Woodsist Festival is returning to Arrowood Farms in Accord, NY for their 2021 season. The festival is to take place on September 25th and 26th and will be enhanced since its last run in 2019 with more music, more food, and more space. Yo La Tengo and Parquet Courts will be welcomed to the festival as headliners.
Woodsist Festival leaders found that because of the unnatural state of the world in 2020, they were listening to slower, more contemplative, more intentional music. This pattern inspired them to add slower artists to the festival, such as 75 Dollar Bill Big Band, Joshua Abrams’ National Information Society, and Laraaji. Other featured artists include Kurt Vile, Kevin Morby, and Woods.
Arrowood Farms is located at 236 Lower Whitfield Road, Accord NY 12404. Tent and RV camping is available at the Rondout Valley Campground one mile away from the festival site. A carefully curated selection of local Hudson Valley-based food vendors will be on-hand serving all day long. Tickets are on sale here
The festival’s first edition in 2009 was a collaboration with label Captured Tracks, and was one of Real Estate’s first shows. The most recent Woodsist Festival lineup from 2019 included Whitney, Real Estate, Woods, Kevin Morby, Waxahatchee, Hand Habits, Bonny Doon, Wet Tuna, and Anna St. Louis.
Albany will have two new music venues on North Pearl Street very soon. Empire Live an Empire Underground will open this fall as the first downtown premier club in Albany in 30 years.
Formed from a partnership between Stan Levinstone of SLP Concerts and Teddy Etoll of Step Up Presents, Empire Live and Empire Underground will be located in the space vacated by Capitol Repertory Theater.
With two floors for show presentations, there will be a 1,000-capacity general admission room on the street level (Empire Live) and a 400-capacity basement space (Empire Underground), which will have its own entrance and identity. Both spaces will have state-of-the-art sound and lights and full artist accommodation amenities and currently ready for bookings.
The physical space will be completed by late spring, with Levinstone and Etoll, partners in Upstate Concert Hall of Clifton Park for the past 13 years, looking at the move into downtown Albany as a boom to its business model.
Downtown Albany is currently seeing a massive redevelopment and rebuilding of its entertainment district. Within the next few years more than 800 new mid- apartments will be added within a 10-minute walk to the club door.
Stan Levinstone
Empire Live will be located right off the highway at 93 North Pearl Street in Albany, one block from the legendary Palace Theatre and two blocks from the Times Union Center.
The new club is a centerpiece of Redburn Development’s $85 million redevelopment of the Kenmore Hotel, which features 275 apartments, 15 commercial spaces, four restaurants and two event venues. Construction will be completed this spring.
Among announced shows so far are Dr. Dog, Attila, August Burns Red, Tech N9ne, Circa Survive, Atreyu, and Gojira. Visit their calendar to see what more Empire Live and Empire Underground have in store.
Everyone knows New York State Music loves The Heron campground in Sherman, NY. Whether we’re attending The Great Blue Heron Music Festival, Night Lights, The Slyboots Circus, or any other event, there is something for everyone in their summer series, every year.
Indie pop artist Jann Klose will take New York stages live following the release of his radio hit single “Love You The Most” and the gradual reopening of performance venues around the country.
On June 13, he will perform an in-person show at the beloved Tarrytown Music Hall. Additionally, fans interested in viewing the performance virtually are invited to stream the concert live online. On Friday, June 18, Klose will then be performing live from The Bitter End. The show will also be available to fans for live streaming beginning at 8:15 PM ET.
For tickets for Jann’s performance at Tarrytown Music Hall, 13 Main Street, Tarrytown NY, visit here.
The performance at The Bitter End, 147 Bleecker Street, downtown Manhattan, is open to patrons of all ages. Tickets are $15 per seat, and range from $60 to $90 per table, and are currently available for sale. Purchase tickets and find more information here.
The award-winning indie pop artist’s melodic single “Love You The Most” with Alicia Madison is gaining momentum on US Top 40 radio. The song rose from number 118 to number 58 on Mediabase’s charts after only six weeks of radio play. Meanwhile, the music videos for this romantic ballad’s English and Spanish versions have collectively accrued more than 4 million streams on YouTube and Spotify. In South Africa, where Jann grew up, his audience has reached an astonishing 27 million listeners on pop radio and is continuing to expand throughout New York and across the nation.
