Mixtape: Feeling lucky: ‘Second Tongue’ is the new album from local indie rockers The Lucky Shots
By Jennifer Levesque For the Valley Advocate Local musician Noam Schatz has been playing drums in bands since he was 14 years old. I took a look at his website for his band The Lucky Shots, and I was in awe: The list of bands he’s been in since the ’90s is impressive....
Monte Belmonte Wines: What will Trump’s tariffs mean for wine prices? Local experts voice predictions, as tariffs continue to be a moving target
By Monte Belmonte For the Valley Advocate "Godspeed, everyone. May your supplier discounts be generous, and may wine on the water be saved by the powers that be.” It was a striking quote on a Facebook Group that I follow called the US Wine Trade Alliance. I initially...
Resonating through generations: Lady Pills releases new concept album, ‘Renowned in the Roaring Twenties’
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer A recording artist is connecting her family’s western Massachusetts roots to her new album. Lady Pills, the solo indie pop/alt-rock project of multi-instrumentalist Ella Boissonnault, released the album “Renowned in the Roaring Twenties”...
The ills of a billion-dollar enterprise: The slow-death of the cannabis industry, and what might be done to reverse the trend
By Gabriel O’Hara Salini For the Valley Advocate The Massachusetts cannabis industry is a billion-dollar enterprise, with over 700 retailers operating across the state. Yet stores are closing, companies are firing their workers and retail and non-retail licenses are...
Reel talent: Easthampton Film Festival returns for fourth year, May 1-4
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer Easthampton Film Festival will return for its fourth year from Thursday, May 1, through Sunday, May 4, bringing with it a slate of movies that were created, in large part, by local filmmakers. This year’s lineup includes a screening of...
‘We’re here! We’re queer! We’re ready to cheer!’: New queerleading team hopes to perform at queer sporting events in the Valley
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer A new group of “queerleaders” in Northampton wants to lift up the LGBTQ community — in more ways than one. On Sunday, a group of about 20 people gathered at Veterans Field in Northampton to set up a new team of queer cheerleaders who...
Here to help the community’s artists: Human Scale Art Space aims to advance visual arts in the Pioneer Valley
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer It’s not uncommon for a small nonprofit not to have a physical space. It is, however, ironic when that nonprofit itself is called Human Scale Art Space. The Northampton-based organization Human Scale Art Space aims to advance visual arts,...
Amherst can’t decide where it is: Is town center uptown or downtown?
By SCOTT MERZBACH Staff Writer Those attending a recent ribbon-cutting for the new UMass Downtown retail store and event space in Amherst center were invited to an afterparty at the Uptown Tap & Grille, which despite having a seemingly different geographical...
Women’s history told through clothing: Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club to host ‘Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore’ author, April 9
By MADISON SCHOFIELD Staff Writer The Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club is celebrating its 100th birthday this spring, and will kick off its centennial speaker series with a talk on the history of women’s clothing with Northampton author Kiki Smith on April 9 at the...
‘His notes will linger forever’: Remembering Young@Heart accordionist and Springfield College professor Chris Haynes
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer Chris Haynes, longtime accordionist for the Young@Heart Chorus and associate professor emeritus of music at Springfield College, died on Wednesday, March 12. “Chris was somebody who really cared about people, really made sure they were...
Macbeth, up close and personal: Second annual Montague Shakespeare Festival puts a new spin on the ‘psychological dark power drama’
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer By the pricking of my thumbs, “Macbeth” to Franklin County comes! Montague Shakespeare Festival’s production of “Macbeth” will run the weekends of March 28 to 30 and April 4 to 6 at Shea Theater in Turners Falls. The famous Shakespeare...
Sessions
Check out our most recent performances in the playlist below, or click here to dig into interviews and related material!
Let smoke shops sell weed legally: An argument from your resident cannabis economist
By Robin Goldstein For the Valley Advocate When voters vote to legalize weed, their intent is to legalize weed. And yet, in states across America, devils lurk in the details of how weed is regulated. Some of these devils have turned out to be so monstrous that they...
Resonating through generations: Lady Pills releases new concept album, ‘Renowned in the Roaring Twenties’
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer A recording artist is connecting her family’s western Massachusetts roots to her new album. Lady Pills, the solo indie pop/alt-rock project of multi-instrumentalist Ella Boissonnault, released the album “Renowned in the Roaring Twenties”...
From the V-Spot Vault: The Love is There, But the Sex Isn’t
Editor’s note: this article originally ran June 10, 2019. Hi Yana, Over the course of the last couple months my partner’s sex drive has slowly fallen off, and is now creating tension in our relationship. We’ve been together for nine months, and...
Live from Argentina: Acclaimed tango guitarists to play in Northampton for dancers and music lovers alike
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer If you go to a milonga, or social dance, to do tango dancing in Buenos Aires, you’ll likely be doing it to live music. In western Massachusetts? No so much. Now, though, Western Mass Tango, which has hosted tango lessons and dances in the...
The Beerhunter: Road Trip to Southern Worcester County
I thought I should make an effort to put my money where my mouth is, and stop for a while in Central Mass to do some more thorough exploring of my state.
Stagestruck: Backstage Stars
Nikki Beck and Ezekiel Baskin are about the busiest theater people around. You’ll never see them onstage or on the title page of the program, but you’ll very often find one, or both, of them backstage or elsewhere behind the scenes at any number of local theater events.
