Music
Maurice Soulfighter Taylor on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Maurice “Soulfighter” Taylor’s performances are slam poetry meets socially conscious hip hop. Check out his complete Valley Advocate Sessions performance. Interview with Maurice “Soulfighter” Taylor:
Drummer for ‘Black Panther’ soundtrack visits Pioneer Valley for first view of film
Black Panther smashed global box office records when it opened in February, and like any good action movie part of the magic of Black Panther is the soundtrack. While watching the movie, there’s one part of the soundtrack that you might not notice at first: the tama,...
Valley Show Girl: Friday the 23rd!!
Friday the 13th has become a horror franchise with 12 (and I’m sure there will be many more in the future) slasher films, television shows, comics, novels, video games and, of course, merchandise; take a look at the number of Jason’s masks roaming around on Halloween....
The CDs You Gave Me: Rob Maher’s ‘Man of Many Misses’ hits the mark
Northampton-based singer-songwriter Rob Maher’s debut 10-track album, “A Man of Many Misses,” is a an ode to the underdog and to overcoming life’s pains with a wry sense of humor and unshakable empathy. It’s a record that blends melancholy folk with haunting...
Pinedrop on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Pinedrop is a jammy bluegrass meets rocking Americana band from Brattleboro, VT. Check out the band’s complete Valley Advocate Sessions performance. (Click on the video below) Interview with Pinedrop:
Pick of the Day 3/23: Jeremy Turgeon Quintet at Rootstock
Jeremy Turgeon is a young guy, but man does he have chops and the Jeremy Turgeon Quintet, or “JTQ,” brings a fresh, new sound to modern jazz. As part of Rootstock tonight, they’ll be making magic, fusing the timeless combination of Jazz, R & B...
VIDEO: Pinedrop on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Pinedrop is jammy bluegrass meets rocking Americana. Check out a teaser video of the band’s upcoming Valley Advocate Sessions performance online this Friday.
Dar Williams Makes A Northampton Homecoming: a Q&A with the Pop Singer-Songwriter
Folk-pop super-group Cry Cry Cry, a trio consisting of acclaimed singer-songwriters Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky, and Richard Shindell, is heading to the Calvin Theatre in Northampton on Saturday, March 31. The band made their debut in 1998 with a self-titled release...
Pick of the Day 3/21: Smiles of A Summer Night at Amherst Cinema
It took Ingmar Bergman fifteen films to attract an international following, and it was his 1955 erotic comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens Leende) that did it. The black and white film follows 8 Swedes (four women and four men) through mating rituals and...
Three Decades of Music: Q&A with Cowboy Junkies vocalist Margo Timmins
Toronto-based alternative country, blues, and folk rockers, Cowboy Junkies, creates a melancholic feeling that’s combined with a mixture of genres and a collection of rock originals, cover tunes, and traditional songs. The band is best known for its critically...
Sunshine Brothers Inc. on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Sunshine Brothers Inc is a funky psychedelic pop group with waves of synth and surf. Interview with Sunshine Brothers Inc.
VIDEO: Sunshine Brothers Inc on Advocate Sessions Friday
Sunshine Brothers Inc plays funky psychedelic pop with waves of synth and surf. Check out a teaser video of the band’s upcoming Advocate Sessions video, which will be released this Friday.
Pick of the Day 3/16: Dustbowl Revival at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke
We made it! It’s Friday and it’s time to let it all hang out … in Holyoke. The Dust Bowl Revival is blowing into Gateway City Arts tonight. It’s a nine-piece juggernaut of super sonic jazz and folk-inspired music. You might be witness to a...
Pick of the Day 3/15: Pinedrop at Hawks & Reed in Greenfield
Beware the Ides of March … or not. But you might want to head up to Greenfield to check out Brattleboro’s Pinedrop band. In staff writer Chris Goudreau’s Staff Pick this week, he describes them as “folk and jammy bluegrass quartet.” Lexi...
Basemental: Tundrastomper Cleans It Up
Before writing this column, I stopped by Tundrastomper’s band house near the border of Easthampton and Southampton. Bassist Andrew Jones was getting surgical with a vacuum in the suburban home’s awkwardly large bathroom. He then offered me a bowl of black beans, which...
