The album for James Lapine’s Broadway musical “Flying Over Sunset” is now available on all streaming platforms. The recording features the original cast performing all 22 tracks from the Lincoln Center musical which ran from Dec. 13, 2021 to Jan. 16 of this year.
“Flying Over Sunset” is a fictional story about the lives of Aldous Huxley (Harry Hadden-Paton), Clare Boothe Luce (Carmen Cusack), and Cary Grant (Tony Yazbeck) who decide to take LSD together and confront the mysteries of their lives and their world.
It features a critically acclaimed production crew. Lapine, who also wrote the book, is a Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner. The album is scored by Tony, GRAMMY, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tom Kitt.
“Flying Over Sunset” was produced by GRAMMY-nominee Scott M. Riesett (Schmigadoon!, Ain’t Too Proud, The Prom). Recorded in New York, the album was co-produced by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie and Lapine and was executive produced by Scott Farthing and Adam Siegel.
Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal says of “Flying Over Sunset”: “An irresistible trip worth taking, brought off with supreme flair, I’d gladly see it again right away!”
As of today, only the digital version of the album is available. A hard copy is scheduled to be released on April 8.
The new single, “That’s Not Love!”, from Richie Quake is nakedly melancholic and at the same time, somehow, pure vibes. Just like the hook-up he sings about. It can make you feel good but only if you don’t look any deeper.
“That’s Not Love!” is about drowning in shallow emotions,” said Richie Quake. “The idea that when you live a surface level life for enough time, you start to forget what real depth looks like and feels like.”
Photo Credit: Mark Bijasa
Richie Quake is an independent based in Brooklyn and his new single continues to showcase his penchant for blending together the best parts of different genres—here pop, rock, and modern R&B—to create a single that’s a foot-tapping earworm. Richie Quake’s lilting croons are interwoven with floating production as he sings about superficial relationships, lamenting the emptiness they inevitably leave behind.
The soft drums and smoothness of his voice are interrupted by an aggressive, electric guitar riff before the final bridge that suggest someone who is, if not, outright angry, then fed up. He cuts an unquestionably solemn figure. One who’s plagued by the distinctly contemporary phenomenon of having your emotional love unrequited with a partner who is still, very much, interested in your physical love. Despite the late-night, drunken calls from the song’s subject he still feels unloved. A feeling that he’s been familiar with for too long.
“Being removed from love for so long, it becomes a blur from the past with no defining characteristics,” explained Richie Quake. “I don’t know what love is anymore, but love is not constant numbness, it’s not getting high in your room alone, it’s not a downward spiral, and it’s not a drunk hook-up on a Friday night.”
“That’s Not Love!” is Richie Quake’s latest music since his EP “Voyager” released in the summer of 2021. He is scheduled to go on tour in April of 2022.
Richie Quake US Tour Dates
April 19 – Toronto, CAN – Velvet Underground
April 21 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
April 23 – Washington D.C. – Union Stage
April 26 – Vancouver – Vogue Theatre
April 28 – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
April 30 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos headline Love Rocks NYC on March 10.
Keith Richards & The X-Pensive Winos to headline the sixth annual Love Rocks NYC benefit concert at the Beacon Theater on March 10.
The lineup for the fundraiser also includes Mavis Staples, Hozier, Warren Haynes, Melissa Etheridge, Allison Russell, Larkin Poe, Tyler Bryant, David Shaw (of The Revivalists), Anders Osborne, Celisse, Jimmy Vivino, Maggie Rose, Connor Kennedy (of Steely Dan) and more to be announced.
John Varvatos, the world-renowned fashion designer, will executive produce the show. It will be hosted by Mario Cantone, Kiefer Sutherland, Gina Gershon, Michelle Buteau, and New York icon, and Bensonhurst native, Steve Schirripa.
Love Rocks NYC will benefit God’s Love We Deliver, a not-for-profit that delivers meals to people who are too ill to shop and/or cook for themselves. Founded in 1985, during the AIDS epidemic, God’s Love We Deliver, remains active during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year alone, it delivered 2.6 million meals to roughly 10,000 New Yorkers.
