Singer-songwriter Amy Helm — daughter of The Band’s late drummer Levon Helm — does little to keep a lid on her joy, even as she tosses plenty of bittersweet heartbreak into her lyrics. She’ll play Three Heads brewing on October 10.
Frank De Blase
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ALTERNATIVE ROCK | Big Wreck
Coming off like the gentler side of Soundgarden, Big Wreck punches out its unrelenting, big rock sound with an amazing sense of melody. It’s a multi-layered attack that grabs ahold of you and doesn’t let go until you get it. It’s as if two songs are going on at once. Based in Boston, Big Wreck […]
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BLUES ROCK | The Dirty Pennies
The only thing that threatens to distract you from enjoying The Dirty Pennies’ musicianship is their extremely strong songwriting. The band started out in 2012 as a duo full of rough-and-ragged, next-generation blues. Despite its nascent qualities, The Dirty Pennies managed to dig deep into the big, bad blues and its low-down, traditional bloodletting. Far […]
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Album review: ‘One//Four’
Jackson Cavalier ‘One//Four’ Self-released jacksoncavalier.bandcamp.com It’s not that Jackson Cavalier has signed over to more countrified constraints. But I gotta say: Just dig the tonk and twang of Cavalier’s reedy voice as he puts it through the paces on his new, three-song EP “One//Four.” The first of an eventual quartet of EP’s, “One//Four” is a […]
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ROCK ‘N’ ROLL | The False Positives
You can’t put your arms around a memory, but you’ll come awfully damn close when you spin The False Positives’ new single ” Eyes Wide Open.” With its fat slash-and-twang guitar and healthy, stealthy backbeat, the song is utterly righteous. It’ll remind you of The Heartbreakers – Johnny Thunder’s, not Tom Petty’s – especially when […]
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Frank reviews ‘Charming Disaster: A Musical Tarot Reading’
Brooklyn-based duo Charming Disaster was charming as hell, but the only thing disastrous I could see and hear was the two girls sitting behind me that wouldn’t shut up. That notwithstanding, the band put out a dark set of sense, of sensuality, and of grace. Jeff Morris on guitar and vocals and Ellia Bisker on […]
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Frank reviews ‘Crazy for Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation’
Some go for the laughs, some for the magic. And though I like both of those immensely at the hands of our film noir-ish host, one Tim Motley, it was his mastery of the language that got me here this year having caught him at the 2018 Fringe Festival. Motley offers up some palatial palaver. […]
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Frank reviews ‘Pearl: Secrets of the Sea’
The French company Plasticiens Volants made up for Friday night’s forced cancellation due to high winds with two spectacular shows on Saturday night. It was mighty cool, it was mondo epic and truly amazing how they brought these enormous inflatable sea creatures to life over the heads of thousands of mesmerized souls, as their jaws […]
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Frank reviews ‘Cirque du Fringe: D’illusion’
It takes quite a show to upstage a venue, but the folks behind “The Cirque du Fringe” spectacular each year consistently knock it’s capacity audience out. The show is loosely held together by your charming hosts Matt and Heidi Morgan, who wrangle this sideshow as much as they perform alongside attractions from around the globe. […]
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Frank reviews ‘The Theater World of John W. Borek’
Alt-theater impresario, fringe of The Fringe, and madman John Borek said adios to The MuCCC performance space on Tuesday night after reigning there for 10 years with contrarian and maniacal delight. The attendees in the joint expected this producer of some of the worst theater to pull off the unexpected and Borek didn’t disappoint; he […]
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JAM BAND-JAZZ | John Medeski’s Mad Skillet
If you thought you heard some NOLA sizzlin’ in John Medeski’s Mad Skillet, you’d be right. One-third of Medeski Martin & Wood, the wild keyboardist shoehorns some Big Easy guns – saxophonist Kirk Joseph and drummer Terence Higgins, both from Dirty Dozen Brass Band – into this side project. See? I told ya. The band […]
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STEEL GUITAR | Susan Alcorn
This ain’t the typical home to roam for the pedal steel. There’s no country twang or deep dish blues. The sound Susan Alcorn gets out of her instrument can best be described as nouveau classical. The complex chord structures are brilliant. The way Alcorn plays, it’s as if she creates the notes she’ll play by […]
