The Book Museum of the City of New York will host a conversation with David Byrne and Maira Kalman and their book American Utopia on January 13. The conversation includes author, illustrator and artist Maira Kalman as well as Talking Heads frontman Byrne, who have worked together on a book version of Byrne’s American Utopia musical. The audience Q&A will be hosted by WNYC’s Alison Stewart.
Byrne and Kalman’s book, also titled American Utopia, was released on October 27 and contains some words from the musical, but it is mostly centered around illustrations. According to NPR’s review of American Utopia, “[the book] contains little of the play’s language; in fact, it contains little language, full stop. Some pages offer only a few words, or a notable place name — Truth or Consequences, New Mexico makes an appearance, as do Bullfrog, Utah and Goofy Ridge, Illinois—or, in one case, the chorus of the Talking Heads hit ‘Road to Nowhere.’ The resulting effect is much more like reading a book-length poem than reading a play, though few poems or poetry collections come filled with charming illustrations of trees, dancers, and party-hatted dogs.”
Just before the book was released, a concert-film version of American Utopia was released on HBO, directed by Spike Lee. Learn more here.
The conversation will be hosted on Zoom and will begin at 7 p.m. ET. While the event is free to register, there is a suggested donation component. Click here to register.
Live music fans can now take an online adventure in music with the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing’s new free virtual event series, “Forevergreen: A Vermont Adventure In Music.” The newly established virtual concert series presents music fans with Vermont’s endless capacity for adventure and a roster of artists who have an affinity for the Green Mountain State.
Produced by Higher Ground Presents, Forevergreen’s five-part virtual concert series will feature local Vermont musicians as well as regional and national acts live from quintessentially “Vermont” stages like South Burlington’s Higher Ground as well as a some of the state’s most iconic ski resorts. The event series will see performances from Taj Mahal, Twiddle, Lucius, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Grace Potter, Chris Thile and Aoife O’Donovan, and more. For the full event schedule, head here.
All episodes of Forevergreen will stream live for free on the Vermont Tourism YouTube and Facebook channels at 7 p.m. ET. Watch the official teaser trailer of the event series below. More info can be found here.
December 26 – Taj Mahal, Twiddle, Kat Wright
December 30 – Lucius, Ryan Miller, Will Keeper
January 2 – Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Grace Potter, Dwight and Nicole
January 9 – Chris Thile and Aoife O’Donovan, Neko Case, Mikahely
January 16 – The Avett Brothers, Noah Kahan, The High Breaks
Marble Eyes announces their new weekly livestream series, ‘Marble Eyes Mondays.’ The streaming series will start on January 4, 2021 at 8 PM EST on Nugs.tv as well as the Nugs.net Facebook and YouTube pages.
A newly formed band during the pandemic era of music, Marble Eyes is a collection of national artists Eric Gould (bass, Pink Talking Fish), Adrian Tramontano (drums, Kung Fu), Mike Carter (guitar, The Indobox), and Max Chase (keys, Amulus). The band is based in Portsmouth, NH and has a soulful sound, hoping to bring joy to people across the country by creating brand new inspirational music and want to share this new music with people in this weekly series.
The band is teaming up with Nugs.net to present a livestream series which will take place every monday ergo the serieses name, “Marble Eyes Mondays,” Marble Eyes will perform a brand new concert every other Monday at 8PM ET. The performances will be hosted at The Press Room in Portsmouth NH. The concerts will be aired on Nugs.tv as well as the Nugs.net Facebook and YouTube pages. The series will be taking place every week through April of 2021.
With the pandemic looming over the music industry still, this will be a very different kind of winter for live entertainment. Just like most of 2020, most live performances are seeming unlikely for 2021. Because of this, Marble Eyes is giving music lovers an opportunity to get to know a new band during this time of livesteams via this series. There will be unique production added to the shows each month and, along with the existing collection of fresh material, the band will be introducing at least one song debut during each show.
For more information on the the series and the band visit their Facebook page.
After weeks of anticipation, Phish has announced plans for the NYE edition of their ‘Dinner and a Movie’ stream series. They’ll revisit their famed 12/31/95 performance at Madison Square Garden on New Year’s Eve starting at 8:30pm, with a twist – they’ll be bringing back the Band v Audience chess match for the stream.
Taking place over two tours in the mid-90s, Band v Audience chess matches are a testament to the high level of nerdiness both shared. The band would start the show with a chess move, and fans would then have the duration of the first set to contemplate their move, meeting at the Greenpeace table (prior to The Waterwheel Foundation‘s founding), debate the move at setbreak and make their move collectively. A fan (usually a local) would be invited to go on stage before Set 2 began to make the move on the chess board.
