NYS Music 20​15

Author: NYS Music Staff

  • German House Announces Fall 2015 Schedule

    The German House in Rochester, N.Y. has recently released their fall concert schedule kicking off on September 12. The historic western New York concert venue, promoted by Up All Night Concerts, has six performances scheduled from a variety of genres this fall.

    Opening the concert series on September 12 is Ani Difranco, Buffalo native and a prominent folk-rock singer-songwriter. Difranco has been nominated for 9 Grammy awards, winning for Best Recording Package in 2004 for her album Evolve. Difranco is a world-wide icon in the feminist and LGBT communities, known for her outspoken participation in social movements and her lyrics about progressive social issues.

    Taking the stage on October 10 is David Bromberg, a bluegrass and folk performer known for his proficiency on a multitude of instruments. The 69-year old from Philadelphia has played with Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan and George Harrison in his career.

    On October 31, Halloween night, Driftwood will perform at the German House. The 4-piece Binghamton folk band has recorded three studio albums and has a well-known presence in the Upstate New York music scene.

    Donna the Buffalo will play on November 13, with Peter Rowan performing as a special guest. Donna the Buffalo is a Finger Lakes group that embraces the southern Zydeco variant of Louisiana bluegrass. Rowan is a Boston bluegrass guitarist and yodeler who has been active in music since 1963.

    On December 4, Max Creek will perform. The Boston-oriented rock band was influenced by Grateful Dead and plays many psychedelic jam tunes. Phish bassist Mike Gordon has referred to Max Creek as one of his favorite bands.

    Concluding the fall concert series is Delbert McClinton, the rugged blues player from Lubbock, Texas. McClinton has had four blues albums reach number 1 on the charts, and also has had some success on the country scene as well.

  • Monahan Vocals Impress at Train SPAC Show

    On a brisk Friday night at SPAC featuring nearly four hours of music, including The Fray and Matt Nathanson, it was the vocal ability of Pat Monahan, lead singer of Train, that stole the show.

    monohan trainFrom the moment the stage went black, smoke filled the stage, and train whistles filled the venues, symbolic of the band about to take the stage, the audience was hooked. Monahan captivated the crowd in a packed pavilion with his endless range and unique ability to participate with an audience. While singing their 2012 mariachi-style hit “50 Ways to Say Goodbye,” he borrowed phones from front-row audience members to take selfies with them. Later on, Monahan, walked out to the fence in front of the lawn, paying his respect to his patrons in the grass.

    Monahan’s upper range was on full display during a back-and-forth banter with the audience singing the words “so high” during the outro of one of his songs. His shrill, but full, falsettos were exceptional–a level of singing rarely seen on recordings, and virtually never seen live. When Train played Aerosmith’s “Dream On” during their encore, Monahan’s singing was chill-inducing. The audience was left to decide for themselves how his voice compared to Steven Tyler’s. My personal verdict was that Tyler was the champion, but it was by a smaller margin than I would have thought.

    The Bay Area band pays homage to San Francisco in several of their songs, but not the only part of the country that Monahan respects. He made it clear at one point that he agreed with the recent USA Today assessment that SPAC was the best outdoor venue in the United States, prompting a roar from the thousands of people attending the show.

    monahan trainJimmy Stafford, the Train guitarist, and the band’s only other active original member other than Monahan, demonstrated his chops on the strings with intense solos on “Meet Virginia” and “Dream On.” For someone who plays in a pop rock band like Train, Stafford can shred it on a guitar neck like someone from a classic 70’s rock group. Stafford wowed the crowd with some of his melodic runs and his rhythmic strum patterns.

