The Phenomenal Handclap Band's cosmic disco and psychedelic soul rock the Iron Horse this Thursday at 10PM

Don't let the name of the group fool you. The Phenomenal Handclap Band is much more than a motley assortment of musicians using just their hands to make music. But phenomenal, they certainly are.
Formed in 2008 by fusing eight multi-talented performers from lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, The Phenomenal Handclap Band was cultivated by New York City-based DJs and production partners, Daniel Collas and Sean Marquand. Described by National Public Radio as "a perfect mix of everything from the past 40 years of popular music," Collas and Marquand's taste for more mainstream music and underground artists spanning all genres was the biggest inspiration for the band, as well as their impeccably extensive knowledge of music from all over the world.

The men take queues from 1960s and 1970s psychedelic rock, funk-rock, indie-rock, progressive rock and 1970s Brazilian funk. In an interview with BlackBookMag.com, Collas explains their penchant for being drawn toward these influences, stating "As a DJ, it’s your nature to gravitate towards more oddball, obscure stuff and to have the stuff that nobody else has."

Their debut album includes the (Schoolhouse Rock inspired?) hit song "15 to 20" with its catchy, rhythmic beat, funk undertones and old school hip-hop/rap lyrics. "Baby" sounds like a modernized version of a 1970s funk/soul track. And "You'll Disappear" is reminiscent of a fun, disco-inspired tune. Rave reviews of their work from publications like the New York Post, Elle, and Anthem Magazine lend The Phenomenal Handclap Band much credibility, proving their innate accessibility and undeniable allure. -Kirsten Swenson

The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Thursday, April 1st, 10PM at the Iron Horse. Tickets here.

Give kudos to the Budos Band and their soul drenched Daptone sound this Monday 3/29 at the Iron Horse

The core of the Budos Band met as kids in an after school jazz ensemble on Staten Island. The lure of the stripped down sounds of Soul Music soon led to late night ferry rides into Manhattan, where they would sneak in the back door of the No Moore Club to hear Antibalas, the Sugarman Three, and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. It was there, in that basement hothouse packed with only the hippest James Brown fanatics and Fela Kuti disciples, where the kernels of instrumental Afro-Soul were first sown into the fertile minds of these talented young men.

The Budos Band is the quintessence of Staten Island Soul. Eleven pieces in all, their group consists of drums, bass, guitar, electric organ, two trumpets, baritone saxophone, and a percussion section employing bongos, congas, tambourine, guiro, clave, shekere and cowbell.

The Budos Band officially joined the ranks of the Daptone Family with the release of their self-titled debut in 2005, and began to perform more frequently as part of the Daptone Soul Revue, alongside many of the very acts that had inspired them only a few years before. Show after show, the Budos Band's dynamic soulful performances have whipped crowds into dancing frenzies from coast to coast.

The musicians claim the secret to their enormous sound is a selfless approach to rhythm: each man finding his own place and purpose in the greater landscape of the measure. However, any observant listener can hear that it is something far more simple and rare that elevates their sound beyond the sphere of cognitive reason and into that far greater realm of pure feeling: The Budos Band have Soul, on the Inside. And it’s Strong!

The Budos Band plays the Iron Horse on Monday night. March 29th at 7PM. Get tickets here.

Swingin' into Spring with The Wailin’ Jennys on Prairie Home Companion on 3/27 and the Calvin Theatre on 4/23

The Wailin’ Jennys are back with a tour and new studio album. The musicians took a sabbatical at the end of 2008 and during that time-out, WJ co-founder Nicky Mehta gave birth to twin sons, the “token American in the group” Heather Masse recorded a solo album titled "Bird Song" and made multiple appearances on National Public Radio’s Prairie Home Companion. The Wailin’ Jennys released "Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House" in 2009 which gave their current and future fans an earful of the WJ live experience.

This April they kick off a two-month North American tour (followed by appearances at music festivals), and releases their third studio album (still untitled) on Red House Records. The Wailin’ Jennys will also appear on the Prairie Home Companion show, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington on March 27, 2010.

