Music
by James Heflin | Jun 30, 2015 | Arts, Music
Rebirth This World Of Ours (independent) Valley band Rebirth has one of the most unusual origin stories you’ll hear: the band formed a few years ago when its members lost a friend, activist Julius Ford. Bassist/guitarist/vocalist Cinamon Blair told the Advocate in...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 23, 2015 | Arts, Music
Of Monsters and Men Beneath the Skin (Republic Records) The anthemic pop rock Of Monsters and Men pounds out is destined for Coldplay-sized stadium crowds. The band’s songs lean on thundering drums, huge hooks, and wholehearted harmonies, and the formula has been...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 23, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News, Stage
Bernice Kwade lives in two worlds at the same time. “When I’m at home, it’s a totally different environment than when I go out,” she said. “My parents are trying to instill traditional African values in me, but we live in America now. I want to have a more liberal...
by Gary Carra | Jun 23, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
From country to crooners, Wilbraham’s free Fountain Park concert series springs nocturnal, offering all of this and more on Thursdays 6:30-8 p.m. Kicking things off June 25 are Margaritaville-inspired Buffett mimics Changes In Latitudes. Country rockers Whiskey &...
by Gary Carra | Jun 16, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler, Stage
Magician Criss Angel recently appeared at a special press conference at Connecticut’s Foxwoods casino to reveal his latest trick. “My goal is to redefine magic touring like Cirque du Soleil did for the circus,” Angel said of his upcoming Supernaturalist show, an...
by James Heflin | Jun 16, 2015 | Arts, Music
Haelos Earth Not Above (Matador) London trio Haelos often manages an unusual feat: the group takes the sterile sounds of electronic instruments and creates from them music that’s drenched with emotion. A couple of minutes into the EP Earth Not Above, there’s a...
by Amanda Drane | Jun 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
At the Waterfront Tavern in Holyoke, a rap battle between Hoodie Cruger, who is black, and Petey Mitch, who is white, turns racist. “I got rap sheets to rival my rap sheets,” spits Petey. “For your life, somewhere someway, had to pay two cents a day. That’s not what I...
by Gary Carra | Jun 10, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Nightcrawler
Noho’s And The Kids are more than allright. In fact, they’ve been called everything from “fearless and entertaining” to one of “Western Massachusetts’ indie scene’s brightest creative lights,” depending on whom you ask. The observations cited just happened to come...
by James Heflin | Jun 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Blogs, Columns, Featured, Leisure, Music, News, Nightcrawler
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by James Heflin | Jun 2, 2015 | Arts, Music
Sasha Siem Most of the Boys (Blue Plum) Somewhere or other, there’s a line of demarcation between “singer/songwriter” and “composer.” London-based Sasha Siem may be a crafter of unusual pop, but she nonetheless seems to have crossed into composer territory, winning a...
by James Heflin | Jun 2, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Leisure, Music, Stage
Summertime, and the livin’ is greatly enhanced by a calendar ripe with performances. In a Valley that comes alive with music, theater, and every other incarnation of the arts, it can be tough to know where to turn. We’ve compiled a short list of highlights from the...
by Kristin Palpini | Jun 2, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, Music
Like anyone who loves going to music festivals, I cannot tell you how many I’ve attended: 50, 75, 10 — After a while they all run together into a single hot, soggy time dancing under open skies marked by torrential downpours, mind-blowing sets, and epic antics. Make...
by Gary Carra | Jun 2, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Two celebrations of area agriculture and audio sprout up on the local landscape this week. The first, Watermelon Wednesdays in Whately (watermelonwednesdays.com), began its 16th season May 28 with singer/songwriters Pat Alger, Jim Rooney, and Chris Brashear....
by James Heflin | May 27, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
Early 20th-century Modernist literature, at its worst, is uninviting and impenetrable. Take the work of Ezra Pound — at one extreme is his beautiful and accessible imagist poem “In A Station of the Metro”: The apparition of these faces in the crowd; petals on a wet,...
by Gary Carra | May 27, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Nightcrawler
We knew that the powers that be were reverting back to the old name. Then we found out that they were getting a new logo. In fact, until recently, the only thing we didn’t know about Springfield’s Cityblock-turned-Bike Nite-back-to-Cityblock was who would be gracing...
