The Iron Horse celebrates Mother’s Day Weekend with Eilen Jewell: Friday, May 8th, Jill Sobule: Saturday, May 9th, Michelle Shocked: Sunday May 10th

Eilen Jewell's new album “Sea of Tears” evokes the era of classic country and early British-invasion era blues rock. She and the band play the Iron Horse Friday night, May 8th with support Sarah Levecque.

On April 21, Signature Sounds released Eilen Jewell's third album, Sea of Tears, a recording that fills in a vital, hitherto missing element of her musical persona. "Before I discovered Woody Guthrie and folk music," she explains, "I was listening to Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and, later on, the Animals and the Kinks. I love that stuff, and I love to play it." With Sea of Tears, Jewell and her longtime band wed her elegantly unflinching songwriting with a rustic, pre-Beatles swagger that encapsulates vintage R&B, Midwestern garage rock, Chicago blues, and early rock and rockabilly, while maintaining the haunting, folk-inspired purity that first made her an artist to watch.


Jill Sobule’s new album, “California Years” was funded entirely by her fans. Sobule set up a Web site and asked her fans to contribute to her upcoming project. The funding was tiered: a ten-dollar donation bought a digital download of the album; a hundred-dollar donation brought a hard copy of the CD, a “Junior Executive Producer” T-shirt, and a mention in the liner notes; a five-hundred-dollar donation earned mention in a song. There was even a ten-thousand-dollar level that would let a fan sing on the record. This pay-to-have-her-play scheme could have been nothing more than a quixotic footnote, but Sobule easily surpassed her goal of seventy-five thousand dollars and made her record, complete with production by Don Was. Her Mom helped out with this message on her daughter’s website.

“Hi, I'm Elaine, Jill's mother. As you all know, my daughter is a real talent. She has put out 6 great CDs (which never leave my stereo), and has been on 4 labels -- two of which went bankrupt; the other two were also farkakte.

This time she wants to do it on her own. She has some wonderful new songs (although she has not sent them to me, like I asked). She also has lined up some wonderful musicians and guest artists. So help and be a part of her new album, in exchange for some wonderful gifts and services. Much love, Elaine

Jill Souble plays on Saturday May 9th at 7PM at the Iron Horse

Michelle Shocked's new album “Soul of My Soul” drops May 26th- She’ll debut songs at the Iron Horse on Mother’s Day, Sunday May 10th at 7PM with support Diana Jones.

“I’m the most sophisticated hillbilly you’ll ever meet.”

When Michelle Shocked says this about herself, it’s hard not to crack up. ‘Hillbilly,’ after all, is no compliment. And frankly, it’s tough to reconcile that reflex image of a backwoods, overalls-and-a-smile hillbilly with this focused, erudite singer-songwriter. If such a creature exists, however, Shocked is its picture, sans Billy-Bob teeth. Come to think of it, she was born in or at least near the backwoods of East Texas — and get this — to a carny father and a fresh-faced high-school mother after being conceived, if memory serves, “in the backseat of my Uncle Huby’s Chevy at the prom.” Michelle says: “The new album is finished! A release date is set for May 26, 2009. A numbered limited edition vinyl version will also be released. You're invited to subscribe to the channel and be automatically updated when new video has been posted.”

Michelle’s relationship with her mom was not quite as cordial as Jill’s. When Shocked was just 16, she ran away from her oppressive home in East Texas. She spent many years living on the edge of homelessness and squatting in abandoned buildings in New York and San Francisco. At one point, Shocked's mother wrongly committed her to a mental institution, where Shocked was forced to undergo shock therapy -- hence, her stage name. "I blamed God for my pain. My mother was a strict Mormon, and I found a lot of her ideology to be so reprehensible that it literally drove me away from God."

All three shows are sure to be just grand. Bring the family!

