Issue 22, Sept. 2008

Summer Picks: From festivals to clubs – even to Symphony Hall! – we were there
Summer has come and gone again, bringing its share of hot days and sultry nights. It also brought – as usual – great opportunities to catch live music at outdoor festivals and indoors at steamy clubs.
Our purchase of a new and more powerful camera also brought hopes of better images from these shows. While we’re still trying to figure out all the features of the camera, we were able to capture some of the great moments of what we saw.
We made two trips to Western Mass., one to catch the Great American Hoedown known as the Green River Music Festival, one of our favorite festivals. There we caught up with Crooked Still, now sporting a new lineup that includes cellist Tristan Clarridge and fiddle player Brittany Haas; we also caught Mavis Staples, the Greencards, and Lucinda Williams (a first for us!); plus a fabulous after-hours set by the foot-stompin’ Eilen Jewell band.
On our second trip out west we took in the Swell Season, the amazing Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, as well as Josh Ritter playing solo as the opener. The show was intimate and warm despite downpours scattered throughout.
And speaking of Mr. Ritter, his performance at Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops orchestra was a real treat. He and his band, decked out in suits, were in top form for the occasion.
We also visited clubs like T.T. the Bear’s, a great college hang, to see young and hip Thao and her band, the Get Down Stay Down. You actually don’t go to see and hear her, you go to take part in her show as she bounces, bounds, and bobs along to her songs and you have little choice but to follow suit.
We stopped into the Bank of America Pavilion (not one of our favorite venues) to catch the amazing Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, who mixed ’70s-style guitar jams with alt-country accents to soaring effect.
We’re breathless just remembering all the fun we had this summer and can only hope that the fall will be half as fun.
To download the new issue, click HERE. To read CD reviews in the issue, click HERE.
To view photos, click HERE. For videos, click HERE.

MA5 - Songs
Songs that helped us survive this issue.
1. “You, Me & the Bourgeoise,’’ “Honeysuckle Weeks,” The Submarines. What? An upbeat, bouncy song? Impossible.
2. “We Both Go Down Together,” “Picaresque,” The Decemberists. They go down, we follow.
3. “Shady Grove,” “The Pizza Tapes,” Grisman/Garcia/Rice. Spontaneous and just plain fun.
4. “I Envy the Wind,” “Essence,” Lucinda Williams. Great to hear this song live at Green River.
5. “Modern Trick,” “Diamonds in the Dark,” Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles. In honor of guitarist Mike Castellana, who is leaving the band in favor of family. Hopefully, we’ll hear from him again soon.

Camera ready

A quick post before I head off to work. I recently purchased a new camera, an 8 megapixel Canon with a 10x zoom and 1600 ISO and am hoping it puts an end to my irritatingly blurry concert photos. Too many nights after spending too much time snapping pictures, especially in dark clubs, only to find the results miserable. First show up is the Swell Season in Northampton on Aug. 10. This one's an outdoors show at night so it will be a good test. I'll follow that up two nights later seeing the funky Thao With the Get Down Stay Down at T.T.'s in Cambridge. We'll pretty much know what we got after that. Anyway, a couple of the good shots I got at Green River a couple of weeks ago. Above, Greg Liszt of Crooked Still; and below, Lucinda Williams. Enjoy. More later.

Come on home to Green River

A few of my favorite things from the Green River Music Festival last weekend in Greenfield, Mass.: shrimp gumbo; the very cool light-up dancing guys walking through the crowd during Lucinda Williams' set; Crooked Still's new lineup; and Eilen Jewell closing out the night in the Dance Tent.
For those who have never gone to Green River, it is a great little music festival. It has a great family atmosphere and the lineup is usually filled with a mix of bluegrass, alt-country and folk acts. This year, the Saturday mainstage lineup included folkie Caroline Herring, the Greencards, the awesome newgrass band Crooked Still, Los Straitjackets, Mavis Staples and Lucinda Williams. There was also a dance tent where lesser-known acts played (more on this later).
Highlights for me: Crooked Still, which has a new lineup that includes a gorgeous fiddle player and a new cellist, are amazing. If you have a chance to see them, do. A couple of clips of their set are HERE and HERE. I wish I got video of their slowed-down version of "Come on in My Kitchen" because it was a highlight. Mavis Staples is a soulful piece of singing history. She told stories of her days with Martin Luther King and sang with passion
And Lucinda Williams, who I had never seen before, is a pro, no doubt. Her set featured some new rocking tunes, plus a few songs from each of her past albums. A clip of "Drunken Angel" is HERE. While I'm not a huge fan, I do love her "Essence" album, so it was nice to hear some of those tunes including "I Envy the Wind," which she said she doesn't play much but apparently there was a wedding held earlier in the day at the fest and that song was requested. Lucinda ended the night with a rousing version of "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)." She also really dug these light-up walking puppets (click HERE to see bad clip I took) that were going though the crowd. At one point between songs, she just kept saying how cool they were. It was funny.
Finally, we ended our night in the Dance Tent with Eilen Jewell and her band performing. Clip HERE. (Sorry for unsteady footage, but the floor was plywood and the people dancing kept me bouncing.) If you've never seen her, you've got to check her out. Her swinging band is a blast, her songs sound like they come from another era.
See you all next year at Green River.
To see the rest of my pics of the festival, click HERE.