by Jack Brown | May 27, 2015 | Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Music
Jazz and film have a great history together. In the early days, jazz was a boon to the young film industry, providing a seemingly endless collection of tunes for hit musicals. Indeed, in those days a great soundtrack was not merely something to sing; in many cases the...
by James Heflin | May 12, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Between the Lines, Blogs, Columns, Featured, Leisure, Music, News, Nightcrawler
Back in the final year of the 1900s, I stood, guitar in hand, on the steps of Northampton’s old courthouse at the main intersection. The occasion was the (then new) Valley Advocate Grand Band Slam. My bandmates and I had won top honors in the...
by James Heflin | May 12, 2015 | Arts, Blogs, Music, News
Usually, it’s a happy occasion that puts a band in the paper. This week, it’s tragic news. As you may have heard, The Alchemystics recently lost two of their circle. Drummer Demse Zullo and his longtime friend Brian White were killed when the van they were travelling...
by Gary Carra | May 12, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
After the band’s successful East Coast mini-tour, Colorway’s May 14 Iron Horse engagement certainly has all the hallmarks of a homecoming show. It’s also a CD release party, celebrating the band’s recently completed sophomore studio effort, The Black Sky Sequined....
by Hunter Styles | May 12, 2015 | Arts, Music, Uncategorized
My Morning Jacket The Waterfall (ATO Records) The sunny and spirited seventh record from My Morning Jacket is the closest thing the band has ever recorded to a summer road album. The Waterfall is a bright distillation of some of the group’s signature trappings, and it...
by James Heflin | May 6, 2015 | Arts, Music
by James Heflin | May 20, 2015 | Arts, Music
The Replacements The Complete Studio Albums 1981-1990 (Rhino) The ’80s dealt some major blows to rock ’n’ roll. Not only did the synth gain a measure of ascendancy in a genre that had, ’til then, been primarily about the ragged tones of the electric guitar, something...
by Kristin Palpini | May 6, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Leisure, Music, News, Scene Here, Stage
It’s the final performance of the 2015 Springfield Symphony Orchestra season and the 71-year-old group has put together a timely show, The Rite of Spring with Spencer Myer on piano. Buses for retired living communities line the street outside. Inside Symphony Hall,...
by Gary Carra | May 20, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Last year, local musician/promoter Thomas Kielbania Jr. believed there was enough interest to resurrect the fabled “Kielbasa Fest” in his hometown of Chicopee after it lay dormant for nearly two decades. Gate totals of nearly 20,000 meat-seekers at the city’s Szot...
by Gary Carra | May 6, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Nightcrawler
Just when you thought it was safe to put your wallet away, out trots another apple product. But with more than two dozen bands cranking out more than 32 hours of music Aug. 21-23, Gary Phelps’ Apple Jam Roots Music Festival is a relative bargain, with three-day...
by Amanda Drane | May 12, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
Max Shea had been a part of UMass Amherst radio station WMUA 91.1 starting in 1993 — when he was an undergraduate student at UMass — until April 21, when he was escorted from campus by UMass police, banned from returning, and his beloved show, Martian Gardens, was...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 28, 2015 | Arts, Music
Jack Simons The Ballad of John Simons Todd Rundgren, Prince, Stevie Wonder, R. Stevie Moore, Adam Elk of the Mommyheads in his “Swiss Army Knife” phase, Ray Mason in his ’80s, homespun days, XTC’s Andy Partridge out in his demo-writing shed — they’re all one-stop pop...
by Gary Carra | Apr 28, 2015 | Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Normally, when looking to tinker with the formula on a time-tested venture, feasibility studies are conducted. Will the target population support the change? Do current trends indicate the potential for growth? In the case of the 29th annual Green River Festival and...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 21, 2015 | Arts, Music
April Verch The Newpart (Slab Town) The title track of April Verch’s new album refers to the family room her parents added in the 1970s, where she learned and honed her fiddle, step dance, and vocal skills. It and “Belle Election” are rooted in the Ontario countryside...
by Gary Carra | Apr 21, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Living By The Stars, Music, Nightcrawler
In its earliest form back in Ireland and Scotland circa the 15th century, the distilled spirit we now call whiskey was commonly referred to as “aqua vitae.” Curiously, the word “vitae” means “blameless in life; innocent.” But as history has well chronicled, aqua vitae...
