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We just caught the Newport Folk Fest, the musical jewel of the summer… other than its older and meaner brother the Newport Jazz Fest. Why should you head over to the Newport Jazz Fest? Because Bela Fleck and the Most Amazing Living Bassist (ie Victor Wooten) are headlining Friday. Because Rhiannon Giddens, who played one of the best sets at the Folk Fest has a double-header with the always excellent Trombone Shorty. (Giddens fits in incredibly well with the power of her jazz voice, too.) Because you missed the Folk Fest, and you need NEED your fix of the Newport-hosted music scene. There are tooRead More →

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Last we’d interviewed Balmorhea fountainhead RG Lowe, he’d given us a heads-up on the band he was touring with. And rightly so. But we’ll get to that in a second. Nellie Fitzgerald (whose FaceBook page can be found here) was the second in O’Brien’s lineup in Boston. She followed a mostly covers section by Dan Barracuda (who was pretty good! Though we didn’t really dig his original, “Something Crazy”). Fitzgerald herself, right here: … has a voice. A good voice. We liked the bit of funkiness that her band opened with, and greatly appreciated not only her voice, but her stage presence. She’s certainly aRead More →

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Last Tuesday, we headed over to the Paradise Rock Club in Boston to catch introspective Brit Laura Marling, with Valley Queen as her opener. Valley Queen, based in L.A., was something of a shocker: vocals that remind us of Lady Lamb and arrangements that feel vaguely like art-rock, a good complement to Marling. Here are two of the quartet:   We aren’t going to say they are a perfect band – Wogensen hit some “juicy notes” on bass (that is to say, we prefer our notes a bit more dry, *ahem*) and Carol doesn’t have the power female voice that always seems to take usRead More →

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One man, one guitar (oh and one wifey). Photo (c) Matthew Keefer REVIEW CONTRIBUTED BY MARIE AMARA Morton opened set with “Poor Bastard” off his 2016 solo debut, What Will Destroy You, and delivered to the hungry audience a few more songs off the album. I have never heard an audience so quiet during a show. Morton’s songs always have a tragic feel to them, but stripped bare of the dense instrumentation, with just his voice and minimal guitar, I was not the only one in the audience mesmerized. When Morton suddenly broke into Typhoon favorite “Belly of the Cavern” (2010 EP Hunger and Thirst),Read More →