The Wailin’ Jennys combine three extraordinary voices with “heart-stopping harmonies” that “make new songs feel traditional and old songs sound brand new.” Dirty Linen, the foremost US-based folk and world music magazine, has called The Jennys “one of the most exciting and polished acts in folk music.”

Members of The Wailin’ Jennys are soprano Ruth Moody (guitar, banjo, accordion, bodhran), mezzo-soprano Nicky Mehta (guitar, harmonica, ukulele, percussion), alto Heather Masse (upright bass), and instrumentalist Jeremy Penner (fiddle and mandolin).

Get tickets here for The Wailin' Jennys plus Joy Kills Sorrow at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton on Friday, April 23rd at 8PM.

John Jorgenson Quintet bring Gypsy Jazz to the Iron Horse on Wednesday, April 7th at 7PM

The John Jorgenson Quintet features guitarist John Jorgenson, a founding member of the Desert Rose Band, The Hellecasters, and six-year member of Elton John's band. Artists ranging from Barbra Streisand to Bonnie Raitt to Earl Scruggs have sought out Jorgenson's guitar work. Recently, John Jorgenson was chosen to portray Django Reinhardt in the feature film Head in the Clouds.
John Jorgenson is known as one of the pioneers of the American gypsy jazz movement. He has performed as a solo artist as well as collaborated with other musicians all over the world. His articles and lessons on gypsy jazz have appeared in prominent guitar magazines and he has given master classes around the country, and he has performed with some of the most respected European proponents of this style, Bireli Lagrene and Romane. His playing has been included on a CD with Babik Reinhardt and Jimmy Rosenberg, and on another featuring Angelo Debarre and Moreno. In 1988 Curb Records released Jorgenson's After You've Gone CD, a collection of Reinhardt- and Goodman-styled 30's swing, featuring guest artists Darol Anger and David Grisman.
At a John Jorgenson Quintet performance, audiences are amazed by John's dazzling guitar work as well as his mastery as a clarinet player and vocalist. Whether playing his own accessible compositions or classic standards, John and his band make music that is equally romantic and ecstatic, played with virtuosity and soul.

"...dynamic interplay that was as thrilling to observe as it was to hear." - Washington Post

Tickets Here for the John Jorgenson Quintet at the Iron Horse on Wednesday, April 7th at 7PM

Country superstar Dierks Bentley backed by the Travelin' McCourys brings bluegrass to the Calvin Theatre on May 9th

Country superstar Dierks Bentley has revealed plans for a spring tour to road test material from his forthcoming bluegrass album, Up on the Ridge. He'll make his way to Massachusetts for a show at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton on May 9th. Tickets are now on sale.

Bentley will be backed by the Travelin' McCourys, a quartet featuring the Del McCoury Band's venerated mandolin player, Ronnie McCoury. The tour will give fans a taste of Up on the Ridge along with some of Bentley's biggest hits reworked with new arrangements. Texas based singer/songwriter Hayes Carll will open all shows.

Up on the Ridge features Bentley working with some of the finest acoustic musicians in the world, including the Del McCoury Band and Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers. The album also features a number of vocal and instrumental contributions ranging from Alison Krauss and Miranda Lambert to Tim O’Brien and Sam Bush.

“The only way I know to explain what this new album is to all the fans is to just get out on the road and play it for them,” said Bentley. “I’ve been rehearsing and working on set lists already… every show is going to be different and really special. There aren’t any better acoustic musicians in the world than the Travelin’ McCourys, period... It’ll be a total blast.”

Anaïs Mitchell and the Hadestown Orchestra play the Iron Horse on Sunday, March 28th at 7PM

The new Anais Mitchell album “Hadestown” is a Folk Opera with Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Bon Iver, the Haden sisters, and Ben Knox Miller from The Low Anthem.