    Much of Train’s performance was very much like a Kidz Bop album, with everyone singing along. Being perhaps the second most popular active band on pop radio, trailing Maroon 5, everyone in attendance knew all the words to all the songs. The pinnacle of the sing-along nature of the concert was during “Drops of Jupiter,” the 2001 Grammy winner for rock song of the year. Monahan sang the band’s classic hit as the final encore song, prompting thousands to sing in chorus the cool parts of the song, the “plain old Jane” and “soy latte” lines of the song.

    monahan trainThe Fray immediately preceded Train, and was headlined by dual lead vocalists Isaac Slade and Joe King, two original members that helped to form the band in 2002 after attending Christian school in Denver, Colorado together.

    The best performances by The Fray were with Slade on the piano, enchanting the crowd as he tickled the ivories. He may not be Elton John or Billy Joel, but he can hold his own in front of a piano, adding some pizazz to the basic chord progressions. The band’s ballad and most famous song “How to Save a Life” came towards the middle of the performance and Slade dedicated the song to the victims of the Charleston, South Carolina shooting.

    King’s vocal prowess was on its best display during The Fray’s cover of “Take on Me” the A-Ha hit from the 80’s. A noteworthy test of any singer’s vocal ability, the high falsettos of the chorus section made famous by Morten Harket were done justice by King on Friday night, as the band nailed an unlikely cover song, coming out of their shell as a mellow pop rock band.

    monahan train

    The show’s introductory act was Matt Nathanson, the 42-year old Massachusetts folk singer best known for his 2007 hit “Come on Get Higher”. Nathanson’s mellow acoustic sound was the perfect background noise to folks entering the venue for the bigger acts coming later on, but the music was impressive in its own right to those you listened.

    Nathanson had a boyish enthusiasm on the stage, always smiling, with hand gestures to correspond to the song he was singing. His sense of humor was on point Friday night, as he encouraged the audience to buy some of the SPAC beers because “the more you drink, the more I sound like Led Zeppelin”.

    During the Train set, Nathanson was invited back to the stage to sing with Monahan a cover of Joe Cocker’s rendition of “With a Little Help from My Friends,” honoring the late rock star, in which Nathanson took on some of the more challenging vocal runs in the song, emulating Cocker with a gritty and soulful voice.

  • David Crosby Captivates Egg Audience With Timeless Acoustic Prowess and Free Spirit

    Amid a barren, intimate stage at The Egg stood a wily old man, alone with his acoustic guitar, serenading the audience with his raspy, seasoned folk-style voice for nearly three hours on Tuesday night. David Crosby, the singer-songwriter best known for his work with The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, impressed with his ageless tone, playing songs across six different decades. His banter with the audience was terrific, as he made wise cracks about music reviewers and politicians, and reminisced about working with Neil Young.

    david crosbyCrosby made his general distaste for Young well known. When audience members cried out the name of Crosby’s former acquaintance and fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, he’d mock them, comparing their cries of “Neil” to the sound a peacock makes. Towards the end of the show when informally taking requests from the crowd, someone shouted “For What It’s Worth,” the iconic song of Young’s band Buffalo Springfield. Crosby didn’t let the teasing of his former nemesis get to him, as he scoffed, chuckled, and candidly replied, “You do know whose show you bought a ticket for, right?”

    The 73-year-old Clausian figure spoke about how he thought history would remember music’s greatest songwriters as “crazy old Bob [Dylan] and Joni [Mitchell],” two of his heroes that he regarded as “poets.” After poking fun at Bob Dylan’s lackluster singing ability, he performed “For Free,” a cover of Mitchell’s. Crosby demonstrated his own lyrical prowess, however, singing songs about his 1982 stint in Texas prison and the corruption he sees in today’s politics.

    At one point during his second set, David Crosby said, “I don’t like politics. Actually, that’s not true. I don’t like politicians.” Crosby went on to discuss how he felt like big business and corruption had overrun the government and threatened American democracy. One politician he claimed to be an exception to his general political stance, however, was the populist senator from Vermont and presidential nominee Bernie Sanders. “I like Bernie,” Crosby professed, drawing applause from the capacity crowd of about 1,400.

