Category Archives: Country

Solid Sound Festival: Wilco takes over MASS MoCA

Posted on August 12, 2010 | Leave a comment

Wilco has already begun taking over the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The three-day Solid Sound Festival, curated by Wilco, starts Friday.

A weekend of music and art, side by side in the Berkshires

If you haven’t made your weekend plans yet, you really should think about heading to the Berkshires for the Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, Mass.

Solid Sound is the band Wilco‘s takeover of the entire complex occupied by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), a fantastic 19th Century factory complex with an ever-changing lineup of modern art.

Wilco

While the museum is no stranger to hosting music events and other performing arts, the Solid Sound Festival is likely the first event that turns over the entire place — in fact, a good chunk of downtown North Adams, to a single event. As the museum website notes:

Just want to visit the galleries? We recommend you come a different weekend.

We anticipate that more than 5000 people will attend the Wilco Solid Sound Festival August 14 + 15. While the galleries will be open to non-festival goers that weekend, visitors who are looking for a contemplative time in the galleries and easy parking should visit us on a different weekend or arrive as early in the day as possible.

Starting at 8 on Friday night, the complex will be filled with thousands of Wilco fans intent on seeing their favorite band’s only East Coast show of the summer. But this event is special, because Wilco has managed to line up a place where all its side projects and friends’ bands can play too.

If you can’t make it to the festival, or even if you’re there, be sure to check back for updates on Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? and our Twitter feed.

(Festival details and links after the jump.) Continue reading →

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Posted in Art, Blues, Concerts, Contemporary, Contemporary Classical, Country, Folk, Humor, Music, Pop and Rock

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Lauren Pritchard plays the Mercury Lounge

Posted on August 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

Lauren Pritchard, with drummer Simon Lea, at the Mercury Lounge in New York City on Aug. 5. (Photos copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

Lauren Pritchard conquered Broadway as Lise in the fantastic original company of the Tony Award-winning rock musical Spring Awakening. On Thursday, the Tennessee native, who’s just 22 years old, returned to New York City to conquer the pop scene.

Lauren, who played keys and sang, got subtle backing from drummer Simon Lea and guitarist Paul Sayer. She blew the roof off the Mercury Lounge with her powerful voice. She sang a very short, showcase set —just eight songs — in a bluesey style with country touches. Her delivery was just the right balance of Broadway power and authentic saloon-singer sloppiness.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Blues, Country, Folk, Music, Pop and Rock

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Ethel Fair Launches Lincoln Center Out Of Doors

Posted on July 28, 2010 | 3 comments

Crews were making the final preparations to Damrosh Park on Tuesday night for Wednesday's premiere of the 2010 edition of Lincoln Center Out Of Doors. (Copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

The fabulous Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival starts Wednesday night with a bit of Civil Rights Movement street theater at 6:30 at Barclays Capital Grove (the sponsored name for the plaza between Lincoln Center Theater and Avery Fisher Hall and moves into full-bore music mode at 7:30 in Damrosch Park with Ethel Fair: The Songwriters.

Ethel is Ralph Farris (viola), Mary Rowell (violin), Dorothy Lawson (cello) and Cornelius Dufallo (violin).

Ethel is a string quartet like no other string quartet you’ve seen or heard. These four skilled players, who are quite active together and separately on the international contemporary music scene, have been working in collaborative mode over the past several years. Their latest project, which has its world premiere at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival,  features the quartet yoked with songwriters who are quite well known on their own. Pop tunesmith Adam Schlesinger (a member of pop bands Fountains of Wayne and Ivy and composer of Broadway’s “Cry Baby”), assisted by Mike Viola (Candy Butchers), has created a work with Ethel. Other collaborators include folk-blues dynamo Dayna Kurtz, punk-New Wave pioneer Tom Verlaine (Television) and folky Argentine singer-songwriter Juana Molina.