While the music press is doing back-flips over the new 3CD Joanna Newsom set, Anaïs Mitchell’s ambitious “Hadestown,” a truly epic and beautiful recording and project, deserves serious attention as well.

The ancient tale of Orpheus searching for his beloved in the underworld has been told many times. The Greek hero with musical superpowers was portrayed by composer Monteverdi in an early-17th-century opera. And in the 1800s, Jacques Offenbach told it differently. His famous opera featured gods and goddesses dancing the cancan for the finale. Now, the desolate journey of Orpheus is presented in a new way: as a folk opera written by singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell in collaboration with Ben Matchstick and Michael Chorney.

Though the CD came out on March 9th, the project dates to back to 2006. "The very first time, we put the show up as a staged production in Vermont," Mitchell says in an interview with Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon. The play is set in a post-apocalyptic American depression era and stays true to the original plot, but Mitchell says she didn't originally set out to write an Orpheus opera. Her songs just naturally led in that direction.

"A few lines just came out of nowhere, which sort of happens in songwriting," says Mitchell. "I just sort of followed it into the labyrinth, and it seemed to want to tell this story."
Justin Vernon (better known as the lead singer of Bon Iver), Ani DiFranco and Greg Brown are just a few voices in the musical cast of Hadestown. Brown, who plays Hades, gives a particularly striking performance.

"Every time I listen to his voice come in on that song ["Why We Build the Wall"], I want to laugh for joy. You almost feel his voice in your body before you hear it," Mitchell says. "It's got these weird subterranean tones."

Named after French author Anais Nin, Mitchell's creativity can be traced back to her childhood. Her father Don Mitchell was the author of the 1970s psychedelic novel (and film) Thumb Tripping, and she inherited a passion for storytelling.

"Words have always been really important to me. And they say if you want to be a poet nowadays, you better learn to play guitar, because there's not much work for you otherwise," she says. "Learning to write songs was a way of being a writer and being able to be heard."

Anaïs Mitchell and the Hadestown Orchestra appear live at the Iron Horse on Sunday, March 28th at 7PM. Tickets are $12.50 and available at Northampton Box Office, 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com. Click here for direct link to tix.

Click to hear to NPR’s feature on Anais Mitchell’s “Hadestown”

England’s brilliant David Ford plays the Iron Horse in Northampton Tuesday, March 23rd at 7PM.

He’s gone over big opening for Ray LaMontagne and Aimee Mann and he knocked out the Iron Horse crowd supporting Ingrid Michaelson in 2008. But to get to the heart of UK singer /songwriter David Ford you have to go back to some of the great curveball mavericks of melody, romance, and inventiveness like Tom Waits, Neil Young and Todd Rundgren, whose haunting, harmonious melodies are frequently offset by barbed, poignant lyrics. Following critical acclaim in the UK for his debut, “I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I've Caused,” Ford travelled to the U.S where his album was met with stunning reviews in the New York Times, Rolling Stone and Variety. Ford found himself championed by NBC's Carson Daly on whose show he appeared three times. Neil Young and Springsteen are among his fans.

David Ford's distinction as a one-man band is well earned: his live show - which consists of him, an array of instruments, and a loop-generating machine has earned incredulous live reviews. The British troubadour is set to release his third album “Let The Hard Times Roll” on April 20 via Original Signal Recordings but the CD will be available at all his US gigs.

Customers at our box office have bought tickets based solely on David’s video for “Go To Hell” that we have running in the window. Watch the video for “Go To Hell” yourself!

Tickets for David Ford plus Rose Polenzani at the Iron Horse in Northampton on Tuesday, March 23rd at 7PM are available at NBO, 413-586-8686 online at IHEG.com. Or Click Here.

