For the first time ever Father John Misty and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit will be co-headlining a national tour that will run throughout the month of June. The tour will begin June 5 in San Diego and end in Tulsa, OK on June 29. The tour makes stops in New York at Celebrate Brooklyn! on June 19 and at CMAC in Canandaigua on June 20
Father John Misty is currently supporting his acclaimed 2018 release God’s Favorite Customer. While four time Grammy award winner, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit is touring in support of their album The Nashville Sound. Joining the tour will be Jade Bird, June 6-25 and Erin Rae, June 27- June 29.
Pre-sale tickets begin Wednesday Feb. 13 at 10 a.m. (local), with general public tickets going on sale Friday Feb. 15.
June 6 – Cal Coast
Credit Union Amphitheater*- San Diego, CA
June 7 – Santa Barbara Bowl*- Santa Barbara, CA
June 8 – Greek Theatre*- Berkeley, CA
June 9 – Les Schwab Amphitheater* – Bend, OR
June 11 – Marymoor Park Concerts* – Redmond, WA
June 14– The Armory* – Minneapolis, MN
June 15 – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island* – Chicago,
IL
Legendary musician Steve Gadd has performed on many Grammy-winning albums, but this year he was awarded the first one for one of his own projects. The Steve Gadd Band’s self-titled album won Best Instrumental Album. The modern jazz band includes Steve Gadd on drums, Walt Fowler on trumpet and flugelhorn, Kevin Hays on keyboard, Jimmy Johnson on bass, and Michael Landau on guitar.
Steve Gadd is hailed as one of the most accomplished and skilled drummers of his generation. Born in the suburbs of Rochester, Gadd took up drums when he was seven years old. When he was 11, he sat in with Dizzy Gillespie, launching a lifetime of work with some of the greatest artists of our time. He has performed in studio and on tour with iconic artists such as Paul Simon, James Taylor, and Eric Clapton. He continues to make music in conjunction with other artists and with the Steve Gadd Band. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1984, and the Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2018.
Gadd will be touring with Dave Matthews in March and James Taylor later this spring. Steve Gadd Band is on the bill for the Rochester International Jazz Festival and Montreal Jazz Festival. They’re also booked for a three-night stand at Iridium in NYC in June.
It seems that the Zac Brown Band won’t be slowing down anytime soon with the announcement of their 2019 The Owl Tour, with 36 dates starting this spring and going through to the fall.
Opening for the band will be Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real with Caroline Jones joining the group for nine dates on the tour. Along with the tour announcement, the band is hinting at a brand new album. Both the tour and album will be inspired by the mythology and mystery surrounded by the great horned owl.
Tickets for most of the dates go on sale Feb. 8, with tickets to the Boston and Dallas shows going on sale Feb. 15.
Zac Brown Band 2019 tour
May 25 — Legends Day – Indianapolis 500 – Indianapolis, Ind.
June 7-8 — Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion *- Gilford, N.H.
After 14 years at Hunter Mountain, Mountain Jam announced its lineup Thursday and that it will be relocating to the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, site of the original Woodstock festival. Mountain Jam will be held June 13-16.
More than 40 artists were announced as the festival looks to get back to its roots of being more jam-friendly. Headliners for the 15th edition of Mountain Jam include Gov’t Mule, Willie Nelson and Family, and the Avett Brothers. An additional headliner will be announced later in the spring.
The fest will have a decidedly New York flair with the inclusion of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Amy Helm, Marco Benevento, Consider the Source, Wild Adriatic, and the Big Takeover.
Early Bird tickets go on sale Friday, Feb. 8 at 10:00 a.m. and are available through Monday, Feb. 11 at 11:59 p.m. for $159 through the Mountain Jam website.
Hilltop, a 5-piece band from Albany that features a blend of rock with funk, jazz, blues and bluegrass mixed in, is set to release their self-titled debut album on Friday, February 8.
The band combines original music, diverse covers, and improvisation to create a unique listening experience. The band includes Aris Nieuwkerk (guitar, vocals), George Scherck (keyboards, vocals), David Klang (bass, guitar, vocals), Stephen Perry (drums, percussion, vocals), and Reid Perry (drums, percussion, vocals) who have collective influences of The Grateful Dead, Phish and Miles Davis. All these artists feature many different styles over the span of their careers, and this is what has shaped Hilltop’s sound and how to incorporate various styles into their songs – there is not just one sound or style that defines Hilltop.
Hilltop was tracked at recording studios at the two colleges band members attend – Schenectady County Community College and Mercy College in Westchester. Mixing was completed at Mercy College and the album was mastered on Long Island at MEI Studios, where David is an engineer. The songs on the album had already been performed live numerous times, with David noting, “This made it easy to get a natural feel for our songs in the studio, giving the listener an accurate representation of what the band sounds like live.”
