Show You Should Know: Salt Stage Presents Winter Salt – Feb 2 and 9 Featured Concert Music Features by Brian Carroll - February 1, 20180 Virtuosic musicianship. Storied songs. High flying acrobatics? Well when you are dealing with our pal Jason Elon Goodman of Salt Stage, anything is possible. Over the course of two evenings at Fog Bar in Rockland, Maine beautiful art will play out in many forms. On February 2nd the Django-esque stylings of Stephane Wrembel will echo out in celebration of the release ofThe Django Experiment III. On February 9th you can dig your roots into the dirt and get all folky-bluegrass-bluesied out with Joe K. Walsh and Celia Woodsmith. These two on their own are incredible, but the joining of their musical forces will be something truly special. Two incredible shows that also feature the artistic performances of contortionist and acrobat Jessica Jones. Head on
Show You Should Know: Damn Tall Buildings & Friends, Lizard Lounge 1/1 Featured Concert Music Features by Brian Carroll - December 29, 20170 Its that time of the year. Your post-holiday lull and slight sadness seeps in. But fear not friends we have a show for you on New Years Day and its one that will get you back in the swing of things and ready to hit 2018 with an iron fist. Having recently moved to Brooklyn, NY, the Boston-based bluegrass band Damn Tall Buildings will be returning to their hometown to ring in 2018 at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA. It will be a show filled with secret guests, dancing and Mai Tai’s. All of this sounds pretty killer to us folks and if you aren't already a huge fan of the Lizard Lounge its basically like staying in your living
Bringing it Back: One Night Band Announced for 1/6 at The Sinclair Featured Concert Music Features by Brian Carroll - December 27, 20170 The roots community in the Boston area is a fairly young pool of artists and perhaps isn't as privy to what the community looked like 10 years ago...hell, even 5 years ago. Two entities truly defined my own personal dive into the local music community when I returned to the city after college. One was the Band in Boston podcast, which at the time was a pretty forward thinking idea that today (a time where anyone can have a podcast and there are 100s of them for different topics) may not be fully appreciated. The other was the emergence of a "blog"...blog, I still hate the word but I digress...ok, an online publication that was in existence for one reason
Show You Should Know: The BMAs are on Thursday (12/7) Awards Featured Concert Music Features by Brian Carroll - December 5, 20170 You probably already know this. The Boston Music Awards are on Thursday and if you don't and you are now reading this...now you do. While we are of course very honored to be nominated as Best Blog, thats far besides the point of this post. Over the course of the past few years the BMAs have undergone a transformation of sorts and we are all a bit better for it as members of the New England music community. The shift sees a keen focus on support for local artists and the realization that Aerosmith does not need a Lifetime Achievement Award. While unable to attend last year, the 2015 show at the Sinclair just felt like a giant family reunion (even consisting
Show You Should Know: Hiss Golden Messenger at The Sinclair 12/6 Featured Concert Music Features by Ken Templeton - December 4, 20170 Over the weekend, the Senate passed its version of tax reform. The bill is, by many accounts, even by the right-leaning Forbes, a catastrophe. Net neutrality, unless there is some miracle, will be gone. Roy Moore’s candidacy has inspired the most jaw-dropping moral acrobatics since, well, since the 2016 presidential election. These are dark days. Hallelujah anyhow. If you are in need of hope and light and love, you can’t do better than Hiss Golden Messenger these days. The new album is fantastic (here’s a review). The live show is better. I was able to catch the band for night one of their two-night hometown shows at the Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw, North Carolina and am eager to see
Show You Should Know: Jake Klar at Radio Bean 12/2 (Burlington, VT) Featured Concert by Brian Carroll - December 1, 20170 Our pal Jake Klar comes back to Burlington this Saturday at Radio Bean and has a beautiful new record in tow. I just started digging into it hard today (feature to come) but I am telling you already you can notch it in on my favorite albums of 2017 list right now. So that should tell you all you need to know. Jake's got the full band in town. Go see some music this weekend, you won't be disappointed. They hit the Bean stage at 10 PM. So get there early, grab a seat and a beverage (coffee based or boozy) and see them while they are still playing these intimate stages. Stream the new record "Until the Wild Fire Becomes Paradise"
Shows You Should Know: Zach Schmidt Northeast Run – November 18 to 26 Featured Concert Music Features by Brian Carroll - November 14, 2017November 14, 20170 Thats right, shows. Plural, more than one that you should know over the course of the next week...well, NEXT week, starting this Saturday in our little ole Burly. Zach Schmidt is one of my favorite songwriters. Zach Schmidt is one of my favorite singers. Zach Schmidt is one of my favorite performers. Zach Schmidt is one of my favorite humans. Schmidt's 2016 release "The Day We Lost The War" may be just over 1 year old at this point but its staying power is unrivaled. I continue to listen to this album again and again and find something new to love about it. To quote myself "It’s just fucking great.". The dovetailing of great, introspective but accessible songwriting with musicality that forces
GET OUT TONIGHT! Blitzen Trapper at The Sinclair (11/7) Featured Concert Music Features by Brian Carroll - November 7, 20170 You all are looking for something to do on a Tuesday night when the wicked weather of winter is settling in on us. I know you are. And what goes better with winter than Blitzen...Trapper, that is. The Portland, Oregon ensemble ascends upon The Sinclair in Harvard Square tonight in celebration of their new record "Wild & Reckless" From the band: The album Wild & Reckless was born from the stage production that the band spent the better part of a year producing. The half musical, half rock-opera dealt with heroin abuse, desperation, true love and western power structures. The story evoked a bygone era of Portland with this sci-fi love story, featuring a rock-and-roll score that paired unreleased songs with favorites from the
Show You Should Know: Bob Bradshaw Album Release – The Burren (10/27) Featured Concert by Brian Carroll - October 23, 20170 Bob Bradshaw walks a fine line. The tone of his voice floating over the arrangements of his songs is familiar and inviting, but still incredibly unique in the landscape of music we are all currently dwelling in. His songs roll off his lips and into a listeners ears in a seemingly effortless fashion, but if you know the songwriter on any sort of personal level you realize the dedication and persistence that went into each recorded note in the studio or each word that hit the page. This month sees a new record from the Irish born singer called "American Echoes" and from the press rolling already, it promises to be Bradshaw's most prolific and introspective album to date. Bradshaw's 2015
Show You Should Know: J. Van Cleave + Max Garcia Conover at Atwood’s (10/22) Featured Concert Music Features by Ken Templeton - October 19, 2017October 19, 20170 Sunday night is a great chance to catch a couple of fantastic songwriters in one of the best venues around town. Max García Conover just released an incredible new album, Motorhome (here’s our review), and J. Van Cleave fronts a really fun band featuring his original songs. Van Cleave is a veteran of the New England music scene, having toured extensively with The Bridge Builders and Air Traffic Controller. He grew up playing fiddle, and has brought those chops to playing guitar and mandolin, and writing really good songs. He draws favorable comparisons to Dave Matthews, blending lots of interesting chord structures and lyrics that tell a story while still holding mystery. Here’s “And We Do It Again,” off of