Jann Klose and Alicia Madison: “Love You The Most”
Jann’s passion for all things music is undying, and the pandemic certainly posed no qualms for him. The New York-based artist spent much of his time during quarantine writing music and discussing music writing with friends and colleagues via Zoom. To maintain a sense of community during such uncertain times, he created the “Making Sound with Jann Klose” podcast. In his podcast, Klose hosts Rock Hall inductees and chart-topping artists to discuss their creative processes, sources of inspiration, industry secrets, PR strategies, and all other things music. The podcast has frequently reached Apple’s Top Podcasts under the Music Interview category.
Listen to the “Making Sound with Jann Klose” podcast on Apple Music and watch the official English and Spanish music videos for “Love You The Most” below.
King Crimson will return to the stage this summer, with their influential prog-rock ready in tow. They’ll make four stops across New York State, including Buffalo, Saratoga Springs, Canandaigua and Queens.
Featuring bandleader Robert Fripp, Tony Levin (bass), Jakko Jakszyk (vocalist/multi-instrumentalist), Mel Collins (multi-instrumentalist), and the drum trio of Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harris, and Jeremy Stacey, King Crimson will kick off their summer tour on July 22 in Florida and find their way into New York in late August, before closing the tour in Washington D.C. on Sept. 11.
The Crimson Beast Of Terror has woken from its enforced slumbering and is venturing out to stomp flat the psyches of innocents not yet experienced in the hammering onslaught of King Crimson’s uncompromising pounding – bish! bish! bish! – before turning on a beat to jellify hearts with gut-wrenching passion and soul-squeezing epic unfoldings to remind us that we are all mere subjects in the unfolding drama of the universe’s unfathomable mysteries while simultaneously rocking out and having a great time bopping about with Tony and Bobby and Gavin and Jakko and Mel and Pat and Jezza too.
Robert Fripp
King Crimson formed in London in 1968 and have influenced artists from multiple genres of music since, among them YES and Genesis. Fripp, the band’s remaining founding member, has been a driving force throughout the band’s history. King Crimson has drawn broad inspiration over the years, incorporating elements of classical music, jazz, folk, heavy metal, industrial and experimental music.
On your way to SPAC, don’t forget that Stewart’s Shops is your ice cream shop! With over 345 shops in 31 counties across New York and southern Vermont, the convenience store chain is known for their fresh &local dairy products. With dozens of choices at the cone counter, you’re bound to find something you love! Try a shake, sundae, or cone today, What’s Your Flavor?
King Crimson 2021 Tour Dates
July 22 – Clearwater, FL – Ruth Eckerd Hall July 23 – Delray Beach, FL – Old School Square July 24 – St. Augustine, FL – St Augustine Amphitheater July 26 – Orlando, FL – Dr. Phillips Walt Disney Theater July 27 – Atlanta, GA – The Fox July 28 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium July 30 – Fort Worth, TX – Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium July 31 – Cedar Park, TX – H-E-B Center Aug. 2 – Greenwood Village, CO – Fiddlers Green Amphitheater Aug. 3 – Sandy, UT – Sandy Amphitheater Aug. 5 – Concord, CA – Concord Pavilion * Aug. 6 – Los Angeles – The Greek * Aug. 7 – Scottsdale, AZ – Talking Stick Ballroom Aug. 23 – Saratoga Springs, NY – SPAC * Aug. 24 – Northampton, MA – The Pines Theater * Aug. 26 – Canandaigua, NY – CMAC * Aug. 27 – Lewiston, NY – Artpark Amphitheater* Aug. 28 – Rochester Hills, MI – Meadow Brook Amphitheater * Aug. 29 – Highland Park, IL – Ravinia * Aug. 31 – Milwaukee, WI – Miller High Life Theatre * Sept. 1 – Cleveland, OH – Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica * Sept. 2 – Huber Heights, OH – Rose Music Center – The Heights * Sept. 4 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center * Sept. 5 – New Haven, CT – Westville Music Bowl Sept. 7 – Philadelphia, PA – The Mann Center * Sept. 9 – Forest Hills, NY – Forest Hills Stadium * Sept. 10 – Boston, MA – Leader Bank Pavilion * Sept. 11 – Washington, DC – The Anthem *
The SummerStage 2021 lineup has just been released, with shows planned presented by Capital One and the City Parks Foundation to begin on June 17th in New York City. The concert series will continue throughout the summer, ending in October. This is the largest free outdoor performing arts festival, so you don’t want to miss it! You can complete a ticket request form now.
This year’s SummerStage festival centers around the theme of rebirth and resilience, as seen in the season’s artwork. All of the graphics are illustrated by Lyne Lucien, an award-winning Haitian artist based in Brooklyn. SummerStage is a women-run festival with a mission of diversity and inclusion. Since 2019, SummerStage has been transforming the music industry by presenting an annual lineup that features a 50:50 gender balance.
