Category: Saratoga Springs

  • Wiz Khalifa and Logic Announce ‘Vinyl Verse’ Tour 2022, Barclay’s Center, SPAC and Darien Lake stops included

    Wiz Khalifa and Logic have just announced their co-headline Vinyl Verse Tour featuring special guests. In fact, the 28-city tour will make a stops throughout New York at the Brooklyn Barclay’s Center on August 16, and at Saratoga Springs’ Saratoga Performing Arts Center on August 23. Truly, you won’t regret adding the dynamic experiences of Wiz Khalifa and Logic to your summer 2022 agenda.

    Wiz Khalifa and Logic Announce 'Vinyl Verse' Tour 2022

    The two infamous rappers have joined forces with Live Nation for their upcoming Vinyl Verse Tour. Featuring special guests DJ Drama, C Dot Castro, and Fedd the God, the 28-city trek kicks off July 27 at the FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine, California, making stops in Houston, Atlanta, and Brooklyn, before wrapping up in St.Louis. 

    Wiz Khalifa and Logic

    Multi-platinum selling, Grammy and Golden Globe nominated recording artist Wiz Khalifa rose to fame with the success of his first major label debut album, Rolling Papers in 2011.

    Rolling Papers holds infamous hits such as “Black and Yellow” and more. These successful songs gave Wiz the platform to win the “Best New Artist” and “Top New Artist” music awards. Later on, Wiz’s track “See You Again,” off the FURIOUS 7 soundtrack catapulted to the top of the charts across 95 countries. Throughout his career, Khalifa has inspired various elements of pop culture from music integration and content creation to MMA lifestyle apparel. 

    Wiz Khalifa and Logic

    Also known as Sir Robert Bryson Hall II or Bobby Hall, Logic has made a name for himself as one of the most prolific and prevalent artists of the past decade since his emergence in 2010. The Maryland native progressed from online mixtapes to three number one albums, two GRAMMY® Award nominations, and dozens of gold and platinum certifications. Similarly, Logic has sold out arena tours on multiple continents and 6 billion streams and counting. 

    Wiz Khalifa and Logic’s song “High Today”

    VINYL VERSE TOUR DATES:  

    Wed Jul 27– Irvine, CA – FivePoint Amphitheatre 

    Thu Jul 28 – Inglewood, CA – YouTube Theater 

    Sat Jul 30 – Phoenix, AZ – Ak-Chin Pavilion 

    Tue Aug 02 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater 

    Wed Aug 03 – El Paso, TX – UTEP Don Haskins Center 

    Fri Aug 05 – Austin, TX – Germania Insurance Amphitheater 

    Sat Aug 06 – Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion 

    Sun Aug 07 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion 

    Mon Aug 08 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP 

    Wed Aug 10 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena 

    Thu Aug 11 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion 

    Fri Aug 12 – Atlanta, GA – Lakewood Amphitheatre 

    Sat Aug 13 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach 

    Sun Aug 14 – Camden, NJ – Waterfront Music Pavilion 

    Tue Aug 16 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclay’s Center 

    Wed Aug 17 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center 

    Fri Aug 19 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live 

    Sat Aug 20 – Hartford, CT – XFINITY Theatre 

    Sun Aug 21 – Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion 

    Mon Aug 22 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center 

    Tue Aug 23 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center 

    Thu Aug 25 – Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheatre 

    Fri Aug 26 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center 

    Sat Aug 27 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center 

    Sun Aug 28 – Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake 

    Tue Aug 30 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center 

    Thu Sep 01 – Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre 

    Fri Sep 02 – St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre 

    Wiz Khalifa and Logic’s song “Indica Badu”

    Ticket Information:

    Tickets go on sale starting on Friday, April 22nd at 10 am located here.

    Citi is the official card of the Vinyl Verse Tour 2022. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning Tuesday April 19th at 10 am ET until Thursday, April 21st at 10 pm through the Citi Entertainment program. For complete presale details, visit here.  

  • Warden and Co. Define Their Sound With New Album “Somewhere”

    Warden and Co. have released their sophomore album Somewher,e following their 2019 debut Songs for Everyone. The 11 track album covers a range of emotions while helping to develop the band’s Americana identity. 

    Warden and Co.

