The Burns Sisters will return to 6 on the Square at 2 p.m. on Sunday, December 18. (Submitted photo)

OXFORD — Folk/acoustic venue 6 On The Square in Oxford continues its 16th season when The Burns Sisters Band returns at 2 p.m. on Sunday, December 18.

The concert mixes holiday and winter traditions with the Burns’ 30-year songbook. Marie plays rhythm mandolin and uses the guitar when she writes music. She loves the old-time sounds of early country and bluegrass. Annie writes prolifically, using either piano or guitar for accompaniment as she writes, and she loves to belt out a rock ballad.

Growing up in Binghamton in a large family of 12 children, Marie and Annie’s family all sang together. Their father, the late John Burns, had a career in politics that included a stint as the city’s mayor.

In 2015, Marie and Annie traveled to Ireland, where they played established music festivals in western Ireland. There, they started to investigate their own family history and to learn the true history of the famine and the great migration. The experience inspired their album “Looking Back: Our American Irish Souls.”

The sisters’ professional resumé includes tour dates with Arlo Guthrie as backup vocalists as well as occasionally providing the opening act. They also have shared the stage with Tom Paxton, Jimmy LaFave, Janis Ian, Chris Thile, Folk Uke, and the Boston Pops, and they have played venues from Carnegie Hall to the Grand Old Opry, and from hills of Northern Thailand to the hills of Clare, Ireland.

Learn more at TheBurnsSisters.com.

Tickets for the December 18 show are $25 (plus a $2 service charge); purchase at 6onthesquare.org or call 607-843-OTS6 (6876) to make a reservation. Doors open one hour before the start of the performance. The performance also will be streamed live online on a pay-what-you-can basis; more information at 6onthesquare.org.

Masks and COVID-19 vaccinations are strongly encouraged but not required for entry.

This concert is made possible in part by Wells Fargo Advisors, Mirabito, Chenango County Tourism, and with public funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by the Earlville Opera House.

Coming up are Nate Gross on January 28, a PEO fundraiser with Meghan Cary on February 11, and The Tannahill Weavers on February 18.

6 On The Square, Inc. is an intimate, not-for-profit, volunteer-based acoustic music listening room and arts venue located at 6 Lafayette Park in downtown Oxford.

-Information provided by 6 on the Square