Tim Eriksen -An Evening of Northern Roots Music Thursday May 7th at the Iron Horse

"Northern roots is New England songs about life and death, not bed and breakfast." -Tim Eriksen

The former front-man of the prophetic folk-noise band Cordelia’s Dad, Tim Eriksen has one of the most hair-raising voices in American music. Accompanying himself on fiddle, banjo, guitar and bajo sexto, Tim redefines American tradition with a "northern roots" sound that encompasses old Massachusetts murder ballads, chilling shape-note harmonies and haunted originals alongside southern Appalachian and Irish tunes.

Tim Eriksen's singing is solidly rooted in traditional American folksong, and nobody does it better, but to call him a "folksinger" would miss the incredible range of his experience: 25 years playing South Indian veena, screaming hardcore punk in the old days at CBGB, studio work with producers like Joe Boyd, T-Bone Burnett and Steve Albini, appearing as a soloist with a symphony orchestra at Carnegie Hall, decades of avant-garde sonic experimentation… that’s for starters. Known to many for his extensive contributions to the Oscar-winning film "Cold Mountain," he is also the only musician to have shared the stage with both Kurt Cobain and Doc Watson, and recently collaborated with world-jazz innovator Omar Sosa ("Across the Divide" out March 24 on Half Note Records) followed by six nights at New York’s Blue Note Jazz Club, April 7-12.

The evening’s program is a hypnotic combination of ancient New England ballads, old-time Appalachian favorites and originals, including selections from an upcoming CD of solo unaccompanied songs and Tim’s unique, virtuosic arrangements for bajo sexto (twelve string acoustic bass).

TONIGHT-Progressive rock, jazz, fusion guitar legend Allan Holdsworth at the Iron Horse tonight, Wednesday, April 29th at 7PM

Allan Holdsworth is widely regarded by fans and contemporary musicians as one of the 20th century's most prominent guitarists. The sounds of Django Reinhardt, Jimmy Rainey, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass , Eric Clapton, and John Coltrane were among this English musician's early inspirations when he began to work professionally as a musician in his early twenties. He's played in Soft Machine, Gong, U.K., and many others. A few albums he was a part of are pictured and the group shot is of Soft Machine. He's 2nd from the left. He is one of a handful of musicians who has consistently proven himself as an innovator in between and within the worlds of rock and jazz music.

Many of music's best-known instrumental masters cite Holdsworth as that rare and shining voice—a legendary player who continues to push the outer limits of instrumental technique and the electric guitar's range of tonal and textural possibilities. Particularly during the 90s, Holdsworth has enjoyed the recognition so many musicians strongly feel he deserves, given that he has developed his career outside the big label mainstream and has consistently produced his own recordings with complete creative control since the mid-80s. Despite the uncompromising nature of Holdsworth's predominantly genre-defying solo projects, he's no stranger to all-star jazz festival line-ups or large venue rock audiences. Musician Magazine placed Holdsworth near the top of their “100 greatest guitarists of all time.” An inductee of Guitar Player Magazine's Hall of Fame, Holdsworth is a five-time winner in their readers' poll. The prog supergroup U.K. was a career highlight, with Holdsworth and members of Yes, Roxy Music, and King Crimson.

Get tickets here.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Ponytail, Rabbit Rabbit. Staff Pick for indie show of the month! This Sunday at the Iron Horse at 8:30.

The buzz around the office increases every time one of us plays The Pains of Being Pure of Heart. "Who is that??!!" And it's not just within these walls. They were the big buzzband at last October's CMJ festival....or was that Passion Pit? Well, in either case, meet The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a New York four-piece who plays sweet & noisy POP with boy/girl vocals, blissful melodies and blistering drums. The New York Times, a prominent newspaper, says "On its excellent self-titled debut album there’s a mild hauteur drawn from new wave, a thickness derived from shoegaze-pop and a pulse passed down from dance-punk. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart might paint within the lines, but they do so with panache… Warm on the outside, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart seethe with refreshingly mordant wit.”