    Formed in Saratoga Springs in 2011, Warden and Co. have worked their way into the New York State music scene, with genuine folk influences and steady instrumentals. After starting out as children’s and family artists, frontman Seth Warden, violinist Doug Moody, and drummer Brian Melick changed trajectory to focus on a more mature genre. 

    This album covers a broad spectrum of human emotions and experiences: love, uncertainty, frustration, desire, fear, and compassion.

    Seth Warden

    ‘Somewhere’ features a sweet duet with Warden’s teenage daughter, Lovella. The father-daughter harmonies go well with the slower paced instrumentals and give listeners a warm, sentimental feeling inside. It’s a comforting reminder that our parents will always be with us, no matter where we travel. 

    ‘PSA’ is a faster paced track that keeps your attention all the way through. The fun cautionary tale warns of a beautiful, but mysterious woman that will have her fun with you and disappear. Moody’s excellent orchestral skills come through toward the end of the song as Melick’s drums provide a much needed foundation. 

    Warden and Co.

    ‘You’ve Got a Way With Love’ closes the album with a more brash sound and it’s easy to hear how the band has grown over the course of the album. Each member’s talents shine in the almost four minute track. 

    Somewhere is now available on all streaming platforms. 

    Key tracks : Somewhere, PSA, You’ve Got a Way With Love

  • The Backstreet Boys Set To Hit Four New York Venues This Summer

    The Backstreet Boys, one of the most famous boy bands of all time, have announced that they will be touring through the United States and Europe this year.

    The band is set to hit three New York locations. They will be visiting Darien Lake on July 3rd, the Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh on July 16th, Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs on July 23rd, and Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel on July 24th. They will also tour through two New Jersey destinations. The full schedule is available down below.

    The Backstreet Boys
    Photo Credits: Dennis Leupold

    The Backstreet Boys will be touring their 10th studio album, DNA, which was released in 2019 via RCA Records. The album debuted at #1 and features the Top 10 hit “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.”

    Tickets for the Backstreet Boys go on sale Friday, April 8th at 10 am local time on Ticketmaster.

    DNA World Tour

    4/8 – Las Vegas, NV – The Colosseum at Caesars Palace

    4/9 – Las Vegas, NV – The Colosseum at Caesars Palace

    4/15 – Las Vegas, NV – The Colosseum at Caesars Palace

    4/16 – Las Vegas, NV – The Colosseum at Caesars Palace

    6/4 – Chula Vista, CA – North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre

    6/5 – Irvine, CA – FivePoint Amphitheater

    6/7 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl

    6/9 – Phoenix, AZ – Ak-Chin Pavilion

    6/11 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater

    6/13 – Austin, TX – Germania Insurance Amphitheater

    6/14 – The Woodlands, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion presented by Huntsman

    6/15 – Irving, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory

    6/17 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP

    6/20 – Jacksonville, FL – VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena

    6/21 – Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre at the FL State Fairgrounds

    6/22 – West Palm Beach, FL – iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre

    6/24 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion

    6/25 – Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek

    6/28 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre

    7/1 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage

    7/2 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage

    7/3 – Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater

    7/5 – Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake

    7/6 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center

    7/8 – Milwaukee, WI – SummerFest (American Family Insurance Amp)