by Gary Carra | Apr 14, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
There’s certainly nobody waiting in line any given Tuesday to grab the latest CD from their favorite group at the local record store. Heck, there are barely any local record stores left. (Except for in the Valley, it seems.) The exit of record stores has seen the...
by Gary Carra | Apr 8, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Leisure, Music, Nightcrawler
Perhaps it’s only appropriate — given the state of area roadways after this relentless winter — that the new Robin Lane documentary will be screened at Pothole Pictures this weekend. Certainly makes sense that it’s occurring in Shelburne Fall, as the subject of said...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 1, 2015 | Arts, Music
Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem Violets are Blue (Signature Sounds) Rani Arbo’s gorgeous “Sweet and Bitter” is a heartbreakingly lovely composition about love tinged with uncertainty. It’s the final track of daisy mayhem’s new album, Violets are Blue, but it could serve...
by Gary Carra | Apr 1, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Fans looking to wet their beaks on new Crowrider material may want to venture out to one of the many live engagements the band has lined up for the coming months. Guitarist Dino Bambino reports that they are laying down tracks for a forthcoming disc and the chemistry...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 24, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, Music, News
It’s mid-morning at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction. Eight inmates are gathered around an electric keyboard in the visiting room, laughing and talking quietly. Keyboard player Ken Maiuri hits middle C, and together they warm up with some scales. Up...
by Gary Carra | Mar 24, 2015 | Arts, Blogs, Columns, Leisure, Music, Nightcrawler
She’s seen fire. She’s seen (freezing) rain. But Kristy Librera Chapman remains undaunted in her quest to aid her family and her community. A cousin to one of the families affected by a tragic Christmas Eve fire in Southwick, Chapman says that she knew she needed to...
by James Heflin | Mar 18, 2015 | Arts, Music
Bill Fay Who Is The Sender? (Dead Oceans) It’s hard to imagine a quiet explosion, but that’s the only fitting description of the tune “Underneath the Sun,” from English pianist/songwriter Bill Fay’s new album Who Is The Sender? The song drifts along, but it drifts in...
by Gary Carra | Mar 18, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
He’s been a bona fide member of King Crimson’s court for more than three decades. Prior to securing his status as a veritable prog-rock deity, Brookline’s Tony Levin was trading licks with the likes of Chuck Mangione and Buddy Rich. Now 68, Levin is revisiting his...
by Kristin Palpini | Mar 10, 2015 | Music
Liz Longley Liz Longley (Sugar Hill) Liz Longley came out of Boston’s Berklee College of Music a few years back, and immediately began drawing comparisons to Shawn Colvin, Natalie Cole, and Nanci Griffith. She doesn’t really sound like any of them, and that will be...
by Gary Carra | Mar 10, 2015 | Music, Nightcrawler
They recently retooled their lineup, and they are juggling live shows with the recording of their highly anticipated sophomore studio effort. Despite such distractions, guitarist Tom Hamel maintains that Odds of Eden are always a safe bet when it comes to delivering...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 3, 2015 | Arts, Music
The Juliana Hatfield Three Whatever, My Love (American Laundromat) Two decades after the first Juliana Hatfield Three record, Hatfield, drummer Todd Philips and bassist Dean Fisher have reunited to make a sophomore release. By her own admission, Hatfield hasn’t tried...
by Gary Carra | Mar 3, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music
There’s an old line about the issue label types often dub the “sophomore jinx.” And that is, “You have your whole lifetime to write your first album, a matter of months for the follow up.” One need only pick up Dead Ringer, the successor to Meatloaf’s epic Bat Out Of...
by Gary Carra | Feb 25, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Nancy Sinatra’s boots may have been made for walkin’, but the way Ludlow Firefighter Dan McKenney sees it, his Rock The Boot Winter Jam — slated for Feb. 28 in the town’s Gremio Lusitano Club — will serve two decidedly different purposes. For starters, music fans...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 25, 2015 | Arts, Music
Bob Dylan and The Band The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11: The Complete Basement Tapes (Columbia/Legacy) It’s about time. Ever since Columbia launched this series over 20 years ago, the release of Bob Dylan’s most famous bootleg has been eagerly anticipated. A 24-song...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 25, 2015 | Arts, Leisure, Music, Stage
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by James Heflin | Feb 18, 2015 | Arts, Music
Brothers Born Knife Wounds (Nine Mile) Brothers Born is the new, Easthampton-based project of Joel Stroetzel of Killswitch Engage and Michael Wyzik, who’s been part of Red Door Exchange and Storm The Ohio. It’s worth noting up front that Brothers Born sounds pretty...