This years’ event will also mark a key milestone in God’s Love We Deliver history with the delivery of its 30 millionth meal. Since its first concert in 2017 Love Rocks NYC has raised approximately $20 million which have helped fund 2 million meals for New Yorkers in need.
Tickets for Love Rocks NYC go on sale Feb. 17 at 10 a.m. and are available on the concert’s website.
Warren Hayes will perform at Love Rocks NYC for the fourth time this year.
Warren Hayes, longtime guitarist for The Allman Brothers Band, will interrupt his solo tour specifically to appear at Love Rocks NYC. After which he will go on tour with his blues quartet Gov’t Mule. The band recently released their new album Heavy Load Blues.
Warren Hayes Tour Dates
March 8 – South Deerfield, MA @ House Theater at Tree House Brewing Company
March 9 – South Deerfield, MA @ House Theater at Tree House Brewing Company
March 10 – New York, NY @ Love Rocks NYC at Beacon Theatre
March 11 – Ridgefield, CT @ Ridgefield Playhouse
Gov’t Mule Tour Dates
April 6 – Syracuse, NY @ Landmark Theatre
April 7 – Albany, NY @ Palace Theatre
April 8 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre (originally 12/30/21)
April 9 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre (originally 12/31/21)
April 11 – McKee Rocks, PA @ Roxian Theatre
April 13 – Wilkes-Barre, PA @ F.M. Kirby Center
April 14 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met (originally 12/29/21)
Kristian Montgomery is a regular guy. Except, the more you fill in the details of his life what should be ordinary starts to become extraordinary. Like a cubist painting, that starts to look less recognizable the more you identify the individual pieces in it, Kristian’s life is at once familiar and wholly his own.
His career has ups and downs, he goes on trips with his friends. All relatable experiences unless you’re Kristian Montgomery. His job isn’t a boring, nine-to-five. He’s a former metal vocalist turned country singer; whose career highs included being nominated for a Boston Music Award for Country Artist of the Year in 2021. But who’s lows included having to write an album in jail after contacting the judge in his child support case outside of court. And that trip he took with a friend? It was with his bassist and “blood brother,” Roberto Talleria, to his homeland of Managua, Nicaragua to perform on the local version of MTV.
Montgomery in Managua, Nicaragua.
Montgomery’s own origins have taken him beyond the Boston music scene he came up in. His father is from Denmark which he now considers “home.” His time in Boston was tumultuous, if successful. It was a milieu in which he often felt, if not, overtly excluded, at least, like an odd man out in what he considered “a very upper-class music scene.” Even though he received critical success, in the form of his Boston Music Award nomination, he felt his peers never reciprocated. Which while not the raison d’etre for his art; stung, nonetheless.
The unique word choice he regularly employs hints at a sensitive person with an affinity for dramatic, verbal pictures. He uses turns of phrase that only an artistic spirit would consider. His relatives from Denmark are “across the sea.” When detailing the emotions of a song dedicated to his wife, he explains that he “throws his love at her.” He finds everyday experiences inspiring and “has made a living painting those stories into his songs.”
Ordinarily, such ornamental language, if used in casual conversation, would seem overwrought were it not for the fact that Montgomery is such a poised and deep thinker about art and, specifically, his art. He seems to be constantly reflecting on who his music represents. About the people it will connect with. It is music that is, as he says, “made for people on the Periphery.”
Now that he’s released a new album, he can say he did just that. Montgomery’s unpretentious, new album, “Heaven for Heretics”, released under the moniker Kristian Montgomery and the Winterkill Band, is a vintage singer-songwriter effort. It’s apparent the music comes from a single creative source, giving the album an unmistakable cohesion. Of course, as with all singer-songwriters if the message doesn’t resonate or the music is flat then listening becomes tedious, repetitive. That isn’t the case here. Montgomery is able to stretch himself to the limits of artistic expanse. He’s able to provide enough variety, both sonic and thematic, to keep the album propulsive.
From the contemplatively existentialist “Come Carry Weight with Me” to the bouncy country bop “Peach” Montgomery’s unorthodox, appealing voice and trademark mix of country music clichés mixed with profound turns of phrase, all showcase a musician who, if nothing else, cared about making something personal. And that counts for a lot.
MasterVoices is an interracial, interfaith chorus based in New York City.
