Winterpills play their hometown CD release show at the Iron Horse on Saturday, February 25th celebrating the release of All My Lovely Goners, the band’s fifth album, due Feb. 14th on Signature Sounds

Winterpills will headline the Iron Horse on Saturday, February 25th celebrating the release of All My Lovely Goners, the band’s fifth album. Due Feb. 14th on Signature Sounds, Goners stretches well beyond Winterpills’ previous boundaries on thirteen new songs that are at once identifiable, yet broader. All My Lovely Goners embraces the hushed vocal harmonies and graceful chamber-pop sound the group has made its trademark, while pushing the quintet into new sonic realms. Together, singer/songwriter/guitarist Philip Price, singer/keyboardist Flora Reed, guitarist Dennis Crommett, bassist Brian Akey and drummer Dave Hower have essentially redefined the creative spirit of Winterpills. It’s the album Winterpills has been working toward from the start. From the group’s origins one cold winter in 2004 as a song circle for heartache, the band has blossomed, releasing three full-length albums — a self-titled effort in 2005, The Light Divides in 2007 and Central Chambers in 2008 — and the 2010 EP Tuxedo of Ashes, which The New York Times praised for “elegant arrangements” of “songs that stay haunted.”

Playing first at 7PM, very special guests Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion.

 Tickets are available at Northampton Box Office,76 Main Street. 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com

Scud Mountain Boys, Northampton's seminal 90s alt-country band, reunite for a series of dates in 2012 including a gig at the Pearl Street Clubroom on Sunday, January 15th

The Scud Mountain Boys began simply as The Scuds in Northampton in 1991. Back then the group played loud rock 'n' roll in local clubs and had an appreciable number of fans who would frequent their live shows. But after those shows ended, three members-Joe Pernice (vocals, acoustic and electric guitars), Stephen Desaulniers (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, and bass), and Bruce Tull (electric guitar, lap steel, pedal steel)-would retreat to Bruce's kitchen to unwind. There, late at night, the trio would break out their old country favorites, playing the songs they thought too quiet and too slow for live performances.

The band found that these were the songs they really lived to play, so they decided to make a change. Adding "mountain boys" to their name, the re-christened Scud Mountain Boys played their first show in 1993. They described the stripped-down approach to Springfield’s Union-News: "We took simple gear like acoustic guitars. We borrowed the kitchen table from the club. We sat down in chairs around the table, put a lamp on it, and had a convenient place to put our beers and ashtrays.... Then we played our set."

In keeping with their simplified approach, the Scud Mountain Boys preferred to record in the same kitchen that spawned their new direction. They had tried recording in a small studio but found it alienating. Tull later told the fanzine White Bread about the experience: "We were very rushed. I was playing in this cold and drafty hallway with my guitar and amp where I couldn't see the rest of the band. I was trying to look through this crack in the doorway to see them." So a four-track recorder captured the sounds for 12 original songs and three covers of songs originally performed by such diverse sources as Jimmy Webb ("Wichita Lineman"), Olivia Newton-John ("Please, Mister Please"), and Cher ("Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves"). Originally sold as the Pine Box cassette, the tracks were later released on vinyl by the indie-rock label Chunk Records in 1995.

As an album, Pine Box carries the mordant tone set by its title's reference to a plain coffin, and features songs like "There Is No Hell (Like the Hell on This Earth)" and "Freight of Fire." The lyrics tend to the subjects of loss and longing, with a tone of resignation that suggests some inner ability to deal with the pain. Pernice told James Keast of the website shmooze.net that he was interviewed by the UK’s NME (New Musical Express) and the interviewer's first question was, "Do you have a terrible life?" He replied that he probably would if he didn't have music as an outlet to express himself. Examples of this seem to abound on Pine Box. In a line from "Peter Graves' Anatomy" Pernice croons softly, "Old age for a body, decay for a crown/Don't ask for nothin', you'll never be let down." And yet the voice is not one of self-pity. Writing for Addicted to Noise, Chris Nelson described Pernice's vocal quality as one that "can convey the deepest of emotions without sounding contrived or melodramatic, a gift that is intensified by the fact that he happens to be an excellent writer whose poetic imagery brings to life his painful, tragic stories."

Later in 1995 the Scud Mountain Boys recorded another set of tracks which became Dance the Night Away on Chunk. Including more four-track kitchen recordings, as well as others made a 24-track studio, the CD-only release featured drums on a few songs, another Jimmy Webb cover ("Where's the Playground Susie") and similar lyrical themes. As with the first record, soft sounds mask dark thoughts, and simple words are deceptively suggestive. Ira Robbins, of the Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock, claimed that with Dance the Night Away "the Scuds barely disturb the silence as they whisper such slightly bent inventions as 'Letter to Bread' and Television' ('send me a show/you're the only world I know'). Although able to rouse themselves to a mild roots-rock roar... they make understatement far more engrossing."