This summer, Hilltop plans to hit the festival circuit in New York and the Northeast, and looks forward to building their following so they can spread out beyond the confines of the Northeast. The band knows this is a long journey and is dialed in for just that. “We know it often takes decades for a band to become seriously established outside of a small niche, and I think we’re all preparing ourselves to keep moving forward with Hilltop on a long term basis. We’ll see where it can take us if we can keep it going for a while!” said Klang.
The band’s single off Hilltop, “Driftwood” was released on January 18 and a multi-cam studio video of the single was recently released on YouTube.
Hilltop’s self-titled debut album drops on Friday, February 8 and will be available on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Bandcamp and Google Play.
To celebrate the release of Hilltop, a release party will be held on Saturday, February 9 at Parish Public House in Albany. Doors open at 8pm with Glass Pony opening the night at 9pm. Cover charge is $10.
The Syracuse Area Music Awards has announced its new class of inductees for the SAMMY Hall of Fame as well as nominees among 13 categories for the 2019 SAMMY Awards.
Lou Reed
The 2019 inductees include ’50s doo-wop band, Little Jan and the Radiants; 95X radio personality and host of the weekly radio program “Locals Only,” Scott Dixon; long-running independent acoustic duo, Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman; and highly influential drummer and music store owner, Al Falso.
Scott Dixon
The SAMMYS will also posthumously honor Syracuse University alumnus, Lou Reed with the Lifetime Achievement Award and internationally acclaimed trombonist, Melissa Gardiner as Educator of the Year.
Other honorees this year are well-known street musician, Elijah Harris, Jr., with the Founders Award and a brand new award named in honor of its inaugural recipient, Jack O Bocchino, the Jack O Bocchino Spirit of Syracuse Award.
Jack O Bocchino
Now in its 26th year, the Syracuse Area Music Awards seeks to honor musicians, educators, industry professionals and supporters of the Central New York Music scene. This year’s Hall of Fame dinner and awards ceremony will take place March 7 and 8. The Hall of Fame dinner will be held upstairs at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que on Willow Street while the awards will be presented at Eastwood’s Palace Theater.
Performers at the awards ceremony include a Lou Reed tribute band that features Stuart Heinrich and Ellard “Moose” Bolles of Reed’s late ’70s-early ’80s backing band. Also performing are 2019 inductees, Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman, past SAMMY recipient, R&B band Stroke, 2018 Best Jamband winner, Barroom Philosophers and Sean McLeod with 2017 Best R&B winner Alani Skye.
Tickets for the Hall of Fame dinner and the awards ceremony are available through the SAMMYS website. Tickets for the dinner are $25 and tickets for the ceremony are $20. The dinner will run from 7:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 7. The awards ceremony begins at 7:00 p.m.
NewsChannel 9 WSYR’s morning show, Bridge Street is hosting the SAMMY Spotlight Series each Thursday at 10:00 a.m. through March 7. Artists featured on the program include:
Feb 7- Late Earth
Feb 14 – Sera Bullis
Feb 21 – Infinity
Feb 28 – Fritz’s Polka Band
Mar 7 – Bad Mama’s Blues Band
The 2019 SAMMY nominees:
Best Pop
Screen Test, Through the Past Brightly
Forgottensong, Forgottensong Vol 1 and 2
Emma Jude, Pocket Full of Postcards
Best Hip Hop/Rap
G-Netics, Elevated
Big Nate MG, No Hooks Needed x Hook Line
J. R. Lottary, Instant Win
Chris Mac, Go For Broke Project
MLA, Salute Me
Best Americana
Joe Davoli, Golden Rule
Eileen Nicholson Kalfass, Crossing Bridges
Ghost Town Ramblers, Ghost Town Ramblers
Dennis McGuire’s One Man Band, Old Songs Rusty Strings
Best Alternative
Townhouse Warrior, Words, Unsaid
The Amazing Shakes, 10x The Crash
Strange To Look At, Strange To Look At
The Beuchesnes, Twilight Interstate
Late Earth, Late Earth
Sympathy, For Everyone to See
Best Rock
Jukin’ Bone, Unfinished Business
Atkins Riot, Atkins Riot “Iguanas”
Tony Touris, Ghost Town
Climbing Stars, Ascension
The Trend, J Marc Memorial Show
Best Hard Rock
One Step From Falling, Stuck
Amerikan Primitive, Down to the Devil
The Last Divide, The Last Divide
Between Hope & Fear, Between Hope & Fear
Damon Larus, Crusade
Best Other Style
Emedin Rivera, Tropical Tubulence
Samba Laranja: The SU Brazilian Ensemble, Gurana′
Fritz’s Polka Band, Hey!