The musical tells the story of a corrupt, small-town mayor in 1960s America. Vanessa Williams stars as the aforementioned mayor who fabricates a miracle to attract tourists. The cast also features Tony Award winner, Santino Fontana, as J. Bowden Hapgood, a stranger who comes to town during the mayor’s scam and may or may not help uncover it.
The show is directed by Ted Sperling the Artistic Director of MasterVoices. Prior to his role at MasterVoices Sperling directed the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, and was Principal Conductor of the Westchester Orchestra.
View of American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim onstage during an event at the Fairchild Theater, East Lansing, Michigan, February 12, 1997. (Photo by Douglas Elbinger/Getty Images)
“Steve was a friend, a great colleague and a mentor,” Sperling said. “He was delighted we were revisiting Anyone Can Whistle, which has one of his favorite songs, ‘With So Little to Be Sure Of,’ and he had agreed to help us with the project. The month ahead will be a labor of love, and we know his spirit will be with us.”
The rarely performed musical’s notable songs include “There Won’t Be Trumpets,” “Anyone Can Whistle,” “Everybody Says Don’t” and “With So Little to be Sure Of”.
Sondheim, and his long-time creative partner, Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book, conceived the story as a treatise on the importance individuality in 1960s America. In particular, when faced with the inherent contradiction of attempting to remain sane in an increasingly insane society.
While a product of the 1960s the show has been lauded for its timelessness. Specifically for its portrayal of an unscrupulous leader and the consequences that occur should a community decide to follow one. The musical also satirizes religion and science, examining their ties to political power.
This is the first performance of Anyone Can Whistle in New York City since the Encore! series at City Center in 2010.
Tickets
Anyone Can Whistle will play at Carnegie Hall for one night only on March 10. Tickets can be purchased online, by calling 212.247.7800, or in person at the box office. Guests must show proof of vaccination to attend the performance.
Westchester-based country band Raquel and The Wildflowers have release their new single, “Freedom,” on Thursday, February 10, a tune ripe with fiddle, electric guitar and a driving beat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQGe2Alh4qQ
The song had previously been performed at the band’s various live shows around both New York state and the country. After requests from fans who had heard the song live the group decided to record the song and release it as a single.
The cover art for “Freedom” gives the band’s fans the opportunity to customize the single’s corresponding artwork.
The downloadable file mimics a postcard. With blank space, a “To:” line, and the spot for a postage stamp in the top right corner encourage listeners or prospective doodlers to design a postcard.
Raquel and The Wildflowers is a three-person band that features the eponymous Raquel de Souza as lead singer, Cat Lines on fiddle, and Luis Cruz on guitar.
The band is currently on tour with stops in New York in Monticello at Resorts World Catskills on March 25, Tioga Downs Casino Resort in Nichols on April 8, and Trivia Fest in Elmsford on May 1. They will also be performing at the Country Fest music festival in Cadott Wisconsin with headliners Florida Georgia Line.
Pink Talking Fish, who perform the music of Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, and Phish, have announced new tour dates for Spring 2022, the most notable of which will be in New York at the Gramercy Theater on April 20.
The New York concert is part of the NYC Phish AfterParty series hosted by the NYC promoter CEG Presents. After major Phish concerts at Madison Square Garden several venues around the city host after parties for those who are still awake, as Phish fans keep the party going.
And what better way to do that than by adding some Talking Heads and Pink Floyd to the mix.
With the new Pink Talking Fish tour stop in New York, what is already a huge show as Phish returns to the Garden on rescheduled New Years dates, the dancing doesn’t have to end just because the concert did. Doors open at 11:30pm and tickets are now available online.
Other than the Gramercy Theater show the new Pink Talking Fish tour will only have one other show in New York state proper, in Saratoga Springs on April 16. There are, still, several other shows in neighboring states: Hartford, CT on Feb. 18, Jay, VT on Feb. 19, and Burlington, VT on March 19.
Other notable stops include a three day stint in Denver, Colo. for a special David Bowie and Prince show. Where they’ll cover songs of the two rock legends alongside guests Chuck Morris from Lotus and The Horn Section, made up of former members of Turkuaz.