Ethel always pushes boundaries with its work. This collaborative effort appears to reach for a broader, more mainstream appeal than some of the band’s more left-of-center efforts, such as its ongoing TruckStop project, which takes the band on the road to work with and celebrate indigenous cultures. But it’s certain to provide a richly entertaining evening.

No Snakes In This Grass is the title of the theater piece, written by James Magnuson and directed by Mical Whitaker, that kicks off the evening. It’s a comedy set in the Garden of Eden that deals issues of race and the Fall.

This is just the first night of a jam-packed schedule of fabulous free music and performance art that runs through Aug. 15. For the full Lincoln Center Out of Doors schedule, read the press release after the jump. Continue reading →

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Posted in Blues, Classical, Concerts, Contemporary, Contemporary Classical, Country, Dance, Folk, Free, History, Jazz, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Punk, Theater

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BREAKING NEWS: Phosphorescent’s stolen van recovered, complete with gear!

Posted on July 13, 2010 | Leave a comment

Matthew Houck of Phosphorescent.

In a matter of days, Matthew Houck and his band Phosphorescent have had their lives turned upside down and now, suddenly, uprighted again!

The band publicist announced Tuesday morning that the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Athens, Ga., band’s rental van, stolen from a Greenpoint, Brooklyn, street last Thursday night, hast turned up, complete and unharmed.

Phosphorescent’s publicists at 7-10 Music just blasted this note from the band:

this is insane!
the police have recovered the van
and
all of our gear is in there
and appears to be un-damaged

speechless right now,
more soon, love phos

note from label/management: we will of course return everyone’s generous donations. thanks so much for your love and support!

If you missed the backstory to this amazing turnaround, click through to the jump. Continue reading →

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Tickets for new Wilco indie music and art fest on sale tomorrow

Posted on April 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

Wilco

Adventurous Chicago-based band Wilco has announced it will curate and headline the new Solid Sound Festival, an independently promoted and ticketed festival of music, art and comedy for three days this summer — Aug. 13-15 — at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, Mass. Early-bird tickets ($86.50 including fees and parking) will be available starting at 10 am ET tomorrow on the band’s web site.

Jeff Tweedy, center, and Wilco.

Wilco headlines the weekend, giving its only East Coast performance of the summer. Wilco side projects, including Glenn Kotche‘s On Fillmore, The Nels Cline Singers, The Autumn Defense featuring John Stirratt and Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen‘s Pronto.

The Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA also will feature additional musical performances, a comedy stage, interactive installations and exhibits (including the Solid Sound Stompbox Station, an interactive guitar pedal exhibit created and demonstrated by Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, a concert-poster screening demonstration, planned workshops by luthiers and more), plus film, video installations and DJs.

The area is beautiful, with plenty of outdoor activities nearby as well as cultural attractions in Williamstown to the west.

Ticketholders will have full access to the spectacular MASS MoCA campus, which offers 150,000 square feet of galleries. MASS MoCA, a renovated 19th century textile mill, is the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the U.S. Art on display in the galleries during the festival includes the Sol LeWitt Retrospective, Inigo Manglano Ovalleʼs Gravity is a Force to be Reckoned with, Petah Coyneʼs Material World: Sculpture to Environment, Leonard Nimoyʼs Secret Selves and a new installation by Michael Oatman.

Stay tuned to Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? for more details as they become available.

Buy your tickets now, because the price will rise to $99.50 after June 1.

 

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Posted in Art, Concerts, Contemporary, Country, Folk, Humor, Jazz, Music, News

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Steve Earle and Allison Moorer welcome their first child

Posted on April 6, 2010 | 1 comment

Steve Earle and Allison Moorer making music together at the 2007 Bumbershoot Music Festival.

Congratulations are in order for singer-songwriter couple Steve Earle and Allison Moorer after the birth of their first child, John Henry Earle.

Steve’s rep just announced that John Henry was born at 10:07 am yesterday, weighing eight pounds, two ounces and measuring 21 inches long.

Allison and Steve wed in 2005 and live in New York City’s Greenwich Village.

Congratulations to the happy parents. Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? wishes them all the best!

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