Best Jam Band
Mike Davis and the Laughing Budda Episodes, Find Yourself – › Caterpillar
BRIC House Sessions is back for another year with its Thursday night concert series. BRIC House has featured world-class artists that reflect the diversity within Brooklyn. Celebrating 40 years of pioneering the arts and media in NYC as well as one of the leading presenters free cultural programming in Brooklyn. The BRIC organization presents and incubates work by artists and media-makers that reflects New York’s diversity and reaches hundreds of thousands of people each year.
With BRIC House being its main venue, it houses a public media center, a major contemporary art exhibition space, two performance spaces, a glass walled TV studio and work spaces for artists. It also is the space for the Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival in Prospect Park and has BRIC TV, radio and Brooklyn Free Speech media. It’s lead sponsor and supporter is the innovative entertainment and retail destination company City Point, which is 1.8 million square feet of retail, residential, office and entertainment complex at the epicenter of Downtown Brooklyn.
So far this year headlining artists Son Little with special guest singer-songwriter Melissa Laveaux and guitarist Christopher Paul Stelling performing in Fort Greene on Feb. 28. Then on March 7 they have the Electro Arabic act 47SOUL who party with a message, with the female fronted, neo-beat deconstructionist Underground System to open. You can check out other artists performing on their website. Tickets can be purchased online at BRICartsmedia.org.
Sixteen years after his Ethiopian, global pop blend “Bo’ee” jump started his career, Israeli artist Idan Raichel has released an album entitled And If You Will Come To Me. The collaboration represents Raichel’s newest phase in personal growth following a period of intimate performances either solo or in collaboration with a small ensemble.
Promising to be the most impactful project of his career, the album includes special guests from Japan, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Cuba and India. The album also features songs with African guitarist Bombino, Grammy nominee Danay Suarez, Israeli stars Berry Sakharof and Zehava Ben, and a new studio track reunited with his roots, the Idan Raichel Project.
“Ve’Eem Tavo’ee Elay,” the title track, in Hebrew, on And If You Will Come To Me, rapidly became one of Raichel’s most successful songs in Israel. Over 20 million streams have been recorded on YouTube alone, and the singles from the album have nearly 40 million plays.
Over the years, Idan has become an ambassador representing a world of hope in which artistic collaboration breaks down barriers between people of different backgrounds and beliefs.
Raichel will be supporting his album release with four arena shows in Tel Aviv followed by a lengthy international tour.
TOUR DATES AND VENUES:
Feb. 18- Kesselhaus – Berlin, DE
March 1- Blue Note – Milan, IT
March 2- Centro Culturale Candiani – Venice, IT
March 3- Melkweg – Amsterdam, NL
March 4- MOODS – Zurich, CH
March 6 & 7- New Morning – Paris, FR
March 9 – Porgy & Bess – Vienna, AT
March 16 – City Winery – Washington DC March 17 – City Winery – New York, NY
March 19 – City Winery – Boston, MA
March 21 – City Winery – Atlanta, GA
March 23 – City Winery – Chicago, IL
March 24 – Merage JCC – Irvine, CA
And If You Will Come To Me is now available to purchase and stream on major digital platforms such as Itunes, Amazon, and Cumbancha.
Black Suit Youth has played sold-out theaters with bands such as Story of the Year and Alien Ant Farm, and their newest CD was recorded in Atlanta by Peter Catalano, and listeners will immediately hear that “False South” is a terrific, high-energy rock album.
“False South” features blistering lead guitar work from Long Island’s Fed Canelos, heavy bottom end bass from Long Island’s Juan Orellana, hard hitting drums from New York City’s Robert Abrams, and rhythm guitar and lead vocals from Bryan Maher. Black Suit Youth plays an upbeat blend of hard rock, alternative, punk, and indie with an eye for arrangement and hooks.
Black Suit Youth formed in 2004, however this line-up is a rebirth of the band and has been together for about two years.
According to the band, their goal is to spread their music to as many rock fans as possible, whether it’s on stage in front of a thousand people or in smaller venues, one person at a time. You can catch Black Suit Youth live this month January 24th at Amityville Music Hall and January 26th at The Cobra Club in Brooklyn.
Check out their Facebook page and Bandcamp and look for additional Tri-State Area shows this winter as well as an East Coast/Midwest Tour in the spring.
According to Music Business Worldwide, stockholders of Pandora approved a $3 and a half billion, all stock acquisition of the streaming platform by Sirius XM.
Once complete, Pandora’s CEO, Roger Lynch will step down and Sirius XM CEO Jim Meyer will step in as the head of the combined company.
The acquisition was first announced in September and is expected to “close shortly,” according to a message to Pandora investors.
The terms of the deal call for each share of Pandora common stock being converted to 1.44 shares of Sirius common stock.
The Sirius common stock will continue to be traded on the NASDAQ market while Pandora will be delisted on the New York Stock Exchange. (Credit: Krypto Trading lernen)
Promising to be the most impactful project of his career, the album includes special guests from Japan, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, 
