Choice Concerts
Songstress, author, and knitter Christine Lavin is one of the most astute comics you will ever hear. I say "comic" because everything this Geneva native does is peppered with homespun charm and wit. She's like Garrison Keillor if he were your grandmother (and had a much higher voice). Lavin
Music Articles
Julia Nunes strolls through the door of the rock joint du jour with her ukulele and into a world of misperceptions, misconceptions, assumptions, and pigeonholes. The world is full of female singer-songwriters. The world is full of ukulele jokes. "I guess the biggest joke that I hear is when I
Choice Concerts
Bryan Adams is the Canadian Peter Frampton, in that you never had to own any of his records to know all his songs. He was all over the radio in the 80's and 90's. In 2010 Adams released "Bare Bones," an acoustic grab bag of his biggest hits. And
Choice Concerts
It's a precarious balancing act - or maybe it's more like juggling chainsaws. Bands that blend a couple styles in search of fresh ground in which to plant their own flag have got it easy. But when you're a band like This Other Life, with myriad influences - roots
Choice Concerts
A cappella (the stuff I dig, anyway) got its start on the street and in the barbershop. Based on the dramatic coifs sported by members of Orlando's 42Five, these cats have spent some time in the chair and under the clippers. When you give this quintet's music a spin,
Music Articles
"I mean, who's going to write a song about Judge Reinhold?" asks Matthew Mischief, drummer for The Anderson Stingrays. The Anderson Stingrays is a relatively new local pop-punk trio that adheres to the sacred rule of three chords, speed, and lyrics that don't make you sit down and think.
Choice Concerts
It's funny, but some of the new music on Enter The Haggis's new CD, "Whitelake," is a whole lot more than just the exuberant strain on traditional instruments to which we've all grown accustomed. It still burns bright, but the band's incorporation of a rock rhythm section, and fewer
Choice Concerts
I haven't heard anything quite so beautiful in a long, long time as Old Tapes' Tympanogram EP "This Is Goodbye." A little less atonal than the Velvet Underground with Nico, and even dreamier than Mazzy Star, this relatively new trio - Lisa Kribs (that's right, the DJ), her brother
Choice Concerts
That tight Southern boogie you hear from Little Feat started out a whole hell of a lot wilder than it sounds today. Crazy doesn't always have to equal Zappa, but in this case it does. Created by ex-Mothers Of Invention guitarist Lowell George, The Feat crafted music influenced by
Choice Concerts
Beer and rock 'n' roll; one leads to the other. When you rock 'n' roll, you get thirsty. When you drink beer, you want to rock 'n' roll. This wheel of perpetual joy is going to spin as Three Heads Brewing, Custom Brewcrafters, Rohrbachs, Naked Dove, Roc Brewing, and
Music Articles
It's the same all over: everybody's got the blues. Every major metropolis, jerk-water burgh, or wide spot in the road has its share of legends, mavericks, and mainstays. There's no shortage of guitar slingers, harp blowers, and howlers. But not every town has a band capable of such nonchalant
Choice Concerts
Syracuse's Turnip Stampede has been kicking around Central and Western New York since 2007. The band skirts jam territory - and even jams skirt territory -but doesn't drag it out until your feet fall asleep. TS's guitarist, Adam Fisher, will knock you out with his thick tone and big
Music Articles
Rochester's Gonculator comes off as controlled chaos. It's progressive rock with carnival undertones and contradictory parallels, the sonic equivalent of Pop Rocks mixed with holy water. It is delightful madness with an uncanny literary depth. But the band's sense of humor is a tool - not a lure, not
Choice Concerts
Rochester native Lauren O'Connell has grown into a poignant songwriter with smoldering intensity and profane insight. On the surface, she warbles sweet over finger-picked notes. I've been going to see this young lady since 2006, when she was just 17. To be honest, I didn't see her turning out
Choice Concerts
If The Dap Kings visited Big Pink for the weekend you'd probably wind up with something that sounds like Love In Stockholm. This Boston-based powerhouse blends brassy soul hooks and vocals and shakes it up into some grade-A rock 'n' roll. Singer Charlie Rockwell is the kind of singer
Music Articles
Even as a member of numerous Rochester bands, drummer (sometimes bassist, sometimes keyboardist) Rob Filardo always appeared reluctant to take any credit. Whenever discussing influential groups he belonged to - like The Veins, The Thundergods, Duke Galaxy and the Pipeliners, The Priests, and so on - he would refer
Choice Concerts
Born in Lubbock, Delbert McClinton got his start as a harmonica-blowin' sideman in the Texas bar band The Straitjackets. The band backed up touring greats like Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Lightning Hopkins, and Jimmy Reed on their way through town. And it's McClinton's harp you hear on Bruce
Choice Concerts
Ever since his debut disc, "Go Big or Go Home," in the early 1990's, NYC's Paul Mark has been one of my favorite songwriters. His lyricism punches as hard as his guitar playing. He is a master of the metaphor, a titan of twang, a salacious supplicant of soul.
Choice Concerts
I once described The Blastoffs as being so gloriously loud and fast that you'd need diapers. Well, the boys have done it again, releasing yet another batch of tunes to threaten your tighty whities anew with the release of "Songs In The key Of Beer." What makes this band
Music Articles
Amanda Ashley: pop chanteuse. Amanda Ashley: singer-songwriter. This 26-year-old Rochester musician embraces both of those seemingly diametrically opposed sounds with equal helpings of passion, moxie, and zeal, tying the styles together with a big, beautiful voice. And the dichotomy doesn't stop there. Ashley's classic beauty is countered by her