    7/10 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center

    7/12 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live

    7/13 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach

    7/14 – Camden, NJ – Waterfront Music Pavilion

    7/16 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater

    7/17 – Hartford, CT – XFINITY Theatre

    7/19 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center

    7/20 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center

    7/21 – Bangor, ME – Maine Savings Amphitheater

    7/23 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center

    7/24 – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts

    7/26 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center

    7/28 – Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre

    7/29 – Tinley Park, IL – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre

    7/30 – Maryland Heights, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre

    8/2 – Englewood, CO – Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre

    8/4 – Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre

    8/6 – Wheatland, CA – Toyota Amphitheatre

    8/7 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre

    8/9 – Concord, CA – Concord Pavilion

    8/12 – Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre

    8/19 – Nampa, ID – Ford Idaho Center Arena

    8/21 – Spokane, WA – Spokane Arena

    8/22 – Portland, OR – Moda Center

    8/24 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena

    8/26 – Edmonton, AB – Rogers Place

    8/27 – Saskatoon, SK – SaskTel Centre

    8/29 – Winnipeg, MB – Canada Life Centre

    9/1 – Ottawa, ON – Canadian Tire Centre

    9/2 – Quebec City, QC – Centre Videotron

    9/3 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre

    9/6 – Lexington, KY – Rupp Arena

    9/8 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena

    9/9 – Memphis, TN – FedExForum

    9/11 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford PREMIER Center

    9/13 – Wichita, KS – INTRUST Bank Arena

    9/14 – Oklahoma City, OK – Paycom Center

    10/3 – Lisbon, Portugal – Altice Arena

    10/4 – Madrid, Spain – WiZink Center

    10/6 – Barcelona, Spain – Palau Sant Jordi

    10/9 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome

    10/12 – Berlin, Germany – Mercedes-Benz Arena

    10/15 – Hannover, Germany – Zag Arena

    10/18 – Mannheim, Germany – SAP Arena

    10/20 – Munich, Germany – Olympiahalle

    10/22 – Bologna, Italy – Unipol Arena

    10/25 – Hamburg, Germany – Barclaycard Arena

    10/27 – Zurich, Switzerland – Hallenstadion

    10/29 – Krakow, Poland – Tauron Arena

    10/30 – Leipzig, Germany – QUARTERBACK Immobilien ARENA

    10/31 – Cologne, Germany – Lanxess Arena

    11/2 – Budapest, Hungary – Sports Arena

    11/4 – Dortmund, Germany – Westfalenhallen

    11/6 – London, UK – The 02

  • Dead and Company Summer Tour 2022 to Make Stops at Citi Field, SPAC, Bethel Woods

    This summer, Dead and Company will embark on a 20 show cross-country tour, including shows at SPAC and Bethel Woods, plus a two-night tour-closing run at Citi Field.

    dead and company summer tour

    Summer 2022 marks the seventh tour for Dead and Company – Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, John Mayer, and Bob Weir, with Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti – since forming in 2015.

    During the Dead and Company 2022 Summer Tour, the band will make stops at Bay Area at Shoreline Amphitheater, two nights at University of Colorado Boulder’s Folsom Field, two nights at Wrigley Field in Chicago, a night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA, and a night at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, before wrapping up with epic shows at Citi Field in New York. 

    Dead and Company are no strangers to New York, having kicked off their first ever tour in Albany at the Times Union Center in October 2015, along with annual stops in Saratoga Springs, New York City, and all points in between.

    In summer 2021, Dead and Company made stops at SPAC, Bethel Woods (where they recreated the Grateful Dead’s less than memorable Woodstock set) Darien Lake and Citi Field.

    Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, April 8 @ 10 AM at deadandcompany.com

    To ensure fans get tickets directly in their hands, Fan Registration is now available HERE until Sunday, April 3 at 12 Noon PDT, through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program.

    Dead & Company 2022 Summer Tour

    Sat Jun 11 Los Angeles, CA Dodger Stadium

    Mon Jun 13 Mountain View, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre

    Tue Jun 14 Mountain View, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre

    Fri Jun 17 Boulder, CO Folsom Field

    Sat Jun 18 Boulder, CO Folsom Field

    Tue Jun 21 Maryland Heights, MO Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre

    Wed Jun 22 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center

    Fri Jun 24 Chicago, IL Wrigley Field

    Sat Jun 25 Chicago, IL Wrigley Field

    Tue Jun 28 Noblesville, IN Ruoff Music Center

    Wed Jun 29 Clarkston, MI Pine Knob Music Theatre

    Fri Jul 01 Bethel, NY Bethel Woods Center for the Arts

    Sat Jul 02 Foxborough, MA Gillette Stadium

    Tue Jul 05 Hartford, CT The XFINITY Theatre

    Wed Jul 06 Saratoga Springs, NY SPAC

    Fri Jul 08 Bristow, VA Jiffy Lube Live

    Sun Jul 10 Philadelphia, PA Citizens Bank Park

    Tue Jul 12 Burgettstown, PA The Pavilion at Star Lake

    Fri Jul 15 New York, NY Citi Field

    Sat Jul 16 New York, NY Citi Field

    Check deadandcompany.com for complete tour information. 

  • This Week’s EQXposure Features Blur Beside You, New American Cuisine

    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, Blur Beside You, New American Cuisine, and many more!

    Blur Beside You

    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.