    Crosby played two consecutive songs from his newest album, Croz, towards the end of his show. The music from his new album, produced by his son, were more upbeat than some of his older tunes, but had a similar kind of lyrical genius and the sophisticated strumming technique that Crosby has become almost synonymous with. Several of the songs he played during the show had an irregular string tuning, some of which gave the timbre of the piece a majestic or creepy aspect to it.

    While Crosby may still be the same old, free-spirited, anti-establishment hippie that rose to stardom in music festivals in the 60’s, he also demonstrated that he can still captivate an audience in an acoustic environment–a difficult task for someone on the wrong side of 70. When he concluded his encore tune, his 1971 outlaw country ballad “Cowboy Movie,” he belted some of the final notes in his gritty upper register, nailing the notes in every definition of the word. While some artists’ voices deteriorate in their elder age, Crosby proved again that he has yet to reach that point.

  • Grateful Dead Art Show Lineup During ‘Fare Thee Well’ Revealed

    During the Grateful Dead’s much anticipated “Fare Thee Well” reunion and farewell concerts at Chicago’s Soldier Field July 3-5, there will be a coinciding art show by PhanArt, titled In All Good Company, the largest exhibition of Grateful Dead art and artists. The art show will feature a newly announced lineup of dozens of artists displaying and selling posters, pins, clothing and photography.

    grateful dead art showThe exhibition, put together by PhanArt, will take place from noon until 6 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday 1 mile from the stadium at the historic Congress Plaza Hotel on 520 South Michigan Ave., near Grant Park. Local Chicago bands Jack Straw and Under the Willow will complement the artistic displays throughout the weekend. In addition, Blank Space Arts will be curating a playlist, providing an audio background to the visual effect of the art.

    In All Good Company offers free admission to all visitors and looks to continue the great tradition that PhanArt has had since its inception in 2013. Produced by Pete Mason, PhanArt exhibitions have been held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Miami, representing an effort to offer fans a rich variety of original concert art.

    Listed below are the artists whose work will be on display at this Grateful Dead art show:

    John Warner | Not Fade Away Artworks | Rhoney Stanley | Phil Kutno

    Richard Biffle | Move Brightly featuring Tie Dye by Courtenay Pollock

    Uncle John’s Outfitters | Good Thoughts Printing | Vintage Dead

    Dead Images by Robbi Cohn | Jim Pollock | Mark Serlo | TRiPP

    Mountain Family Glass | Sunshine Daydream Hippie Shop | Michael Boyer

    Andrew Bryant | Erin Cadigan | Amigos and Us | The Art of Ryan Kerrigan

    Kingpin Designs | Jeff Troldahl | Pinsanity | Get Shit Done | Zenster

    Morning Dew Tye-Dyes | Eden’s Rose Foundation | Grateful Girls Scarves

    Scott Harris Photo | Heady Teddy’s Outfitters | Dr. Wookles

    Easy Wind Family Creations | Lot Lifestyle | Pin me Down

  • Tales From the Road: Formula 5 Guitarist Joe Davis

    Joe Davis, guitarist of Formula 5 recaps recent performances at Rock n Roll Resort, Disc Jam Music Festival and Buffalove Music Festival, providing fans with the musicians point of view.

    joe davisLate May to early June is always an interesting time of the year for us in Formula 5. Certain seasonal stops in Lake George and other tourist locations start opening up and festival season begins as summer rapidly approaches. Festivals are always an exciting time to be in a band — as one would expect playing festivals have many advantages for a band. For example — wide scale exposure to similar fan bases, seeing old and new musician friends, getting to watch some of your favorite acts take the stage from a backstage perspective… the list goes on and on.

    joe davis
    Formula 5

    Our festival schedule began in May at Rock N Roll Resort in Kerhonksen, NY. The lineup was stacked with some of our favorite acts and best friends in the music community: Twiddle, Consider the Source, Beau Sasser, Lucid, just to name a few. This festival was special for me due to the fact that a great old friend, John Morrison and his band The Other Brothers, joined us on a festival bill and got to hang out as artists at a festival for the first time. John was one of the first people I ever actually learned and played music with, and to watch his band flourish into what they’ve become is truly great and I’m happy for him and those guys, because they’re just great dudes.

