Bonnie Prince Billy w/ Jonathan Richman 3/11/20 College Street Music Hall

What am I waiting for? The day the music really died. A viral pandemic chokes the globe and live music is one of the first to fall, collateral damage from head in sand politicians cross pollinated with increasingly insidious microbes that seem to be able to outsmart Bill Gates, Dr. Fauci, and Donald Trump. It is with heavy heart that I review this show. Jonathan Richman fronted a seminal punk band The Modern Lovers, a quirky cult unit with a few under the radar hits. I have seen him before and his wild-eyed child-like goofiness brings to mind dearly departed savant Daniel Johnston. Richman sang songs in French or Italian because they " sounded better". His songs about "cold pizza" or "dancing at a lesbian bar" were poignant and hysterical. With a dwindling crowd, Richman urged the audience to close in (a few days prior to social distancing). At one point, Jonathan spied a young fan and brought him onstage to sing backup.
I have wanted see Bonnie Prince Billy for years. His real name is Will Oldham and he has fronted and collaborated with a wide array of folkies and "out" musicians since the late 90s. An early release I See A Darkness was my path in, literate but dark lyrics coupled with a world weary voice is captivating. A random video of Oldham and Zach Gallifinakas singing a Britney Spears song on a riding mower piqued my curiosity further. BPB also performed a couple of knockout cuts on the recent Grateful Dead tribute behemoth The Day of the Dead. On this evening, BPB was joined by Emmet Kelly ( no, not the sad-faced clown from the early 1900s) a honey voiced pal to help plow through his set.  The new release I Have Made A Place was the main source of material. While a Spotify listen exhibited a slick production, two voices and two acoustic guitars in the echoey live setting was magical. It's hard to think that this will be my last posting for a while, but have faith, live music is like a dandelion in a cracked sidewalk, that shit ain't going anywhere.

The Kerry Boys 3/8/20 Thornton Wilder Hall Hamden

It is rare that I am junior by 20 years at a musical event, but the Kerry Boys at 3pm on a pre-St Patty Sunday, at the library no less, brought out the oldsters. The KBs have been spinning their yarns for 30 years. Two guitars/vocals, banjo, and electric bass is their lineup. Lead singer and frontman has the Irish brogue and corny inter song banter that moves the set along. The other guitarist and sometimes mandolin player is Pierce Campbell, a local folkie who I've seen often back in the day as an opening act. The band engages the crowd with various sing-along and clap-along segments. Most tunes are traditional, with the exception of Galway Girl ( thanks Steve Earle). I realize that Danny Boy, the lynchpin of any Irish set, is the most impossible song. With high notes, swooping falsetto, the bloke that wrote it must be chuckling in heaven as he looks down on a planet of Irishmen, true and faux drunkenly yodeling their way the verse.

75 Dollar Bill w/ Headroom 3/4/20 The State House

It is always great to see touring artist's jaws drop when they view New Haven's own shred collective Headroom. Fronted by experimental guitarist ( and sometimes Spaceland bartendress) Kryssi Battalene, a local lefty feedback purveyor, a droney rhythm guitarist, throbbing bass, and acrobatic drummer, Headroom always brings the sonic assault. The sheer experimental "guitar army" create washes of psych-drone-shoegaze fuzz that rocks. Kryssi has been adding some subdued vocals that add an extra element to their sound. One feedback battle between Kryssi and the lefty was great.
75 Dollar Bill is a Brooklyn duo comprised of Che Chen on microtonal guitar and percussion and Rick Brown on percussion. Chen's Touareg guitar sound is a function of his study with a Mauritanian master. The guitar is repetitive and trancey and reminded me of the Mdou Moctar shows I saw last year. Brown was a sight to behold, he sat on a wooden box that he struck with what appeared to be bath loofahs covered with tube socks. The sound was pulsing tympanic. Sometimes he picked up a cigar box and some other shakers and things to color the flow of Chen's guitar. I'm pretty sure I scoffed at the notion of drums/ guitar as a viable unit pre-Black Keys and White Stripes. I'm glad to say I was wrong, while the Keys and Stripes have enigmatic front men as a dimension, the rawness of those bands and 75 Dollar Bill is striking. On a final tune, Chen picked up a soprano sax, they called a friend up with an alto sax, and Brown played a series of plastic oil funnels fitted with sax mouthpieces. This band's take on what I will call Africambient was thoroughly entertaining.

Nektar 2/11/20 The Iron Horse Northampton

Welcome to this installment of the Prog Blog. Nektar is a second wave prog outfit from the UK. Second wave meaning they arrived in the early to mid 70s as the prog train was rolling. Prog gets a bad rap, sure there were the white bellbottoms, the inane lyrics (" mountains come out of the sky and....stand there"). I argue, that for every punchline, there is an equal and opposite upside. How many of us have had our musical consciousness formed by the bucolic pastoralism of Jethro Tull, the sourkrautrock motorik of Can, the sinister drone of King Crimson, the classical trappings of ELP, or the concept-laden behemoth known as The Pink Floyd. Nektar had no hits, they had no inflatable pigs flying over Giants stadium, their keyboards didn't shoot fire, they had no flautist in tights, but they had some touches of much that is prog. Reading their back story, it seemed that their lack of success could be attributed to poor marketing and across the pond translation of the 1973 record Remember The Future. So happy am I to report their resurfacing and landing in Northampton. As with last year's gray and grizzled crowd watching Nick Mason, this rapt crowd hung on every guitar solo. The group had three original members, drums and two guitars/vocals. Joined by another guitarist and keys they plowed through some of their compelling hitless catalog. Trippy video backdrop was tasteful, with one sequence paying homage to musicians ( influences) who have died. An added bonus was that the main vocalist sounded eerily like Robert Wyatt. They were promoting a new record, The Other Side from which an excellent encore I'm On Fire came from. Remember the Future, hmm, now that's a concept.

