Music
by Steve Pfarrer | Jan 13, 2023 | Articles, Featured, Music
Like so many other artists, author and illustrator Jeff Kinney felt stymied by the pandemic. The visits he’d typically make to bookstores to talk about the newest additions to his popular “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series were reduced to parking lot encounters and other...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jan 13, 2023 | Articles, Music
The Big Sway formed in the Valley in 2007 and have been in their current lineup consisting of Joe MacFadzen, Tim Zucco and Mike Grenier since 2013. Their genre-bending music is a shopping spree where there is something for everyone all in one spot. Combining punk,...
by Steve Pfarrer | Jan 13, 2023 | Articles, Featured, Music, Uncategorized
When she looks back at how her band first found its footing, Nerissa Nields sees one club in particular at the center of that story: the Iron Horse Music Hall. From the time The Nields, the Valley folk-rock band, formed in the early 1990s, the Iron Horse became the...
by Jennifer Levesque | Nov 2, 2022 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Uncategorized
The dose of nostalgia you get from toy gawking — in my opinion — is like no other. Whenever I’m on a Walmart or Target run, I have a tendency to gravitate toward the toy aisles to see what new Marvel action figures line the shelves – yes, I am that person. This time...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Featured, Music, Uncategorized
We lost a bright light on our local music scene with the recent passing of musician Kate Lorenz. Her brother Matt Lorenz (The Suitcase Junket) announced the loss via his Facebook page saying that she had died unexpectedly two weeks ago. Kate and Matt Lorenz along with...
by Jennifer Levesque | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Featured, Music, Uncategorized
Neon FaunaLeather Motel “Pinned Butterfly” the opening track and first single off of Neon Fauna’s second full length album Leather Motel sets the energetic mood immediately with this experimental album. When I say experimental, it’s not just in reference...
by Brenda Nelson | Oct 8, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
The COVID-19 crisis and need to avoid crowds have canceled many planned events in the area, but alternatives are being arranged for online viewing, and in some cases, participation. Our online calendar has listings from organizations across the country hosting virtual...
by Steve Pfarrer | Apr 30, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
Kris Delmhorst, holding an acoustic guitar in her lap, wore a hopeful smile as she sat recently in a room in her Shelburne Falls home and stared into a video camera. “I’m here,” she said. “Are you here? I think we’re here together, people … thank you for coming.” Like...
by Jennifer Levesque | Apr 22, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
Pioneer Valley natives Kara Rose Wolf, Kerrie T. Bowden and Laura Marie Picchi are soul sisters. Their trio, Eavesdrop is musical proof. They combine three-part vocals with percussion and acoustic guitar into their style. A mixture of Americana, folk, pop and soul,...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 3, 2020 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Featured, Music
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is singer-songwriter JJ Slater, who writes original music that blends together folk-rock and psychedelic pop with jazzy chord progressions. Interview with JJ Slater:
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 1, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
Western Mass-based experimental/math rock duo Fred Cracklin takes its name from a live action character played by Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore in the 1990s animated science fiction comedy “Space Ghost Coast to Coast.” The series is set up as a surreal...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 27, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performance is by synth duo Fire Letters, which combines synth pop with alternative rock influences. Check out the band’s Sessions video set in the video below. Interview with Fire Letters:
by Jennifer Levesque | Mar 27, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
A few weeks ago, before this whole quarantine thing happened, I ventured over to downtown Greenfield to catch what would be my last show for quite a bit. I parked my car just in time to see two people pass my parking spot with medical face masks on. If only I knew...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 20, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
The Lost Tribe is a CT-based band that’s led by a drum trio and combines world music jazz with Afro-funk. Check out the band’s Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with The Lost Tribe:
by Advocate Staff | Mar 13, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Henning Ohlenbusch is a Northampton-based singer-songwriter who performs acoustic indie rock and anti-folk with a sense of humor. Check out his Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Henning Ohlenbusch:
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 11, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
Take one part grunge, another part shoegaze pop, and throw in some indie rock in the vein of Elliott Smith, and you have the building blocks of Taking Space the debut nine-song, full-length album by local songwriter Aaron Noble. What’s immediately striking about this...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 6, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is blues/ rock singer and songwriter Peter J. Newland (of legendary Valley-based band FAT). Check out his performance in the video below. Interview with Peter J. Newland:
by Jennifer Levesque | Mar 4, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
“Our focus is equal parts towards experimental art and hosting great DJ nights,” Ten Forward owner Sarah Lanzillotta told me through an email. “We aim to serve as a home for artists in Western MA to grow creatively, to try out ideas with one another, and as a resource...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 28, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is Americana/ folk singer-songwriter Brian Dickens who brings a contemporary feel to classic folk inspired songs. Check out his Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Brian Dickens:
by Advocate Staff | Feb 26, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
Spring is in the air. Sort of. In some ways, after a snowy start, it has felt that winter didn’t come at all. But with clocks about to change to Daylight Savings (on Sunday, March 8!) it’s time to come out of our shells and check out a good show or museum. Here is an...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 21, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is Black Pyramid, a psychedelic war metal band with doom and stoner metal influences. Check out the band’s Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Black Pyramid:
by Jennifer Levesque | Feb 18, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
Arizona-based metal band Soulfly are coming back to our local music scene here in the Valley on their latest tour. They were here in 2014 when they played to a complete packed house at Maximum Capacity in Chicopee. The same venue under a different name, Poor Richards,...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 14, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is gospel-tinged vintage soul and bluesy rock group Sister Jawbone. Check out the band’s performance in the video below. Interview with Sister Jawbone:
by Advocate Staff | Feb 7, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions artist is Caylin Lee, a singer-songwriter who writes modern country with slice of life pop wisdom. Check out her Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Caylin Lee:
by Advocate Staff | Feb 6, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Left Hand Backwards, Lobotomobile, The Freqs, and Sciencefight at 13th Floor Music Lounge // SATURDAY Palmer-based punk and metal group Left Hand Backwards celebrates its 10th anniversary as a band this Saturday in Florence at the 13th Floor Music Lounge. Joining them...
