The Parlor Sessions: Coming Soon to Your Town

1343Something that’s been getting a lot of play on my iPod lately is the free 12-song sampler for The Parlor Sessions Tour featuring Dean Fields, Andy Zipf, Jason Myles Goss and Eliot Bronson. It’s a 12-song sampler by four young singer-songwriters who are heading out on tour together June 5-15, making stops along the East Coast from New Hampshire to Georgia.  I knew Dean Fields, who’s been profiled in this site, and am a big fan, but Eliot, Jason, and Andy were new, delightful discoveries for me.  I’m a sucker for a good song and, one after another these tracks pulled me in.

You can hear the artists for yourself over the course of the next four days. Each day I’ll be posting a brief profile of one of the artists, along with a track or two and a brief Q&A, or you can download the sampler yourself at any time.  Of course I’ll be at the show here in Boston, so look for a report on that, too.

In today’s post, however, we’ll look at the tour itself. The Parlor Sessions is a great name for a tour by this kind of singer-songwriter, playing these kinds of venues.  It evokes Continue reading

Gallery: Inside the Studio for the Making of Will Dailey’s National Throat

Gallery

This gallery contains 22 photos.

National Throat, Will Dailey’s 4th album, will be released to the general public soon, but two of the songs from it, “Sunken Ship” & “Castle of Pretending” are already available for free on NoiseTrade as part of on a 20 … Continue reading

Concert Gallery: Dean Fields and Ari Hest Play Passim

Gallery

This gallery contains 30 photos.

I had a chance to chat with Dean Fields before his show at Club Passim last Friday, opening for Ari Hest.  I was excited to hear about his upcoming tour with Eliot Bronson, Jason Myles Goss, and Andy Zipf.  All … Continue reading

More Bikes of Cambridge

Bikes of Cambridge in the winter.  Hubway Bikes remain This advanced approach to avail the drug has been leading buy levitra for promising results till date after making an inception in the pharmaceutical market. cialis properien Period taken by this medication to show its effect. So I http://amerikabulteni.com/2012/01/08/huntsman-romneyi-fena-bozdu-senin-gibiler-yuzunden-ulkede-kamplasma-var/ purchase viagra online changed to another product, and it works in an hour after taking the pill. Less amount of blood leads a person to erectile dysfunction that is the diseases or disorders which make him suffer erectile dysfunction. levitra 5mg online available in Cambridge as a pilot program.

Bikes of Boston in Autumn 2013

A sampling of the bikes in the As part of ESPN.com’s integration with Jayski.com, veteran racing voice Mark Garrow returns as a frequent contributor this year, producing podcasts and hosting regular chats on ESPN.com. buy viagra in usa People suffering order cheap levitra pamelaannschoolofdance.com from ED usually feel afraid initiating intimate acts with their partner. Dosage: The most recommend purchased this sildenafil side effects dose of Kamagra Polo is a drug that can ensure that men get back their natural urges to deal with the problem when it was starting to affect men in their 20s and 30s. This chakra is also called Swadhisthana and, unlike the solar plexus chakra has another name, order cheap viagra Manipura. Boston Metro Area, taken October 17-20.

Gallery: Saturday at the 2013 New England Americana Festival

Gallery

This gallery contains 35 photos.

If you were anywhere nearby this weekend, Harvard Square was the place to be for the New England Americana Festival, now in its fourth year. This is a gallery of images from Saturday, September 28, featuring photos by Rachid Aadnani … Continue reading

Dean Fields Talks about “Any Minute Now,” Arriving Tuesday

Cover artwork by Brian Thibodeau

Cover artwork by Brian Thibodeau

Any Minute Now is a new EP from Nashville-based singer-songwriter Dean Fields due to arrive… wait for it…. As much as I’d love to type “any minute now” at this point, there is a release date and it’s just days away, Tuesday August 13. The EP follows his 2011 EP Under A Searchlight Moon, a clever and wildly romantic selection of tunes that Fields wrote himself. On this collection all but one of the tracks were co-written with other artists, yet they are tracks that he felt strongly invested, and that he felt spoke for him as an artist. It was a big change for an songwriter who had always worked alone. It may seem odd to follow up an EP with another EP, and in fact, he had planned a full length album.  But a confluence of life circumstances and aesthetic considerations led to the decision to release this collection of songs now, saving the others for a later release. The songs seemed to belong together, and they were ready for release.

I learned about all of this and more in an August 1, 2013 interview with Fields in the Stratton Student Center at MIT, in the midst of a series of concerts in Cambridge, Boston and environs. Now based in Nashville, he grew up in Mechanicsville, VA, just outside of my hometown of Richmond, VA. I’ve been listening to his music for a while, but had not seen him perform. We talked the morning of his show at that institution of the Cambridge music scene, Club Passim. Of course the main topic of conversation was the new record Any Minute Now. Continue reading

Concert Scrapbook: Scorpios, Americanarama & the 6 Act Sunday Show

Gallery

This gallery contains 25 photos.

Thursday July 18 through Sunday July 21 I saw a lot of great artists perform live! These are my photos. They’re not great, as I was experimenting with a brand new camera. Still I wanted to share. I don’t have … Continue reading

Cory Branan, The Middle East, and Feeling Better Than It Should

Cory Branan @ The Middle East

Cory Branan @ The Middle East

Cory Branan makes Mutt Music! That may sound like a lame insult I’ve just invented, but it’s actually the term he’s been using to describe his music for some time, and it’s what he alluded to in titling his most recent album Mutt. He proudly owns the hybrid, eclectic styles of music it contains, and well he should.  He shifts and combines styles seamlessly.  It’s brilliant. His musical style was one of the topics of conversation when I interviewed him before his set at the Middle East Downstairs on July 21st.
Continue reading

Musicians’ Egos and the Six Acts Playing Sunday in Cambridge, Friday in Detroit

June21We all know how musicians are and how tough the music business can be.  Musicians have huge egos and the business is intensely competitive.  Because of these big egos, artists don’t work together well, and when the record companies make them do so, it’s the stuff of big drama. It’s what made last season’s tv drama Nashville a hit, and it’s the reason why we can only have one American Idol or winner of The Voice each season. Yet I hardly ever hear those kinds of stories when I talk to musicians. The kinds of stories I hear much more often are ones like the one Time Barry told me about how the six act show on Sunday, July 21st, Downstairs at the Middle East came about.
Continue reading