As word of these two powerful records spread beyond Massachusetts, a number of record labels became interested in the band. "There's a million bands out there. It's unexpected," Tull told Union-News critic Marcel after the group signed with Seattle-based then Warner Brothers affiliate Sub Pop Records. "We were a dinky band from Northampton, kind of unorthodox, and we probably didn't play more than ten gigs out of Northampton." Opting for a drummer to fill out the sound, the band brought drummer and mandolin player Tom Shea on board as a full-time member and set about recording Massachusetts, a 14-song album with a number of more upbeat songs with drums and electric guitar. Released in April of 1996, Massachusetts unleashed the floodgates of critical acclaim that had eluded its less-known predecessors. The New Musical Express rated the record a nine (out of ten) and opined, "Joe Pernice has the golden voice of the damaged, regret oozing from every word like wounded honey... rendering glorious the utter inevitability of failure.... The best broken love and bad drug cocktail songs written in many a year." Acknowledging the vast difference between Scud Mountain Boys and their country music forbears on the one hand, and new crossover stars like Garth Brooks on the other, Rolling Stone called the album, "country in that the songs are the honest, homespun sort that characterized country before it picked up a blow-dryer."

  Although the band's sound has often been labeled as country music, the Scud Mountain Boys clearly see themselves as casting a wider net than that. As music writer James Keast put it on the shmooze.net website, "While the Scuds may be lumped in with Son Volt, Wilco and any number of other bands who are moving back to the traditional sounds of Hank Williams, they take their inspiration as much from hooky '70s AM pop as from the dirty country road of Johnny Cash." This assessment is borne out by the band's covers of artists like Cher and Olivia Newton-John. Scud guitarist Tull defined the band's style this way for the Union-News: "We're roots rock, but steeped in a real punk tradition and with a decided country flavor."

With the success of Massachusetts bringing increased demand for the first two albums, Sub Pop re-issued them as The Early Year, a double CD, in 1997. That year also found the band adjusting to a full-time musical career. Pernice, for one, had to reconcile the new career path with the master's degree in creative writing he had completed in 1996. Finding himself with a lot more time to write songs, he stacked up a few albums' worth in a short period of time. He also devoted some creative energy to the Pernice Brothers-a side project with his brother, Bob.

The group disbanded abruptly -- and somewhat acrimoniously -- in the fall of 1997. Pernice went on to form critically acclaimed indie band Pernice Brothers with his brother Bob. He and bandmates Stephen Desaulniers (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, and bass), Bruce Tull (electric guitar, lap steel, pedal steel) and Tom Shea (drums, mandolin) became estranged, but finally reconnected in Cambridge, Mass. this August. Soon thereafter, Desaulniers and Shea joined Joe and Bob Pernice onstage at the Lizard Lounge. 

Pernice says that, prior to the reunion, he and his bandmates "hadn't spoken a single word between us in 14 years," but after the recent death of a mutual friend, who also happened to be the Scuds' biggest fan, he pulled out some of their recordings and was inspired to contact his old friends. 

"I left the band so I had to make the extension," he says. "I grabbed my nuts and gave them a call... All the bullshit kind of disappeared." With a solo show scheduled for Boston on August 25, Pernice then invited his former bandmates to sit in. "I picked, like, eight songs, and Tom [Shea] got in touch with Stephen, who was a little reluctant. I told him, 'I’m gonna set up a bass rig, if you want to show up and play, I love it, if not, I understand,' and he showed up. We had some time to shoot the breeze before the show, we had some laughs and cleared the air. Then we did eight songs and it was like we never stopped playing."

In 2012. Ashmont Records will re-release The Early Year, and there are plans afoot for other re-releases and recordings. The Scud Mountain Boys have booked a 7-date East Coast tour which will bring them home to Northampton for a gig in the Pearl Street Clubroom on Sunday, January 15^th at 8PM with John Cunningham and Ray Mason as support.

Tickets are $15  at Northampton Box Office,76 Main Street. 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com

Local singer/songwriter Heather Maloney has already played the Iron Horse three times in 2011 and she's scheduled to take the stage two more times in the next month.

Heather Maloney's first show was in a Northampton coffee shop in September 2009. She was so petrified about the prospect of playing her music in public that her friends had to physically push her onto the stage. Now Maloney has two records under her belt, including her 2011 release "Time and Pocket Change," and no longer has to be shoved on stage to open for artists from Jill Sobule to Caravan of Thieves to David Wax Museum. Her updated take on traditional singer-songwriter folk-pop amalgamates her melismatic, (intern Genevieve, who pennned this post, is clearly an English major at Mt. Holyoke. -Ed) limber vocals (in the vein of Feist or Dirty Projectors' Amber Coffman) and poetic, identifiable lyrics with catchy, wandering acoustic guitar lines - it all adds together into a youthful, energetic, irresistible melange that'll speak to folk and even indie rock fans of all ilk. 