Stacy Waldman loves dick pics so much she published a book of them
Stacy Waldman loves Dick pics. “I’ve got big Dicks, little Dicks, Dick dates, Dick destinations, driving Dicks, friends play with Dick, lady Dicks….” Waldman lists a few other categories, but it’s abundantly clear that she’s sitting on a lot of Dicks. As a matter of...
Pick of the Day 3/11: Homeward Vets Music Fest at World War II Club
It’s the last day of the Homeward Vets Music Fest; it’s been a full weekend of local live music at the World War II Club in Northampton. Proceeds from this festival go to support previously homeless veterans transitioning into housing. Bands will wrap up...
Pick of the Day 3/9: Ray Mason at The Fort Hill Brewery
Pioneer Valley sonic road warrior and Advocate Sessions alum Ray Mason takes the stage early this evening at the Fort Hill Brewery in Easthampton. The man who is frequently referred to as, “the Godfather of the local music scene,” will have a plethora of songs to...
The Wildcat O’Halloran Band on the Valley Advocate Sessions
Check out energetic blues and classic rock group, The Wildcat O’Halloran Band. Wildcat has been a Massachusetts staple in the local blues and rock scene for more than two decades and the band’s Sessions performance mixes original blues rock songs with classic rock...
Pick of the Day 3/8: Sunshine Brothers Inc. at the Iron Horse
What do you get when you take feel-good surfer boy vocal harmonies, Dick Dale-inspired guitar, some goodness and light, add a pinch of The Cure, fold in a lot of synth, and some bubble gum? You get the Sunshine Brothers Inc., an Amherst-grown trio of adorable young...
VIDEO: The Wildcat O’Halloran Band on Sessions Friday
Check out a teaser video for energetic blues and classic rock group, The Wildcat O’Halloran Band. Wildcat has been a Massachusetts staple in the local blues and rock scene for more than a decade and the band’s Sessions performance mixes original blues rock...
Valley Showgirl: Say Darling took me to Patsy-ville at Back Porch Festival
For over 25 years The Back Porch Radio Show has been airing Sunday mornings on The River 93.9 FM. Curated by radio host Jim Olsen, the selected sounds are a variation of American roots music including bluegrass, folk, classic country, blues, and more. Olsen is also...
Wishbone Zoe on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Wishbone Zoe performs bass-driven experimental indie pop on Valley Advocate Sessions. Check out Wishbone Zoe’s full performance in the video below. Advocate Sessions is filmed by Northampton Community Television and recorded by Signature Sounds Recording.
Pick of the Day 3/2: The Brother Brothers at The Parlor Room
Fiddles, cellos and their stringed cousins, can make a most desolate and longing sound — a sound that is distinctly American. The Brother Brothers of Brooklyn really know how to make desolation sound lovely. Identical twins, Adam and David Moss create harmonies...
Valley Advocate Q&A with Deer Tick Guitarist Ian Patrick O’Neil
Alternative rock band Deer Tick, known for its blend of influences from grungy alternative rock, to folk, punk, blues, and country, is heading to the Academy of Music Theatre this Friday, March 2, at 7 p.m. as part of Signature Sounds’ Back Porch Festival. Ahead of...
VIDEO: Wishbone Zoe on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Wishbone Zoe performs bass-driven experimental indie pop with Advocate Sessions this week. Check out a teaser video of Wishbone Zoe’s full performance, which will be released this Friday.
Pick of the Day 2/27: Andrew Bird at the Calvin Theater
Indie rock and folk singer-songwriter Andrew Bird makes what he calls “three-dimensional music” – a mixture of violin, guitar, and virtuoso whistling, combined with intricate looping pedals. As a teen Bird became interested in a variety of styles including early jazz,...
Pick of the Day 2/26: The Jeff Holmes Big Band at the 121 Club
The big band sound never gets old, so if you’re free at 7:30 tonight, check out the stylings of the Jeff Holmes Big Band featuring composer/lyricist Dawning Holmes on vocals. They’re swinging at the 121 Club and it’s free. Holmes has performed with legendary stars...
Carolyn Walker on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Carolyn Walker is a singer-songwriter with a penchant for bittersweet folk melodies with a dash of alternative rock. Check out Carolyn Walker’s full Valley Advocate Sessions performance in the link below. Advocate Sessions, which features sets and interviews by...