    I had some fun at Rock N Roll Resort but we got down to business when it mattered. Our set went well and Ryan Dempsey from Twiddle sat in on a Warren Zevon cover: “Night Time In The Switching Yard.” Ryan is such a good player and has such a passion for music, it was great getting to jam with him and feed off his ever-present energy. My favorite section of the set was probably the opening “Hot Box -> Mister Elixir -> Hot Box” sequence which opened our set. “Hot Box” and “Mister Elixir” are two of our oldest songs written by keyboardist Mike McDonald and we still love mixing these two in our sets and stretching where the two songs can go, intertwining within the two structures of the song without using jamming as a crutch to facilitate the segue. Those two songs really aren’t ‘jam vehicles’ for us on a normal occasion but happen to pop out a few lengthy jam segments every once in a while. Overall, Rock n Roll Resort was fantastic, we hung out with great friends, watched Twiddle and partied with some great people.

    Setlist: Hot Box -> Mister Elixir -> Hot Box, Floating, Night Time In The Switching Yard*, The Clear -> Fluffhead Outro
    *Ryan Dempsey on Keys

    Next up on our festival schedule was Disc Jam Festival in early June and what a weekend that was. The lineup for Disc Jam was incredible this year: Twiddle, Dopapod, Lettuce, Electron, Consider The Source, Kung Fu, The Heavy Pets, Mister F, Strange Machines and even more. Unfortunately, due to a massive thunderstorm, Lettuce had to call it quits about twenty minutes into their set on Friday but the acts to follow would more than make up for it. Dopapod completely blew me away as I’d expect them to; Rob Compa is such a great guitar player and I’m glad I got to watch him play, it’s almost like a free lesson. We played a short acoustic set on Saturday afternoon at the Relix tent and played a fun song with two of our best friends in the scene — Christian Perron and Mike MacDonald from Strange Machines.

    Our set on Sunday went really well. I think we recently really reached a new plateau of jamming and I think a large part of it has to do with me taking a step back and allowing Mike, James and Greg develop a launch pad for me to create with. Listening more to the chord progression that’s being built by those guys and slowly and melodically creating a more interesting and cohesive jam. The highlight of the set had to be the “Nu-GEN” jam which transitioned from the normal ‘Phrygian Dominant, Middle Eastern’, if you will, vibe into pure major key bliss. Another highlight was Scotty crushing a Talking Heads tune with us that truly got funky. I wrapped up the weekend hanging out with a lot of great friends, again, and getting the great opportunity to sit in with Twiddle during a full band rotation jam that featured Todd Stoops, Michaelangelo Carubba, Honeycomb, Scott Hannay and Formula 5’s own James Woods. That was truly a special moment and the Twiddle family is so welcoming and awesome and I’m glad I got the opportunity to play with those guys.

    Setlist: The Music Never Stopped, Nu-GEN -> Pedro > Excalibur, Uh Oh Love Comes To Town*, The Clear -> Nu-GEN
    *Scott Hannay on Keys

    The recurring theme with these festivals is the family and friendship aspects and how amazing it is to be doing this with some of the greatest people I’ve ever met. Buffalove Festival was no different. The first band to ever bring us out to Buffalo was Funktional Flow. We met Funktional Flow through a gig trade very early on in my tenure with Formula 5. They were probably our first great friends in the music community. We hit it off with those guys immediately and despite the core three (Ben Whelan, Jeff Kuebler, Jim Edgar) taking on a slew of new members I think they finally found the two pieces they were missing — Joey Lewis on guitar and Matt Lester on keys. Hearing and watching them evolve over the years and striding on through each change has been awesome. They sound better than ever and I’m pumped for those dudes.

