NYS Music 2023

Category: Capital Region

  • An Evening of Psychedelic Rock at Lark Hall with Circles Around the Sun and Rich Ruth

    Lark Hall in Albany hosted Circles Around the Sun with special guest Rich Ruth for a night of pure psychedelic rock on Friday, January 20.

    circles lark hall

    Opening up the show was Nashville-based recording artist Rich Ruth.  A seasoned session musician and an ambient music making machine, it was this critically acclaimed up-and-comers first time passing through Albany.  Captivating the audience early with dreamy, lush and psychedelic post-rock styled soundscapes, the band created a huge swirling sound layered with rich textures, soaring saxophone solos, syncopated drumming, droning synthesizers, reverb-drenched feedback and huge blues rock guitar peaks. Playing mostly songs from 2022 I Survived, It’s Over, an album written in the days after a devastating twister ravaged Ruth’s neighborhood, the set found a healthy balance between beauty and chaos. Backed on this tour by a talented group of friends and equally skilled musicians, each member of the group brought something unique to the table and the result was something palpable and potent and left the Lark Hall wanting more.

    circles lark hall

    Circles began their set around 930pm, taking to the disco ball laden stage, resembling mid-1960s era Deadheads and Grateful Dead members. The five giant disco balls made the stage seem more full, as the notes the band produced were far greater than the sum of the members. Yet not a moment is wasted among these four – John Lee Shannon (guitar), Dan Horne (bass) Adam MacDougall (keys) and Mark Levy (drums) – as each sonic branch ventured off into another, connecting for a sound that filled in all available space.

    circles lark hall

    The highlight of the night could be found anywhere, but “Language,” a track released in March 2022 featuring the harp of Mikaela Davis, stood out. This funky new disco number is a pure dance potion, consistently hit its mark, retreating before resurging towards an extended ending and then “Money’s No Option.” The 90+ minute set was better than two separate sets, so as not to interrupt the flow. Circles could have easily played another hour and lost few, if any of the dialed in crowd.

    An encore of “One for Chuck” had a smooth-flowing Dead-heavy jam that give a hint of “NFA” but ended up falling into a soft rock smooth jazz vibe.

    Circles Around the Sun – Lark Hall, Albany – Friday, January 20, 2023

    Setlist: Scatlotta, Landline, Outerburrows, Babyman, Rouge > Language, Money, Away Team
    Encore: One for Chuck

    Photos by Zak Radick

    circles lark hall
    circles lark hall
    circles lark hall
    circles lark hall
    circles lark hall

  • Van Norton Family Foundation Selects ESYO as First Grant Recipient

    Schenectady’s Empire State Youth Orchestra (ESYO) have announced that they’ve received a grant of $22,000 from the Van Norton Family Foundation, going towards the CHIME program.

    Heather Manthey, Van Norton Family Foundation President and Co-Founder is driven by her mother’s benevolence. She says, “Our Foundation has a three-part mission: to support qualifying organizations that promote the interests of children, assist with the mental and physical health of individuals in our community, and advance the arts.” After researching ESYO, it wasn’t long before Manthey knew that she had found her perfect choice.

    Founded in 1979, ESYO is a non-profit organization that is widely known as a premier music education/performance program for youth and has received three ASCAP awards.

    The Empire State Youth Orchestra plans to use their stupendous gift to support their CHIME program. Creating Harmony Inspiring Musical Excellence was launched in 2015 to address fundamental inequities preventing universal access to high level music opportunities for youth. Today it is a free after-school program for grades k-12, that empowers youth to develop a strong sense of personal identity and community through ensemble-based music instruction.

    The Amplify Our Voice initiative provides the youth of CHIME  with a safe place to process deep emotion, explore shared experiences, and amplify their voices to the world. Through reflection, improvisation, and experimentation, the youth of CHIME create an original, multi-level composition in partnership with a guest arranger. This year’s theme, chosen by students, is “Stop Violence & Show Kindness,”. They will be collaborating with composer Adrian Gordon. The CHIME Proctors Orchestra recently performed Gordon’s piece “A Hero’s Journey.”

    Currently, in support of their CHIME program, ESYO has received a total of $105,000 from regional and national Foundations. Funders, Rea Charitable Trust, Review Foundation, Carnegie Hall PlayUSA, Barry Alan Gold Memorial Fund,D’Addario Foundation, Henry M. Butzel Foundation, Seymour Fox Foundation and Price Chopper Golub Foundation have all made gracious donations. For more information, visit esyo.org.

