The Woods Tea Company is an acoustic group that performs fiery Celtic tunes, spirited bluegrass, rousing sea shanties and lively American folk songs with ease and skill, all tempered with a parched New England wit. All four members are fine vocalists and audiences often leave in awe of their wonderful harmonies. During a performance they use as many as a dozen different instruments.

Howard Wooden can be heard on vocals, bass, guitar and bodhran; Mike Lussen on vocals, five-string banjo, bodhran, bouzouki and guitar; Tom MacKenzie on vocals, hammered dulcimer, banjo, guitar, ukulele and keyboard; and Patti Casey on vocals, guitar, flute, penny whistle and clogboard.

After building a solid reputation in New England, Woods Tea Company started touring on the concert circuit nationwide, eventually playing in all the lower 48 states. Notable performances include New York’s Lincoln Center (twice), the Chautauqua Institute (three times), and appearances on PBS and National Public Radio, who labeled them “Vermont’s hardest-working folk group.”

A few years ago, the Irish Heritage Foundation honored the group with its Outstanding Innovation Award, in appreciation and recognition for their creative contributions to Irish music.

Singer/songwriter extraordinaire Patti Casey has become the seventh permanent member of the Woods Tea Co. since 1981. Casey has appeared live on “A Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keillor, has won Texas’s Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk songwriter’s competition, and was a winner of the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at the legendary Merlefest in Wilkesboro, N.C.

Tickets are available in the church office from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., weekdays as well as at the door on the day of the concert. Epworth United Methodist Church is located at 19285 Holland Glade Road, north of Rehoboth Beach near Seaside Tanger Outlet.

Call 302-227-7743 or visit epworth-rehoboth.org