Maloney's songs will lead you through myriad fascinating rhythmic and key change-ups, from ballads to rollicking anthems. Can't get enough Maloney? She headlines the Iron Horse on Thursday, December 15^th, at 7PM, plays live on radio station WRSI’s Riversound Café with Joan Holliday at 5pm on Wednesday, December 14th. and she joins and handful of other locals in the Loretta Lynn Tribute at the Iron Horse on Sunday, January 15^th. No stranger to the Iron Horse, Heather played the club in May, July, and October of this year already.  -Genevieve Oliver

This past April, George Lenker of the Springfield Republican and MassLive asked Heather Maloney 5 Questions and we reprint them here, with thanks to the author and publication. 

Speed dating is a concept where people spend a few minutes getting to know one another to see if anything clicks romantically.

Using that model, we hereby offer you an journalistic speed date, of sorts, with up-and-coming singer-songwriter Heather Maloney, who will play the Iron Horse Music Hall on Sunday. She answers five questions about herself and her music.

What got you interested in music?

I was raised with a record player instead of a TV thanks mom and I jumped on my bed to her records: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills & Nash, etc. I was always in choirs and plays throughout school, and studied classical operatic vocals in school. I didn’t start writing my own songs until around 2008 or 2009.

Speaking of songwriting, how do you go about writing songs?

Every which way. It’s more of an intuitive thing at this point, so I just go with whatever comes first. I’d say that it’s mostly tunes first though. Melody comes easier to me than lyrics. I write pretty consistently. I find that if I don’t spend time writing I feel like something is missing.

What goes through your mind when you perform?

I aim to connect with the meaning of the song and embody the mood and state I was in when I originally wrote it. I’m very conscious of what I’m trying to say, and of what I’m doing with my voice to help say it. I am conscious of the audience for the most part, but it can go in and out.

(Heather with superb local guitarist Joe Boyle, above)

Give us a brief biography of yourself.

I was born and raised in North Jersey, and my parents also grew up in Jersey. My mother is a psychotherapist and she always encouraged me to be creative. I left Jersey, where I was majoring in music, because I felt strongly that I wanted to explore meditation, so lived and worked at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass. for two and a half years. I moved to Turners Falls about a year and a half ago to work on music full time again. It is my aim to weave the values of meditation practice into my daily life as a working musician.

What do you listen for when listening to music?

I listen for quality musicianship, and as a singer, I guess I can be particular about vocals. I want to hear some heart and soul in there too. I am really turned off by music and lyrics that seem emotionally disconnected. I am really inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s take on creativity. In one of his “Letters to a Young Poet,” he suggests that an artist must go into themselves and ask very honestly if they need to write. I want to hear something that came from someone out of the necessity to create, not because they were trying to be cool or an amazing musician. 

 Tickets are available at Northampton Box Office,76 Main Street. 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com

Holiday Funk-tacular with Everett Bradley's HOLIDELIC: Holiday Freak on Tuesday, December 20th at 7PM at the Iron Horse

Holidelic will shake you free of the Andy Williams and Nutcracker rut. Written, produced and directed by Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, producer, actor and dancer Everett Bradley, Holidelic debuted in 2002 at New York’s prestigious Joe’s Pub—part of New York’s Public Theater and Shakespeare Festival—and has sold out night after night since the beginning. Bradley is now taking the show on the road, bringing the magic, the mirth, the mayhem and the memories the Iron Horse in Northampton on Tuesday, January 20^th at 7PM. Tickets are available at Northampton Box Office,76 Main Street. 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com

Now entering it's 9th season, this holiday funk-tacular blends the influences of P-Funk, Sly Stone and other 1970’s and ‘80’s funk and soul bands into original songs that celebrate diversity, mild familial seasonal dysfunction, individuality, and holiday booty shaking. This is a show for all races, creeds and lifestyles… even for all ages with a little parental guidance!Nothing too outrageous-- just clean adult humor and the occasional double entendre.

"A flashy, bass-heavy retro-futuristic take on the holidays." The New Yorker

"A holiday funk-tacular." Time Out New York

"Original songs that celebrate diversity." OUT.com

Holidelic was conceived of as a celebration of the true holiday spirit of joy and giving, and since its inception in 2002, performances have featured a range of artists from Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, The B-52’s Fred Schneider, SNL’s Shawn Pelton and hip hop artist John Forte to pop chanteuse Lucy Woodward, dancing trombonist Jonathan Arons, and the legendary Celeste Holm. Holidelic performances outside of the metro New York region will feature an array of local celebrities and talent, making each performance a unique event.

"Not since James Brown’s Christmas Album has there been a Yuletide-themed collection as funky as this latest release from Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/actor Everett Bradley (Broadway’s Swing). Featuring mostly original songs as well as very loose adaptations of Tchaikovsky, "Frosty the Snowman," "Little Drummer Boy" and the like, Holidelic is a relentlessly fun and joyful disc that recalls the glory days of George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic." Frank Scheck (New York Post / Hollywood Reporter)

 

"Bradley's tunes will liven up anyone's familiar mix of music with pulsating rhythms that bring to mind the work of funk and soul greats like Sly Stone and P-Funk and clever conceits that put a fresh spin on familiar sentiments..." Andy Propst- TheaterMania

 

Everett Bradley—aka Papadelic—knows how to put on a show. The first American to perform with and direct the British percussive sensation "STOMP," he was also the co-writer, co-arranger, Theatre World Award winner and star of the hit musical, "SWING," which won a Tony Award and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Broadway Cast Recording. Everett has toured and recorded with giants like Bobby McFerrin, Jon Bon Jovi and David Bowie. He is Carly Simon’s musical director, a member of Hall and Oates and musical director of Our Time Theatre Company-- an artistic home for young people that stutter-- where he teaches singing, drumming, and songwriting techniques.

