Music

The old guard was the Who (two week ago’s concert).

Punk’s vanguard was the Sex Pistols (Americans could argue for the Ramones & the New York Dolls, but Britain had far and away the more vibrant movement and the Pistols were its undisputed leader and last week’s
concert).

This week our concert band is a member of punk’s rearguard: the Buzzcocks. This 1981 concert was the band’s last till they reformed in 1989.

It’s amazing to me now that such a good band would have failed. However, the punk & new wave movement spawned more bands than could be supported and many good ones fell by the wayside and others never got the recognition they probably deserved (XTC and Husker Du come to mind).

When vocalist Karrin Allyson steps to the microphone, you can’t predict what style or language she’ll be performing in. The best part is, it doesn’t matter.

Allyson is referred to as a jazz vocalist, and has climbed to the pinnacle of the genre since recording her debut album, I Didn’t Know About You, in 1992. She is now regarded among the top vocalists in jazz. Releasing her 13th album last year, Allyson has put together a career that has brought her to top stages around the world, performing at major jazz festivals in Brazil, Japan, Australia and Europe, as well as the most legendary venues in the United States, including regular appearances at New York’s Blue Note and Birdland. Along the way, Allyson has garnered four Grammy Award nominations, most recently for her 2012 album ‘Round Midnight.

Twilight Music presents Pennsylvania-based, acoustic folk trio The Stray Birds, plus traditional singer/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Keith Murphy at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery on Thursday, March 14 at 7:30 pm.

When The Stray Birds take the stage, the spotlight falls on three voices raised in harmony above the raw resonance of wood and strings. It is a sound drawn from the richness of American folk music traditions, spun with a stirring subtlety and grace. Maya de Vitry, Oliver Craven and Charles Muench’s performances speak to an uncompromising reverence for songs and their embrace of the experience of live music. Reveling in the energy of each room, a connection to the audience is the essence of their show. 


Last weekend’s performance was the Who from 1970, when they were in the midst of a run of highly successful albums that included Tommy (’69), Who’s Next (’71) and Quadrophenia (’73).

By 1977, the year before this weekend’s concert takes place the Who’s formidable energies were tied up in legal wrangling over royalties.

Finally, one night in March of that year Pete Townsend, the group’s guitarist and principal song writer and in this instance, negotiator walked out of an 11 hour meeting with a seven figure check in his hand.

He headed to a bar called the Speakeasy where a couple of his protégés were playing (John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett). He got drunk on only two shots of whiskey.

On Wednesday, March 20th at 7:00 pm, Kurn Hattin Homes for Children welcomes the public to attend its 21st Annual Choral Invitational. The event is in celebration of “Music in Our Schools Month” and will feature performances from seven area choral groups and conclude with an audience sing-along of “America, The Beautiful.” Kurn Hattin Co-executive Director, Tom Fahner, will be Master of Ceremonies.

The Kurn Hattin Homes for Children Select Choir, the first Vermont music ensemble to compete on the WGBY Public Television series “Together In Song”, will be featured on the season premiere of “Together in Song’s” third season on Saturday, March 23, at 8PM.

“Together in Song” is hosted by Springfield Symphony Orchestra Maestro, Kevin Rhodes, and the children from Kurn Hattin Homes will compete with 37 other non-professional childrens’ and adults’ choruses from Western New England in ten categories according to age and musical genre.

Brattleboro, Vt. – Friends of Music at Guilford is beginning rehearsals next week for its “A Cappella à la Carte” concert season finale on Saturday, June 8, which follows its brief annual membership meeting and a community potluck dinner at Guilford Community Church in the Algiers village of Guilford.

The Guilford Chamber Singers will be led again by Tom Baehr, who conducted a group of nearly twenty singers for the organization’s Christmas at Christ Church program in December. Entitled “Melodies Steal Into My Heart,” the proposed spring program begins with madrigals, travels through 19th Century English Part Songs, and also includes some 20th Century tunes, a couple of 21st Century works, and even some Hoagy Carmichael.

DATURA TRIO & SILK ROAD’S SHANAHAN PERFORM ON MARCH 8

Brattleboro, Vt. – On Friday, March 8, at 7:00 p.m., Friends of Music at Guilford (FOMAG) presents a concert by the Datura Trio with guest percussionist Shane Shanahan, a founding member of Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Proceeds from the concert and a pre-concert supper, both set at the Vermont Jazz Center on Cotton Mill Hill, will benefit FOMAG’s Music Enrichment Program at Guilford Central School, where the Datura Trio is in residence on March 6-8. Student participants in rhythm and vocal workshops may also make an appearance at the evening concert.

I am beginning my run as iBrattleboro Weekend Concertmaster with the group that got me hooked on rock n’ roll: the Who.

What these guys brought to the music that I loved and still love is a passion and energy that borders on insanity. Watch Keith Moon play the drums or Pete Townsend attack his guitar. At the same time they have fun with the music. The alacrity with which they pull out of bone crushing riffs into quiet, even delicate guitar passages and back to full roar has always been a strength of their music and that ability is on display here.

This concert is from the Who’s Tommy period. In February, 1970 they had recorded a show at the University of Leeds in England which in May became Live at Leeds, one of the best live albums ever made. This concert is essentially the same set and tour.

Electric Fence plays Whetstone Restaurant and Brewery Wednesday night, Feb. 27 at 8:30 p.m.

Steve Carmichael, Howard Weiss-Tisman, Jonny Sheehan and Jeremy Holch play original songs and unique covers from the likes of Louis Jordan, Lucinda Williams, Tom Waits and Talking Heads.

Music is free. Beer is fresh.

is the stage name of Gregg Gillis. He’s not quite a DJ, but he throws a mean party with the help of his laptop.

Gillis is an expert assembler, taking tiny samples of familiar songs and mashing them together into something unique and danceable. He likes to loop familiar snippets of songs from multiple genres and eras.  It’s a music lovers’ trivia game to identify all the samples. Was that Heart? Tone Loc? Led Zeppelin? The Jacksons? All of them. How about Nirvana mixed with Kansas over a dance beat?

It’s not for everyone, but I love this stuff. And as I have been requested to fill in for your February host this week, I offer up a Girl Talk show.

Twilight Music presents French-Algerian acoustic guitarist, singer and composer Pierre Bensusan at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery on Thursday, February 28 at 7:30 pm. If World Music is music that pays tribute to the spirit of a collection of human beings through distinct rhythms, traditional instruments and harmonic colors, Pierre Bensusan can be recognized as one of the most eloquent and diverse world musicians of our time.

Tritium Well makes its debut in Brattleboro this Saturday night, 2-23-13. Rocking and irradiating the Northeast Kingdom since 2010, the five piece band joins Gangly Heart and The Diamondstones for a Power Shift dance party thrown by the SAGE Alliance, at the Stone Church from 7-11pm.

To make up for last week, and only a day late at that, I opted for a more straight-ahead rock show from now veteran Modest Mouse, performed in 2010.  YouTube commenters seem to have decided that the venue was in Sioux Falls, SD.  I’ve been a fan of Modest Mouse for most of the last decade, having originally fallen for Moon Over Antarctica.  One of the best songs on that record, Third Planet, is included on the playlist along with a host of other tunes from throughout their career.

Warning: There are a few swears.