by Jennifer Levesque | Feb 6, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
“There are stars, there is music, but where are you? I am calling you home tonight.” The beginning lyrics to opening track “Come On Home” from the latest release from Americana duo Ari & Mia welcomes you into their album as if it’s an intimate dinner party, with...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 31, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Burrie Jenkins plays folk rock on 12 string guitars mixed with world music influences. Check out his full Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Burrie Jenkins:
by Advocate Staff | Jan 30, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
LAVA Center Grand Opening Weekend // FRIDAY to SUNDAY Greenfield welcomes a new performing space on Main Street this weekend. The LAVA Center, part black box theater, part art gallery, is opening with three days of activities to reflect the center’s community-oriented...
by Chris Goudreau | Jan 30, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
Hundreds of small flickering candles lighting paths to a live ice carving demo at sunset and a fire juggling event with acrobatics and a unicycle are just some of the things in store for this year’s Luminaria, which kicks off the week of Winter Fest Amherst on Feb. 1...
by Chris Goudreau | Jan 28, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
The charred remains of a building smolder in patches of fire as gray smoke drifts over autumnal treetops. That image is cut, and layered multiple times on top of one another for the album cover art of Ghost Things, by Northampton-based Americana-infused indie rock...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 24, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Zoe Lemos is a songwriter who plays punk charged indie rock with earworm melodies. You can find her Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Zoe Lemos:
by Advocate Staff | Jan 23, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music
‘We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. // TUESDAY Music was a key part of the civil rights movement — African-American music in particular. To celebrate that music and the spirit and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr., the Fine Arts...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 17, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Rosie Porter and the Neon Moons play classic country and honky-tonk with a sentimental croon. Check out the band’s performance on the Valley Advocate Sessions stage. Interview with Rosie Porter:
by Advocate Staff | Jan 16, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Saturns Return: An Immersive Movement Experience // FRIDAY The Root Cellar in Greenfield is hosting an event titled “Saturns Return: An Immersive Movement Experience,” which, according to the Facebook event, includes a hero’s journey, dancing, live music, advice for...
by Chris Goudreau | Jan 16, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
An Amherst theater company named Queer & Now will be combining drag performances, lip syncing to contemporary pop music, as well as dance, theater, and mythology from around the world this weekend at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield. Queer...
by Chris Goudreau | Jan 10, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music
Steve Rodgers is a singer-songwriter who plays Americana and indie folk with a dash of rock ‘n’ roll. Check out his full Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Steve Rodgers:
by Jennifer Levesque | Jan 9, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
The first full moon of the new decade — the Wolf Moon — will start to howl at approximately 2:21 p.m. on Friday, January 10. Just so happens it’s also my birthday, maybe you’ll hear me howling at her from a distance wearing a crystal crown to welcome my 36th year on...
by Steve Pfarrer | Dec 31, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News
When he looks back on more than two decades of forging connections with musicians in Senegal, playing with them both there and in the United States, longtime Valley percussionist Tony Vacca laughs, shakes his head in wonder, and summarizes the situation like this:...
by Chris Goudreau | Dec 30, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
Music lovers in the Pioneer Valley were blessed by a plethora of great local music this year, whether that was the hauntingly beautiful folk rock of Philip B. Price’s new solo record “Bone Almanac” or what I named as one of the best local albums of the year —...