 Tickets are available at Northampton Box Office,76 Main Street. 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com

Maya Angelou digs Dwight & Nicole and we bet you will to. They play the late show on a co-bill with soul revivalist Jesse Dee at the Iron Horse on Thursday, December 8th at 10PM

Dwight & Nicole are an exciting American roots act heavily influenced by Otis Redding, Etta James, John Lee Hooker, Patsy Cline, and The Staple Singers. Fronted by two soul singers (Dwight Ritcher and Nicole Nelson) who deliver mind-blowing live shows; captivating every audience regardless of age or background. Their sound is a tapestry of blues, soul, jazz, gospel, and rock, transcending simple categorization and treading gracefully along that line which separates the brand new and the classic. 

They've been nominated for 4 Boston Music Awards and 3 Boston Phoenix Awards, starred in the documentary film "Where's the Music At?" and have been featured at the Tangelwood Jazz Festivial, Montreal Jazz Festival, The Life Is Good Festival, and regularly at the Blue Note in NYC. The Boston Globe calls the duo "Riveting" and describes their eclectic debut album !Signs as "a tour de force that demands much wider success... poignant... hard driving... and heavenly" Even Renaissance woman Dr. Maya Angelou is a fan, exclaiming them to be simply "Magnificent!"

Jesse Dee writes timeless songs that resonate as both humble tributes and clever updates of the classics. He brings them to life with a compelling voice that will lift you up as sure as it will lay you down. As a youngster in the Boston suburb of Arlington, Jesse was fascinated by the doo-wop groups and rhythm and blues artists he heard on the oldies stations. 

Since then, the singer/songwriter has drawn inspiration from everywhere he can; the raw and righteous Stax legends and the steam rolling electric grit of the Northern soul icons have ended up front and center. Some of Jesse’s heroes have picked up on his raw attack; he has performed with the likes of Al Green, Solomon Burke, Spencer Wiggins, Bettye Lavette, and his personal favorite, Etta James. Having shared the stage with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, James Hunter, Raphael Saadiq, and Nikka Costa, Jesse is also recognized as an important player in soul music’s modern era.

Tickets for Dwight & Nicole and Jesse Dee at the Iron Horse on Thursday, December 8th at 10PM are available at Northampton Box Office,76 Main Street. 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com

BOBBY, a band featuring former Bennington and Hampshire students and a member of Mountain Man, plays the Iron Horse on Wednesday, December 7th at 8:30

New England natives BOBBY are one of the indie world's most un-Googleable bands (even searching "bobby + band" will get you mostly hair product advertisements), so it's appropriate that their music possesses a mystifying air of elusiveness. In fact, elusiveness might as well be the band's middle name - the sometimes-seven-piece claim as their namesake and inspiration a never-seen eighth member, Bobby himself, whose stage fright prevents him from performing along with the songs the band have been writing for him since they formed as students at Vermont's Bennington College. Perfectly catering to the imaginative, cryptic mythos of their origin story, select highlights from Bobby's self-titled 2011 debut record see the band crafting mysterious, intoxicating atmospheric soundscapes, others sound like early Kate Bush (courtesy Molly Sarle and Amelia Meath of Mountain Man, who trade off vocal duties with founding member Tom Greenberg) transplanted into the toe-tapping, polyrhythmic tropes of 2010s indie pop - whatever the case, close your eyes and you'll probably easily visualize feeling your way through a dark forest full of mist. 

To get a feel for Bobby's live show before they bring it to the Iron Horse on Wednesday December 7th (with Nathan Hobbes and Brooklyn's fantastic The Loom) check out this video of languid, reverb-drenched album highlight "Groggy," recorded for LA music blog Yours Truly. 

Yours Truly Presents: Bobby "Groggy" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Phish bassist Mike Gordon and his band to play Northampton's Calvin Theatre on Saturday, December 10th

Over the past decade, Mike Gordon has become an increasingly prolific solo artist, and Moss is an exciting addition to his growing catalog. It is the third solo album from the Phish bassist, following Inside In (2003) and The Green Sparrow (2008). During this same time frame, he also cut a highly entertaining pair of albums - Clone (2002) and Sixty Six Steps (2005) - with guitarist extraordinaire Leo Kottke. In other words, Gordon's cup is overflowing with music on many different fronts. 

Moss comes only two short years after The Green Sparrow, and about half of its songs stem from the same 50-song burst of creativity that seeded that album. They join songs of more recent vintage, all of which were revised, reworked and morphed by the tireless Gordon in spontaneous but exacting fashion.

