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.
When the auction closes, the fashion show begins: an extravaganza of the latest styles that the Woodstock community has to offer, featuring talented local models parading down a full-sized catwalk constructed just for the occasion.
Saturday, May 6: For quite a few years now, Flying Cat Music has quietly been bringing a special class of folk talent – both Americana and world – into the small-but-acoustically-and-visually-stunning space at the Empire State Railway Museum in Phoenicia. The room tends to be not only packed, but also attentive in that endangered listening-room way.
Our first order of business here is clerical. It is to be called Colony now, not the Colony Café, as we have long been conditioned to think of it: that stylish, on-again off-again hotel/restaurant/venue that has been standing there all cool and Euro on Rock City Road just past the Green in Woodstock since 1929.
Saturday, April 29: There are scholars who contend that late-18th-century German poet Friedrich Schiller’s original version of “Ode to Joy” was titled “Ode to Freedom,” but that he subsequently toned down its potential political implications. The rebellious spirit of the work was reinforced in Ludwig von Beethoven’s 1824 musical setting in his Symphony no. 9 in D minor, op. 125, and people around the world have since embraced it as an expression of defiance, solidarity and survival as well as pure exultation.
Saturday & Sunday, April 29-30: There is an old Zen proverb that you may have heard: “You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes every day, unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for an hour.” I like to imagine that the organizers of Basilica’s famous 24-Hour Drone Festival feel similarly about the agency of drone-based music: Those with the least patience for it are those who need it the most.
Friday, April 28: As a young band, B4tB simply smoked the clubs of New Paltz and environs. Most people who caught them by accident would thenceforward catch them on purpose.
Sunday, April 30: Although Gifford grew up in Hudson and was directly influenced by Cole, very few of Gifford’s paintings – including those of iconic viewsheds in the Catskills – ended up in art collections within the immediate region. So it’s a rare treat indeed when an exhibition is brought together for display hereabouts.
Saturday, April 29: Jazz bassist, producer, composer, electronic music pioneer: Malcolm Cecil has quietly had about as varied and storied a music career as one could quietly have. He won a Grammy for engineering on Stevie Wonder’s greatest record, Innervisions. His innovative duo Tonto’s Expanding Head Band made what is widely considered to be essential early electronic music, and was, in a bizarre turn, recently referenced on TBS’ popular show People of Earth.
Saturday, April 29: Born Jamar Rolando McNaughton, Jamaican musician Chronixx has emerged as a leading figure in the next generation of Jamaican recording artists.