Here are some bands The Pains of Being Pure at Heart really like (but maybe don’t sound quite like*): The Pastels, The Exploding Hearts, Black Tambourine/Velocity Girl, The Vaselines, The Ramones, Teenage Fanclub, My Bloody Valentine, Nirvana, Rocketship, Dear Nora. Pitchfork recently asked the band about a few of their favorite things with entertaining and educational results. *(sound a LOT like. Let's be honest. It's not a bad thing. )

But WAIT! There's MORE! This show is a co-headline with Ponytail! On the most basic level, Ponytail is an experimental band from Baltimore, Maryland, formed in 2005 by Jeremy Sigler as a class project. On a primal level, Ponytail is a gut punch of joy. Channeling Yoko Ono's yelps of yesteryear, Ponytail's Molly Siegel leads the band into a frenzied sonic psychedelia. In their glowing review of their album, Ice Cream Spiritual, Pitchfork noted: "It's hard to know how Siegel's approach might work if she were in another kind of band, but in Ponytail her voice fits perfectly." The band has thrived in the DIY scene in New York, but their roots lay in Baltimore.

But WAIT! There's MORE! If there was ever a local band born to be on this bill, it's Rabbit Rabbit. Lead singer Louise Chicoine has a guttural kinship with Ponytail's Molly but she also conjures post-punk icons like The Slits, The Bush Tetras, Delta 5, and even Philadelphia's Head Cheese. She moves from swirling banshee to whispery PJ Harvey-esque incantations while the band keeps the rock edgy and on the brink but fully together. When it works, it's cathartic.

Tickets here or at the door.

Todd Rundgren at the Iron Horse last night. Some amateur shots and a fan's comments.

Crappy photos by me. Review from our faithful and well versed customer Dan Kandel:

unreal man-killer show-I moved upstairs after we spoke & the mix was great...very nice...I mean Ive seen well over 50 Todd shows in the last 20 years & that was NEARLY perfect. (unless you hated "Arena")... hope you dug it...was nice to hear Nazz, Utopia, Todd tunes & Arena complete...well worth the $$!! thats one of the best combination of players he's had in a couple decades fer sure!

Great Old Advert!

A String Of Sweet Shows this Weekend

Kris Delmorst, The Bittersweets at the Iron Horse, Friday, April 17, at 7 PM
Kris Delmhorst has one of the most distinct voices in American music. Her first two darkly rollicking roots records were produced by Morphine's Billy Conway. 2006’s “Strange Conversation” is a vibrant collection of Americana songs inspired by the work of famous poets. With her latest album “Shotgun Singer,” she has unveiled a series of gracefully open lyrics and figures that transcend genre, ranging into the borderlands between indie-rock and folk; that nameless territory inhabited by such hard- to-classify artists as Laura Veirs, Feist, Iron & Wine, and Juana Molina.


Alexi Murdoch, Dawn Landes- Iron Horse- Saturday, April 18 at 7 PM
Alexi Murdoch returns after two years in the Himalayas for a rare US tour with his band and his dark folk songs. Alexi finds beauty within his simple, tender arrangements which unavoidably evoke mentions of Nick Drake. Rated as one of the top 10 artists to watch by Rolling Stone, Murdoch emerged on the scene in 2002 with his self-released EP "Four Songs," which Nic Harcourt championed on KCRW Los Anegles’s popular program Morning Becomes Eclectic. His follow-up album "Time Without Consequence" (2006) has spawned songs featured on numerous television shows and movie soundtracks.

Felice Brothers, Willy Mason- Pearl Street Clubroom- Saturday, April 18 at 9 PM
The Felice Brothers distinct brand of songwriting and the lawless sound they’ve forged has earned them comparisons to Woody Guthrie, a young Springsteen, and Dylan with the Band. They travel the world performing homegrown and gritty Americana on the city stages as if they were hosting a sing-along on their own front porch. Last summer they hooked up with Bright Eyes for a string dates on the East Coast and kicked it with Levon Helm for one of his classic Midnight Rambles upstate. WRSI 93.9 The River is all over this band.