by Jennifer Levesque | Dec 24, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
Editor’s note: Advocate Associate Editor Chris Goudreau is a member of Leafies. The opening track to debut album Off Off Off Broadway from The Leafies You Gave Me tells a tale of a man who tends to the elephants and their dirty business at the circus. It is spoken...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 20, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Brown Bones performs soulful and intimate urban folk with poignant lyrics and heartfelt melodies. Check out the group’s full performance in the video below. Interview with Brown Bones:
by Advocate Staff | Dec 19, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Books, music and a birthday at Federal St. Books // SATURDAY There are few better things to celebrate than the re-opening of a bookstore, and such a celebration comes to us this weekend when Federal St. Books has its grand reopening under the ownership of Hillary...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 13, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Opal Canyon plays modern country and folk with a dash of psychedelic rock. Check out the band’s performance in the video below. Interview with Opal Canyon:
by Samantha Croteau | Dec 12, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News
David Picchi, who conducts arrangements for jazz quartet FlavaEvolution, labels the group’s sound as “fresh new jazz music for your mind and soul.” “We’re trying to bring something that you haven’t heard or things that you have heard and put them into new contexts to...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 6, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Snowhaus plays party punk and shredding emo pop. Check out the band’s Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Snowhaus:
by Advocate Staff | Dec 5, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Mad Habits, Ananda Luna, and The Hanged Man at Majestic Saloon // SUNDAY This Sunday at Majestic Saloon in Northampton will feature the musical stylings of progressive folk quartet Mad Habits, experimental and world fusion artist Ananda Luna as well as Bella’s Bartok...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 22, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
StompBoxTrio blends together jazz, soul, funk, and rock for a style all their own. Check out the band’s performance in the video below. Interview with StompBoxTrio:
by Advocate Staff | Nov 21, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
The Leafies You Gave Me Album Release Concert // SATURDAY Writer by day, surrealist operatic musical powerhouse by night Chris Goudreau is one of the core members of The Leafies You Gave Me, a 10-piece music and drama group that prides itself on putting on a...
by Chris Goudreau | Nov 19, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
Best Mann is the art rock and indie folk alter-ego of Nate Mondschein, who produced, composed, and performed all the instruments on his debut album, …And the Sky, released Oct. 25. …And the Sky by Best Mann There are so many musical layers on this 12-song...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 15, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Sam Crocker is a teen songwriter from Bernardston who plays introspective acoustic indie folk rock. Check out his Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Sam Crocker:
by Advocate Staff | Nov 14, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Ona Canoa EP Release Show at the Shea Theater // SATURDAY Advocate Sessions alumni and folk trio Ona Canoa will be releasing their first record this Saturday, a debut extended play (EP) titled “Good Dream.” With that milestone in the bag, they’ll be celebrating the...
by Jennifer Levesque | Nov 14, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
A couple months ago, I was going through the Fall/Winter Fine Arts Center booklet, checking out the upcoming events at UMass. When I started reading the description to the Jen Shyu: Nine Doors performance, I was highly intrigued. I soon after acquired tickets for the...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 11, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
The Tommy Filiault Trio plays bluesy party rock ‘n’ roll. Check out the band’s performance in the video below. Interview with Tommy Filiault Trio:
by Advocate Staff | Nov 7, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Lilith of the Valley: Sea of Change // SATURDAY “Lilith of the Valley,” a music series celebrating female artists, musicians, and business owners in the Pioneer Valley (presented by PRIA Music Marketing), returns for its sixth series this Saturday at Bishop’s Lounge...
by Steve Pfarrer | Nov 6, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News
Bassist Avery Sharpe has been playing and composing music for years, touring and recording with jazz greats like McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Yusef Lateef, and Billy Taylor. As a composer, he’s written music not just for his own ensemble but for a...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 1, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Snackbeard is a musical folk rock pirate for all ages with a beard made of snack foods. Check out Snackbeard the Pirate’s Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Snackbeard:
by Advocate Staff | Oct 31, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
The Scary Jane Jones at Progression Brewing // THURSDAY On Halloween night, be prepared to lose your soul to The Scary Jane Jones, the All Hallows Eve alter ego of local vintage soul band The Mary Jane Jones, which is putting on a special spooky show of two sets at...
by Chris Goudreau | Oct 31, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
Winterpills frontman Philip B. Price is set to release his next solo album on Nov. 8 titled “Bone Almanac,” which fuses haunting psychedelic-tinged folk rock and pop with lyrics that punch you in the gut when they’re not soothing what ails you across 14 songs. Drawing...
by Jennifer Levesque | Oct 29, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
The 5th Queer Punk Drag night is just a week-ish away and it’s the biggest one yet says Tanya Pearson, the curator of these unique shows. I went to the first show back in February and it was one of the most satisfying shows I’ve been to in a while. “For me,” Pearson...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 28, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Hivebane is an acoustic hard rock trio from Springfield, MA, with soaring vocal harmonies. Check out the band’s Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Hivebane:
