Wednesday, October 4: This is indisputably a supergroup. It finds the great and epochal jazz guitarist John Scofield reuniting with the Jazz Rushmore drummer and Woodstock icon Jack DeJohnette, as well as John Medeski (whose primacy in the reclamation and reinvention of fusion simply cannot be overstated) and Larry Grenadier on bass.
Friday, Sept. 29: Most of the players here, many of whom you’ve heard if not heard of, earned their musical stripes elsewhere but live and work here now, forming a kind of new model collective for the post-industry music world, where you might as well live and play in the Catskills, for all anyone cares. Few, however, take on the Catskills as subject and as inspiration as directly as Koester, the Bard of Pakatakan Mountain.
Friday, Oct. 6: As influential for her funk- and punk-inflected take on singer/songwriter acoustic rock as for her rigorous self-determination and relentlessly energized activism, walking the talk where so many others are content merely to talk it, Ani DiFranco is simply important. She’s a lightning rod for polarized opinion as well, but that just comes with her territory.
A local favorite makes the roster.
Thursday, Sept. 28: There’s no overestimating the influence of the Cowboy Junkies on the aesthetics of “low”, leading, decades after they rocked the world with whispers, directly to the phenomenon of dreampop and to the genre that I hereby deem closet folk (think early Iron and Wine).
Monday, Sept. 25: African guitar styles, especially that of the Tuareg, have been an increasing part of the vibrancy and life of the electric guitar internationally, still resonating with freshness and cultural purpose here in the birth- and death-place of the instrument.
Sunday, Sept. 24: Very few bands have ever comfortably supported three songwriters, and even two can be a fractious challenge. Consider, then, the rare case of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – not only four songwriters in one outfit, but four established ones who had written hits with their previous bands: Buffalo Springfield (Stills and Young), the Byrds (Crosby) and the Hollies (Nash). Imagine the wrestling over vinyl bandwidth.
Sunday, Sept. 24: Flying Machine features substantive contributions from five-time Grammy winner Cindy Cashdollar on steel guitar, paired on a track with drummer and family torchbearer Gabe Butterfield. Avant-garde vocalist, composer and violinist Iva Bittová appears on the same track as the reed player and scholar of animal sounds David Rothenberg and the world-recognized harmonic overtone singer Timothy Hill. Imagine that. No, really.
Saturday, Sept. 23: The Grammy-nominated band will donate all proceeds to support the mission of the Hurley Heritage Society. Professor Louie has recorded and produced music for many artists in LRS Studios in Hurley for more than 30 years. Located on the farm of John and Anna Kaufman, the studio looks out over the fields that inspired the critically acclaimed 2016 album, Music from Hurley Mountain.
Saturday, Sept. 23: The blues vocalist, a three-time Grammy nominee and daughter of legendary blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, is a regular performer at the Falcon at Marlboro. Such is the company that the Falcon keeps, where an endless stream of notables, legends and the next generation pass through the two venues at Tony Falco’s shrine of great music and local beer, seven nights a week.