Needed: Musicians to stroll around the 2017 Boston RV & Camping Show and play bluegrass music. Dates: Fri 1/13, 5-8pm and Mon 1/16, 10am-2pm Location: Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, 415 Summer Street Contact: Chris Russell, Paragon Group, [email protected], 781-237-5533 x105
Dietrich Strause and The Blue Ribbons, Boston based folk and rock artists, will be performing together on Friday, January 13th at Riverwalk Cafe & Music Hall in Nashua, NH. It's a classic love story. A young doe-eyed literate songwriter meets a dangerous avant-garde rock and roll band. Such is the story of Dietrich Strause and The Blue Ribbons' burgeoning collaboration. They met seven years ago sharing back to back Tuesday night residencies at Toad, a small rock club in Cambridge. Now with funding from Passim's Iguana Grant, Dietrich Strause and The Blue Ribbons are recording together in Maine in January 2017. Immediately following the session they are collaborating live for the first time, with three shows throughout New England, bringing the magic and glow of the record making process straight into the venue. The Boston Globe has said The Blue Ribbons “combine upbeat disillusionment and celebratory fatalism with musicianship." An unlikely and exciting match for Dietrich Strause’s meticulously crafted songs - which WBUR says are a mix of timeless melody, literate lyricism, and a "virtuosic command of imagery." Boston Music Award winning four piece band, The Blue Ribbons have a fearless sound; evolved over a decade of tirelessly and joyously playing bar rooms, clubs, and festivals. Their influences are rooted deeply in the jazz and rock and roll anti-traditions, described as “Ray Charles and Tom Waits on a pirate ship with Sun Ra and Captain Beefheart." In his eight years living in New England, Dietrich Strause has evolved in his own parallel way, from writing Appalachian nostalgia porn to mid-century modern pop in the vein of Nick Lowe and Randy Newman. He spent the fall living alone in London and traveling extensively throughout the United … Read More »
Southern Rail brings their upbeat brand of Bluegrass and happy mayhem to the First Encounter Coffeehouse on Saturday Jan. 14th. This promises to be another packed house, featuring high-energy exuberant bluegrass with lush harmonies, irrepressible good humor, and sparkling banjo, guitar and mandolin. Southern Rail will be celebrating the release of their eagerly anticipated 12th CD, “Voices in the Wind”.
Get ready for Rick and the Rick tones at The Blue Moon Coffeehouse in Rockland, MA on January 14th! This brand new band has some members I bet you already know and love. At the center of the music is banjo master Ricky Mier, co-founder of the band Twisted Pine, Cat and the Moon and a former member of Hot Day at the Zoo. He is accompanied by other incredibly talented musicians: bassist Charles Berthoud, JD Williams, Meg Griffith and Thor Davidson. Their music is rooted in bluegrass, but has elements of Celtic, funk music, jazz, rock, classical, blues, and gospel. Ricky Mier is winner of the gold medal at the 2014 Freshgrass Banjo Contest and, with his band Twisted Pine, has won band contests at Freshgrass, Thomas Point Beach and tied for first place at Rocky Grass. Mier has performed on the main stages of other major festivals such as Grey Fox, Celtic Connections (Scotland), The Green River Festival, and Joe Val. He has performed with Bela Fleck and Victor Wooten and has shared the stage with acoustic heavy weights such as The Punch Brothers, Peter Rowan, Alison Brown, Hot Rize, The Gibson Brothers, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Sam Bush Band, Del McCoury Band, Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, and more. Charles Berthoud is a world-class bass player who has won awards such as 1st place at the New Hampshire Bass Solo Competition. JD Williams, multi-instrumentalist with the acoustic Americana band, Amy Gallatin & Stillwaters, has completed over a dozen international tours, been honored with the Sam Eisenson Award for Country Music. Here's a video of the band to check out: https://youtu.be/8xEkK686Xa. Hope you can make it! It's going … Read More »
Boston based Carolyn Kendrick and Jake Howard blend bluegrass and whiskey-fueled old-time into new roots music. Won 2016 Freshgrass Best Duo award. Performing as trio w/bass.
