We set up in the lobby of one of our favorite venues, the Palace Theatre in Albany, NY, during rehearsals for our Fall Drive-in Tour and recorded the whole thing. Along with our playthrough of Not Normal, we recorded a full 2 set show that will premiere on December 11.
With venues across New York State being severely impacted by closures related to COVID-19, the need for assistance for these businesses to continue to remain open is greater than ever.
Join moe. on Friday, December 11 at 8:30PM for a special performance to benefit the Palace Theatre. Pick up Broadcast tickets and poster bundles here – a portion of every ticket and ticket bundle sold will be donated to the Palace Theatre.
photo by Frankie Cavone
The Palace has been Albany’s iconic downtown landmark for more than 80 years, bringing the biggest names in entertainment to the Capital Region. The history and programming of the Palace is a unique and often untold story with roots dating back to the period of the Great Depression.
The Palace Theatre was built in 1931 and originally presented vaudeville acts, feature films and later became a civic auditorium before closing its doors in 1969. The theatre maintains its original beauty and design and is a historical landmark in the City of Albany.
The Palace Performing Arts Center was established in 1984 and incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1989, created to operate the Palace Theatre. The Palace brings world-class arts and entertainment to New York’s Capital Region, greatly enhancing the area’s cultural and economic development.
Read more of NYS Music’s past coverage of shows at The Palace Theatre, and tune in for moe. on December 11.
This holiday season, join NYS Music and Toy for Tots as we bring joy to kids around the state this holiday season with our annual giving drive, Jam for Tots.
Traditionally, our Jam for Tots series would be centered around various live music performances in November and December. At each show, fans are encouraged to bring an unwrapped toy as a donation to brighten the day of a kid somewhere in the state. Due to the pandemic, we are changing it up this year so our collective charitable effort doesn’t fall short due to restrictions on live music and mass gatherings.
At each of these venues, whether you’re stopping in for dinner, getting take out or grabbing socially distanced drinks with a side of incidental music, bring an unwrapped toy for kids who are most in need this holiday season. A box will be there to leave your donation (through mid-December), which will be picked up by the Marines and distributed within New York State communities.
We greatly appreciate their support of these venues and the Marines during this annual giving drive. We may not be able to get down to live music while supporting the kids, but we can still support them while we wait for live music to return. Please use proper social distancing when patronizing these wonderfully supportive venues.
Jam for Tots has been an ongoing series dating back to 2008 when Positive Mental Trip frontman Luke Weiler took the show on the road, touring the East Coast while collecting toys for local charities. The event has since returned home to New York State and slowly expanded in the past few years. In 2019, in addition to a record haul of toys, 15 events were held across the state, bringing music and charity together throughout the Holiday Season.
Inner City Bedlam have a stated mission to break the boundaries holding back the inner cities of every city in the nation, to destroy racist ideology while providing the soundtrack to the inner city, and seek to change the face of American culture by providing outlets to educate the world about black culture through music.
David Jonathan and the Inner City Bedlam create an expansive and kaleidoscopic sound, formulated around their love of jazz-inspired melodies and warmly sophisticated rhythms. In teaming up with Chuckie Campbell, they release a stunning remix version of “No Collusion,” which stands out for its modern, organic sound that is polished but not overproduced.
In addition to the edgy performance value, quality production and a balanced mix makes for a lively and stark sonic approach. Many subtle nuances are found in “No Collusion,” which adds to the richness of the track when taken together.
Collaborating on “No Collusion” is Chuckie Campbell, an American recording artist, poet, fiction writer, editor, publisher, and educator who has been named Best Hip Hop Artist by All WNY Music Awards and ArtVoice Awards. Campbell performs with The Black Den, a six-piece live approach to hip hop filled with fluid instrumentation, lush musical arrangements, and heartfelt poetic lyrics.
We’re moving through NYS Music in Motion’s inaugural season with rocker Frank Palangi, and we’ve got three big episodes to go. Coming up on Friday, November 27, Frank welcomes Fulton County native, The Voice’s Sawyer Fredericks.
