Posts by Gerry Hardy

Gogol Bordello, Brandi Carlile and The Devil Makes Three headlined The Green River Festival held July 20th and 21st on the grounds of Greenfield Community College in Greenfield, MA. Photos by Gerry Hardy and Nancy Lasher.

Checking in with Martin Sexton some 20 years after he sold his first self released cassette tape on the streets of Harvard Square, and 8 albums later, he can be found in a good place, his voice still spanning multiple octaves, his guitar a one man band, at once lead, rhythm, and percussion.

You may have wondered what became of the former Rolling Stones bassist since he left the group in the mid 90’s. This five cd set will give you a partial answer; it contains all four Rhythm Kings releases he recorded from 1998 to 2001, including a double album. Taken as a whole, these discs cut through a wide swath of musical genres.

Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles covers this second period of Ray Charles’ career 1959 to 1972 on ABC-Paramount, offering A and B sides of all the singles released by ABC. The hits are here starting with his first #1 for ABC, “Georgia On My Mind” all the way to “America The Beautiful” in 1972.

Kudos to Life Is Good for putting together what has to be the best run outdoor event on the calendar.

In the three days just before hitting the Orpheum Theatre in Boston last Thursday, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews was busy.  His band’s new album, For True was released 9/13, he kicked off the night prior with a release party at the venerable Tipitina’s in his hometown New Orleans, and then followed the next night by a industry type showcase set at The Box in New York, later to be followed with a  Late Night With Jimmy Fallon appearance with The Roots.

With his newest release – The Lost Cause Minstrels – on the Potato Head Family label, Grayson Capps takes his music in a new direction.  Having lived in both New Orleans and Nashville, the Alabama native recently returned home and seems to further embrace his roots.

The current crop of neo-R&B artists: Raphael Sadiq, Fitz and the Tantrums, Joss Stone, could do well to listen well to Willie and Mink DeVille.  As what they are recreating, he created.

This collection should please fans of revivalist music from bands like The Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Avett Brothers, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers and hopefully serve as a light on the performers who originated the style on hundred years ago.  

The Felice Brothers were always at their best when they balanced on that thin edge between discord and harmony, raw talent and musical limitation, guitar, accordion, and violin clashing in minor keys over a loose, driving snare, Ian and James’s deadpan vocal phrasing telling stories of souls lost, gunfights, and jilted lovers.  Appreciation came from the tension created.

Do you know of an old building, abandoned church, warehouse, a cave in the mountains?   An old tool from the barn, a saw perhaps? If so, contact The Low Anthem right away, they’ll be coming through your town soon and they are the clearinghouse for such things. This is, after all, the band that scoured dumpster for cereal boxes to fashion the jackets for their first CD.

After a seven year sabbatical taken to concentrate on family, New Jersey singer/songwriter Kate Jacobs returns with her fifth album.  Recorded with her long-time band, Paul Moschella,  James MacMillan,  and Dave Schramm, who also produced the album, Home Game is a delightful collection devoted to the art of the three minute acoustic pop song, though two of them do clock in at a comparatively long four minutes.

Seated on stools at either side of the stage with third member Arthur positioned in the middle, they were three equals; more like friends jamming together at a local bar; with not Harper or Dhani being the focus of the evening. If anything Arthur played perhaps the larger role, handling a good deal of the vocals and banging occasionally on drums when not playing his guitar.

Raul Malo and his band made a stop at Johnny D’s supporting his new album, Saints and Sinners.  The club’s space is well suited to his music, has just enough bar area, just enough dance floor for the 300 plus standing room only crowd, who danced and clapped from the start.

It is a marvel how bands with virtually no radio play can come to town and fill a venue with fans who know every word to their songs. Obviously I underestimate the internet and to a lesser extent non-commercial FM stations. Whatever the source of their connection, the Carolina Chocolate Drops; Dom Flemons, Justin Robinson, and Rhiannon Giddens, fit that description.

Concord Record’s John Burk, has compiled an album’s worth of songs worthy of inclusion in the Charles canon. Burk, with cooperation from RPM studios where Charles' music is stored, culled through four decades of tapes, looking for material.  “We narrowed it down to what was actually unreleased, and narrowed that down to songs that feel connected, like an album”, Burk noted. What he chose were ten songs, two from the 70’s, six from the 80’s, and two from the 90’s.

Four years after “Live, Vol 2” was recorded in 2005, the Avett Brothers this month release Live Volume 3, , and it’s interesting to compare the two releases to see what the Brothers have been up to over the past four  years.

Fresh off a summer tour with his band Galactic, Stanton Moore kicked off a new run with The Stanton Moore Trio. The first stop was Boston for a gig at the newly renovated and expanded Paradise Club. The current Trio lineup was to include Will Bernard on guitar and Robert Walter on the Hammond B-3, with Stanton behind his Gretsch kit, but on the Boston show at least, the B-3 was handled by Wil Blades.