Slaid Cleaves, Eleanor Whitmore –Iron Horse Sunday, April 19 at 7PM
Slaid Cleaves’ new album "Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away" is due this Spring. The Austin based singer/songwriter phrases like a grifter trying to croon his low-down past away — and writes like he knows he never will. When his new folkie peers see angels over every other barista's shoulder, Cleaves sees through the sentiment.

Shawn Mullins, Alex Woodard – Iron Horse Wednesday, April 22 at 7 PM

Atlanta-based folksinger and songwriter Shawn Mullins is best known for his Top 10 hit “Lullaby,” but his repertoire goes well beyond the popular ditty. Last year's album "honeydew" teems with humanity: railroad workers, traveling salesman, homeless troubadours, and several generations of family members, living and dead. It is a richly interwoven work, the most panoramic album of Mullins’ career as well as the most intensely personal. “These songs are character sketches of people I've come across and places I've traveled through,” he says.

Tickets for all IHEG shows are available at NBO, 413-586-8686 or online at IHEG.com

Sara Watkins is on Jimmy Fallon TONIGHT (Mon. 4/13) and both Sara Watkins and Jimmy Fallon play Northampton separately within the next two weeks.

Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek will appear with Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, who produced her new album, on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon TONIGHT (Monday 4/13, 12:35 EST) . Jimmy Fallon performs THIS Friday, April 18th at the Calvin Theatre and Sara Watkins is at the Iron Horse on Wednesday, April 28th.

Sarah Watkins Tickets Here 4/28
Sara Watkins – Where Will You Be

Jimmy Fallon Tickets Here 4/18

Rocco DeLuca and the Burden bring the drama to Pearl Street this Saturday night at 9PM. Male/Female pop duet HoneyHoney opens.

Rocco DeLuca and the Burden come to Pearl Street this Saturday at 9PM. Over the last few weeks I've been totally drawn into DeLuca's music. I'm swimming in music every day, often just researching, posting shows, etc. and sometimes the music just flies by when I'm in work mode. Rocco made me look up, stop, and listen. He immediately reminded me of Jeff Buckley, unafraid to soar in the upper regions of his vocal range. The use of a dobro thickens the plot further.

Check out the band's MySpace to see and hear for yourself.

Making VH1's Top 20 countdown and Fuse's Incoming Artist program, Rocco's openers HoneyHoney create a stellar mix of folk, soul, country, bluegrass, rock, and pop. The combined musicianship of Suzanne Santos and Ben Jaffee shine on HoneyHoney's first single "Toy Gun" from their Jude Cole produced debut album "First Rodeo." Under the direction of Keifer Sutherland, the video for "Toy Gun" made it to MySpace's featured section. The pair not only writes amusing and meaningful music, but they are a comedic duo playing off each other in the studio and out. To me, the duo recalls both The Submarines and The Bird and The Bee, two others male/female outfits that make magic with the x and y chromosome combo.

Rocco DeLuca and the Burden, HoneyHoney this Saturday, April 11th at 9PM in the Pearl Street Clubroom. Tickets here.

NH Indie Rockers Wild Light come to the Iron Horse Saturday May 9th at 10PM

New Hampshire indie rockers Wild Light, are a group of guitar-slinging romantics whose debut album sparked a bidding war after the band impressed as the opening act at Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem gigs. The band’s debut album Adult Nights is an ambitious, sweeping disc of triumphant hooks and grand, sweet-and-sour tunes that recall early Death Cab for Cutie or U2, if they were fronted by Conor Oberst. Check out the video:

Bodega girls, with former members of Read Yellow, open the show and you can get your tickets HERE.
Listen to Bodega Girls Here

Jill Sobule's new album was funded entirely by her fans. The New Yorker reports. Jill plays the Iron Horse on Saturday, May 9th at 7PM.