Music in Motion brings together seasoned musicians from across New York State, who hail from or have made New York their home, with host Frank Palangi, a guitarist and singer from Warren County. On December 11 Palangi welcomes Wavy Cunningham and on December 18 he’ll sit-down with Dopapod’s Rob Compa to close out Season 1.
Sawyer Fredericks won Season 8 of The Voice and has amassed a sizeable fanbase. He released “Born” on April 1 via American Songwriter. Sawyer has 12 songs on his latest new album, covering his journey growing up as a working musician. His “free range folk” merges blues, roots rock and jazz with real-time live instrumental arrangements throughout.
Set a reminder below for Friday’s episode of NYS Music in Motion with Sawyer Fredericks.
Subscribe to the NYS Music YouTube channel and get the scoop on Season 2 plus videos from across the state and beyond.
Catch up With NYS Music in Motion
Added Color performs “Something Better,” a bonus track to their NYS Music in Motion sit-down with Rocker Frank Palangi. “Something Better” is off Added Color’s latest “EP If You Had It All.”
Phish’s now monthly installment of Dinner and a Movie will revisit a classic Fall ’97 show from Hampton Coliseum. On Saturday, November 28 at 8:30 pm, Phish will offer a free stream of November 22, 1997.
Part of the Phish Destroys America tour, the show ranks as the 11th highest rated show according to Phish.net, and for good reason. The show begins with a 17-minute “Mike’s Song,” and 18-minute “Harry Hood” and closes with Hendrix’s “Izabella” – and that’s just the first set. Set two opens with 26 minutes of “Halley’s Comet” and blasts off from there.
Released as part of the Hampton/Winston-Salem ’97 box set, just before Set 2 started, the audience made a group effort to sing “Destiny Unbound,” a song that had been shelved for six years at that time, in an effort to have the band bring the song back into rotation. The banter from Trey in response is hilarious and well worth hearing, and now seeing, on this week’s Dinner and a Movie.
For the dinner portion of the evening, lighter fare is offered, courtesy of Nashville-based chef Ryan Poli, formerly of the famed Catbird Seat restaurant. Butternut squash soup with chipotle chiles and popcorn, a brussel sprouts salad, and a sticky toffee pudding with a spiced caramel sauce are on the menu. Recipes can be found here, and fans are encouraged to tag photos of their creations with #phishdinnerandamovie.
The beneficiary for this weekend’s Dinner and a Movie is The Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.), a non-profit organization that seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one’s food choices. F.E.P encourages healthy food choices that reflect a more compassionate society by spotlighting the abuse of animals on farms, the depletion of natural resources, unfair working conditions for produce workers, and the unavailability of healthy foods in low-income areas. Donate at phish.com/waterwheel.
Setlist via Phish.net
Set 1: Mike’s Song -> I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Harry Hood > Train Song, Billy Breathes, Frankenstein > Izabella Set 2: Halley’s Comet > Tweezer > Black-Eyed Katy > Piper > Run Like an Antelope[1] Encore: Bouncing Around the Room > Tweezer Reprise [1] Lyric changed to “Michael Esquandolas.”
Thrash/hardcore revolutionists War Orphan, featuring former Sick of It All guitarist Richie Cipriano, drummer Dante Renzi (Reach) and vocalist David Bason (Barfbag, Lords of the Drift), pay tribute to The Exploited’s controversial track “F*ck the USA,” with a new version, “F*ck the NRA,” that takes aim at the National Rifle Association.
The daring new track debuted on WeAreThePit, highlighting the searing protest song about the death dealing war machine, which has consistantly turned a deaf ear to the epidemic of gun violence.
Guitarist Richie Cipriano comments on the inspiration for the song:
We love The Exploited and all English punk. We figured this would be a good time to pay tribute and give it a little twist.
Richie Cipriano, War Orphan
The trio formed when longtime friends Dante, Richie and David moved from recording songs trying make each other laugh to taking it seriously. Singer David Bason lives in Los Angeles, and missing his New York friends, he would leave Cirpiano voicemails about how he thinks heavy metal is silly. Richie and Dante would track record metal songs to them and send them back. Thus, was born Bloodbath and Beyond, an inside joke to kill time and crack each other up.
