Opens June 23: Before it became a world-wide sensation, there was a reading of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton at Vassar. Hamilton went on to win Best Musical and ten other Tonys in its Broadway incarnation.
Sunday, June 11: The Canadian jazz vocalist and pianist has attained commercial peaks upon which jazz artists are seldom allowed to tread. She has done it with great personality, great skill and intelligent repertoire.
Saturday & Sunday, June 17-18: Always misperceived as primarily a doctrinal folk and bluegrass festival because of its tight association with the late and legendary Peter Seeger, it is, in fact, one of the most inclusively curated and globally sourced festivals anywhere. I love this year’s lineup.
June 16-18: The festival continues its gradual transition from jam band music to more structured, roots-leaning classic rock, but this year’s lineup has the String Cheese Incident for the diehards.
Sunday, June 4: For both his role as a kind of finishing school for British rock stars and for the impressive and massive body of work, Mayall is not only a face on the Rushmore of British blues; he has been for about 50 years.
Saturday, June 10: Of all the typically hyperskilled guitarists who have found bill-paying work in the void left by the death of Jerry Garcia, Steve Kimock holds a distinction.
June 9-11: Taste of Country is the region’s secret little alternative universe. And it is hopping as all get-out.
Friday, May 26: On As Eli, the queer and trans Latinx songwriter (and accomplished academician) Elías Krell does in fact reflect in a variety of clever and direct, candid and literate ways on hot-button themes of identity and the experience of transformation. But it may take a listener a few spins to key in on such currents and undercurrents, so immediately striking is Krell’s songcraft.
If the national news doesn’t visit every few years for organic reasons, someone will do something to induce it.
Saturday & Sunday, May 6-7: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee required only his first big gig – as an original member of Springsteen’s E-Street Band – to justify his induction; but for good measure, he went on the play with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton, Seal, Aretha Franklin, Santana, Jeff Beck and a “many more” list that I’ll leave to your imagination.