Performing arts fanatics will be able to enjoy the SummerStage 2021 lineup in various locations across New York City: Central Park, Coney Island, and Marcus Garvey Park. The festival will focus on distinctly New York genres, including hip-hop, Latin, indie rock, contemporary dance, jazz, and global music. SummerStage will also be partnering with Rooftop Films for a free drive-in film and live performance at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Free tickets are required for entry to every free SummerStage show this season. Ticket pod request forms will be available three weeks prior to each show. City Parks Foundation will frequently update their audiences on venue safety following New York State and City public health guidelines.
To get amped up for the 2021 season, take a look at the SummerStage 2019 recap!
City Parks Foundation helps to make public parks vibrant and welcoming gathering spaces for community initiatives such as arts, sports, and environmental education programs for New Yorkers.
In continuation of NYS Music’s series celebrating the Harlem Renaissance in its centennial years, it is important to highlight the Cotton Club which was instrumental in displaying Black talent.
Before it was the Cotton Club, the venue was owned by the first Black heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson. It was called the Club Deluxe, a nightclub with 400 seats in 1920. It was located in the core part of Harlem, at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue. About two years later in 1922, Owen “Owney” Madden, a leading figure of the underworld, purchased the venue while doing time in Sing Sing Prison. Under his leadership, the Cotton Club developed and expanded into a venue with 700 seats. The venue gained fame through radio broadcasts on a national level.
The Cotton Club was founded during the prohibition era, a time when selling alcohol was illegal. Madden used the club to sell his beer despite the restrictions. The club temporarily closed in 1925 due to the illegal sales but quickly reopened with no issues. After the reopening, a man named Herman Stark took over.
Black Performers for White Audience
In alignment with the time period, Cotton Club was a whites-only establishment, however, the performers and staff were Black. The Black staff members weren’t allowed to mingle with the all white-audience. The girls in the chorus were required to be tan or of a light complexion, tall, and under 21 years old and presented in scantily clad and revealing attire. The requirements for the male performers were less restricting and their skin tones were more diverse. After finishing the shows, the performers convened in the basement in the building next to the club.
Overall the Cotton Club reproduced stereotypical imagery of Black people which dehumanized them. Oftentimes the performers were portrayed as savages in the jungle or with themes of being on a plantation. While the conditions of their work was compromising and not ideal, the high profile clientele that they attracted resulted in high wages.
The venue’s theme of a white audience consuming Black talent, launched the careers of many legendary Black musicians. In 1927, famous jazz composer and bandleader, Duke Ellington, took the Cotton Club to another level. Ellington’s band became the house band, and they were expected to produce “jungle music”. His first revue was titled “Rhythmania” and featured jazz singer, Adelaide Hall, who also recorded several songs with Ellington during that time; including their hit “Creole Love Call”. During his time at the Cotton Club, he recorded over 100 compositions and experimented with creating arrangements. Just like radio broadcasts helped the venue gain attention, it did the same for Ellington and his work.
In 1931, jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway’s orchestra replaced Ellington’s as the house band. They began with their Brown Sugar revue and continued to make more contributions to the Cotton Club’s success. In 1933, Lena Horne began her professional career as a chorus girl and was a part of the Cotton Club Parade. Many other musicians have found success and have grown at the Cotton Club including Louis Armstrong, Dorothy Dandridge,Sammy Davis Jr., The Nicholas Brothers, Ethel Waters and more. Jimmie Lunceford’s band replaced Calloway’s in 1934, which was the same year of the highest grossing show at the Cotton Club, called “The Cotton Club Parade 1934.”
From Harlem to Broadway and Beyond
Due to race riots, the venue closed in 1936 and the location changed when it reopened. There were complaints and threats of boycotting because of the segregation that was upheld there. When the Cotton Club reopened, the newer site was in the Broadway Theatre District, specifically at Broadway and 48th St. In the same year, Calloway returned for the opening night and headed a roster of over 100 performers. Stark paid tap dancer Bill “Bojangles’ ‘ Robinson $3500 a week which was the highest amount that a Black performer was paid on Broadway and the highest any nightclub performer had been paid.
The Cotton Club closed indefinitely in 1940 from issues spanning from rises in rent and investigations looking into tax evasion from nightclub owners. Since its closing, variations of the site have opened around the country including Las Vegas, Chicago, California and more. According to Harlem World Magazine, in the late 1970s, a new Cotton Club opened in Harlem on 125th Street. The name is the same and it also revolved around jazz, however it was not made in affiliation with the original.