Phish’s New Year’s Eve performances are legendary to say the least, and for the first time since 2008, the band will not perform live due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether they’ve created an aquarium on stage, flown in on a hot dog, created their own time factory, put on Broadway scale productions, turned MSG into an ocean or moved the stage to the other end of the venue, Phish’s New Year’s performances continue to raise the bar. This year, phans will be celebrating from home but still have a way to engage with their favorite band.
From the Fall 95 Doniac Schvice
On 12/31/95, the audience tied the band, and fans have always speculated if the matches would return. The band has teamed up with Chess.com to host the Band vs. Audience online chess game which will start right at the top of the show and move ‘at a decent clip.’ Fans will have 5 minutes to move their piece (the band will have no more than that as well), and at the end of 5 minutes, whichever move has the most votes is the ‘audience’ move.
During set breaks, the band will join fans from their various homes, playing a few moves and providing scintillating commentary on the game. To join the audience in voting for moves against the band, register for free at Chess.com. After verifying your account, join the official club for the . Phish will post and send out the actual game link on December 31.
The dinner part of Dinner and a Movie will feature two chess cheese board recipes for extended grazing. Marissa Mullen has put together two options for fans – “Olive Cheese Dreams” and “Billy Bries” – with an easy ‘cheese by numbers’ guide. And for dessert, chessboard cookies! Recipes are available here.
While the streams for Dinner and a Movie have been free all year, charities have been the focus with each edition. The beneficiary for the Phish NYE stream will the band’s charitable wing, The WaterWheel Foundation. Since 1997, the band and their fans have collaborated on a nationwide charitable endeavor by raising funds and donating the proceeds across the country. This year alone, collectively we have raised and donated nearly $750,000 to 27 different nonprofits during the Dinner And A Movie series. Join the band in continuing to support those in need. Donate at phish.com/waterwheel.
Because of the pandemic, it seemed impossible for Rob Mathes to hold his annual holiday this year. The concert also took a hiatus in 2019 so that Mathes could work with Sting on his musical The Last Ship. Mathes and a generous team have worked to make sure that the 26th concert will take place this December.
“The thought of yet another gap year for our annual Holiday concert in 2020 was depressing, but seemingly unavoidable,” said Mathes in a recent press release. “Then a few angels in the form of Deborah and Chuck Royce and Jane and Mike Peak arrived just in time. They agreed to put up some small honorariums for the musicians and crew so we could perform and film a concert with no audience and then stream it for free.” Everyone involved will practice social distancing to ensure safety.
The concert will be taped at the First Congressional Church of Old Greenwich in Connecticut and hosted by Reverend Patrick Collins and Minister of Music Craig Scott Symons. Accompanied by a choir of Saints & Friends, Mathes and his band will play an hour of free music available for anyone.
The band will have Shawn Pelton on Percussion, Zev Katz on Acoustic Bass, Andy Snitzer on Tenor Sax, and Vaneese Thomas and James “D-Train” Williams on vocals. The hour-long show of audience favorites will hopefully bring Christmas cheer to everyone in this pandemic. Emmy winner Bob Conover will film and Grammy winner Rory Young will record and mix the concert.
Photo by Lisa Meloni.
With great political unrest and a national health crisis, with it being very difficult, if not downright dangerous, to get in a room with family and friends this season, a love offering of music is being made possible!
Rob Mathes
The concert will air at 8PM on Wednesday, December 23 on Mathes’ YouTube channel. If you can’t make it then, the concert will be up online until New Year’s Day. It is free, but Mathes encourages audiences to donate to one of his favorite charities: Through the Eyes of Children.
The charity, which Mathes has been supporting since 2003, is a nonprofit that teaches photography to vulnerable children. It allows these children not only to learn about art and photography, but to document their own lives and share their voices.
Despite the pandemic’s difficulty, his Holiday Concert is not Mathes’ first project of this year. He produced and arranged five songs for the David Lynch Foundation’s Meditate America benefit which feature Graham Nash, Sting, Jim James, Kesha, Angelique Kidjo, Larkin Poe, and Elvis Costello. The socially-distant recorded tracks include a Gospel Choir, String and Horn sections and Rhythm Section featuring Steve Jordan on Drums, (Keith Richards, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Neville Brothers) and Larry Campbell on Guitars (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm).
Rob Mathes also directed the first live streamed show at the Kennedy Center post pandemic with Renee Fleming and Vanessa Williams. He has collaborated with producer Jake Sinclair on a Weezer record, and Sting and Italian pop star Zucchero on Sting’s 2021 song “September.” He also orchestrated and conducted the music for the upcoming movie musical In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and is currently in pre-production on a record with singer-songwriter Pete Muller.