Richie called and said he thought he had a song they should take seriously. Bason got excited and the EP was tracked, mixed and mastered in a matter of weeks. War Orphan developed organically and the results show.
War Orphan recently made their debut with a seething thrash punk EP Closer To Death Than Life. Their initial offering is a fearless protest record that delivers a much needed shot of angst into the hardcore scene and swift throat-punch to rightwing extremists and the current presidential administration. Bason summons the furious rage that people across the country have felt over the last few years, channeling it into songs about systematic racism (“Autonomous Zone”) and a deceitful president (“Prop Up The Polls”) among other topics that are more relevant and important now than ever before.
The penultimate Beacon Jams found the core band for the past six weeks accompanied by a couple of new faces, as well as the Rescue Squad Strings, for one of the most memorable nights of the entire run. Trey Anastasio appeared more loose this week and at the same time excited to be performing with the lineup for Trey Anastasio Band, which found Natalie Cressman (trombone) and James Casey (saxophone) joining Jennifer Hartswick (trumpet), who had been singing the past two weeks, and quarantining for a total of five to prepare for the shows.
photo via The Beacon Theatre Facebook page
Friday night’s performance served as the first complete Trey Anastasio Band performance since February 1, 2020 at The Civic Theater in New Orleans, LA, and first performance in New York since January 11 at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester.
photo by Jake Silco
Reunited with friends and a full stage at times, the flood gates of material were opened to allow for Trey band classics and surprising arrangements of Phish songs peppering the night. A pre-show tribute paid respects to the recently passed Carl Monzo, head of Phish security for many years.
The evening also served as a fundraiser for The Divided Sky fund, which focuses on delivering quality care and compassionate treatment for those battling from addiction, through Phish’s WaterWheel Foundation. By the end of the show on Friday, November 20, nearly $100,000 was raised that night alone, with more than half of a million dollars gathered over seven weeks, an impressive total in support of recovery from addiction.
Kicking off the night was Phish’s “Camel Walk” that had some extra flavor with horns and added percussion from Cyro Baptista, whose daughter was having a baby that evening, leading to banter between him and Trey, before moving into an apropos “Set Your Soul Free” and “Alive Again,” a staple of TAB since summer 2001.
Trey invited the Rescue Squad Strings and Jeff Tanski out to join the band for “Petrichor,” performed for the first time with Tanski since New Year’s Eve 2016.
Trey made a point to thank MSG once again for bringing the event together for free on Twitch, and gave an overdue shout out to the union workers who helped put the show together behind the scenes. He also thanked the many groups of fans who donated to The Divided Sky Fund, some donating thousands of dollars to support the cause.
photo by Jake Silco
The second ever performance of the groovy “All Pretending” had a catchy vibe ala Kenny Loggins’ “I’m Alright” and was followed by the Bossa Nova “Curlew’s Call,” but with Cyro not shying away from the percussion.
The Rescue Squad Strings returned for “Harry Hood,” with Trey switching to acoustic guitar, then back to electric for the third section of the song as the rest of the band joined in for the triumphant finale. After, Trey remarked to the strings about the sincere joy of playing “Hood” and writing it on an acoustic guitar on the beach in Greece when he was 19. Anastasio went back to the acoustic for “Lifeboy,” with heartstrings being plucked on couches across the country.
“Heather McDougal Song” took off from that donor’s name popping up on the screen, with some brief improv joined in by the Rescue Squad Strings. Within moments of ending, the full band debut of “Let Me Lie” (also with strings) followed, giving the laid back breather a fuller sound, and a rare “Chalkdust Torture Reprise” surfaced as the strings departed the stage, with the lyrics changed to “Heather McDougal Song.”