On Saturday, January 28th, The Blue Moon Coffeehouse in Rockland features The Page Turners. Winners of the 2016 Freshgrass Best Duo Award, Carolyn Kendrick and Jake Howard have a strong foothold in the acoustic music scene. They became musical friends as students of Berklee College of Music and started playing together through the Berklee American Roots Program. The Page Turners are known for their solid harmonies and soaring fiddle runs. They like to blend their love of bluegrass, whiskey-fueled old time, country music, swing, and fearless song writing into one all-purpose seasoning of good ole’ fashioned Roots music. They are have played at The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, the Berklee American Roots Roadshow and will be featured on the 2017 FressGrass stage. Tickets are $10 at the door; children 12 and under are free. The show starts at 7:30 pm. Between sets by the band, there will be an open mike. The address is 45 Webster Street, Rockland, MA
These weekly Teacher-Directed Jams hosted by Tony Watt are open to all bluegrass instruments, both rhythm and lead players. Each week we play through songs from the same set repertoire at various tempos depending on the experience level of the jam. You can attend even if you don’t know all of the tunes as I have mp3s and copies of tab, chords, and lyrics for most of these tunes, however, I only have tabs for mandolin, guitar, and bass at this time. Every Wednesday the “2-Hour Fast” jam meets from 7 until 9 pm in north Cambridge. Each week we play through as many songs as we can from the following list: Whiskey Before Breakfast (in D), Nine Pound Hammer (in A), Cherokee Shuffle (in A), Clinch Mountain Backstep (in A), Little Maggie (in A), Wayfaring Stranger (in Em), I am a Pilgrim (in G), and possibly Red Haired Boy (in A) time permitting. These are my fastest teacher-directed jams, and some might argue we play some of these songs too fast. The jams are held in north Cambridge, about a half mile from where Rt. 2 hits Cambridge at the Alewife T station. This location is one block from the intersection of Rt. 16 and Mass. Ave., near the Cambridge/Arlington border. There is plenty of meter-free, permit-free parking on Mass. Ave., and the location is only a 10-minute walk from Alewife and 15 minutes from Davis Sq. Most of the attendees of the jam are what I call “subscribers”, which means they have paid in advance and committed to attend a block of six jams. The subscriber cost is $20 per 2-hour jam, but you can attend even if you are not a subscriber by RSVP’ing on a … Read More »
These weekly Teacher-Directed Jams hosted by Tony Watt are open to all bluegrass instruments, both rhythm and lead players. Each week we play through songs from the same set repertoire at various tempos depending on the experience level of the jam. You can attend even if you don’t know all of the tunes as I have mp3s and copies of tab, chords, and lyrics for most of these tunes, however, I only have tabs for mandolin, guitar, and bass at this time. Every Wednesday the “Songs Beyond" fast jam meets from 9 until 10 pm in north Cambridge. Each week we play through songs chosen by a rotating "DJ" (a regular jam member) from the following repertoire: Big Sciota (in G), Big Spike Hammer (in A), Bill Cheatham (in A), Gold Rush (in A), Billy in the Lowground (in C), Fireball Mail (in G), Wayfaring Stranger (in Em), Blackberry Blossom (in G), St. Anne's Reel (in D), and possibly Old Joe Clark (in A). These are my fastest teacher-directed jams, and some might argue we play some of these songs too fast. The jams are held in north Cambridge, about a half mile from where Rt. 2 hits Cambridge at the Alewife T station. This location is one block from the intersection of Rt. 16 and Mass. Ave., near the Cambridge/Arlington border. There is plenty of meter-free, permit-free parking on Mass. Ave., and the location is only a 10-minute walk from Alewife and 15 minutes from Davis Sq. Most of the attendees of the jam are what I call “subscribers”, which means they have paid in advance and committed to attend a block of six jams. The subscriber cost is $10 per hour-long jam, but you … Read More »
These weekly Teacher-Directed Jams hosted by Tony Watt are open to all bluegrass instruments, both rhythm and lead players. Each week we play through songs from the same set repertoire at various tempos depending on the experience level of the jam. You can attend even if you don’t know all of the tunes as I have mp3s and copies of tab, chords, and lyrics for most of these tunes, however, I only have tabs for mandolin, guitar, and bass at this time. Every Monday the “2-Hour Intermediate” jam meets from 7 until 9 pm in north Cambridge. Each week we play through as many songs as we can from the following list: Red Haired Boy (in A), Nine Pound Hammer (in A), Cherokee Shuffle (in A), Little Maggie (in A), Clinch Mountain Backstep (in A), I am a Pilgrim (in G), Whiskey Before Breakfast (in D), Wayfaring Stranger (in Em), and Old Joe Clark in A (time permitting). The term “Intermediate” refers to the speed of the jam, which is faster than my slowest jams (on Sundays) but slower than my fastest jams (on Wednesdays). The jams are held in north Cambridge, about a half mile from where Rt. 2 hits Cambridge at the Alewife T station. This location is one block from the intersection of Rt. 16 and Mass. Ave., near the Cambridge/Arlington border. There is plenty of meter-free, permit-free parking on Mass. Ave., and the location is only a 10-minute walk from Alewife and 15 minutes from Davis Sq. Most of the attendees of the jam are what I call “subscribers”, which means they have paid in advance and committed to attend a block of six jams. The subscriber cost is $20 per … Read More »
These weekly Teacher-Directed Jams hosted by Tony Watt are open to all bluegrass instruments, both rhythm and lead players. Each week we play through songs from the same set repertoire at various tempos depending on the experience level of the jam. You can attend even if you don’t know all of the tunes as I have mp3s and copies of tab, chords, and lyrics for most of these tunes, however, I only have tabs for mandolin, guitar, and bass at this time. Every Wednesday the “Songs Beyond" fast jam meets from 9 until 10 pm in north Cambridge. Each week we play through songs chosen by a rotating "DJ" (a regular jam member) from the following repertoire: Big Sciota (in G), Big Spike Hammer (in A), Bill Cheatham (in A), Gold Rush (in A), Billy in the Lowground (in C), Fireball Mail (in G), Wayfaring Stranger (in Em), Blackberry Blossom (in G), St. Anne's Reel (in D), and possibly Old Joe Clark (in A). These are my fastest teacher-directed jams, and some might argue we play some of these songs too fast. The jams are held in north Cambridge, about a half mile from where Rt. 2 hits Cambridge at the Alewife T station. This location is one block from the intersection of Rt. 16 and Mass. Ave., near the Cambridge/Arlington border. There is plenty of meter-free, permit-free parking on Mass. Ave., and the location is only a 10-minute walk from Alewife and 15 minutes from Davis Sq. Most of the attendees of the jam are what I call “subscribers”, which means they have paid in advance and committed to attend a block of six jams. The subscriber cost is $10 per hour-long jam, but you … Read More »