by Gary Carra | Feb 18, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
On the back of such seminal works as Goodfellas and Casino, Martin Scorsese is roundly regarded as an authority on all things mafioso. Less famously — at least, when considering his body of work in its entirety — Scorsese also filmed and released the final concert by...
by Gary Carra | Feb 11, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
“And this one time at band camp, I got to play with Joe Perry, Mark Clarke, and Steve Morse!” Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp, that is. After an impassioned written plea from his daughter Kristin, Bernardston’s Bill Cheney got to swap solos with some of his childhood...
by James Heflin | Feb 11, 2015 | Arts, Music
Of Montreal Aureate Gloom (Polyvinyl) Of Montreal — which is not a band from Montreal, but from Athens, Georgia — taps into a distinctive, if monolithic aesthetic on its 13th album. Determining whether that stylistic unity is evidence of imaginitive shortcomings or of...
by James Heflin | Feb 4, 2015 | Arts, Music
Barnstar! Sit Down! Get Up! Get Out! (Signature Sounds) Sure, it’s a generalization, but many are the bluegrass bands that sound a whole lot like all the other bluegrass bands. Standing out in such a well-defined and longstanding genre is no easy task. Put with that...
by James Heflin | Feb 4, 2015 | Arts, Film, Music, Stage
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by Gary Carra | Feb 4, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
The song may be more than three decades old, but even now, when musicians play a local watering hole, they know there’s a good chance someone will yell out “Freebird” at some point. Plucking even the opening arpeggio of 1971’s “Stairway to Heaven” at any given guitar...
by Gary Carra | Jan 28, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
They may call themselves Trailer Trash, but in talking to lead singer Joe Fazio and six-stringer Bob Stanek about the band’s inception, it sure sounds more like a recycling/re-tooling project. “Everyone in this band are friends and we’ve played together in various...
by James Heflin | Jan 28, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
The range of New Jersey violinist Jason Kao Hwang’s composing and playing is remarkable. At one end of the spectrum, there are completely composed pieces of “new,” or contemporary classical, music. At the other, you’ll find his improvised ’70s and ’80s work with...
by James Heflin | Jan 28, 2015 | Arts, Music
Robert Plant Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar (Nonesuch) Many are the long-haired rockers of yesteryear cashing in on playing tired versions of their long-haired hits of yesteryear. But Robert Plant, the iconic voice of Led Zeppelin, is hardly content to drag out “Black...
by James Heflin | Jan 21, 2015 | Arts, Music, News
The Gaslight Tinkers (independent) Lots of experiments in genre-crossing turn into one-trick ponies or big messes. The Valley’s Gaslight Tinkers avoid both traps. The group brings together some good players: Zoe Darrow on fiddle; Peter Siegel on guitar, mandolin, and...
by Gary Carra | Jan 21, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Nightcrawler
In the spirit of the performers they honor and emulate, the Berkshire-based Gypsy Lane burlesque troupe takes the show on the road this weekend. The campy cast of cabaret characters makes its debut at Norfolk, Conn.’s storied Infinity Music Hall & Bistro Jan. 22,...
by Gary Carra | Jan 15, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
The Crawler knows. You just got through returning all those clunker presents from the office Secret Santas. Now here comes scene stalwart Henning Ohlenbusch, playing sonic Santa. “As physical copies of music are becoming more and more obsolete, we feel this is an...
by James Heflin | Jan 15, 2015 | Music
Take a look at Tempo Maps, the new book of poems from Greenfield’s Daniel Hales, and you quite literally won’t know where to start. That’s because the book has two covers. Whichever way you start reading, you’ll face another challenge in the very middle of the book:...
by James Heflin | Jan 15, 2015 | Music
Incarnadine (independent) Northampton native Carolyn Walker’s Incarnadine sifts in slowly, fueled by simple acoustic guitar and tastes of steel guitar. Her voice sounds older than you might expect, with a pleasantly breathy lower end. Her upper register is edgier, a...