Tour Dates
2/18: Hartford CT at Infinity Hall
2/19: Jay VT at Jay Peak Resort
2/26: Ardmore PA at Ardmore Music Hall w/s/g Qway
3/11-12: Denver CO at So Many Roads Brewery
3/13: Denver CO at So Many Roads Brewery – Prince/Bowie featuring PTF, The Horn Section, Chuck from Lotus + more
3/19: Burlington VT at Higher Ground w/s/g Swimmer
4/08: Ventura CA at Ventura County Fairgrounds – Skull And Roses Festival
4/09: Seattle WA at Nectar Lounge
4/16: Saratoga Springs NY at Putnam Place
4/20: New York NY at Gramercy Theater – Phish AfterParty
Brooklyn based rock band Le Big Zero announced the release of their second album, A Proper Mess, on April 8.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ozo1vt8zg
As part of the announcement, Le Big Zero released their first single and music video from the album, “Horror Movie Pie Fight.” According to a press release from the band’s label, Know Hope Records, the upcoming album, and newly released single, are “exploration[s] of monotony and anxiety in the modern age.”
Le Big Zero’s band members include guitarist and vocalist, Michael Pasuit (center),vocalist Carolina Aguilar (far right), bassist Ben Ross (right) and drummer Lukas Hirsch (left).
To put together their new single,”Horror Movie Pie Fight”, lead vocalists Michael Pasuit and Carolina Aguilar took on a novel approach to recording this particular song: they never harmonized. Meaning they don’t sing in the same octave and instead let their voices exist side by side to one another on the track.
Unique to the song is that Carolina and I don’t harmonize. It’s the only song that’s sung in parallel octaves instead…When we didn’t come upon a decent harmony for HMPF, (Horror Movie Pie Fight) we decided to go that route as an experiment, and we really liked the result.
Michael Pasuit, vocalist and guitarist
The song tells the story of an individual that writes a horror movie only to lose creative control over the project after a studio buys the movie rights. Despite addressing concerns that may be widespread and frighteningly possible for artists, “Horror Movie Pie Fight” has an absurdist tone that makes the song palatable while still being thought provoking.
Le Big Zero released their first studio album, Ollie Oxen Free, in 2019. A Proper Mess will be available on all streaming platforms.
The Capital Repertory Theater announces previews for the critically acclaimed show FLYabout the Tuskegee Airmen, the unit of black pilots that was the first of its kind in the US military. Previews for the show will run Jan. 28-Jan. 30.
FLY tells the story of four black pilots serving in the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.
Trey Ellis and Ricardo Kahn wrote the play which tells the story of several black pilots who flew on wartime bombing missions in World War II. The story is told through a mix of classic theater, dance, and spoken word. These spoken word portions of the play are performed by a griot, a traditional West African storyteller.
FLY is directed by Clinton Turner Davis and choreographed by Hope Clark. Davis has directed plays both in the United States and in Taiwan. His experiences includes productions for the Negro Ensemble Company and Theatre Four. He is also the director of the American Young Playwrights Festival.
The view from inside Capital Rep.
Clark was nominated for a Tony Award for her choreography in 1993’s Jelly’s Last Jam. In the past, she has collaborated with renowned director George C. Wolfe.
Opening night of FLY, at the Capital Repertory Theater, is Feb. 1 with shows on Tuesdays-Sundays running until Feb. 20. Tickets can be purchased at the Capital Repertory website or by calling the box office at 518.346.6204.
A new art exhibit opens at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center. Blind Visionariesisa visual and musical installation that combines images from blind photographers and live jazz. The performance will be on Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center.
The photographers are from a New York City based group called the Seeing with Photography Collective. They use a new method of painting referred to as “light painting” which they will perform in a concert with a live jazz band. Their work is being published in the book Shooting Blind by Aperture.
At the event itself a voice narration from the members of the collective guides the participants through the same artistic process. At the same time, their photographs are projected on the walls to create a connection between the visual and musical.
The musical accompaniment is courtesy of Daniel Kelly. The long time composer and performer, who even worked with Lauryn Hill in the past, will be playing with his band the Danny Kelly Trio.
The group also features Adam Coté on bass and Bram Kincheloe on drums. In addition to the Feb. 3 performance Blind Visionaries will host a free show for high school students on Feb 4. Free reservations at the Performing Arts Center website.