  • Zach Bryan Announces North American Tour, 2 Stops in NY

    2022 was a particularly prolific year for rising country star Zach Bryan and he’s set on riding that wave into the new year with his biggest tour yet. Bryan’s Burn Burn Burn North American Tour tour kicks off in April at the Two Step Inn Festival in Texas, and will include two shows in New York, in Albany at MVP Arena and Queens at Forest Hills Stadium.

    Bryan released 2 full length albums and multiple EPs and singles, amounting to around 12 projects overall last year. His album American Heartbreak was the number one most streamed album on Spotify last year; it consists of a stunning 34 songs. But despite his impressive quantity, Zach Bryan has not abandoned quality. “From Austin” on American Heartbreak combines intense imagery and devastating lyricism. “Something In The Orange” went double platinum and scored Bryan a Grammy Award for Best Solo Country Performance. 

    Zach Bryan tour

    Last year, Bryan’s tour sold out in minutes. Zach Bryan, self-proclaimed enemy of Ticketmaster — his most recent live show recording is called All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster (Live From Red Rocks) — is using Fair AXS to sell tickets to avoid catastrophes like those that plagued Taylor Swift’s last tour. To purchase tickets, fans should register on the site beginning January 29. Registered fans will then be chosen at random starting on February 13 to access the tour site and purchase tickets on a first-come, first-served basis. 

    See the full tour schedule below and register to buy tickets here. 

    Zach Bryan 2023 Tour

    *April 15                     Georgetown, TX        Two Step Inn Festival

    May 10                     Charlottesville, VA     John Paul Jones Arena

    May 12                     Worcester, MA          DCU Center

    May 13                     Wilkes-Barre, PA       Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

    May 15                     Duluth, GA                Gas South Arena

    May 19                     Houston, TX               Toyota Center

    May 20                     New Orleans, LA       Smoothie King Center

    May 23                     Jacksonville, FL        VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena

    May 24                     N Charleston, SC      North Charleston Coliseum

    May 26                     Albany, NY                MVP Arena

    May 28                     London, ON              Budweiser Gardens

    May 31                     Philadelphia, PA        Wells Fargo Center

    June 02                    Cleveland, OH           Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse

    *June 03                   Lexington, KY           Railbird Festival

    June 23                    New York, NY           Forest Hills Stadium

    June 26                    Denver, CO                   Red Rocks Amphitheatre

    June 27                    Denver, CO                   Red Rocks Amphitheatre

    *July 07                    Milwaukee, WI           Summerfest

    *July 13                    Chicago, IL                Windy City Smokeout 

    *July 14-16           Whitefish, MT            Under The Big Sky Festival

    *July 20-July 22         Cullman, AL              Rock The South

    *August 05                    St. Charles, IA           Hinterland Music Festival

    August 07                      Grand Rapids, MI      Van Andel Arena

    August 09                      Minneapolis, MN        Target Center

    August 11                      Tulsa, OK                 BOK Center

    August 14                      Sioux Falls, SD         Denny Sanford PREMIER Center

    August 17                      Nampa, ID                Ford Idaho Center

    August 19                      Las Vegas, NV          T-Mobile Arena

    August 20                      Bakersfield, CA         Mechanics Bank Arena

    August 21                      Oakland, CA             Oakland Arena

    August 23                      Los Angeles, CA       Crypto.com Arena

    August 25                      Glendale, AZ             Desert Diamond Arena

    August 27                      Wichita, KS                   INTRUST Bank Arena

    August 29                      Lincoln, NE               Pinnacle Bank Arena

    August 30                      Kansas City, MO       T-Mobile Center

    * Indicates Festival Dates – on sale now

  • Timing to hold Debut Album Listening Party at The Hangar on January 28

    The debut recording from timing – featuring members of punk rock bands Public Access and The Slaughterhouse Chorus – will be premiered on Saturday, January 28 at The Hanger in Troy.

    timing
    photo by Yuliya Peshkova.