    Blur Beside You – “Nothing Feels Real” 

    Shoegaze indie rock trio from New York and Florida. Features 3 founding members of South Florida band, Mindlikewater, Jim Wells, Joseph Butera & Joseph Beaty. Check out “Nothing Feels Real” as well on EQXposure

    New American Cuisine – “Drop”

    Five-piece Saratoga Springs band New American Cuisine has two singles named after flowers: “Lily of the Aztecs” and “Daffodil.” The band met in high school, and while they’ve since graduated and gone to different colleges, they continue to collaborate on winter and summer breaks. Both singles have chill guitar riffs and catchy vocal hooks, perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

  • Lara Downes to make Special Appearance at the Arthur Zankel Music Center on April 14

    Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) will partnering with Skidmore College this upcoming April 14 at 7:30 p.m. for a night of music with Lara Downes at the Arthur Zankel Music Center. During this time Downes, will play homage to underrepresented American composers, including Florence Price, Scott Joplin, and Billie Holiday. She will also tap into the honorary George Gershwin and Morton Gould to bring to life their music from the 1900s.

    Lara Downes Arthur Zankel Music Center

    Coming from a civil rights background, Downes is not only a high demand performer, but also hosts her own series on NPR called “Amplify”. On her show she discusses with BIPOC artist what it is like to be in the music industry, with focuses on shaping the identity of a new era with bold vision, powerful mission and the inspiring energy of a transformative time. However, her work does not end there. In fact, Downes is a Billboard Chart-topping recording artist, producer, curator, activist, and arts advocate.

    Lara Downes

    Furthermore, her work with Skidmore College will begin on April 13 during her piano masterclass for music majors at 5:30 p.m.

    What a thrill for our students to witness Lara’s great artistry and experience a one-of-kind program in our beautiful performance space. And, how lucky for them to also participate in a masterclass with her.

    Evan Mack, professor of music at Skidmore College

    Tickets for Downes’ performance at the Arthur Zankel Music Center will be $30 for general admission and $10 for all collegiate students and faculty with a valid school ID. However, Skidmore students enrolled in the music program will have free admission. Skidmore College plans to follow COVID-19 protocol and strongly encourages guests to be fully vaccinated and masked at the performance. For tickets or more information click here or visit Spac.

    Downes’ following visit to Saratoga will be towards the end of the Summer on August 4. She will perform two premieres: The Strayhorn Concerto and Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement, during her Saratoga Performing Arts Center debut. For more information visit  SPAC.

  • The Bob Stump Band To Play At Caffe Lena March 31

    The Bob Stump Band will perform at Caffe Lena on March 31st at 7 PM. Hailing from the Hudson Valley, the band plays a plethora of genres including blues-jazz, folk, bluegrass, country, and rock. The performance will be a euphonic mixture of sounds as the band traverses through genres. For this reason, the event will have a song for everyone.

    Leading the band is a singer-songwriter and guitarist Bob Stump. He is joined by Ernie Sites, a former rodeo cowboy from Idaho. He has traveled the United States writing and performing songs, poems, and stories. Lastly, Roy Coates plays the bass, however, he also has experience playing the tuba on big stages such as Carnegie Hall and Yankee Stadium. The three share a love for bluegrass and folk, and their love shines through during their performances.

    The Bob Stump Band
    The Bob Stump Band

    Caffe Lena, the venue at which the band is set to perform at, has an extensive history. Located in Saratoga Springs and founded in 1960, the venue has been hosting live music events for over sixty years. Most notably, Caffe Lena hosts a plethora of rising folk and indie performers. In fact, the venue hosted Bob Dylan for two historic nights in 1961, a year before the release of his debut album.

    Tickets for the event start at $10 and are available on Eventbrite. For those unable to attend in person, a live stream will also be hosted. Tickets for the live stream start at $5 and give you access to the live stream’s VOD (video on demand) for a week.

    For more information on the band, visit www.stumpsongs.com.

  • Saint Paddy’s Day Spectacular: Prince Bowie & Midnight Sun at Putnam Place

    On Thursday, March 17th, Saratoga Springs came together for a spectacular night of music at Putnam Place. Everybody was Irish this evening, and all were in for an extra-special treat. Led Zeppelin cover band, the Midnight Sun Project kicked things off, and Prince Bowie headlined, leaving everyone breathless, a little sleepy, and very satisfied.

    The Midnight Sun Project

    Tonight was the first for many hearing Midnight Sun Project perform. Previously, most had never heard Led Zeppelin sung by a female lead. Once you have, you may not want it any other way. Lead singer Shannon Lynch‘s voice absolutely blew me out of the water from start to finish.