Gordon had a number of goals in mind when it came to making this album. He wanted the songs to be simpler and more accessible, and he also wanted to spend more time writing and revising them. ("Just like John Prine said, 'You don't write, you edit, '" he quips.) He also wanted to allow more focus to be placed on the actual singing.

In addition, Gordon wanted to let the album "be more true to itself, where it dictates what it needs, like by picking songs that seem to fit and ignoring ones that don't. " The powers-that-be in this album's spirit world apparently decreed that Gordon's bass guitar should function more like a lead instrument. And so he complied. Fans who appreciate Gordon's role as the ever-inventive low-end anchor in Phish will be delighted to hear how central his bass work is on Moss.

"The driving force is the bass, " says Gordon. "Not in terms of soloing, but in terms of having unique rhythms. Sometimes I tell people that the lead instrument on Inside In was pedal steel and the lead instrument on The Green Sparrow might've been electric guitar, and the central focus on this album is bass. "

Indeed, Gordon's bass lines wind through these songs like strands of DNA, determining the forms that the surrounding instruments and overall composition take. This is not an entirely far-fetched comparison, as lyrical references to double helixes, spirals and corkscrews – some of the shapes that DNA and other bits of cellular material assume – run through these songs, especially the dreamier, more otherworldly ones.

A four-song sequence, comprising "Flashback, " "The Void, " "Got Away" and "Spiral, " goes places no songs have gone before. They are uniquely Mike. You might suppose these soundscapes are musical evocations of particularly fanciful sights and sounds experienced while on hallucinogenic vision quests.

"There's a sort of psychedelic theme, and I've never tripped before, " he acknowledges. "But I thought that's okay because you don't always have to write from your own character, necessarily. I have an appreciation for what consciousness can do, though my way of getting there has been via different avenues. "

Moss, in fact, is really more about the limitless places one's imagination can visit on its own. Gordon has always been a dreamer and, by his own admission, an outsider, and this combination has made for a very colorful interior life. The songs on Moss are often accessible but also highly original, musing on matters of human consciousness and psychology in ways that are as listenable as they are unusual.

Words that crop up when Gordon discusses the songs' themes include creativity and emptiness, observation and engagement, presence and absence. Referring to "Horizon Line, " he notes, "If I had to consolidate the sentiment into one word, it would be displacement. That whole feeling of talking to someone but being elsewhere. The concept is, 'I'm talking to you but my mind is walking across the most distant part of my peripheral vision, where I'm actually walking on the horizon line, way out there. ' The theme of displacement weaves through all these songs. "

The fascinating thing is that he's able to evoke concepts as ethereal as this not just lyrically but musically. Songs like "Spiral" and "The Void" detour into evocatively abstract, meterless areas of sound with a mysterious, textural richness. On the other hand, such numbers as "Can't Stand Still" and "Fire From a Stick" – both joyfully devoted to muses, mentors and the ecstatic wellspring of inspiration - are infectious, danceable, upbeat and viscerally planted in the here and now.

Three years in the making, Moss is the later chapter in an ongoing collaboration between Gordon and his creative sounding board, Jared Slomoff. Gordon, of course, sings and plays bass, as well as a variety of other instruments, including guitar, piano and drum programming. Slomoff co-produced and contributed some singing, playing and programming as well.

Drummers Joe Russo and Doug Belote crop up throughout the album, and other guests include organist Marco Benevento and percussionist Ken Lovelett, who brought a few intriguing instruments of his own invention to Gordon's studio. Mike's bandmates in Phish - keyboardist Page McConnell and drummer Jon Fishman also make appearances. 

Tickets are available at Northampton Box Office,76 Main Street. 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com

Keller Williams plays Pearl Street on Friday, December 9th and delivers Bass, his 17th album the week after

Most artists would bristle at the term self-indulgent, but Keller Williams often invokes it in describing his own approach to music. To Williams, being self-indulgent means creating music that satisfies him—if he likes what he’s produced, he figures, then his audience is more likely to embrace it too. If he’s not happy with it, why would they be?

And so, when Williams describes his first-ever all-covers collection, the amusingly titled Thief, as “self-indulgent, like all of my albums,” that signifies not an inwardly pointed diss but a thumbs-up from one of the most tireless musical seekers around. Recorded with the Keels—husband and wife duo Larry and Jenny Keel—Thief is a sequel to the trio’s 2006 collaboration Grass, and to those of us on the receiving end, there’s nothing self-indulgent about it. If anything, it’s about as accessible and welcoming a record as Keller’s ever made.

Granted, Thief does require a certain amount of blind faith on the part of the listener: This is, after all, an album that includes songs originally written and recorded by as wildly diverse an assemblage as anyone’s ever likely to dream up, from Amy Winehouse (“Rehab”) to the Grateful Dead (“Mountains of the Moon”), the Butthole Surfers (“Pepper”) to Kris Kristofferson (“Don’t Cuss That Fiddle,” which opens the album, and “The Year 2003 Minus 25,” which closes it). The set is filled out with tunes by Ryan Adams, the Presidents of the United States of America, the Raconteurs, Patterson Hood, Danny Barnes, Cracker, the Yonder Mountain String Band and Marcy Playground. All over the place, yup, but that’s the way Williams likes it. And in his hands it all makes sense—like everything he’s ever touched, whether from his own pen or someone else’s, it all becomes Keller Williams music.