Additionally, Mathes played a role in Robert Plant and Jimmy Page getting full copyright over “Stairway to Heaven.” Led Zepplin and its lawyers asked Mathes to join the team as a music expert because of his arrangement of the song in 2012.
Charu Suri plays the piano and has since she was five.
At that point we decided that ‘the show must go on,’ and that You Tube and technology does offer us and many other voices, a solution.
On Dec. 18, Suri premiered her newest original single, “A Little Joy,” on YouTube. Since then, it has gained almost 25,000 views. Suri is one of many artists who hopped the online streaming bandwagon.
Throughout the pandemic, the music industry has had an influx of online performances. Although they have been hit hard economically, artists have proved to be ambitious with trying to make streaming work as much as they can.
At five years old, Suri started playing the piano. At nine, she was already performing. By 15 years old, she had won an International Piano Competition.
Suri has three albums behind her including, The Book of Ragas, A Jazz Trio and Sufi Sounds. Her latest accomplishment was recently becoming a Recording Academy (GRAMMYS) voting member. She also intends to release three new albums in 2021, with a mixture of holiday, jazz and new age music. Although she definitely has her work cut out for her. She also has a daughter and a husband to come home to in Weehawken, New Jersey.
For Suri, “A Little Joy” is meant to represent a calm to the Covid-anxiety-storm that everyone felt this year. The single will be available for download on Jan. 30, but is up and ready to celebrate the holidays on YoutTube now.
New York Rock n’ Roots has teamed up with High Peaks Event Production and WEQX 102.7 to produce a special four-part fundraiser, Hope For the Holidays. The livestream benefit series of concerts will broadcast on YouTube and Facebook, which started on December 5, featuring Capital District artists Jocelyn & Chris, Rich Ortiz, The Wheel, Charlie Smith Blues Band, Wild Adriatic and Let’s Be Leonard.
Hope For The Holidays will benefit SaveOurStages (via NIVA) and WeAreBrewnited. The mission of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) is to preserve the ecosystem of independent live event venues and promoters throughout the United States by lobbying for government assistance. Brewnited is a brewery initiated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, whose mission is to help tipped hospitality employees whose work has been disrupted by COVID-19 through direct payments.
Both NIVA and Brewnited are very dear to NY Rock n’ Roots, High Peaks Event Production and WEQX. The venues, promoters and staff have been out of work since March 13, 2020, when all were forced to close doors to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. Rock n’ Roots then produced the Quarantine Concert Series, featuring 25 live streams that averaged 8,000 views each. Now with generous assistance from our sponsors, NY Rock N Roots is continuing to bring new live entertainment this holiday season.
All the donations collected during Hope for the Holidays livestreams will go directly to these NIVA and Brewnited. As an incentive to donate, eight amazing local restaurants and one local Inn have provided gift cards for each donation of $25 or more during the entire weekend of a concert release, not just during the stream. Donors will also be entered to win one of two restaurant gift cards designated that weekend.
If you donate $50 or more during the Hope For The Holidays series, you will automatically win an NY Rock n’ Roots t-shirt, plus a chance to win one of two overnight accommodations to the Inn At Saratoga with an accompanying gift card to dine in their exquisite restaurant.
Donations can be made via Paypal or Venmo to NYROCKROOTS.
Once a concert is released, it will remain up on the High Peaks Event Production, NY Rock n’ Roots and WEQX Facebook pages, as well as the High Peaks Event Production’s YouTube Channel. In addition to these formats, the Collaborative Studio of Proctors will also have all the concerts available on their multiple platforms via, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV apps.
Hope for the Holidays Concert Series Dates:
December 12 – Jocelyn and Chris with opening act Rich Ortiz
December 19 – The Wheel
December 26 – The Charlie Smith Blues Band
January 2 – Wild Adriatic with opening act Let’s Be Leonard
For the eighth year in a row, The Sounding Joy will present a holiday variety show to benefit The Washbourne House in Kingston, NY. Airing at 8pm ET on Monday, December 21, the stream will air from Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock.
The Sounding Joy will feature music from Amy Helm, Kate Pierson, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Allison Russell, Mikaela Davis, Natalie Merchant, Gail Ann Dorsey, Mikaela Davis, Catherine Russell, Sarah Lee Guthrie, Mike & Ruthy, Simi Stone, Jay Collins, Marco Benevento, Byron Isaacs, Connor Kennedy, Storey Littleton, Sloan Wainwright, Zach Djanikian, The Restless Age, and more.
