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