“I’m a music lover first, a musician second and a songwriter third,” Williams says, “so a covers record is a natural progression for me. I love writing songs and I love performing my songs—almost all of them. But I go out and do about 120 shows a year, and I just can’t write enough to play new songs all the time. There are always different cover songs to learn though; just flipping around on the radio, next thing you know you’ve got a song stuck in your head. If you change it around and play it completely differently, it sounds like a whole new song.”

Since he first appeared on the scene in the early ’90s, Keller Williams has defined the independent artist. Most of his career has been spent performing as a one-man band—his stage shows are built around Keller singing his compositions and choice covers while accompanying himself with an acoustic guitar connected to a Gibson Echoplex delay system that allows him to simulate a full band. That approach, Williams explains, was derived from “hours of playing solo with just a guitar and a microphone, and then wanting to go down different avenues musically. I couldn’t afford humans and didn’t want to step into the cheesy world of automated sequencers where you hit a button and the whole band starts to play, then you’ve got to solo along or sing on top of it. I wanted something more organic yet with a dance groove that I could create myself.”

Williams’ solo live shows—and his ability to improvise to his determinedly quirky tunes despite the absence of an actual band—quickly became the stuff of legend, and his audience grew exponentially once word spread about this exciting, unpredictable performer. Keller’s albums, meanwhile, beginning with 1994’s Freek, were embraced by a wide community of music fans. Unlike his live gigs, Williams has nearly always invited fellow musicians to contribute to his albums, and an alliance with String Cheese Incident led not only to Williams signing with the band’s label SCI Fidelity, but a collaborative effort on 1999’s Breathe album.

Among his other albums—Thief is his 15th—Williams singles out 2003’s Dance, consisting of remixes from the earlier Laugh record, as a personal favorite. He’s also fond of his twelfth album, appropriately titled 12, the 2007 compilation for which he chose one track from each of his preceding 11 albums. “That’s kind of interesting to hear my history one song at a time,” Williams says.

That history begins in Virginia, where Keller was born 40 years ago, and where he lives today. Growing up just south of Washington, D.C., he remembers being exposed to a wide variety of music at an early age, starting with country and bluegrass and working his way up through hip-hop and go-go, a brand of funk particular to that part of the country. Once he began playing guitar, Williams’ sphere expanded to what he calls “the post-pseudo-skateboarder punk-rock rebellious type of thing, Black Flag and Sex Pistols and Ramones, Dead Kennedys, things like that. That slid into the more melodic college rock, like the Cure and the Cult, the Smiths, R.E.M.’s first five or six records.”

His introduction to the music of the Grateful Dead would become a game-changer for Keller. “I studied and learned their music and went to the shows,” he says, adding that the impact of Jerry Garcia on his attitude toward music remains incalculable. Another major influence was Michael Hedges, the late virtuoso acoustic guitarist. “He was really excelling in a whole different world from what I knew,” says Williams. “What an amazing force Michael Hedges was as a solo artist.”

After moving to Colorado for a few years, further exposure to bluegrass music and progressive acoustic artists such as Béla Fleck and the Flecktones also had a major impression on Williams. As he began to develop his own distinctive compositional and performing style, Williams incorporated all of the lessons he’d learned from the long list of artists who’d found their way into his world, then filtered their music through his own experiences until something wholly unique emerged.

Today he is still exploring and expanding—although Thief (each of Williams’ albums bears a single-word title) stays close to traditional bluegrass, eccentric song choices aside, Keller says that his most recent music incorporates elements drawn from electronica and DJ culture. Whatever direction he goes in musically, however, Williams is likely to continue to surprise lyrically. Known for writing about subject matter most simply described as unusual, Keller has no intention of going conventional any time soon. “In the history of music,” he says, “there are trillions of love songs and there are so many political songs. I try to find subject matter that’s not been written about or maybe hasn’t been written about that much.”

Keller’s thirst for music of all kinds has also led him to the world of radio. For the past seven years he has hosted Keller’s Cellar, a weekly syndicated program available on both terrestrial stations and online at www.kellerwilliams.net. Williams describes the show as “a self-indulgent (there’s that word again), hour-long narrated mix tape of stuff I’m into. It’s rule-less except for what the FCC says we can’t do. I don’t play contemporary country music. I don’t play contemporary Christian music—however, there is possibly some old gospel. I don’t play opera. Everything else is fair game. World music from all around—African music from all the countries, jazz, funk, reggae, techno, chill, lounge, lounge singers, rub-a-dub, dancehall. I pretty much stay away from smooth jazz. It’s definitely a fun outlet for me.”

And more recently, to satisfy his bottomless music jones, Williams has also launched “Once a Week Freek” (www.theonceaweekfreek.com), an online repository of unreleased studio and live tracks, nuggets from his archives, etc. “It’s a series that’s been going on almost a year. It’s me releasing one song a week for download. I started it with the Oddrecord,” he says, referring to his 2009 album release. “I’m trying to do something different.”