Roomful of Teeth w/ Dublin Guitar Quartet 2/1/20 Battell Chapel

Modern classical is a genre not commonly found in this blog. Sure I have reverence for Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. Even my bike ride to the New Haven Green to see the Kronos Quartet do sound check was fascinating. This event put on by Yale's Institute of Sacred Music was a must see. Roomful of Teeth is an acapella octet from Massachusetts. Four women and four men, they were arranged horseshoe shaped from high to low in front of the altar in Yale's beautiful chapel. Their artistic director Brad Wells introduced the evening saying that it was the end of a two week mini tour and that it was sort of a homecoming since half the members are affiliated with Yale. The group's first piece was Vesper Sparrow billed as an " eclectic amalgamation of imaginary birdsong and my own interpretation of Sardinian overtone singing" as quoted by composer Missy Mazzoli. The second piece Psychedelics by William Brittelle came in three parts: Deep Blue ( You Beat Me), I Am The Watchtower, and My Apothecary Light. The interplay of the male and female voices was wild and the tune sounded like Frank Zappa pied-pipering the lollipop kids through the Short Forest (much respect to Billy the Mountain)
Next up was the Dublin Guitar Quartet. That's right four blokes from the old sod armed with acoustic guitars. While they didn't talk ( as to confirm their heritage) their names were a dead giveaway; Brian Bolger, Patrick Brunnock, Tomas O'Durcain, and Chien Buggle, glorybejesus! The Quartet started with a piece Aheym by Bryce Dessner ( another Yalie and founder of the indie-rock phenom The National). Aheym means Homeward in Yiddish and was dedicated to Dessner's grandmother. The guitars oozed a gypsy Eastern European feel. Their next piece was String Quartet No. 2 by Philip Glass. All of these musicians must pray at the altar of Glass and this piece sounded straight outta Koyanisqaatsi. After a brief intermission, both groups came out to perform a piece by Nico Muhly ( please google this guy) How Little You Are. Seven brief movements ( vignettes?, movemettes?) started with subtle guitar then we're layered with voices. The lyrics were " an extended meditation on the words of pioneer women in the nineteenth century". The mournful feel of pushing through the beauty of nature toward the unknown was evident. At one point the female voices did a wonderful wolves howling at the moon sequence. The chapel was packed and I always need to throw gratitude at Yale for opening an event like this for free. While this music isn't for everyone, it was fascinating to witness.

Catherine Russell Quartet 1/17/20 Sprague Hall

Happened upon Catherine Russell from the library jazz bin with her 2006 release "Cat". On that recording she did a jazz diva version of the Grateful Dead's New Speedway Boogie which piqued my interest. Like Cassandra Wilson slightly before Cat, they do modern popular songs in a jazz setting. After that release, I had lost track of her. Fast forward to now and she is headlining Yale's Ellington Jazz Series in support of her Grammy- nominated 2019 release Alone Together. I learn from the concert flyer that her mother was a pioneering vocalist/guitarist and her father was a legendary pianist/ bandleader and Louis Armstrong's longtime musical director. On this evening she came with a jazz swing quartet. Matt Munisteri on Django-style guitar, Konrad Paszkudzki on piano, and Tal Ronen on double bass rounded out the group. I learn that Cat's versatile voice has graced over 200 albums including stints with David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Jackson Browne, Michael Feinstein, The Holmes Brothers, Wynton Marsalis, and Roseanne Cash, as well as the soundtrack to Boardwalk Empire. Russell's current flair is mining. By mining I mean that she enjoys scouring early music's back catalog to dust off and spit shine songs that have long exited our musical conscious (let alone our Spotify playlist). Tunes by Fats Waller, Willie the Lion Smith, Louis Jordan and others dominated the set. I was struck by how she was able to annunciate the lyrics to make them front and center. Show highlight was the Jordan classic "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby".

Angela Davis 1/16/20 Woolsey Hall

While not strictly a musical event,  this lecture by civil rights, check that, rights icon Davis, started with an excellent acapella group singing We Shall Overcome. As part of a broader celebration of Martin Luther King Day at Yale, Professor Davis gave a fitting start to this tumultuous year. Under the unofficial banner People Get Ready, Davis spoke of meeting King, his opposition to the Vietnam war, and the societal vestiges of slavery that undermine freedom for people of color in this country. While trying to project positivity in the rights struggle, it is hard not to grapple with the specter of the" occupant of the White House" or " he who shall remain nameless" as a stain on the movement. Davis spoke for an hour to a rapt capacity crowd at Woolsey railing against mass incarceration as a continuation of our country's dark past. She commented on this administration's First Step Law, which on face looks like an attempt at federal prison reform but in reality is a lame swing at a Fox News talking point. 2020 will emphasize the war between good and evil, make no mistake, People Get Ready, We Shall Overcome.