Pop Notes
Price Point by Ben Greenman

This past year, Jill Sobule was in the news more for a song she didn’t write than for any of the songs she has written. Katy Perry’s pop hit “I Kissed a Girl” shared a title (but little else) with Sobule’s 1995 quirk-pop landmark, and Sobule spent much of the year fielding questions about the song that ranged from the well-meaning to the misinformed. The “I Kissed a Girl” hoopla obscured another, more interesting story, which was that Sobule, who had been dropped from two labels and saw two others fold while she was under contract, became one of the first artists to deal creatively with the collapse of the traditional music business. Story continues here.

Jill Sobule is a treat live and while we endorse all our shows (or we wouldn’t book ‘em!), Jill’s performance at 7PM on Saturday, May 9^th at the Iron Horse gets, shall we say, THREE thumbs up.

Tickets Here.
Jill Sobule 5/9 @ Iron Horse

Steven Wright, Indigo Girls at the Calvin Theatre- Tickets on sale this Friday, April 3rd.

Steven Wright Live at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton Saturday, June 6th • 8:00 PM

Steven Wright is one of the most influential comics of our time. His unique delivery of one-liners can be traced like a family tree to many comedians both directly and indirectly. Dry, wry and hilariously deadpan, he unleashes a torrent of ironic and hysterical thought-provoking one-liners in the quirky stand-up style that has become his trademark.


The Indigo Girls plus Matt Nathanson Live at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton, MA Wednesday, June 17th • 8:00 PM

It’s been two decades since the Indigo Girls independently released their 1987 debut; Strange Fire. Now, Emily Saliers and Amy Ray have come full circle with the independent release of their 12th album, Poseidon And The Bitter Bug on their new label IG Recordings. Poseidon includes a second CD with acoustic versions of all the songs. The songwriting takes center stage on Poseidon, with the duo exploring new approaches to melody, harmonics, and rhythm.

Tickets for both shows go on sale Friday, April 3rd at 10AM. Northampton Box Office 413-586-8686. Buy online at IHEG.com.

Toubab Krewe play rock with a West African twist, Thursday, April 9th, 8:30 at the Iron Horse. Open Dance Floor!

All Things Considered,December 23, 2008 - When pop stars Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel and Ry Cooder collaborated with African musicians in the 1980s and '90s, they were stepping out of the familiar to embrace sounds once heard as foreign and exotic. Today, a new generation of American musicians is creating homegrown rock music with a West African twist.

Singer-songwriter Markus James has long traveled to West Africa to compose and record his bluesy songs with local musicians there. After all, blues and rock's African pioneers mostly trace their ancestry to the region we now call Senegal, Gambia and Mali.

James' fifth album, Snakeskin Violin, treats American and West African roots music as one seamless continuum. When James fills out a blues vamp with a savanna hunter's harp or a desert calabash rhythm, it comes as naturally as quoting a John Lee Hooker riff. And, after nearly 15 years of refining his approach, James is now getting airplay in places like Lafayette, La., and Austin, Texas.

James is a pioneer in reconnecting blues with its deep, African DNA. But he's not alone anymore. While James was making his trips to Mali, Guelel Kumba — a musician from Senegal — settled in Oxford, Miss., where he co-founded a band called Afrissippi. Starting from the African side of the equation, Kumba finds common ground with Americans schooled in North Mississippi blues. Afrissippi's second album is titled Alliance.

Afrissippi and Markus James arrived at their Africanized rock formulations after years of experience in more established genres. Meanwhile, five twentysomething guys in Asheville, N.C., came out of the gate in 2005 as Toubab Krewe — "toubab" being a West African term for a white person.

Most of the players in Toubab Krewe have studied music in West Africa, internalizing rhythms, repertoire, melodic language and even instrumental techniques. Their amped-up take on the music rarely includes any vocals, but it's making big waves on the jam-band circuit. Toubab Krewe's live energy is captured on its version of the Malian classic "Kaira," from its latest record, Live At The Orange Peel.