Pick of the Day 2/23: Flathead Rodeo Celebrates Johnny Cash’s Birthday
It’s Friday and who wouldn’t want to celebrate the legendary man in black: Johnny Cash. Flathead Rodeo plays an original blend of rockabilly and the music that influenced it. Flathead Radio is: Mistress Miriam on vocals, Theo Aronson on upright bass,...
VIDEO: Carolyn Walker on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Carolyn Walker is a singer-songwriter with a penchant for bittersweet folk melodies with a dash of alternative rock. Her full performance will be available this Friday. Check out our Sessions teaser video in the link below.
Pick of the Day 2/18: Liz Longley at Iron Horse
Liz Longley A subtle Sunday is in order. Go check out Berklee College of Music graduate and award-winning songwriter, Liz Longley. Longley performs at the Iron Horse Music Hall. Some think of Shawn Colvin or Paula Cole when they think of Langley, but recognize she...
Bunnies on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Bunnies will take you on a psychedelic voyage of experimental rock with their recent performance on Valley Advocate Sessions. (Click on the video below) BONUS: Interview with Bunnies
Pick of the Day 2/15: Foghorn String Band at the Parlor Room
Foghorn String Band at the Parlor Room Listening to the Foghorn String Band is like pulling out your great grandma’s handmade heirloom quilt. It’s American roots music drawn from bluegrass, classic country, and Cajun musical traditions. The band has...
VIDEO: Bunnies on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Bunnies is a band that’ll take you on a psychedelic voyage of experimental rock. Check out a teaser for the band’s full Valley Advocate Sessions performance, which will be released this Friday.
Valley Advocate Q&A with indie folk violinist and virtuoso whistler Andrew Bird
Indie rock and folk singer-songwriter Andrew Bird makes what he calls “three-dimensional music” – a mixture of violin, guitar, and virtuoso whistling, combined with intricate looping pedals. Bird has released more than a dozen albums since starting his solo...
Kalliope Jones on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Kalliope Jones is teenage post rock band with lush harmonies and an eclectic spirit. The band previously performed at Green River Festival in the summer of 2017 on the Next Wave Stage along with other past Sessions bands, including Parlicium, Paper City Exile, Nomad...
VIDEO: Kalliope Jones on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Kalliope Jones is teenaged post rock band with lush harmonies and an eclectic spirit. Check out a teaser video for the group’s upcoming Valley Advocate Session to be released this Friday.
The Screaming Hearts on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
The Screaming Hearts is edgy alternative rock with indie soul. The band performed a special acoustic set on Valley Advocate Sessions. Check it out in the video below. Interview with the Screaming Hearts
VIDEO: The Screaming Hearts on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
The Screaming Hearts is edgy alternative rock with indie soul. Check out a teaser for the band’s acoustic set, which will be released in full this Friday.
Cost of Contentment: The Crossroads of Art, Addiction, Mental Illness
The nondescript building in which Anchor House of Artists is located is misleading. It’s exterior is plain and white, sitting on the very edge of Pleasant Street seconds from the highway. There is no extra signage to alert visitors that they have, indeed,...
Valley Advocate Q&A with legendary blues harpist and singer James Montgomery
Blues harmonica and singer James Montgomery is a blues legend. Growing up in Detroit, he learned the blues first-hands from blues harp virtuoso James Cotton, and has been a presence in blues music for decades with the James Montgomery Band. Valley Advocate Staff...
Darklight on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Darklight creates dark ambient electronic meditations and is this week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer. Darklight is also set to release a dual song recording via Bandcamp on Feb. 1 called “Dyadic.” Interview with Darklight:
Musical Fundraiser for Charles Neville unites Pioneer Valley and New Orleans communities
Charles Neville, Grammy award winning saxophonist and member of R&B, soul, and funk group, The Neville Brothers, has been battling pancreatic cancer for the past two months. He was born and raised in New Orleans, but has called the Pioneer Valley home for the past...
VIDEO: Darklight on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Darklight creates dark ambient electronic meditations and is this week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer. You can check out a teaser for his performance set to be released this Friday. Darklight
Valley Show Girl: A Night of Funky R&B for Jane Doe Inc.