    Our day set at Buffalove started off with a number of technical difficulties. James’s bass rig was having power issues, monitor levels were rising and falling at random intervals and intensity, and I snapped a string three songs into our hour long set. But we had some good moments too. The highlight for me had to be “Ride -> St. Stephen -> Ride.” “St. Stephen” is a new cover and we love playing it, such a classic simple song by the Dead and one of my favorites of their older tunes. Our late night segue set with Funktional Flow went much more swimmingly — we absolutely crushed in my opinion and I usually don’t always walk away feeling that way. Something about the late night vibe just really puts us in a good mind set for playing. Last year at Buffalove we did a surprise segue set with Funktional Flow in the late night tent and it kind of snowballed into a must for the festival. The jam in “Earthbound Tim”, which is practically never a jam vehicle for us was great. Buffalove unfortunately wrapped up our early summer festival circuit pretty quick but we have some more lined up in late summer and early fall.

    Day Set: Ride -> St. Stephen -> Ride, Movin’ On -> Excalibur
    Late Night Set: Perch Above the Earth, Earthbound Tim -> Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley, Know Your Enemy

    After two straight weekends of festivals we are bringing it back home to Lake George tonight at Shepard’s Cove, one of our classic summer time stops. We’ve been putting time in to work on Phish tunes for our Phish set at Dinosaur BBQ in Troy on July 11th and maybe we’ll be busting out some surprises at Shep’s. Until then, cheers.

  • Chris Cornell to Play Buffalo, NYC, Boston This October

    Rock musician Chris Cornell, best known for being the lead vocalist and songwriter of Seattle grunge band Soundgarden, will perform across North America in his recently announced acoustic fall tour, including several stops in the northeast. On Oct. 11, Chris Cornell will take stage at the University of Buffalo Center of the Arts in Buffalo, two days after an Oct. 9 performance at Massey Hall in Toronto, Ontario.

    About a week later, Cornell is scheduled to play at the Beacon Theatre in New York City on Oct. 18 and the Shubert Theatre in Boston on Oct. 21.

    The 50-year-old singer has recently announced the release of an acoustic album titled Higher Truth, to be released on Sept. 18. The fall performances will have an intimate, acoustic setting, featuring music off of Cornell’s upcoming album.

    Cornell is widely considered to have one of the best voices in rock music, with a four-octave range. In 2011, Rolling Stone selected Cornell as the #9 Best Lead Singer of All Time, while he was named the #12 Greatest Voice in Music by MTV in 2005.

  • Meet Your NYS Music Staff: Photographer/ Writer Meredith Snow

    Meredith Snow raised in Buffalo, NY for most of her life. She was brought up on rock n roll music and the local music scene as a young child. Her uncle would bring her to shows as he worked the sound and light for bands at various music venues. He would constantly bring her albums and band stickers to put all over her bedroom. This is partially what inspired her to get involved in the music scene.

    meredith snowMeredith Snow has been part of the NYS Music team for almost a year now and works as a photographer and writer. Her love of photography and music could have not put her in a better spot. When she is not tending to local bands needs with promotional photo shoots you can find her almost any day of the week at a music venue taking live pictures from your just getting their feet wet local bands to world known bands like In This Moment. On top of all this she attends college for business and her end goal would be to work in the music industry helping local bands reach that next level or working as an assistant. 

    Her bucketlist of bands she has yet to photograph include Slipknot, Mushroom Head, and her all time favorite Shinedown.

  • Meet Your NYS Music Staff: Neil Benjamin Jr.

    That’s Neil Benjamin Jr., newly tasked NYS Music Associate Editor, in a nutshell. He will tell you some of the worst “jokes” you’ll ever hear, then laugh maniacally even when everyone else sighs. A sports enthusiast who hates the Red Sox more than he loves the Yankees, Neil will even go on a rant of Biblical proportions to defend Phish 2.0 prior to droning on about how “jamtronica” is just a cop-out synonym for “bands who suck at jamming.”