The gyrating fans at Toubab Krewe's packed shows probably don't spend much time pondering the Atlantic slave trade, and how it infused African ideas into the incubator of American music. That's just the point. Markus James, Afrissippi and Toubab Krewe are not part of a world-music trend, but rather the ongoing emergence of Africa in American mainstream culture. They're cousins of out-and-out pop bands like Vampire Weekend, the East African rock outfit Extra Golden and other young groups that blend African and American idioms. Using music rather than words, these artists are showing us who we really are, and after all these years, it seems we're ready to listen.

Here’s another great article about Toubab Krewe from All About Jazz. Click here. Buy tickets here.

Click top photo or click here for high res. press photo.

Tickets for all IHEG shows are available at the Northampton Box Office. Charge by phone 413-586-8686. Order online at www.iheg.com.

Don’t miss Habib Koite, one of Africa’s most beloved and popular musicians, and his band Bamada that Sunday, April 12^th at the Iron Horse at 7PM.

Slaid Cleaves, new album, Iron Horse show on Sunday April 19th. Eleanor Whitmore opens.

It’s been five years since Texas-based, New England-raised Slaid Cleaves released an album of original material. Though he’s never been described as ‘prolific’, Slaid has once again delivered an album full of uncommonly fine-tuned songs built to stand the test of time. The new batch of songs on Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away, Music Road Records, will hit the streets April 21 and he’ll be bringing his new songs along on an East Coast swing (see itinerary below).

Reuniting with producer Gurf Morlix and co-writer pals such as Rod Picott and Adam Carroll, the new collection of literate and astute, Americana folk tales is a beautiful follow up to the critically acclaimed Wishbones (2004) and Broke Down (2000). While continuing to showcase his masterful talent as a songwriter of depth and detail, Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away evinces the growth of an artist probing yet deeper into the human heart.

Having spent the better part of the past five years on the road, Slaid is embarking on another new journey in joining the co-op label Music Road Records. The brainchild of fellow songwriter Jimmy LaFave, the new label, headed by noted engineer Fred Remmert, is allowing Slaid a more hands on involvement with both his album release and his career in these tumultuous times.

“From the hardscrabble (but cheerful) verses of “Hard to Believe” to the bluegrass-tinged lament of “Green Mountains and Me” to the harsh, sarcastic- and reluctantly optimistic-lines of “Beautiful Thing,” this is a record that just goddam works, from first to last.” ~Stephen King

“New England transplant Slaid Cleaves distinguishes himself with melodies that roam to unexpected places, yet never lose their hook. Producer (Gurf) Morlix forges Cleaves’ folk into rocking, roots music . . . Cleaves’ voice is honest and strong.” ~RollingStone.com

"I come from a long lineage of fiery, independent women who are not afraid," says the Texas native and now Brooklyn-based songwriter, Eleanor Whitmore. You can tell this just by looking at the bright red curls of her hair. "My parents have always encouraged me and led by example. Flying planes. Sailing ships. Triathlons. My mother is an especially strong influence." says Eleanor. "I hiked the Grand Canyon in and out with a backpack, a bloody toe and no tears when I was five."

Make no mistake that Eleanor Whitmore can fly a plane, but it's her musical talents that have carried her so far. Eleanor has made her career touring and recording. She has worked with artists from Diana Ross to Regina Spektor. During the last two years living in Austin, she recorded fiddle, mandolin and sang harmonies with Bruce Robison, Kelly Willis and Slaid Cleaves among many others. She recently made an appearance on Neil Haggerty's Earth Junk. Her musical talents can be credited to the heavy influence of her family and a strong classical music background. "As a child, my mom took me to see Itzahk Perlman." Shortly after that Eleanor picked up the violin. "I learned versions of songs by the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Joan Biaz, Willie Nelson, Doc Watson, Ian and Sylvia, Peter Paul and Mary, Jim Croche through my father's interpretations. I rarely heard the original recordings until much later in life." Continue.