“You will never see a better live performer - I've seen him around 10 times now, and his performances still leave me in awe. He puts his all into the songs, can play many instruments and is an awesome talent.” Simon S. of Guilford, Surrey (on Amazon

IHEG's Celtic Required Listening Series this March- Not Optional

The Celtic Required Listening Series, as the name makes clear, is not a suggested listening series. If you don’t attend at least some of these shows, we will send the constable to your home and transport you there post haste. But look at it this way. Because of the restorative qualities of music from Ireland (and Guinness) especially in March, it’s reasonable to equate the price of a ticket with a deductible for a typical doctor’s visit. And we won’t make you change into a johnny.

Altan

Tuesday, March 9^th 7PM Iron Horse

No Irish traditional band in the last dozen years has had a wider impact on audiences and music lovers throughout the world than Altan who marks their 25th Anniversary this year. With their exquisitely produced award-winning recordings, ranging dynamically from the most sensitive and touching old Irish songs all the way to hard hitting reels and jigs, and with their heartwarming, dynamic live performances, Altan have moved audiences from Donegal to Tokyo to Seattle.

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Grada, Sarah The Fiddler

Special 2-for-1 ticket deal on this show!

Friday, March 12^th 7PM Iron Horse

"Grada is to Irish music what Arcade Fire is to Indie”- The Washington Post. - Gráda is based in Ireland, where they began playing together in 2001. The group draws from a wide range of influences, which has seen them working with Dave Hingerty (ex Frames / Josh Ritter); Vyviene Long (Damien Rice); and, as a producer, Trevor Hutchinson (Lúnasa, Sharon Shannon, The Waterboys). This promises to be an amazing show. Bring a friend for free! For each ticket you buy, we'll automatically include a free ticket at the door night of show. Advance sales only.

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The Big Bad Bollocks 20^th Annual St. Patrick’s Show

Saturday, March 13^th- Iron Horse 7PM

“In 1989 Big Bad Bollocks was just two guys wandering up and down Pleasant Street each Wednesday night doing the “Open Mic Tour” which meant we signed ourselves up for the sessions at Sheehan’s Café and The Old Watering Hole.” So begins singer and band founder John Allen’s recent essay looking back over two decades, on the hazy history of the Valley’s stalwart keepers of the celtic-rock-punk flame (and proof positive of the youth sustaining qualities of Guinness).

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Battlefield Band

Monday, March 15^th 7PM Iron Horse

Veterans of the Scottish folk scene, the Battlefield Band have kept the best traditions of Celtic music alive for over 40 years. Their new album "Zama Zama..Try Your Luck," is riveting; the howling pipes, ululating fiddle and crashing keyboards are as darkly magnificent as anything the Battlefield Band has ever recorded. Their live shows are both steeped in tradition and completely relevant to the present.

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De Dannan

Tuesday, March 16 7PM Iron Horse

Original founding member and world famous fiddle player Frankie Gavin has unleashed a new De Dannan for the 21st century with Michelle Lally on vocals, Damien Mullane on accordian, Mike Galvin on bouzouki & guitars and Eric Cunningham on percussion, flutes & whistles. De Dannan’s line-up over the years read like a Who’s Who of Irish music: Dolores Keane, Mary Black, Maura O’Connell, Eleanor Shanley, Tommy Fleming and Johnny Moynihan.

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Zoe Darrow & the Fiddleheads

Wednesday, March 17^th 7PM Iron Horse

Zoë Darrow ignites the stage with her distinctive blend of traditional Cape Breton, Scottish, and Irish fiddle tunes. With Phil Darrow on guitar and Tom Coburn on piano, she breathes life into fiery reels, lively jigs and hornpipes, and soulful airs. The Valley Advocate named them "Best Celtic Band, 2007" and Celtic Heritage Magazine says, "Zoë Darrow is destined to add savory spice to the global mix." Come experience this local rising star!

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Maura O’Connell

Friday, March 26^th 7PM Iron Horse

Since her first appearance as a lead vocalist with the celebrated traditional Celtic group DeDanaan in 1981, Maura O'Connell has married an unmistakable deep, rich, flexible voice and her signature talent for finding what's most potent in the work of a select but broad array of genre-jumping songwriters, to pull the listener right along with her--to the heart of a song.