    When he’s not saying whatever pops into his head, he is usually at work as the sports editor/music columnist for a newspaper in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. A product of the SUNY system, Neil has been enthusiastic about journalism since he was 5, when he made his parents subscribe to three daily newspapers. Upon graduating college, Neil started working as a sports reporter for the Berkshire Eagle, before taking over as the sports editor at the now-defunct North Adams Transcript (RIP).

    neil benjamin jr.He has served as a staff writer for the marijuana entertainment and activism glossy, SKUNK Magazine, has penned some things for Relix and Jambands.com, worked at various Syracuse, N.Y., news outlets and has known our boss Pete Mason for a while now. Neil worked very closely with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart for a few years, chronicling Hart’s new projects and helping publicize his tour. Neil considers having dinner with Phil Lesh at Levon Helm‘s barn in Woodstock, N.Y., in 2012 to be the coolest thing the journalism profession has ever gifted him, although meeting all the guys from Phish isn’t far behind.

    Neil has a passion for music of the live and improvisational variety and will not hide his obsession for all things Phish and Grateful Dead, as he has traveled the country seeing them and almost every side project. He considers Trey Anastasio to be a guitar god (he has a cat named Trey, because, you know, they both shred), better than anyone who came before him, and Jerry Garcia an American hero for unwittingly leading an entire cultural revolution that is still alive and well in 2015. He plays guitar and likes all sorts of music, but you might not know it by checking out what’s on his phone (Hint: A ton of 2004, some Oysterhead and every Phil and Phriends show.)

    He has a passion for baseball and even has a New York Yankees tattoo melded with a Grateful Dead 13-point bolt. For some unknown reason, he loves the Buffalo Bills and often lives for the agony they provide.

    More than anything, he covets his time with friends and family, loves being a journalist (even though he will never make enough money to buy a brand new car) and is beyond thrilled to play a much more active role in helping NYS Music grow.

    Neil’s musical bucket list includes the Grateful Dead, with Keith on keys, but no Donna, The Allman Brothers with Duane Allman, Operation Ivy, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and Oysterhead.

  • Meet Your NYS Music Staff: Writer Carly Knaszak

    Carly Knaszak joined NYS Music in early 2014. She is studying Journalism and English at SUNY Fredonia and will be graduating in 2016. She loves going to every rock concert that hits town. Some of the highlight shows that Carly has covered for NYS Music are Paul McCartney in Pittsburg and Ringo Starr at Artpark. 

    Carly KnaszakShe started her love of writing in high school when she joined her school’s Writers Guild where she expanded her passion with creative writing and poetry. But as she got older, she become more interested in the music industry and decided to make music part of her writing. She reached out to many websites and soon discovered NYS Music and she loved all the opportunities the staff gave her and the advice editors gave her to become a better journalist.

    Carly enjoys watching horror movies in her free time, listening to classic rock and hopes to become Elvira when she grows up.  She is currently obsessed with tattoos and Halloween.

    Carly’s musical bucketlist artists include: The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Shinedown, Slipknot and Kenny Chesney

  • Photo Gallery: ShwizZ at Garcia’s, April 18

    On Saturday, April 18 ShwizZ played to a full house at Garcia’s as the official after show for Jeff Beck at The Capitol Theatre. The progressive funk outfit played in support of their new 2 disc album My Good Side/My Bad Side, which will go on sale May 16 with a late night release party at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, NY.

    shwizz at garcia'sShwizZ at Garcia’s Setlist: 12, Duggan, Orange Wreck, Pomegranate, City Of Tiny Lights, Bad Side, Zone, Doorbell, In The Bag, Good Side, Slop Cream, Slow Down, Tax Man, MGF

    Photos and Review by: Nick Irving

    Upcoming shows:
    May 23, Arch Street Tavern, Hartford CT
    May 29, Good Times Getdown, White Haven, PA
    May 30, Domefest Terra Alta, WV