    With Vinnie Amico (of moe.) on the drums, Shannon Lynch on lead vocals and tenor sax, Christian deFrancqueville on bass, and Doc Danielson on guitar, the Midnight Sun Project rocked everyone’s socks off and then some.

    Setlist: Communication Breakdown, Ramble On, Good Times Bad Times, The Rover, The Ocean, Out on the Tiles, Misty Mountain Hop, Bring it on Home, Immigrant Song, Custard Pie, Black Dog

    Prince Bowie & The Horn Section

    After an energetic opening set, everyone was more than ready for the main event. Prince Bowie took the stage and did what they do best — glorious glam rock mashups. However, for a St. Paddy’s Day present, we all had an extra special treat: The Horn Section, formerly of Turkuaz.

    prince bowie

    Whoever it was that decided to put Prince and David Bowie music together was a genius. Having never gotten to see either in concert, this was a close as some of us will ever get to the real thing. But the fact is, this lineup was so good, it doesn’t matter.

    prince bowie

    The band this evening featured Eric Gould (Pink Talking Fish, bass) Cal Kehoe (Pink Talking Fish, guitar) Michelangelo Carubba (Death Kings; formerly of Turkuaz, drums) Alric Carter (TAUK, keys) Matt Wayne (Bobby Deitch Band, saxophone) and The Horn Section (formerly of Turkuaz) featuring Josh Schwartz, Greg Sanderson and Chris Brouwers. With spot on energetic Bowie covers of Fame,” “Starman,” and “Let’s Dance,” the group sequed smoothly into “Cream,” “I Wanna Be Your Love” and “I Feel For You.” The set closing finale of Bowie’s “Heroes,”

    The crowd was perfectly satisfied with Prince Bowie’s set. However, they leveled things up and brought Shannon Lynch and her incredible pipes back out on stage for an encore of “Purple Rain.” Lynch performed on several songs during the night, singing and playing the sax, to the delight of everyone present.

    prince bowie

    Setlist: Rebel Rebel, Raspberry Beret, Fame, 1999, Under Pressure*, DMSR*, Starman, Kiss, Let’s Dance > Cream, Changes, I Wanna Be Your Lover, Moonage Daydream, Nothing Compares to You*, Young Americans*, I feel For You, Heroes Encore: Purple Rain *Shannon Lynch on vocals/sax

    The Lineup

    Prince Bowie doesn’t have a standard lineup. Instead, this group is a rotating cast of some of the top musicians in the northeast and beyond. If you want to catch this lineup, however, don’t fret. Catch them live on April 29th in Norwalk, CT at Wall Street Theater and April 30th in Beverly, MA at The Cabot.

    prince bowie

    Listen to The St. Patrick’s Day set via Archive.org

  • Trey Anastasio releases first solo acoustic album “Mercy”

    Trey Anastasio has released his first-ever solo acoustic album, Mercy, on Friday, March 11. The album, produced Bryce Goggin and Robert “rAab” Stevenson was engineered and mixed by Mike Fahey.

    trey anastasio mercy
    Trey Anastasio “Mercy” album cover

    Music journalist David Fricke shared in the album’s liner notes, “Mercy is a genuine and surprising first for Trey Anastasio: his studio debut as a solo, acoustic singer-songwriter. The nine songs were all written in the emotional ricochet of recent, pandemic life, then recorded with the absolute purity of one man with a guitar and a microphone. There is nothing like it in Anastasio’s lifetime of albums, even after nearly four decades as the singer, guitarist, and primary composer in Phish, numerous side projects, collaborations, and the long-running Trey Anastasio Band.”

    Anastasio shared “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

    The past two years of fear, loss, and, at times, devastating quiet have been unlike anything many have ever known. Mercy is Anastasio’s account of that confusion and isolation in unresolved questions and conflicted passions, in a music of quietly gripping force.

    Mercy also arrives just weeks after Anastasio recorded it and two years, nearly to the day, since New York City went into lockdown. Anastasio adds, “Mercy is like a bookend. It’s two years since we went into hiding. This is still going on, and it’s an even lonelier trip.” Even with the release of the Phish studio album Sigma Oasis in April 2020; Anastasio’s ‘Beacon Jams’ charity concerts later than fall, and Phish’s return to the road in the summer of 2021, Anastastio still looked inward as he wrote these songs. “Here I was, still at home, playing acoustic guitar. I thought, ‘These songs just want to be one guy with a guitar, singing.’”

