Brooks Williams w/ Mark Zaretsky 4/7/19 mActivity New Haven

Mark is a local blues wailer and harmonica ace. Recently saw him perform with WPKN's legendary DJ Mark Naftalin (R&R hall of Famer for his stint in The Butterfield Blues Band). Mark travels with dozens of harps because each is in a different key. Fortunate to see his Sandy Hook fueled rant " Put The Gun Down".
Been looking forward to this one for a while. I told Brooks that his easy going version of Shady Grove is in high rotation in my ears. Solo acoustic and National Steel guitar were effortlessly plucked by this instructional video superstar. Told the crowd that he lived in New Haven as a kid, he thinks he went to ECA ( like me). Based in Georgia, it was a natural fit to play Statesboro Blues. Setlist included some Sister Rosetta Tharp tunes, Kristofferson's No One Wins, a tune he wrote for but wasn't picked by Michael Buble, Rock Me, Gambling Man, Mercury Blues, spoke of a foray into the Smithsonian Folkways archives to study Sittin On Top of the World a tune that can morph from bluegrass to blues, Walk You Off My Mind, closed with Zaretsky on the mighty Hesitation Blues.

Baby Gramps 4/4/19 Cafe 9

Oxymoronic folkie, or maybe an old folkie moron gakked out on Oxy, Seattle-based Baby Gramps was quite the character. Armed with a National Steel guitar, vocals, vocal stylings ( including percussive sounds and lo-fi throat singing) and a dumpster full of stories, Gramps has been lauded as in the top 100 most influential American musicians. More Gramps than baby, BG looked like a cross between Dr. John and Eugene Chadbourne. Gramps recent claim to fame was touring the magnificent Rogues Gallery cache of pirate songs culled and overseen by Jonny Depp, would have liked to be a psilocybin-infused fly on that wall. Seems that Gramps was a denizen of Greenwich Village in the early 60s ( see Inside Llewyn Davis for a glorification of this time and space), referencing opening for Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. His stories oozed authenticity, sang a perfect Visions of Johanna as if he was in the room at it's inception. Industry insider or homeless guy peering in the window when an ancient reel tape of Farewell Angelina was unearthed that had the Dylan-scrawled title "Alcatraz to the 9th Degree", Gramps seemed to get around. Plugging Seattle's answer to Lollapalooza, Bumbershoot, BG brought a young melodica blower out to shade some tunes and crab about a $7 royalty check he received from playing with Phish. BG also claimed to have recorded with Peter Stampfel and The Holy Modal Rounders who were the first band to have been billed as "psychedelic". Closed with a lysergic-addled medley of the Kinks All Day and All of the Night into Lotus Blossom and finally an audience participation Louie Louie. Gramps said The Kingsmen and  Louie Louie put Seattle on the musical map and chortled at the FBI investigating the song's lyrics for hidden subversive meaning, sounds like some 2019 governmental lunacy.

& More ( Chill Moody and Donn T) 4/1/19 Cafe 9

& More is the ampersandific combination of Philly rapper Chill Moody and African American soulstress Donn T. Helped by a drummer and laptop twiddler, these two were the hiphop answer to Sonny and Cher. Moody spit socially conscious rhymes while Donn complemented with a soulful croon. Only in existence for a couple of years, these cats played for Michelle Obama at her birthday bash, and name check Chuck D. on their forthcoming release "Ethel Bobcat". Moody explained EB is a concept album focusing on the wisdom of a grandmotherly character that we all can relate to. Donn was a sight to behold, she danced through the crowd and on stage with a Gladys Knight pantsuit and an Angela Davis fro. Keep an eye out for these two, they seem destined for bigger things.

