Barrence Whitfield and the Savages will shake you to your bones.
Music Feature
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Squeezing into the spotlight
A musician put his accordion on the back seat of his car, drove for a while, and stopped to eat before heading to his gig. He was halfway through dinner when he realized he’d forgotten to lock his car door. He ran out to his car, but it was too late. There, on the back […]
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2015: a pop odyssey
It’s quite simple, really. Rochester singer-songwriter Meg Gehman set out to record a new album. She adhered to the protocol. Raise the money, write the songs, secure the producer, rinse, repeat. Then things got peculiar; things got weird. The money was raised, no sweat, the songs were penned, and the producer — David Chance (of […]
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Tempted
I’m telling you, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. Playing “Remember When” is a waste of air. Pining for long gone bands is futile. So let’s squash the commiserating so we can rave about The Temptators. Shout Bama Lama! For those of you who like classic transistor pop and rock, The Temptators is your […]
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Keeper of the flame
You might say Michael Feinstein was born to champion the Great American Song Book. But you would be a bit late. “My interest in the Great American Song Book started in the womb,” says Feinstein, who joins the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for a Gershwin Celebration on May 29 and 30. “By the time I was […]
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Unchained melodies
At the age of 11, Mary Halvorson was growing in Boston and studying violin. It was the early 1990’s but Halvorson and her friends were enamored of music from the late-1960’s, groups like The Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead. When she heard Jimi Hendrix that was it. She put down her violin. “I […]
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Long way around
Nathan Willett doesn’t take success for granted. In music, the obstacles facing a band are understandably difficult no matter the noble intentions beginners may hold. Making it at all is unusual; lasting a decade into band-hood — as Willett’s band, Cold War Kids, has — is rare. “The original four guys and how we started, […]
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Who catches what
There’s no mistake. You can distinctly hear Fran Broderick in all of his projects: the casual gravel and grind of his voice, his broad, chunky attack on the acoustic guitar, and lyrics that swing from the personally bittersweet to the flat-out hysterical. You may recognize Broderick from his work with Friday in America. You may […]
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Eastman Jazz Café with Vic Juris
Listening to jazz guitarist Vic Juris play one crystal-clear post-bop solo after another, it’s hard to imagine that his love affair with the instrument began with the raucous, distorted wails of hard rock heroes. But during his teen years in Parsippany, New Jersey, in the mid to late 1960’s, Juris was enamored of the guitarists […]
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Lake Street Dive
It’s in some of the smaller moments that drummer Mike Calabrese knows his band, Lake Street Dive, is starting to leave a bigger impression. While 2013 and 2014 have been stand-out years for the band — with a major appearance during the “Inside Llewyn Davis” all-star concert in 2013; the release of the band’s critically […]
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Arturo Sandoval
Maybe it was the time difference between Rochester and Los Angeles, or maybe his management made a mistake, but I knew I was calling trumpeter Arturo Sandoval a bit too early when he answered the phone in a groggy voice. He suggested calling back in 10 minutes, so I did. “I just took a Cuban […]
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Good Listenin’
Just ask Austin-based country singing salvation Dale Watson and he’ll tell you. “Ameripolitan,” he says. “It’s a new genre. It’s what country used to be. And that’s what you’ll hear at my show. It’s honky-tonk, western swing, rockabilly, and outlaw.” That’s what it is, but Watson is quick to tell you what it isn’t as […]