    The roots of Mercy go back further, to Anastasio’s first tours as a solo, acoustic performer, starting with three shows in 2017, followed by longer runs in 2018 and 2019, highlighted by a sold-out two-night stand at New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall. The setlists were largely made up of Phish songs stripped to their chord progressions, signature licks, and vocal melodies.

    But I found this weird thing happening, where “Maze” worked on acoustic guitar. Who would have thought that? It’s about the jam, the organ solo. Turns out it wasn’t. It was about the lyrics and the music.

    Trey Anastasio

    In June 2021, Anastasio played his first shows for live fans in more than a year, with a week of solo, acoustic gigs in Saratoga Springs, and a pair of shows at the Beacon Theatre. The songs again were mostly from the Phish catalog, but the emotional exchange was, per Anastasio, “like a direct path from my heart to the audience. The honesty and simplicity of those shows – without it, this album would not have happened.”

    As noted in the press release, Anastasio plays on Mercy a custom-designed guitar, hand-crafted from century-old wood by a luthier in Burlington, Vermont. McConnell commissioned the instrument as a birthday gift, presenting it to Anastasio last fall during a Phish rehearsal at the Barn. “That was the turning point,” Anastasio declares. Back in New York, “I’d get up early every day, make coffee and write these songs on that guitar.” Then while recording Mercy, “The decision was made very quickly: ‘Let me double the guitar.’ I was listening to the first take on headphones and playing off it. It was like jamming with myself.”

    Mercy comes with long, deep echoes: Laurel Canyon’s golden age of woodsmoke and introspection; the confessional streak running through Britain’s folk revival in the late Sixties; the slow-dance spell and modal-guitar inventions of Joni Mitchell. A future waits in here too. “Definitely,” Anastasio replies right away when asked if he can imagine playing these songs with Phish or TAB, improvising in the psychedelic glow of “6 and 1/2 Minutes” or building on the eccentric guitar ride at the end of “Arc.” “Songs are like children,” he says. “They will tell you what to do. But when I was writing these songs, I thought, ‘I have to go direct to the finish line’ – to be able to play these songs on acoustic guitar first.”

    He mentions a favorite quote that goes back to Leonardo da Vinci: “Art lives by constraint.” Mercy “is a perfect example,” Anastasio says. “One mic, one stool, one guitar. It’s a new outlet. And I love it.”

  • Universal Preservation Hall announces Fleetwood Mac Tribute and Ladysmith Black Mambazo Pperformances

    The Seven Wonders – Fleetwood Mac Tribute and Ladysmith Black Mambazo take the stage in Saratoga Springs at the Universal Preservation Hall the first week of March. On Friday, March 4th at 7pm, the The Seven Wonders will perform and Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Saturday, March 5th at 7pm.

    The seven premier musicians from Western New York make up the Fleetwood Mac Tribute band, the Seven Wonders who play homage to Fleetwood Mac’s music. The Seven Wonders shows are packed full with liveliness that creates energetic energy and passion into the renditions of the timeless tunes performed by the band.

    The Seven Wonders – Fleetwood Mac Tribute draws fans from all over the region as they continue to have numerous sold out shows with packed venues from now and back to when the band was established in 2017.

    For over 60 years, the uplifting harmonies, the signature dance moves, and the onstage teasing remarks from Ladysmith Black Mambazo has touched the hearts of their audiences tremendously with their message of peace, love, and harmony.

    The group caught the public eye after the late former South African President, Nelson Mandela named the group “South Africa’s cultural ambassadors to the world.”

    The young farm boy, Joseph from Ladysmith Black Mambazo assembled the group in the early 1960s where he constructed the groups name from familiar things he surrounded himself with. Joseph’s hometown where he grew up was Ladysmith, Black is a reference to the farms strongest animal that was an Oxen and Mambazo being the Zulu word for chopping axe.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCfoyYKUM20

    The Seven Wonders – Fleetwood Mac Tribute, UPH at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 4; $20-45 and Ladysmith Black Mambazo will be at UPH at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 5; $35-65. 

    For tickets and information, call the Box Office at Proctors 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Monday-Friday at
    518-346-6204 or visit https://universalpreservationhall.org