Noura Mint Seymali w/ Prince Royal 3/22/19 State House

Local roots reggae purveyor Prince Royal opened this evening of world beat. 24 year old Royal is from St. Catherine Jamaica and his vocal delivery bears this out. Fronting his band Souls of Zion, a mixed race bag of reggae acolytes who provided the backdrop for Royal's skank. Two keyboard players, sax, drums, and blue-eyed guitar and bass were deft in the craft. Royal's singing and stage movements reminded me of Winston Rodney, leader of Burning Spear. Every so often, Royal would say "dub-wise", and the crew would spin out some echo and reverb-laden " space" that called to mind the diddlings of Scientist or Lee Perry. It seems that the key to authentic reggae is how little the English speaker can discern from the Jamaican accent-drenched delivery of the toaster ( I got things like " me muddah and me faddah), with this in mind Prince Royal fits the bill. Jah.....Rastafari.
Mauritanian singer Noura Mint Seymali has been lighting up the world music charts in recent years. Raised in a musical griot tradition, Noura has a booming singing voice. With her husband on modified guitar, brother on bass (apparently the original bass player had visa problems getting to the US, natch), and drummer band wrangler from Philly, this group spun some traditional music steeped in desert blues, and psych. Singing in her native tongue, many of the tunes had a call and response nature, either with her husband or the crowd. It was fascinating to see the universal nature of music with Noura urging the crowd to mimic her vocals. The near capacity crowd was either comprised of Yale's Mauritanian Song and Dance Appreciation Society (sic), or fans eager to get a glimpse of this original artist from across the globe. Pretty sure the latter.

Tomas Fujiwara Triple Double 3/15/19 Firehouse 12

Caught the second set from these six regional improv tricksters. Truly a triple-double, with Fujiwara and Gerald Cleaver on drums, flanked by Mary Halvorsen and Brandon Seabrook on guitar, anchored by Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi on cornet and trumpet respectively. The interesting lineup was begging for like musicians to flow from complementary to competitive runs. Halvorsen and Seabrook traded barbs. Mary, seated , and nerdy as last review, had a pedal effect that made bent notes sound Asian, her solo stretching out like someone slipped some peyote into Wes Montgomery's tea. Seabrook was phenomenal, his herky-jerky movements made me think of Seinfeld's Kramer crossed with Elliot Sharp on skronk guitar. Bynum, oozing hipster cool, played multiple cornets, one of them was blue. He should write a jazz improv kids book entitled The Blue Cornet, it would sell. The drummers leaned on complimentary playing. The understated force of one drummer using brushes while the other struck with mallets was palpable. The headshot of this triple double has them wearing Boston Celtics jerseys. While they seem entirely school-able on the hardwood, I wouldn't want to face them on the court of jazz improv, where they are Allstars.

Joe Russo's Almost Dead 3/14/19 College Street Music Hall

The hippies descended on New Haven for a sold out JRAD session at College Street. Russo on drums, Marco Benevento on a Rick Wakeman-sized keyboard setup, two guitars and bass filled the hall with sound. Two sets of Grateful Dead and inspired improv from these torchbearers of jam. First set highlights: Feel Like A Stranger, Candyman, and Bertha. Ever the Cheshire Cat, Marco a musical omnivore, teases his way in and out of many songs. At times, it seemed hard for the support staff to keep up with his Robin Williams ricochet. The second set started with Neil Young's Vampire Blues, swooped into a Blues For Allah anchored set into Minglewood Blues. These guys revel in the segueway, at one point playing a rousing Beatles' Hey Bulldog that moved from some Allman's keyboard workout. Closed with the mighty Terrapin. At the risk of wearing my old fogey status on my sleeve, I do remember The Duo which was Benevento-Russo  in the early aughts at the birth of jam. At a ski lodge in Great Barrington, I sat on Marco's speaker with a handful of jam disciples watching these two develop their chops. They've come a long way baby.
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Dead Horses w/ Honeysuckle 3/5/19 Cafe 9

Note to promoters and concert venues, the way the show is billed should reflect the order of the evening's acts. This is the second time this year where I went to a show and missed the headliner because they went on first. Dead Horses is an Americana folk duo from Wisconsin. I only caught the tail end of their set, because they went on first.
Honeysuckle is a MA-based string band trio. Big fella on banjo and acoustic guitar, another guy on mandolin, and a young woman on acoustic guitar and lead vocals. The girl looked nerdy and unassuming, but when she sang a full throated alto like Norah Jones came out. Songs were mostly sad and folkie, but the band had a wry sense of humor. One song was about how the banjo player "loves his phone", another was about a "canary resuscitator". This band would be a pleasant acquisition to any folk festival lineup.