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Mike Gent at Club Passim, March 25, 2013.
In support of Kevin Bowe and The Okemah Prophets - Read that review here.
What do The Figgs, Graham Parker and (the) Candy Butchers have in common? Mike Gent. A fabulous guitarist, who hates technical errors, because "reverb makes him nervous." Everything he played at Club Passim was clear as a bell. Vocally, Gent is focused, with a sound as warm and dreamy as Joe Jackson, and a timeless rebel spirit, as funky as Elvis Costello. His recorded guitar work can wail like a metal shredder, but there is a lot of acoustic finger picking too. This live show was one surprise after another. A surprise to Gent as well, was his set list. Changing it mid-stream, self effacing when the lyrics trailed off, he created an atmosphere that included everyone in the room. He delighted Club Passim on a Monday night with original songs, covers and all out requests.
Read more: Mike Gent of The Figgs at Club Passim, Cambridge, MA 2013
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"Love is a country that won't be overcome ..."
Northampton, Massachusetts area rock fans are patient and serious about their music. Just ask Jakob Dylan. "We've waited a long time to be here," he said, as he addressed the full house Calvin Theatre on Dec. 28, 2012. The Wallflowers concert was rescheduled from a November date. Touring with their new album, Glad All Over, The Wallflowers have had a non-stop run of great shows throughout the country, since their return to the music scene. Several songs on the set lists for these performances have been from this new record. Glad All Overhas some soon to be classic tunes on it, and fans are quickly being hooked. The band also mixed favorites into their live set list (Three Marlenas, 6th Avenue Heartache, One Headlight, The Difference), along with some hidden gems that were in a word - 'stunning.'
Read more: The Wallflowers with Trapper Schoepp and The Shades
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Jason Anderson and The Best, at the Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, MA.
November 16, 2012
Live show review and photos by Bluebird.
With many thanks to GTO for the lifetime of music.
Are you hearing soul riffs of James Brown, soliloquies of Van Morrison, sax, stories and energy of Bruce Springsteen? What about slow core, contemporary indie styles, like Nick Drake? Ray Lamontagne? Are you having connected Leonard Cohen experiences of life, in poetry? Within the same song? Well, then, sweet listener, you must be at a Jason Anderson show.
Did you rise from your seat, join the community of music dwellers and engage in moments you will never forget? Life changing moments that created the space for your thoughts to be freely validated, while your soul was fed by joyful sound? Well, then, wise person, you must have gone to a Jason Anderson show - and stayed ... until the end.
Read more: Jason Anderson and The Best, Nov 16, 2012 at the Iron Horse
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The TD Garden arena in Boston hummed. It was quiet, as the fans filed into the stadium to wait for Peter Gabriel to commence the performance. Mumbled voices and music fans of all ages were present. There was a positive tension, an anticipation, as if we were waiting for the unveiling of an art piece. We were.
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Meet June & the Bee: 
Lead photo and this biography were submitted directly from the musicians. Please contact us for reprints.
June & the Bee are a brother sister group hailing from Amherst, MA. Their first original musical arrangement was comprised of Eli on the beloved red kazoo and Emma June on the frying pans, respectively. Since then Eli (the Bee) has taught himself guitar and Emma June has taught herself the ukulele. June & the Bee credit their folk influence to their father, who would vivaciously sing his own renditions of "The Star Spangled Banner" and play the harmonica, when they were younger. Emma June and Eli gained much of their musical inspiration from their upbringing in the arts based pedagogy of Waldorf education.
Emma June is 20 years old and enrolled at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst as a sophomore, with a self-designed major in Arts and Education. In her spare time she is avidly creating devised immersive theatre. Eli is 17 years old, and a senior at Amherst Regional High School. In his free time he is a member of the Central Rock Climbing Team.
Emma June and Eli started performing their music in 2011, in the cozy venue of their home kitchen. After many raucous dances by their mother and many encores from their dog Sofia, they were fortunate enough to land their first gig (out of the kitchen) on to the stage of The Iron Horse where they opened for Gentlemen Hall. They are currently in the process of mastering their first EP, June & the Bee. They hope to continue to share their tunes with the world.
Read more: June & the Bee at The Iron Horse Music Hall, September 22, 2012
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Dawes at the 2012 Newport Folk Festival
Photography and Review by Bluebird
This year, the Newport Folk Festival was sold out for months in advance of the show. It drew tens of thousands to Newport, Rhode Island, from all over the Northeast US and beyond. Some of these people have been attending this annual event for generations. There was a time when the budget for this global talent gathering was scarce. During these droughts, the loyal music aficionados, rock snobs and bluegrass historians, still came to support local regional music and folk traditions.
In mingling with the crowd this year and talking to fans at this event, I learned it is this core culture that keeps the bar for the acts as they come through. They talk about each band in great detail, including their connections with folk and music history, as well as regional presence. There are many terms that I learned Folk Festers use, to describe if they approve of an artist's music to be in the line-up of the Newport Folk Festival: "appropriate," "in the folk tradition," "in line with the history of folk," and, of course, ~ "Dylanesque."
Simultaneous to the folk and bluegrass that frames the permeable boundaries of this art, is a new wave of younger, Folk Fest revelers, who are jumping right in to hear their contemporary favorites. 'My Morning Jacket" "Deer Tick" and "Conor Oberst" to name a few. In a myriad of harmonies, the generational Folk followers that I spoke to, said they approved of these bands too, and hailed them as fitting into the storytelling chapters that would dawn the days to come. "Eclectic" the generational Folk Festers say of these new infusions of sound, "a fresh perspective."
And then there was DAWES!