And it’s that last sentence that, in a sense, best sums up what Keller Williams has always been about—something different. Call him “self-indulgent,” call him “odd” or even a “thief” if you like (those record titles don’t come out of nowhere, you know). Just don’t even think of calling him predictable. Wherever else Keller Williams may go from here, you can be sure that he will never title one of his albums Repeat or Bore or Snooze. Anything else, your guess is as good as his.


On December 13, 2011, Keller Williams delivers Bass, his 17^th album. Starting with 1994’s Freek, Keller has done solo albums, live albums, one with The String Cheese Incident, another with Bob Weir, Michael Franti, Bela Fleck and a bunch of other personal heroes, a bluegrass covers album with Keller & The Keels, a children’s album, a remix album, and more. Here Keller shows off, you guessed it, his bass skills with his first record that finds the multi-instrumentalist only on bass guitar.

Bass is also the first album to be recorded with Keller’s live reggae-funk band Kdubalicious. Formed in late 2010, in addition to Keller on bass and vocals, the group features Jay Starling on keyboards and Mark D on drums. Though Keller’s music, both what he listens to and what he puts out, may always be changing and evolving, there’s always one constant: his unique, playful songwriting. Bass is no different in that regard. This may be reggae music - with heavy doses of dub, funk, jazz and even bits of pop and psychedelia - but at the core, it’s a Keller Williams record, his warm voice and equally inviting attitude driving the positive vibrations.

Tickets are available at Northampton Box Office,76 Main Street. 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com

The Dark Star Orchestra channels The Grateful Dead at the Calvin Theatre this Friday

After 13 years - and quickly approaching its 2,000th live performance - the Dark Star Orchestra, a Grateful Dead tribute band, helps to keep the memory of one of America's most famous bands very much alive. 

The Grateful Dead, rated by Rolling Stone magazine as No. 57 on its list of "100 Greatest Artists of all Time," formed in San Francisco in 1965 and created its own genre, mixing several musical styles. It was quickly and wildly accepted by throngs of adoring fans - Deadheads - who have proven to be some of the most dedicated music fans in history: Many Deadheads spent hours on the road, dropping everything, to follow The Grateful Dead to gigs all over the country.

The legacy of The Dead, as the band is affectionately known, has lived well past its split in 1995, and after the death of guitarist and vocalist, Jerry Garcia, the band's frontman. The Dark Star Orchestra aims to tap into that legacy and passion by offering live performances that are based on actual Grateful Dead performances. 

The music The Grateful Dead played, the melodies, really tapped into "Americana," said Dark Star guitarist and vocalist Jeff Mattson in a recent phone interview. "The music reflects blues, country, jazz, blue grass, and of course, psychedelic. It's a mix of American music."

Dark Star Orchestra fashions its concerts using The Dead's actual set lists. Since the orchestra's first performance in Chicago in 1997, the band has toured across the United States to Japan and Europe. It performs Friday, at 8 p.m. at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton.

Dark Star's own audience, Mattson says, is generally a mix of old-time Grateful Dead fans, as well as people who aren't old enough to have experienced the band first-hand.

"There's people that followed the offshoots, and people who never got to see The Grateful Dead, and they can experience what they were like, since they didn't get to see the original, we're their band." The audience's enthusiasm contributes to the band's continued success, Mattson says. "We feed off of the audience," Mattson said. "It's a circular thing. We get the audience going and they feed it back to us and then we get excited."

Mattson, who calls himself the "new guy" in the band, has played the part of Jerry Garcia since 2010. He replaced John Kadlecik, the orchestra's first "Jerry Garcia" who went on to play with original Grateful Dead members, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, in their band, Further.

Mattson says he was a "hard-core" fan of The Grateful Dead growing up and saw his first show in 1973.

"I loved the music and Jerry Garcia was my biggest influence as a guitar player," he said. Although he mimics The Grateful Dead's style to an extent, Mattson says, he makes the music his own.

"I think that is true of every member of the band," Mattson said. "The thing about playing their music is that it has so much room for personal inspiration. It's not like playing in a band where you have to play the same notes every night. Every solo I do is different, there's purely improvised jamming that goes in that is unique to each song."

The seven-member band has changed players through the years. Only two of the original players remain: bass player, Kevin Rosen, who plays the part of Lesh, and Lisa Mackey, vocalist, who plays the part of Donna Godchaux. The other members are Rob Eaton, rhythm guitar and vocals, who plays Weir; Dino English, drums, who plays Mickey Hart; Rob Koritz, drums, who plays Bill Kreutzmann; and Rob Barraco, keyboardist, who represents all five keyboardists who performed over the years with The Grateful Dead. 

Everyone in the band is a full-time musician, Mattson said. They have all studied The Grateful Dead's music, as well as music in general. 

"There's high production values in the shows, great light show, sound engineering, it's all top notch." Mattson said. "Everyone takes it very seriously and we work on our music all the time."