Live music will return at Madison Square Garden as Foo Fighters will play New York City’s first full capacity concert since March 2020 on June 20 at MSG and they are certainly ready to rock.
Photo by Andreas Neumann
The Garden will be at 100% capacity and will require all audience members to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination for admission.
The Garden is ready to rock. We’ve been waiting for this moment for 15 months and are excited to finally welcome a packed house of roaring, fully-vaccinated Foo Fighters fans to Madison Square Garden.
James Dolan, Executive Chairman and CEO of MSG Entertainment.
Foo Fighters–Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear and Rami Jaffee–are not new to headlining the Garden. They sold out the venue back in 2008 on their Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace tour, again in 2011 on their Wasting Light tour and most recently in 2018 for a two-night stint on their Concrete and Gold tour.
We’ve been waiting for this day for over a year, and Madison Square Garden is going to feel that HARD. New York, get ready for a long ass night of screaming our heads off together to 26 years of Foos.
Dave Grohl, frontman.
The New York show will not only kick off performances at the Garden but will also kick off Foo Fighter’s new tour following the release of Medicine at Midnight earlier this year. All tour dates and links for ticket purchase are listed on their website.
Tickets to the Foo Fighters at MSG on June 20 will go on sale to the general public on June 11 at 10 AM through Ticketmaster. Prices will range from $50 to $119.
NYC-based pop artist Lexi Mariah is returning to the musical spotlight with her first release of 2021 titled “Playlist.” Her previous singles “Waterfall” and “SOURPATCH” received high praise and now the singer makes her mark on summer with her latest single.
The exhilarating yet emotional track debuted on listening platforms on June 11, following a week of anticipation since the young talent announced it on social media. “Playlist” is written by Lexi Mariah herself, along with co-writers and producers Josh Frank, Joe Frank, and Ricky Frank. In an interview with NYS Music, Mariah opened up about the inspiration behind her music and what it represents: positivity for her fans. Clearly, the singer has carried that sentiment into this year.
The new song is the addition that your favorite playlist needs. It will have you on your feet and dancing throughout summer 2021. The track embodies the perfect mix of both lighthearted and emotional lyrics. A melodious guitar line and resonant synth complement Mariah’s ethereal vocals. Additionally, a lively, electronic vibe within the chorus transforms the sound.
I have some playlists that I’ve made over the years that are now hard for me to listen to because the songs give me such vivid flashbacks of times I shared with people who are no longer in my life. On days where I’m able to bring myself to listen to them, all of the memories, good and bad, come rushing back. I always wonder if those songs make the other person think of me, too. When writing “Playlist”, I wanted it to be a track that my listeners could dance to, but also one that would tug on their heartstrings a bit, since it’s a concept that I feel so many people will be able to relate to.
Lexi Mariah on “Playlist”
Mariah’s new release follows her previous single, “Waterfall,” which dropped at the end of 2020. With “Playlist,” she seamlessly unites her traditionally heartfelt lyrics with a bright and lively supporting track. The singer-songwriter has, unsurprisingly, unearthed yet another layer of her music and sound.
Stay updated on Lexi Mariah’s upcoming projects with us here, and on her Instagram and Twitter. Check out “Playlist” along with Mariah’s previous single “Waterfall” and more on her Spotify and Youtube now.
On June 27th in Peru, NY, just south of Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh Blues and Jazz (PB&J) will present White and Blues: Music on the Farm at White Rainbow Farm.
White and Blues will featuring Giovanina Bucci, Lucid (trio) and the Memphis based Ghost Town Blues Band for an afternoon of soul, funk and modern blues. Giovanina Bucci, a rising singer songwriter with a brand new album release, will be opening at 1pm. Following at 2pm will be the immensely popular Lucid (trio) ready to funk it up.
Lowell Wurster – Lucid
Then at 3pm, the Ghost Town Blues Band will take to the stage with a show and energy that has been hailed as the best new live blues show in the world. Their album Shine debuted number one on the Billboard Blues Charts and the band was awarded the International Entertainer of 2019.
Ghost Town Blues Band
White and Blues is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and administered by the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts.
At White Rainbow Farm there is a beautiful open area with a sheltered barn stage and more then enough space for social distancing. Bring lawn chairs or a blanket to enjoy the music and check out the food truck, beer and craft vendors.
Giovanina Bucci
Limited advance tickets are $25 dollars per person and are available at the White Rainbow Farm, Alpha Stereo and online. Children under 12 are free.
White and Blues takes place June 27th from 1-5 pm at White Rainbow Far844 Route 22B, Peru, NY.
