The Advocate has long been an observer of Valley music, and, though we'd never give up our critical notions, it's also part of our mission to be a catalyst and an advocate with a small "a." It is with that in mind that we brought some innovations to the Grand Band Slam issue this year.
We've dubbed this renovated version the "Big Music" issue. In it, you'll find many takes on music in the Valley (past and present) and information for fans and musicians. This issue is a starting point for grasping the entirety of Valley musical life, though no single issue could ever do it justice. We listed venues, festivals, schools, recording studios, luthiers and record stores. We also asked a long list of Valley musicians to offer their thoughts and experiences, and the response was remarkable—we got so many compelling stories that we'll be publishing them in two parts. (You can see the second batch online this week, and in print next week.) We asked several of our writers to explore interesting corners of Valley music, from Tom Sturm's autobiographical take on his brushes with rock glory to Natalia Munoz' overview of Valley Latin sounds and Matthew Dube's pick for an up-and-comer too new to make the Band Slam.
The Grand Band Slam part of our coverage is different this year, too. We took your nominations and offered them up for the vote. We also took a look at the many bands in the Valley and wrote about some of our favorites, GBS winners or no. You'll find those bands listed as editor's picks.
In putting together this issue, it quickly became clear that we weren't being hyperbolic in calling it the "big" music issue. It seems certain that one need not play "six degrees of separation" when it comes to Valley bands. If you aren't in a band, chances are you know several people who are. And each of them is probably in several bands. (They catch onto each other's scents, then combine and collaborate like bacteria in a petri dish.)
No one knows exactly how many musicians walk among us, but surely they number in the thousands. It's a tough task to create an exhaustive catalogue of even a portion of that teeming horde. Though we'd love to shine such light on things that no nook or cranny is left untouched, the embarrassment of musical riches here makes that an impossibility—all the lists could, no doubt, be even longer. A complete catalogue would remain accurate for only a few minutes, until collisions and collaborations produced yet more in need of description.
Although it's tough to keep track of so much musical energy, it's also a deeply rewarding pastime that yields abundant discoveries and moments of real brilliance, from watching Fear Nuttin climb to national prominence to rolling down the window on a Saturday drive through Northampton to hear Primate Fiasco lay down the Dixieland.
The Valley is full of music, from folk to metal, Andean to African. And that's worth a celebration. Our party starts with the Big Music issue, and culminates October 4 at Maximum Capacity in Chicopee, when Grand Band Slam winners and editor's picks hit the stage."