The Dark Star Orchestra plays a different show each night; each set list is either a replication of one that The Grateful Dead played in its 30 touring years and close to 2500 shows, or a unique combination of its original songs. According to the band's website, www.darkstarorchestra.net, "The band adapts their stage positioning, vocal arrangements, specific musical equipment and instruments to fit the era of the show they are performing. Following each performance the band announces the date and venue of the original performance. Dark Star Orchestra could dip into any incarnation of The Dead at any of its shows, allowing fans to experience shows that happened long before they were born."

So even though the band has played in Northampton before, it is guaranteed to be a different show than the audience saw previously, Mattson said. Each show is a surprise for the audience.

"You're not going to see a note-for-note replication for everything but what you will see is real musicians playing real music, in real time but it will be based on the same parameters of The Grateful Dead," Mattson said. 

The Dark Star Orchestra will perform this Friday 11/18 at 8 p.m. at the Calvin Theatre, 19 King St., Northampton. Tickets cost $27. They are available at Northampton Box Office, 76 Main St. Northampton, 586-8686, or online at IHEG.com.  

By MARIAH SYLVAIN Gazette Contributing Writer

From the Daily Hampshire Gazette (Subscription Required)

The Felice Brothers, Gill Landry of Old Crow Medicine Show play Pearl Street Ballroom this Thursday night

Here’s what’s already known about The Felice Brothers: they are a close-knit band of two brothers and three longtime friends, all in their twenties. They are self-taught, not one of them played an instrument prior to the band’s inception in 2006 when they started busking in New York City subway stations. The Felice Brothers have released three full-length albums; their last, Yonder Is The Clock, on Team Love Records (2009). The majority of their work was recorded in a converted chicken coop in upstate New York near their hometown of Palenville. Esquire, Filter, The New York Times, NPR, Spin, Time Out New York, Uncut, and Under The Radar have praised them, among others. They are on virtually constant tour in the States and overseas, and have performed at festivals including Bonnaroo, All Points West, Outside Lands, Langerado, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Recognized for their live show, The Felice Brothers will play for their audience come hell or high water; the foremost example is their transcendent performance at the 2008 Newport Folk Festival, where they soldiered on, unplugged, in the rain, and barefoot in the mud after a lightning bolt shorted their stage’s power supply.

Gill Landry is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Louisiana. With his beginnings as a busker on the streets of New Orleans, he released his first solo album The Ballad of Lawless Soirez in 2007 on the Nettwerk label, and since 2005 has been performing as a member of the band Old Crow Medicine Show. His new album Piety and Desire is a love song to New Orleans. Named after two streets that run parallel through the city’s 9th ward where Landry cut his teeth for years. With the album he paints a dark and beautiful landscape of characters and loves from “quarter rats” to barmaids, merchants to thieves. Backed by the Felice Brothers who co-produced the album with Landry and Jeremy “The Searcher” Backofen the album also features the talents of Jolie Holland, Brandi Carlile, Ketch Secor, Sam Parton and many others artists, creating an album that is timeless and at times other-worldly. 

 Tickets are available at Northampton Box Office,76 Main Street. 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com

Trampled By Turtles punk-prog bluegrass and Jonny Corndawg's cheeky country flirts with the white trash hipster fringe this Tuesday, November 15th at the Pearl Street Ballroom

Duluth, Minnesota five-piece Trampled by Turtles have come a long way since their 2004 self-release of "Songs from a Ghost Town," though they've never quite shrugged off that haunting, old-timey vibe summed up by their debut's title. TBT's progressive brand of bluegrass draws inspiration from Townes Van Zant and Neil Young alike, melding influences from all over into galloping, fast-paced heart-racers that ooze talent in the form of stunningly deft instrumentation. The breathtaking complexity of their songs allows every member a chance to shine - Dave Simonett's acoustic guitar and husky vocals serve as centerpiece at one minute, then Tim Saxhaug's bass, Dave Carroll's rollicking banjo, Erik Berry's mandolin, and Ryan Young's impossible fiddle mastery take over in turn or meld together into an orchestral bluegrass jam. Somehow, the band's live sets bring as just as much (if not more) energy to the table - after blowing the minds of festivalgoers all summer they'll bring their highly honed performance chops to the Pearl Street Ballroom stage this coming Tuesday, November 15.

Here's the music video for "Wait So Long," probably the most rollicking and addictive track on the band's latest record Palomino. It's probably thanks to songs like this one that "Palomino" was sitting pretty on the Billboard bluegrass charts for a year after its release.

Virginia-via-Montana country singer Jonny Corndawg will warm up the stage for TBT. Drawing his inspiration from the catchy Americana of '70s country artists (a style he calls "the lost art of the Real Deal"), Corndawg's prone to singing in his warm country-star croon about cars, girls, and drinking over incredibly fun, toe-tapping guitar riffs and irresistible melodic hooks. Don't worry, you'll have time to learn the lyrics before the show - you can stream his latest brilliantly titled record "Down on the Bikini Line" here.  

Tickets are available at Northampton Box Office,76 Main Street. 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com

By Genevieve  Oliver