T he March 5 show slated for The Elevens in Noho may be officially billed as the Superkart CD release party, but according to show opener Jim Armenti, he’ll be “piling on,” courtesy of a spankin’ new CD of his own.
“It all started with the tune ‘Woodpile,’ which I wrote when I was in fact moving a woodpile and simply wanted to learn how to use my digital recording gear,” the man more commonly known for his work with Ray Mason and The Lonesome Brothers explains of his recent solo effort. “I brought this to Jim Weeks (of Cloud Cuckooland Studios), and he really pushed me to keep going. So I dug up a bunch of songs I wrote for other people to sing some time ago and kept adding to it. Granted, some of those other songs could have been useful in my other projects, but everyone encouraged me to proceed with my own CD.”
The resulting effort—The Herd—is a stunning collection of porch-ready foot tappers (“Ever Since St. Louis,” “Woodpile”) and raucous roadhouse rockers (“Lost My Wallet,” “Hell To Pay”)—all ornately adorned with stunning slide/pedal steel embellishments and deftly executed chicken pickin’ passages.
But perhaps the best listens on Armenti’s Herd can be found when he assumes the role of the warbling balladeer, as he does to great effect in the lilting “Under The Laurel” or the wanderlust-inducing “Looking for Thomas.”
As for the evening’s headliner proper, Superkart’s namesake/founder Sue Burkhart revealed that she was able to churn out her latest labor of love—Big Wheel Keeps A Rollin’—in a matter of (and greatly aided by) Weeks.
“I did all the vocals, guitars and mandolin, and Jim Weeks played everything else you hear, plus engineered and produced,” Burkhart explains. “Definitely a great guy to have on your team.”
For the proverbial “game day” March 5 as well as all other live shows, for that matter, Burkhart’s stage team will be rounded out by Dave Hayes on bass and Sturgis Cunningham on drums. For more info on the product or impending performance, kindly point your browser to sueburkhartsuperkart.com.
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Similarly celebrating new studio product is Acid Zoe, an offshoot of the sultry Valley quintet Watcher, spearheaded by Tristan Tash. The hardware is titled Vega (available on Tash’s imprint, Mohawk Cat Records, at mohawkcatrecords.com), and while it certainly seems to bear a sonic resemblance to previous Watcher works—minimal techno loops cascading into haunting vocal lines, spa-waiting-room-worthy chill/trance grooves and jangling, bristly guitars—its architect maintains that this Acid is awash in unique prospects.
“Zoe is a way to express myself outside of a collaborative, band environment,” Tash says. “From composition to production to participation, I work entirely different on Zoe than Watcher, and the combination allows me to be fulfilled.”
Speaking of which, fulfilling the role of bass in the new project is none other than Watcher’s own Theresa Berard.
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Last but not least, seminal ’90s rockers Ed Kowalczyk (Live), Emerson Hart (Tonic) and Leigh Nash (Sixpence None The Richer) converge upon the Infinity Music Hall (infinityhall.com) stage in Norwalk, Conn. on Wednesday, March 2 for a special, storyteller-esque stroll down each performer’s memory lane that will ultimate intersect into a collaborative grand finale. The tour has been dubbed “Open Wings, Broken Strings” and the local play will be featured in a Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) Infinity Hall Live TV Series slated for broadcast this summer. Tickets are $55 and $75 depending on your proximity to the alt-pop revelry.
Catch the Nightcrawler every Wednesday at 8:50 a.m. on the Steve Cantara Radio Show, WRNX 100.9 FM. Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, PO Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.
