Show Review: Tift Merritt At Club Passim (4/2/2017) Concert Reviews Music Features by Ken Templeton - April 5, 20170 Tift Merritt sold out two shows at Club Passim on Sunday, taking a break in-between shows to put her 11-month old daughter to bed. If that sounds superhuman to you, that’s because it is. “Being a mother has shown me more music and joy,” Tift said to the crowd, “and also…” trailing off and letting a chorus of knowing laughter from the audience finish the thought. Throughout the set, she shared stories of life on the road and the backstory on songs, mostly from her most recent, spectacular album, Stitch of the World. As she walked off stage at the end of the night, people greeted her with appreciation and familiarity, as if we’d come to know her over the
A Little Help From Your Friends: Aoife O’ Donovan, Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage At First Unitarian (Burlington, VT 3/19) Concert Reviews Music Features by Brian Carroll - March 20, 20170 The sheer brilliance that each of these three artist beholds on their own is mind shattering. Last evening the beauty and utterly sublime nature of the performance put on by Aoife solo, Julian and Chris together and then the three of them was pure bliss. The evening begun with Eldridge and Lage performing quite a few new numbers from their latest collaborative effort "Mount Royal". The two of them lending their own very unique playing styles to a synergistic explosion of jubilee. Melding distinctive techniques and spirits ranging from jazz to bluegrass to country and everything seemingly under the sun to create a single genre-defying sound emanating out into the hall through the one condenser mic on stage. Virtuosity doesn't begin
Show Review: Jeffrey Foucault at The Rockwell, Somerville, MA (2/26) Concert Reviews Music Features by Ken Templeton - February 27, 2017February 27, 20170 Apparently, sometime Saturday night, Jeffrey Foucault and his drummer, Billy Conway, said to each other, “Hey, let’s call Dana,” and invited Dana Colley, Conway’s former Morphine bandmate, to play with them at The Rockwell. Colley joined the band for the last 5-6 songs of the set on baritone sax and it topped off what was, from start to finish, a masterful show. The set featured most of the basically perfect 2015 album Salt As Wolves and plenty of other gems from Foucault’s catalogue. I got to talk recently with Jeffrey, and he praised Conway for always being “in service to the song.” This ethic was evident in every member of the band, starting with Foucault himself. Trading glances and grins
Show Review: House Concert with Brooke Annibale Concert Reviews by Brian Carroll - November 15, 20160 Pittsburgh is holding out on us, Boston. Singer/songwriter Brooke Annibale hails from the steel city where she’s been honing a lush indie-pop sound that warrants comparisons to Norah Jones and Ingrid Michaelson. Annibale cut her teeth writing and performing in Nashville where she recorded her first disc, 2011’s Silence Worth Breaking, her 2013 EP, Words In Your Eyes, and 2015’s The Simple Fear before returning home to Pittsburgh. I’ve had Annibale on my radar since Simple Fear dropped. It’s an album that sounds both fresh and familiar with deceptively light melodies—earworms of the best variety. It would be more than a year before I’d get to see her perform live. It was worth the wait. I caught Annibale on her short
Recovering in 2016: Sing the Blues Concert Reviews Music Features by Ken Templeton - November 15, 20160 “If you get too worried, what you ought to do is sing,” say the Wood Brothers. Well, I’m worried. This has been a really hard week, following the election of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. So I decided to take the Wood Brothers advice and treat my worried mind to some fine music. Now, November 10 was a stacked deck in the Boston music scene. It didn’t really matter where you went, you were going to hear great music. Muddy Ruckus was at Lizard Lounge, Max Garcia Conover and Son of Town Hall were at The Lilypad, Ben Sollee was at Red Room 939. I went for two late night shows: Aaron Lee Tasjan at Great Scott and then I skipped across the river
Show Review: Mipso at One Longfellow Square (11/3) Concert Reviews by Ken Templeton - November 4, 20160 Even the awful, drunk, crossfit fuckface who could not shut the fuck up the whole goddamn concert couldn’t spoil an absolutely kickass show from Mipso at One Longfellow Square on Thursday night. OK, sorry, had to get that out of my system. This was my first time seeing Mipso, and it’s a really good feeling when you leave a show looking forward to the next time you get to catch them. They just set a great tone - they are loose and very clearly enjoy making music together. Oh, and they’re really, really good at it. The show featured much of the work from their first two records, Dark Holler Pop (2013) and Old Time Reverie (2015) as well as a
Show Review: Ben Cosgrove at Lamp Club Light Shop (Burlington, VT) Concert Reviews by Brian Carroll - October 24, 2016October 24, 20160 The music-delicious food compound that is Radio Bean-Lamp Club Light Shop-Duino Duende has become our favorite little spot (even if we are over an hour away). We are never let down when we go to catch music there and if we aren't necessarily feeling whats going on in one venue, we can hop on over to the other without even having to step outside. Luckily this past Friday evening we had no intention of leaving our cozy couch confine in the LCLS as piano master Ben Cosgrove swooned us with his musical stylings. Cosgrove is no stranger to us. His last release Solo Piano was hailed by Ken as "stunning" and "expertly played"...and witnessing his live performance just further establishes that
Show Review: Sturgill Simpson at The Orpheum (10/9 – Boston, MA) Concert Reviews by Ken Templeton - October 11, 20160 A few years ago, Sturgill Simpson played a rowdy show at Brighton Music Hall. He was riding in on a wave of critical acclaim for his sophomore album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, and it was an intimate enough show that when a fan told him congratulations, Sturgill looked at him and said, “Thank you, man.” “You made it,” the fan said. “We’ve crawled to the beginning,” Sturgill replied. “That’s still a van parked out back.” Three years later, Sturgill’s tour bus sat outside The Orpheum Theater. So some things have changed. What remains the same is Simpson’s incredible stage presence, vocal power, and energy as a frontman, and his ability to surround himself with players who pull no punches.
Show Review: Daniel Kushnir at Radio Bean (Burlington, VT) Concert Reviews Uncategorized by Brian Carroll - September 27, 20160 I've found myself stumbling lately. Stumbling at bars. And not in the sense that I got hammered and had to stumble out of the bar, but a far better form of it: stumbling into great acts without even realizing it. Last week our other writer over here at RLR (Ken) said he did just the same thing with the exact same artist, Daniel Kushnir. I received a text from him saying that he was around Portsmouth and just happened upon a spot where Kushnir and his musical percussive partner "Wolf" were playing...and he was enthralled. A few days later I am out in Burlington and happen upon our favorite new spot, Radio Bean, and sure enough the very same songwriter is there
Joyful Noise: Newport Aftershow with Phil Cook and Spirit Family Reunion Concert Reviews by Ken Templeton - July 24, 2016July 26, 20160 Phil Cook and The Guitarheels Spirit Family Reunion Newport Aftershow - July 23, 2016 The Cafe at The Parlor It’s 1:30 in the morning. I can’t go to sleep because I am filled with joy from the music I got to experience tonight. From the first notes of the fiddle played by the incredible Savoy brothers to the all-out dance jam that brought us home, this was an evening of musicians playing for something bigger than themselves--playing for each other and for their community. Maybe I’m gushing. I don’t care. It was beautiful and honest and really, really, really fun. Joel and Wilson Savoy of the Savoy Family Band opened the evening, playing a few cajun tunes. They are playing Sunday at the Museum Stage