I love it when music collides with a charitable fundraiser event, especially when that event involves human rights. The happenings at The O’s Music Bar in Sunderland last week were just that. Rise Up Productions, a liberal activist group of musicians and actors based...
OroborO’s Laughing Death is an Impact Crater of Hardcore Punk and Math Rock
Amherst-based OroborO’s debut album, Laughing Death, is a furiously upbeat apocalyptic vision of doom metal, hardcore punk, math rock, and jazzy psychedelia with a wry dark sense of humor that’s like going for a quaint and pleasant stroll while sirens wail and...
Valley Show Girl: Guitars and Coffee
The smell of strong coffee warms me from the cold as I open the door to Iconica Social Club for the first time. From the outside, it looks like an odd brick building in the middle of a parking lot behind Haymarket in Northampton. But upon entering, you’re engulfed...
Review: Decades of Philip B. Price of Winterpills
This past year Winterpills member and Northampton-based singer-songwriter Phillip B. Price remastered a dozen of his past solo albums recorded from 1988 to 2004, which had never seen the light of day. With a back catalogue of more than a hundred songs to choose from,...
Behold! True Genre-Benders
Holyoke-based Behold! True Believers combines genres that you wouldn’t initially think would pair well together — pop punk, alternative rock, psychedelic pop, doo-wop, and experimental rock. This synthesis of influences works surprising well on the sextet’s recent...
Valley Show Girl: Party Time! Excellent!
I don’t know about any of you, but 2017 kicked my ass. But, as always, one of the things that keeps me sane, is music. So let’s bid a farewell to this year with some kick ass shows that are sprinkled throughout the Valley. There is literally something for everyone,...
Nate Martel on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Singer-songwriter Nate Martel plays acoustic roots rock music that doesn’t skimp on soul. Martel is also a member of local psychedelic rock group, Outer Stylie, which previously performed on Valley Advocate Sessions. He recently released his first solo album, “Short...
‘There’s Only Two Kinds of Music: Good Music and Bad’
Joe Louis Walker has a voice out of classic soul and blues guitar chops that were inspired by some of the greats — B.B. King, Muddy Waters, the list goes on. Walker, a Blues Hall of Fame inductee, grew up in San Francisco playing blues before entering into the...
The Royal Frog Ballet: A Gathering of Grace
Celebrating 10 years of performance theater, The Royal Frog Ballet trades the wild outdoors for the pristine white walls of A.P.E. Gallery in downtown Northampton this month. Their retrospective, HINDSIGHT/FORESIGHT, is a thoughtful and vivid collection of paintings,...
VALLEY SHOW GIRL: ‘Short Stay’ Here For Long Haul
About a month ago, Valley musician Nate Martel came into the Advocate office to drop off his debut solo album “Short Stay.” Being a fan of his role in rock group, Outer Stylie, I was pumped to get the CD into my car as soon as I left work. And that I did. Recorded at...
Fat Bradley EP: A Funk Rock Voyage
Northampton-based funk sextet Fat Bradley’s new self-titled five-song extended play (EP) recording is an acid jazz fusion of instrumental kaleidoscopic funky rock that grooves along with frantic energy and a sense of reckless abandon that’s downright entertaining....
Hammydown’s “Pizzaface” a dose of slacker rock nostalgia
Northampton-based garage pop and indie rock trio Hammydown excels at tapping into youthful angst with charming, sarcastic glee on its debut five-song extended play recording, “Pizzaface,” released July 21. At its heart, Pizzaface is a record about dual identities and...
Valley Show Girl: Leave it to the Women
A couple weeks ago I wrote my column based on the fiasco that is Wikipedia Vs. Women, where locally and nationally non-male musicians are getting edited out of the popular DIY online encyclopedia due to male editors not accepting articles from certain publications...
Basemental: A Wikipedia Rant by Will
Last week my colleague Jennifer Levesque reported on musician and rock documentarian Tanya Pearson’s efforts to challenge Wikipedia edits. While trying to revise entries on the free encyclopedia, Pearson discovered that many edits and entries weren’t getting...E-Edition
Best Of 2025
Readers Choice 2025