“Burlap Sack and Pumps,” another standard that found its legs in the Summer of 2001, went deep, thanks in great part to James Casey switching to baritone sax. The TAB debut of Kasvot Växt’s “Death Don’t Hurt Very Long,” had added character thanks to the slow deep funk groove via the horn section.
photo by Jake Silco
To wrap up the night, the strings returned for “Goodbye Head” and closed with Trey Anastasio Band on the fan favorite “Push on ‘Til the Day” closing the night. Donate to the Divided Sky Fund here and tune in on Friday, November 27 at 8pm for the finale of The Beacon Jams.
Set 1: Camel Walk, Set Your Soul Free, Alive Again [1], Petrichor [2], Money, Love and Change, Olivia, All Pretending > Curlew’s Call, Harry Hood [3], Lifeboy [4], Heather McDougal Song [5], Let Me Lie [6], Chalk Dust Torture Reprise [7], Burlap Sack and Pumps, Valentine, Death Don’t Hurt Very Long [8], Goodbye Head [9], Push On ‘Til the Day
[1] Lyrics changed to “Winter’s coming and I’d like a review.” [2] Just Trey, The Rescue Squad Strings, and the horns. [3] Full TAB debut; began with just Trey on acoustic guitar and The Rescue Squad Strings with the rest of the band joining later. [4] Just Trey on acoustic guitar with The Rescue Squad Strings and Jen Hartswick and Natalie Cressman on vocals. [5] Debut; with The Rescue Squad Strings. [6] Full TAB debut; with The Rescue Squad Strings. [7] Full TAB debut; sung as “Heather McDougal Song.” [8] Full TAB debut. [9] With The Rescue Squad Strings.
In June 2020, Connecticut indie-groove quintet Goose consolidated their signature live experience into a virtual summer event called “Bingo Tour.” The ten-day tour featured four “Bingo Nights” of live music, and six additional days of community events, all live-streamed.
Premiering on Vimeo on Wednesday, November 25th at Midnight, Bingo Tour is a curated compilation of live performances from the four live Bingo Nights into one show experience. Accompanying the feature is a 55-minute behind-the-scenes look into the making of the unprecedented weeklong digital spectacle that attracted thousands of viewers worldwide.
From June 19 to June 28, Goose performed live from the Goose Community Rec Center. Fans received digital bingo boards filled with the band’s songs and cover material, and the band’s performances were dictated by bingo balls drawn on stage as fans at home played along for a chance to win virtual VIP opportunities and merchandise.
“Bingo Tour was a really special moment for all of us. With all the uncertainty about live music at that time, it felt amazing connecting with our fans in such a unique and memorable way. We are forever grateful for their trust and support as we pursue all of our crazy ideas.”
Peter Anspach (Guitar, Keys, Vocals)
Goose Live at the Goose Community Rec Center – 6/26/20 Photo: Chris Quinn
Described byThe Hartford Courantas a band “do[ing] it better than anyone else right now,” Goose’s film presents several musical highlights from four superb performances while placing the exemplary work of their acclaimed production team on full display. Expert camerawork captures intimate looks at the group members’ individual musicianship and collective improvisation, paired with dazzling displays by Lighting Director Andrew Goedde. Live concert visuals were directed by Bryan Murphy, who also directed the documentary-style behind-the-scenes footage.
Behind the scenes at Bingo Tour. (Photo: Bryan Murphy)
“With so many different community events to get involved in, we wanted to capture a little piece of everything and put together a movie complete with an extras video featuring an hour of behind the scenes footage,” said Anspach.
On release day, Bingo Tour will be available for 48-hour rental for $4.99, or for digital purchase at $14.99. Click Here to #getinvolved one more time, as we revisit an amazing week at the Goose Community Rec Center.
Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear the latest from Saratoga’s Ugly Muppets and many more!
WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.
Ugly Muppets is a three piece psychedelic indie garage band coming from the sewers of Saratoga Springs, and straight into your heart. With fuzzed-our guitars, blistering kazoos, and sometimes-on-key vocals, people have said of the band, “Oh yeah, I think I’ve heard of them.”