With holiday cooking with Anna Lee Amsden and Opal Merenda, fireside Christmas comedy, and amazing archival footage from past years, all to benefit our local women’s shelter.
The evening benefits The Washbourne House, a women’s shelter servicing Ulster County, providing safe shelter and comprehensive trauma informed services to survivors of domestic violence and their children.
Levon Helm Studios is the home of Levon’s legendary Midnight Rambles set on 18 acres in historic Woodstock.
The show kicks off at 8pm, with a VIP Zoom with the artists starting at 7:30pm. Webcast tickets are only $10, with VIP tickets $25. Get tickets for the stream here.
The String Cheese Incident has announced a ‘New Years Cheese’ stream for their final “Friday Night Cheese” broadcast of the year for New Year’s Eve. Airing on Thursday, December 31 starting at 8pm ET, the Colorado jamgrass band will stream a special 20-year anniversary airing of their Evolution Concert Film which filmed around the 2000-2001 Portland NYE Incidents, featuring performances and behind-the-scenes interviews.
Following Evolution, at approximately 10pm ET, String Cheese Incident will air their three set New Years Eve performance from December 31, 2016 at at 1STBANK in Broomfield, Colorado. Home to six of the last seven New Year’s runs, 1STBANK has been SCI’s hometown venue for the better part of the 2010’s.
The band said in a statement:
We love seeing friends and family gather with us in CO to ring in the New Year, and even though we can’t be there with you in person this year, we are REALLY looking forward to saying goodbye to 2020 and welcoming 2021, when we can hopefully get back to playing live Incidents again!
The broadcast has been timed perfectly so that the Midnight Balloon Drop will line up with 12am MT. Master of Ceremonies Jason Hann will be the host for the evening and promises surprises in store. Get the stream here.
This past Friday, December 11, Connecticut-based rock quintet Goose performed from a rooftop in Rockefeller Center for their annual Goosemas show. The livestream from Rockefeller Center was the band’s seventh annual holiday concert, and was streamed exclusively on The Relix Channel on Twitch, drawing nearly 60,000 worldwide viewers while raising an astounding $45,000 for Save our Stages and Conscious Alliance.
Donning matching red ski suits atop a roof adjacent to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan, Goose took to the stage just after 7 PM ET and kicked off an energetic, two-set performance highlighted by fan-favorite original tracks “Arcadia,” “All I Need,” and “Hot Tea.” Known for their uncanny ability to recreate cover songs in their signature style, while upholding the compositional integrity of the original piece, the band also incorporated covers of Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy,” Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield,” and Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher” into the setlist.
The livestream benefitted two NIVA’s Save our Stages, a national charity providing support to independent live event venues and promoters throughout the United States in these trying times; and Conscious Alliance, a nonprofit that connects a network of creatives to collect large-scale donations in order to combat hunger in historically underserved communities.
Donations made from Goosemas will help keep Conscious Alliance on the road this winter delivering 200,000 meals to kids and families in need. Every $1 donation = 2 meals to someone going without food this holiday season. Donations can be made at Goosemas.com through December 20th at 8pm ET.
In a year when music and its empowering spirit has been stifled for so many, Goose’s performance was magic! And what better place to do this than from Rockefeller Center, where culture and community come together to surprise and delight. A huge thank you to Goose and their amazing team, Peter Shapiro, and the Rockefeller Center team for making such a special evening possible.
Gus Field, Tishman Speyer / Rockefeller Center
Viewers were treated to pro-shot video and clever, dazzling holiday-themed stage design by Goedde Sound and Light, with multiple moving cameras capturing each band member in front of a breathtaking New York City backdrop.
Fans will have the opportunity to watch a free rebroadcast of the performance this Saturday, December 19th at 8pm ET on the band’s Facebook and YouTube pages as well as on FANS.LIVE. Goose plans to continue connecting donations to Save Our Stages and Conscious Alliance through December, 20th at 8pm ET at www.goosemas.com.
We are so happy to have had the opportunity to host Goosemas, especially with all of the uncertainty this year, we’re so grateful so many people tuned in and donated to two organizations doing incredible work.”
Ben Atkind (Drums)
Setlist: Goose at Rockefeller Center, NY, NY – 12/11/20
Set 1: Arcadia, Linus & Lucy, Madhuvan, Turned Clouds, Earthling Or Alien? Love is a Battlefield, Slow Ready, Elmeg the Wise
Set 2: Seekers on the Ridge (Part 1), Seekers on the Ridge (Part 2), All I Need, The Empress of Organos, Hot Tea -> You and Whose Army? -> Hot Tea, (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher
