NYS Music 202​0

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  • NXNES, Sarah King and more featured on this week’s EQXposure

    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 new music from NXNES, Sarah King and many more!

    NXNES

    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..

    NXNES – “Phasez”

    This week’s featured artist is NXNES (pronounced ‘Nuns’), from whom you’ll find brilliant song crafting, with each piece of music is clever and well thought out, as it intricatley weaves heavy emotional content across an addictive and appealing set of sounds.

    NXNES’ music resonates deep, and is sonically wide, using rumbling low end frequencies and steady beats to leave sonic space for the listener to acclimate to balance of message and entertainment.

    The brainchild of Jo-Jo Rose originally from New Bedford, MA who now calls Albany, New York home. Striving to corral the culture’s hearts and minds into logical, self affirming, wellness by way of truth; holding a mirror to society and himself in order to gain a sober perspective of all things. His goal is to magnify and celebrate the greatness of blackness and black culture in an honestly unapologetic way.

    For WEQX’s Pearson, “every once in a while an artist comes across that is does something different enough to turn us on our ears, NXNES is that artist. While straddling pop, ambient, and free form, the music is so appealing and then there is the rich story telling, each piece of music tells a clear and concise story, which is exactly what songwriting is all about.”

    Sarah King – “War Pigs”

    On this classic Black Sabbath tune. Sarah King adds to the field of great artists who have brought a twist on this brilliant anti-war song. Gov’t Mule, Cake, Ween, and Faith No More come to mind, but none of those bands stripped it down and gave us such a haunting glimpse into exactly what disgust was buried in the fury of the lyrics and harmony.

    Sarah King’s acoustic rendition is chilling, and cuts to core of the song, a treatment so honest and pure that it is as powerful as the original.

  • Brother Kody shares debut single “This is Right”

    Brother Kody debuts today with “This is Right,” the first solo original music from Eddie Hotaling, guitarist and vocals for Albany’s Glass Pony. With a talented group of musicians lined up on the album, the solo indie-folk/rock project provides an outlet for music written and released as a result of quarantining this year.

    Included on “This is Right” are Scott Apicelli (drums), Drew Costa (rhodes) and Ominous Seapods‘ Tom Pirozzi (bass) who help bring this song to life. A song about the day Hotaling’s sister got engaged, his (now) brother-in-law invited the family and friends down to Queens to be there for the surprise. “I am grateful that my sister married somebody who cares about her the way she deserves and I was inspired to write this song about that day.”

    Brother Kody

    The name Brother Kody comes from Hotaling’s family dog, a Siberian Husky that he raised from a puppy when he was younger. The pup grew to be a part of the family, and the moniker Brother Kody stuck. Hotaling shares his thoughts on the release of “This is Right”:

    I decided to lead off with this song just because it was recorded first. Originally, I had planned on doing a full album instead of just a single. This is one of the songs that was going to be on the album but I wanted to give it to my sister and her husband as a wedding gift so as the wedding got closer I decided to go into the studio to get it down first with the intention of starting the rest after. Things got busy and I kept pushing working on the album back but I had this song pretty much done so I decided to just release singles as I finished them instead of trying to get them all done before putting anything out.

    “This is Right” was originally recorded at Blue Sky Recording in Delmar, NY in the fall of 2018, and free time in 2020 gave Hotaling a chance to add pieces to the arrangement and finish it up.

    Artwork for the album is by talented Irish artist Mairéad Hannon, who Hotaling met on a trip to Galway, Ireland in 2018. “She has a very interesting style and I’m very grateful to her for letting me use this piece to go along with the song.”

    Hotaling handles vocals on “This is Right,” as well as acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lap steel, percussion, and handled recording, production, mix and mastering of the track. For more info visit Brother Kody’s website.

  • Flushing Town Hall Plans Showcase of Kunqu Opera

    Flushing Town Hall announces their showcasing of Kunqu Opera on December 12, 2020 at 8PM EST. The event will take place via live-stream on Zoom or YouTube. 

    Flushing Town Hall Kunqu
    Photo provided by press release from Flushing Town Hall. 

    The Kunqu Opera showcase is titled Kunqu in America: Memories of Chung-ho Chang Frankel. The showcase at Flushing Town Hall will illustrate how Kunqu opera, the oldest extant version of Chinese theater, took root in the United States by featuring memories of Ms. Chung-ho Chang, one of the most influential Kunqu practitioners throughout the country. The program will be presented bilingually, both in English and Mandarin, and will be told through videos, pictures, and interviews.

    Ms. Chung-ho Chang is known for being one of the “last female literary talents from China’s Republic Era” particularly after the passing of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek. She was born in Shanghai to a big and prestigious family in 1913 and became a well-known poet, calligrapher, and Kunqu opera singer. She was active in the arts and cultural scene along with her three sisters during the first part of the 20th century. She then moved to the United States in 1949 with her husband, Hans Frankel, a sinologist who later taught at Yale University and who she met while studying at Peking University. 

    She is known for having planted the seed of the Kunqu opera while also nurturing the art community while she lived in California and Connecticut. She did this by holding Kunqu gatherings in her home, bringing students, actors, musicians, and scholars together to practice Kunqu singing and movements. For decades, she traveled from university to university to promote and demonstrate the art form. In 2001, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) proclaimed Kunqu a masterpiece of “the oral and intangible heritage of humanity”.  Today, there is a thriving Kunqu opera community throughout the United States in which Ms. Chung-ho Chang is greatly involved in. 

    The Flushing Town Hall virtual event will feature anecdotes of Ms. Chang collected exclusively by the Kunqu Society from interviews with Ms. Chang’s family members, students, and friends, will showcase several elaborate costumes and musical instruments that were handmade by her and will collectively showcase Kunqu Opera.

    Following the program, there will also be a live Q&A featuring guests who appeared in the stories. People interested in attending must RSVP in advance to receive a link to watch the event on Zoom or YouTube. To RSVP or to learn more about the program, visit The Flushing Town Hall’s website.

  • Taylor Swift drops Second Surprise Album of 2020, “Evermore”

    Taylor Swift took to Twitter to announce her second surprise album of 2020. Out at midnight on December 11th, Evermore is the successor to Folklore. While the album’s contents are a mystery so far, it seems to have a similar aesthetic to Folklore, with continued collaboration with The National and Bon Iver. The video for “Willow,” Evermore’s opening track and lead single, drops at midnight alongside the album.

    Swift continued her announcement, saying, “To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in.” ‘We’ refers to Aaron Dessner, frontman of The National, and frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff, both of whom co-wrote and produced the songs on Folklore.

    Evermore is Swift’s ninth studio album, and the first to seemingly retain the spirit of its predecessor. Up until now, her album releases have been very distinct “eras”: Reputation was her dark and dramatic album, Lover was pastel and political, and Folklore was cottagecore. Swift has never stuck with an album’s main themes or imagery for too long, which makes Evermore unique even if it came out less than five months after Folklore.

    Evermore

    Swift isn’t done with Folklore just yet—she released Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions on November 25, a concert film for Disney+. Filmed in the Hudson Valley, it was the first time she performed the album’s songs face-to-face with Dessner and Antonoff. Folklore garnered Grammys five nominations including Album of the Year and Song of the Year for “Cardigan,” breaking a short snub period. While the awards aren’t until January 31, 2021, Evermore won’t be eligible until next year.

  • Watch “What Calls You Home” a Short Documentary on The Beacon Jams

    A surprise for anyone who caught any of the eight weeks of The Beacon Jams – “What Calls You Home” – a 17-minute short documentary featuring interviews and behind the scenes footage was released on Thursday, December 10. .

    beacon jams what calls you home

    Created by the MSG Entertainment team, “Whatt Calls You Home” features exclusive performance highlights and in-depth conversations with Trey Anastasio and members of the production who helped bring the virtual residency to life.

    The Beacon Jams was an overwhelming success – held at the historic Beacon Theatre, Trey along with his band and several special guests performed 151 original songs (with no repeats) and more than 20-hours of live music. Over eight weeks, hundreds of thousands of fans tuned in for the live streams, and in turn helped raise $1 million in donations for the Divided Sky Fund, part of Phish’s WaterWheel Foundation, which will help fund a drug treatment center in Vermont.

    “What Calls You Home” is a fascinated look at how this unique residency came together at such a critical time in the music industry and across the nation and world, a true tribute to the power of live music.

    Read NYS Music’s reviews of each weekend of The Beacon Jams here.

  • Rufus Wainwright Presents Live-Stream 2021 Tour

    Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright has announced a virtual live-stream tour for the 2021 winter season. Dubbed ‘Rufus-Retro-Wainwright-Spective!’, the tour will take music fans through all of Wainwright’s nine studio albums. Each album will be seen in chronological order, with the much praised debut album Release the Stars kicking off the tour on January 8.

    Rufus Wainwright

    Accompanying Wainwright will be guitarist Brian Green and keyboardist/pianist Jacob Mann, helping to revamp older songs that have not been played onstage in years. Also featured will be cover song that fans had a chance to vote on, along with special guests serving as the concert’s micro-audience.

    Recently nominated for the GRAMMY® Award nominee for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, Wainwright expressed his excitement in a press release for the upcoming tour:

    “I did not expect to have so much fun redoing my first 4 albums with Brian and Jacob on guitar and piano in October and November. So many songs I had not performed live in decades as I always thought they needed a large band but they actually hold up quite well in this very intimate living room setting.  I wasn’t sure how fans would react and whether anyone would buy tickets. Well, my fans have and I am incredibly grateful for their support and for the opportunity to go all the way on this road to my last album. I am so excited that Unfollow the Rules was just nominated for a Grammy and I would love to to actually end this retrospective as a Grammy winner. But even without I feel I have won a lot through this experience.” 

    Tickets are on sale now for $20.00 in advance and $25.00 day of show. Bundles are available and come with the opportunity for fans to participate in intimate Q&A’s with Wainwright and other surprises. Go here to purchase tickets. 

    Dates for RUFUS-RETRO-WAINWRIGHT-SPECTIVE 2021! 

    Jan. 8 – Release the Stars (Side 1)

    Jan. 15 – Release the Stars (Side 2) + Fireside Chat

    Jan. 22 – All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu (Side 1)

    Jan. 29 – All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu (Side 2) + Fireside Chat

    Feb. 5 – Out of the Game (Side 1)

    Feb. 12 – Out of the Game (Side 2) + Fireside Chat

    Feb. 19 – Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets

    Feb. 26 – Rufus at the Movies (Soundtrack Songs) + Fireside Chat

    March 4 – Unfollow the Rules (Side 1)

    March 12 – Unfollow the Rules (Side 2) + Fireside Chat 

    Wainwright along with friends and family of the acclaimed musical clans of Waingwrights, McGarrigles and Roches will also be presenting their beloved annual family Christmas show ‘A No So Silent Night – Virtually Together’. Streaming live on veeps.com December 30, the show will take place 12 p.m. PST from Los Angeles, 3 p.m. EST from New York and 8 p.m. GMT from Montreal simultaneously.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW63hvA0NJE

  • Premiere: Paul Loren reminds us to “Hold On To Christmas”

    NYC crooner Paul Loren today releases his new holiday song, “Hold On To Christmas,” with an accompanying video is a wistful love letter to NYC. The song fits the holiday season this year just right, a gentle and passionate voice asking us to hold on, something we’ve all needed to do throughout this hectic 2020.

    Filmed walking throughout the city (socially-distanced of course), Loren strolls among Christmas trees, holiday decorations and ice skaters, reminding us that the simple pleasures in life can fill us with the holiday spirit.

    A native New Yorker, Paul was raised on a rich legacy of soul, classic pop, as well as the Great American Songbook, and in those musical idioms he feels most at home. Loren takes elements from early R&B, jazz and Brill Building pop, crafting his music with an ear towards timelessness.

    Loren released “We’ll be Together Again” in July, and previously his song “Gonna Take a Little Time”- filmed at an indoor shuffleboard hall in Brooklyn complete with tiki drinks and bowling shirts – premiered on Parade.com in 2019. Loren has performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and for Jennifer Lopez at her birthday gala.

    Leading a new generation of soulful crooners, Paul Loren is a singer, songwriter, producer and consummate entertainer.

    I started singing at 3 years old along with the little 45rpm records my mom would play and start ed playing piano at 4 years old. The voices I remember most and identify with are Ray Charles, Frankie Valli, Sam Cooke, Sinatra, Aretha, Otis, and Tony Bennett. Growing up in New York, Billy Joel was also a big influence.

    Paul Loren

    The last few years have been filled with a series of breakthroughs for Paul as he performed on his first National Tour in support of Brendan James, opened for “The Temptations” as part of Stamford’s Summer Concert Series “Wednesday Night Live”, and sold out Joe’s Pub at the Public in NYC multiple times.

  • This Darkness has got to Give: The State of Venues Across New York

    Back in June, photographers working with NYS Music, with no live music to shoot, began looking at the venues we hold so dear. These independent music venues across New York State are in a battle for survival with the COVID-19 pandemic still not waning and relief held up in Congress.

    Over the summer and fall we saw venues closed for the foreseeable future, including The Jazz Standard in Manhattan. Venues are rallying their supporters to help as best they can at this time, including The Palace Theatre in Albany offering up a stream of moe. on Friday, December 11.

    Shea's new york venues

    Venues in New York and beyond are stuck in limbo, but they aren’t gone – not for good – so long as we can find resolution and relief at the state and national levels. The Heroes Act has passed in the House of Representatives, and there is still a chance for a relief bill to be passed before the end of December.

    With the winter setting in, venues will continue to go virtual for live performances, waiting for the time that we can bid this great pause farewell and welcome crowds back.

    We start this month’s photo gallery series in Central New York at The Stanley Theatre. Visit NIVA to find out how you can help venues across New York, and the country. We need to #saveourstages and preserve live music for when this is over.

    Utica – photo courtesy of The Stanley Theatre

    • Venues New York
    • #lightsUPstateNY Venues New York

    New York City – photos by Joseph Buscarello

    Ithaca – photo by Casey Martin

    In honor of one of The State Theatre’s favorite volunteer ushers of over 20 years, Penny Turco

    Manhattan – photos by Steve Malinski

    • Venues New York
    • Venues New York
    • Venues New York

    Saranac Lake – photo by Neil Sedlak

    waterhole Venues New York

    Buffalo – photos by Derek Hosken

    Port Chester – photos by Chad Anderson

    • Venues New York
    • Venues New York

    Plattsburgh – photos by Jerry Cadieux

    Albany – photos by Zach Culver

    The Hudson Valley – photos by Mickey Deneher

    Long Island – photos by Rob Tellerman

    Venues New York
    Venues New York

  • Burlington Trio Quiltro Offer up Psychedelic Rock Jaunt with Debut Album

    Named for Chilean street dogs, the music of Quiltro is a tribute to the street dogs living in the Andes village of Farellones. Hearing howls during nights spent in those high Chilean mountains is birthplace of Quiltro’s music.

    The trio collaborated with Eric Segalstad at Sabi Sound in Colchester, VT to record their debut, which has the feel of a soundtrack for a dystopian sci-fi film that has yet to be made.

    quiltro

    The emotional journey found through the album will set you at ease, wake you up, drive you into a groove and leave you looking to replay the debut immediately after. Peaks and valleys are found throughout the nine-track album, fitting perfectly into the ups and downs of the real world.

    Quiltro brings together a range of sounds, influences, and emotions through band members Mark Taylor (guitar, keyboard), Mike McKinley (bass) and JD Hoffmann (drums), creating a psychedelic wall of sound that brings to mind Neal Casal’s Circles Around the Sun. Quiltro is quite simply excellent modern psych rock.

    The tracks flow into one another, with an overall ambient, lo-fi feel – with a touch of Reznor & Ross sprinkled in. “Knight Riding” channels Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine,” while “Apollo” has a haunting presence in the vein of Lespecial.

    Bassist McKinley, a native of Albany, sets the tone on “Dark Matter” with a driving bass intro, then shifts into a melodic groove on “In Reverse” with Mark Taylor’s ambient guitar shining. The two final tracks, “Antilla” and “Field of Cities,” build up slowly from their valleys to peaks. You don’t realize you were climbing until you summit. The journey that Quiltro’s debut takes you on is one that Circles Around the Sun fans will find easily accessible and keep you coming back another round.

    Stream or purchase the album on Bandcamp.

    Key Tracks: Knight Riding, Apollo, In Reverse

  • ‘Candlelight: Love in the Time of Cholera’ Concert Set for December 10

    Juliet Kurtzman and Pete Malinverni will perform a livestream concert of their album release, Candlelight: Love in the Time of Cholera on December 10 at 8 p.m. SUNY Purchase College Performing Arts Center will stream their performance and interview afterwards with the director, Seth Soloway.

    Candlelight Love in the Time of Cholera

    Candlelight: Love in The Time of Cholera is a recording that will focus on the themes of universal human desires for love, intimacy, and deliverance from loneliness. The album includes five piano pieces from cornetist Bix Beiderbecke; a tango written by Argentinian master Astor Piazzolla; a read of Scott Joplin’s “Solace,” and a deeply felt version of “Body and Soul,” featuring Kurtzman’s interpretation of Coleman Hawkins’ iconic solo. Malinverni will perform two of his composed tangos: “Pulcinella” and “Love in the Time of Cholera.” Both Kurtzman and Malinverni will give interpretations on their 12-track album, which has never been recorded in violin-piano format.

    It is the artist’s sacred duty to face and comment upon life’s joys and sorrows, illuminating them for others. I hope this album is heard in the same spirit as, for instance, Gabriel García Márquez’s book Love in the Time of Cholera, from which this recording takes, in part, its title.

    Pete Malinverni

    Kurtzman began her violin career as a soloist for her hometown Houston Symphony Orchestra. After concluding her studies at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Kurtzman embarked on a career as a symphonic violinist in Europe. Malinverni, who grew up in Niagara Falls, NY, studied classical piano and later jazz. According to Nate Chinen of the New York Times, Malinverni is “a pianist with a forthright and elegant style” for his illustrious pianist career. Malinverni has experience recorded for small and large groups which helps to bridge the worlds of classical and jazz music on the Candlelight performance.

    Click Here to watch Candlelight: Love in The Time of Cholera

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