Issue 21, June 2008

Can Jazz Rise Again?: Though still a vibrant form of free expression, the music today is in need of some new inspiration. But can anyone rejuvenate it?
When I finally settled on the cover topic for this issue, I first gave it a little test-drive – in the car one day with my wife and teen daughter.
Me: I’ve decided on the topic for my next magazine.
Wife: Oh, really? What’s that?
Me: “Is Jazz Dead?”
Wife: What? No way.
Daughter: Dad, that’s stupid, it’s not dead.
Me: Well, I don’t think anyone really cares much about jazz anymore.
Wife: That’s stupid. People still listen to jazz.
Daughter: The kids at school listen to jazz.
Me: Really? When?
Daughter: Well, we play it in band.
Me (to both of them): OK, name one jazz musician still alive who is playing relevant music today?
And then there was silence.
To their credit, I did reconsider and change my headline on the cover. But for the most part, the idea is still the same.
Yes, jazz does still exist and there are still some exciting players out there. But it is not, nor will it ever be, what it was. Is there anything wrong with that? No. But it wouldn’t hurt the ever-graying genre of music to get a shot in the arm.
Is there someone out there who could infuse the music with some new life, maybe capture young people’s ears again?
No one expects the golden age of jazz to return amid a music industry not only in turmoil, but one that only helps itself by promoting the most mainstream acts.
If jazz is going to return it needs some innovation, but is an innovator out there?
And speaking of injecting new life into a genre, we give you Crooked Still, one of a large handful of neo-bluegrass acts that has added spark to a country music as old as the hills where it was created. Crooked Still’s new album, “Still Crooked” is trying to build on the momentum created from their critically acclaimed last album, “Shaken by a Low Sound,” while undergoing personnel changes in the band.
To download the new issue, click HERE.
To read the CD reviews for Crooked Still, as well as those for new solo albums by Eef Barzelay and Drew Emmitt, click HERE.

MA5 - Songs
Songs that helped us survive this issue.
1. “I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory,’’ "Asking For Flowers," Kathleen Edwards. Just your typical fun country music song with hockey references.
2. “Trouble,” "Sailin' Shoes," Little Feat. An upcoming tribute album had us scurrying back to hear the original.
3. "Rumors," "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter," Josh Ritter. Getting us psyched for big Pops show.
4. “You Ain't Goin' Nowhere,” "I'm Not There" soundtrack, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Done with the perfect amount of sneer.
5. “Mountain Jumper,” "Shaken by a Low Sound," Crooked Still. The band at their craziest.

Playin' in the band

The dynamics of a band teeters, from brilliance to disaster, depending completely on how its players mesh. I have never personally been part of that experience, but have been around it enough to know that one bad apple -- a superstar ego, someone who is perpetually late or absent -- can change those dynamics and destroy a band. And while I am not saying this was the cause of the split-up of cellist extraordinaire Rushad Eggleston from Crooked Still, I would like to think after seeing them a bunch of times and reading about them, there was something to it.
First, let me say that I love the band, and after seeing a few YouTube clips (one of them below) with their new lineup, I'm happy to report they look energized and should be just fine. I think I blogged last year after seeing them at Passim that after the show I had this crazy fear that they would not stay together long. They seemed like a group, with a star cellist and star banjo player, with a ton of talent but not much chemistry. In the middle was this diminutive but powerful singer Aiofe O'Donovan trying to hold things together. I also saw them at Rushad's final concert at Sanders Theatre, and while they were all saying nice things, I didn't find his departure to be overly emotional for the band. And finally, Stills' bassist Corey DiMario, on his blog "Play the Bass, Drive the Bus," writes this about recording the group's new CD with new bandmates violinist Brittany Haas and cellist Tristan Clarridge: "It's really hard to express how excited I am about this music. It's exceeded every expectation I had going into the process by miles. It really feels like we are a band now, both musically and otherwise."
Here's to hoping that Crooked Still continues to make that crazy bluegrass music that we've come to love. I can't wait for the new album.

Videos!

In my attempt at being a full service bloggerator, I've posted all my concert video clips on YouTube. Among the artists so far are Josh Ritter, Lori McKenna, Crooked Still and the Wailin' Jennys. You can check them out by going to www.youtube.com/modernacoustic.
Here's a taste of what's been posted

Two for Thursday

A couple of items I've just learned about...

First, the Boston Music Award nominations are now in and YOU can vote for your favorites. In recent years these awards seem to have fallen on hard times, even to a point of being a joke when the likes of Pat Metheny and Bonnie Raitt were up for awards even though they haven't lived in Boston for over a decade. And this year there are still some questionable ones (hello, Josh Ritter, who has lived in Idaho for the last couple years). But there are some our favorites who are getting notice and got our vote (in fact, we voted for Josh anyway!). Lori McKenna was nominated for a bunch of awards and so was Sarah Borges. Another of our faves, Eilen Jewell was left off, which does not make us happy. Anyway, to vote click HERE.

Our second piece of news does not make me as happy. Rushad Eggleston (left), the brilliant charismatic cellist, is leaving the band Crooked Still. It has been our fear since I saw them earlier this year that the band is just too good to stay together long term. As it is their banjo player extraordinaire Greg Liszt has taken leaves from the band to tour with Springsteen. Crooked Still is adding another cellist and a fiddle player and are not breaking up, so we can take heart in that.