a Nashville format: several writers on stage at once, taking turns, each introducing a song with the story of who it was written for and how. The hit makers this year have songs recorded by Ella Langley, Morgan Wallen, Alison Krauss, Kenny Chesney, Riley Green, Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi and Billy Currington among others, which is the kind of list that fills a small cinema on a Sunday in September. The rising-stars night is the other half of the idea: singers a year or two from their own radio songs, on a stage where the front row can see their set lists.
The whole stage from the back rows: the duo at center, a keyboard stage left, a drum kit behind, and the screen doing duty as a backdrop.
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Saturday, September 19, was the Rising Stars night, and it ran as a round: the writers sat on a row of stools across the front of the stage, guitars on their knees, and took turns down the line. Morgan Johnston, Alee, Stacey Kelleher, Presley Tennant, Austin G, Garrett Owens and Fuller made up the bill, with a special performance from Martin and Kelly. The photos below are all from that night at the Strand; the full set, with the room itself and Martin and Kelly’s set, is in our Songwriters Festival gallery.
Four of Saturday's writers in the round: stools across the front of the Strand stage, a drum kit and a keyboard behind them.
Morgan Johnston, smiling across the stage between lines.
Alee, eyes closed, in a leather jacket on a Martin acoustic.
The Saturday show was the middle night of the three at the Strand, the evening after Tivoli Day on Circuit Avenue, and the after-party moved to Midnight Taco on Circuit Avenue. The show started at 7 PM, as on the other two nights.
Stacey Kelleher between songs, an arm resting on the top of her guitar, grinning at whoever was up next.
Presley Tennant, arms folded over a black guitar, listening to the writer beside her.
Austin G at the microphone, one hand off the guitar.
Garrett Owens, head down over a sunburst acoustic.
Fuller, straw cowboy hat and paisley shirt, eyes closed on a Taylor.
By the festival’s own account it grew out of a long-running Vineyard songwriting tradition that began as small workshops in a family home in West Tisbury and listening-room rounds in Oak Bluffs, became a multi-day event spanning Boston and the island, went quiet for six years, and came back. The shows are kept deliberately small: established writers and rising artists share the same stage, take questions from the audience and stay around afterwards, and in its own words it relies on local support rather than major corporate sponsorship. The Sunday poster lists them along the bottom.
MV Vacation has no connection to the festival or the people who run it. Dates, lineups and after-parties above are from the festival’s own site and posters, checked in September 2026; the festival’s website, marthasvineyardsongwritersfest.com, is the place for next year’s dates and tickets.
Know Before You Go
In 2026 the festival ran Thursday to Sunday of Tivoli Day weekend, the third weekend of September, with the Strand shows at 7 PM. Watch the festival site and its Instagram account, @mvsongwritersfest, from late summer; the dates and the lineups appear there first.
Oak Bluffs Avenue, a block from the harbor and the ferry docks. Walk from anywhere in town; the Route 13 bus stops a minute away, and every VTA ride is fare-free through June 30, 2027.
The festival also runs mirror shows off-island: on the Sunday, Behind the Curtain played the Daily Brew Coffee House and Lounge at 412 North Falmouth Highway in North Falmouth from 6 to 9 PM, a short drive from the Woods Hole ferry, before the 7 PM Strand show on the island.
15 Island Inn Road, out by Farm Neck, a ten-minute drive or a bus ride from downtown. The kickoff was on the lawn, so bring a layer; September evenings turn cool fast.
Each night ended in a bar within a few minutes’ walk of the Strand: the Sand Bar on the harbor, Midnight Taco on Circuit Avenue. Our nightlife guide has the rooms and the hours.
Oak Bluffs empties after Labor Day and the inns drop their rates, which makes festival week one of the easier weekends of the year to book. See where to stay.
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