This group of proto-post-punk weirdos includes Josh Clark (vocals, guitar, bass), Daniel Burt (vocals, drums), and Jeremy Katz (vocals, bass, guitar, kazoo, synth, production)
Pulling on influences including The Stooges, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Black Angels, Black Lips, Black Flag, Black Sabbath, and pretty much any band with black in the name, and for Josh Clark, Oasis, Ugly Muppets has been together for five years, while performing in various bands since high school both independently and together.
The sound of Ugly Muppets is has an overall character that is as much a result of wanting to create something raw while embracing the happy accidents.
Ugly Muppets have well crafted songs that retain a raw production quality, which ties the full band sound together and in a way, becomes a character, if not member of the overall band.
Katz says of their sound, “We used a franken-rig of all our collective gear to do the recording and tracked as much as we could live so the sounds already had their own unique character, which we tried to lean into when we did the mixing,” with Burt adding, “It took us a while to form a sound we where happy with, a heavy garage influence was inevitable considering the music we were listening to and the gear we were working with.”
Update: On January 17 at 8PM ET, the fourth episode of It Was The Music will feature a special livestream event featuring Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams along with special guests Rosanne Cash, John Leventhal, and Buddy Miller. The livestream, available on FANS, will be hosted by David Keith.
It Was The Music, a film in 10 episodes chronicling the lives and love of musicians Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, will premiere on Sunday, December 13. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Mark Moskowitz, It Was the Music serves as both a musical odyssey and deeply personal love story of Campbell and Williams in search of their “music utopia.”
Having embarked on a joint musical career, It Was the Music sees the Woodstock couple packing their bags, guitars, amps, and 30-year marriage into their SUV and setting out across America to sing their own extraordinary songs along with riveting interpretations of beloved gospel, blues, country, and classic rock ‘n’ roll.
A three-time GRAMMY® Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer-songwriter, and bandleader from New York City, Campbell is a veteran musician hailed for his work with artists including as Levon Helm, Phil Lesh, Bob Dylan, The Black Crowes, among others.
Williams, an exceptional alto singer and actor known for her highly acclaimed roles as Sara Carter in Keep On The Sunny Side and the title role in Always….Patsy Cline, has also served as a vocalist for Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Phil Lesh and Friends and Peter Wolf, to name but a few.
Accompanying It Was the Music is a stellar soundtrack gathering previously unreleased music from Campbell and Williams, including new renditions of songs made famous by The Band, Grateful Dead,Little Feat, Buffalo Springfield, and more. The soundtrack features performances from Campbell and Williams who are joined by friends such as friends as Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Bill Payne, and the late Levon Helm’s world famous Midnight Ramble Band. The first track “It Ain’t Gonna Be A Good Night”has been released with the full soundtrack due out December 6. Pre-order and find more info about the film series here.
It Was the Music is first and foremost a love story, with Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams showing how love can create the music and how the music can bring us together. The film follows Campbell and Williams over 15 months on the road, starting point on a Friday afternoon at Williams’ seventh generation farm in Peckerwood Point, TN, traveling to Campbell’s native New York City and finally the couple’s home in Woodstock.
Along the way they stop at recording studios, clubs, and theatres across the country, with highlights including exclusive live performances from intimate venues and jam-packed music festivals. The finale of the film features parts of the star-studded “The Last Waltz 40th Anniversary Celebration” presented by Lincoln Center at NYC’s Damrosch Park.
Along with the couple’s own personal story, It Was the Music includes exclusive interviews and never-before-seen performances from Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, William Bell, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Phil Lesh, Jerry Douglas, Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, Garland Jeffreys, Happy Traum, David Bromberg, and many more.
Director Mark Moskowitz says of It Was the Music:
It Was the Music is about what music means to us, the way my film, Stone Reader, is about what books means to us, and my upcoming film, Art Stops Here, is about what art means to us. In the end, these films are about us, how people respond to the arts. Not quite documentary, not quite reality, not quite memoir, not quite even story, It Was the Music is referential, memory-like. It’s allusive. Things touch other things…much like a song.”
It Was the Music premieres Sunday, December 13, with new episodes debuting every Sunday, except on January 3 – two episodes will be available on January 10.