    The album, Storm’s Coming, is more of a recording project and one that cannot be performed live. However on this night at The Hanger, the album will be played in its entirety, set to a 30 minute video that follows the flow of the album. On Storm’s Coming, the weather seems fine -but it could change at any time.

    timing’s formation was a reaction to an ever-changing forecast and the debut recording a song cycle about the storms of uncertainty that was borne on the winds of most uncertain times. In the strange, scary summer of 2020, four lifelong musical comrades – Chris Jordan (vocals, resonator, keys), Jason Bonafide (pedal steel guitar), Bob Watson (bass) and Mark McKenna (drums) -reconvened after their first extended break in nearly 20 years of weekly rehearsals for their reasonably regionally successful punk rock bands, Public Access and The Slaughterhouse Chorus. With the doors wide open and plenty of room to breathe, the four dragged some instruments into an old horse barn in rural Rensselaer County to start again.

    timing
    art by Mavis McKinley

    A handful of fingerpicked resonator riffs and bits of melodies collecting dust were finally given a place in the sun as the band developed a series of Jordan’s instrumental ideas into the basis of “Storm’s Coming” over that eerily quiet summer in the barn. Jordan and Bonafide traded their distorted guitars for plucked acoustics and steel guitar swells, learning to play as they went, while Watson and McKenna locked into backcountry rhythms that occasionally spiraled into chaos. Inspired by Radiohead’s approach to Kid A, the band forced itself to embrace the uncertainty of the times by substantiating those early demos with unusual instrumentations, unconventional songwriting, and unfamiliar production techniques.

    Live recordings from the barn were brought back to Bonafide’s basement studio, unraveled, ripped apart, and reassembled, with the traditional sounds forming the dirt floor for an off-kilter skyscraper of strings, synthesizers, drones, and impressionistic lyrics delivered in rich harmonies. Built up brick by brick over the course of the next two years into a multifarious musical collage, the EP attempts to interface Nine Inch Nails‘ industrial dread with the organic warmth of Crosby, Stills, & Nash without losing course.

    timing
    art by Mavis McKinley

    Mixed by Scoops Dardaris (Prince Daddy & The Hyena, Undeath) and mastered by Nick Sebastiano (Another Michael), timing’s Storm’s Coming is a concept album where meteorology is the metaphor for life’s everyday anxiety and unease, where the thunderheads are always lurking somewhere on the horizon, where the river is always threatening to flood its banks. The alt-country heart of the record skips into arrhythmias of crashing doom, swirling post-rock, pastoral indie-folk, and glitching electronics. Tossed around somewhere in the trailing wakes of The Band and The Books, Aphex Twin and Aaron Copeland, the resulting mini-album is an amalgamation of the new and the old, the familiar and the unknown, blurring the lines between acoustic and electronic and riding the fence dividing tradition and experimentation.

    Doors open at The Hanger on January 28, with music starting at 8pm. Admission is free. 

    Listen to “The King” below or on various streaming services here. The rest of Storm’s Coming will be released on Friday, February 3rd on Bandcamp.

  • Tune Into EQXposure This Sunday to Hear Rhoseway and More

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9 p.m. 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 Rhoseway.

    Rhoseway

    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.

    There is only one cut this week because Pearson is featuring two songs in a row from a lot of artists to showcase their changes of sound throughout their music. The next two weeks of shows are prerecorded, with the 1/29 the show being from 1/8 and the  2/5 the show is from 1/15.

    Rhoseway – “Cloak and Dagger”

    Rhoseway is the solo project of Albany-based songwriter Rob Fleming. All writing, arrangements, performances, and production are done by himself in a DIY fashion.

  • Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness Announces Shows in Syracuse, Albany, Buffalo and NYC

    Indie-pop singer-songwriter-pianist Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness has announced a string of New York tour dates, in conjunction with the release of new studio album Tilt At The Wind No More.

    Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness
    Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness

    The new album, which will release March 31st via Nettwerk. Celebrating the release of this new studio album, McMahon has scheduled intimate album release shows across the country including an Albany stop at Empire Live on May 16. This year also marks and is set to their debut at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on June 17.

    Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness features McMahon (lead vocals, piano), Bobby Anderson (guitar), Jay McMillan (drums), Mikey Wagner (bass) and Zac Clark (keys). Tilt At The Wind No More will mark the fourth full-length studio album for McMahon under his Wilderness moniker and his first collection for Nettwerk. The forthcoming album, produced by Tommy English (Kacey Musgraves, K.Flay, Børns) and Jeremy Hatcher (Harry Styles, Maggie Rogers, Lizzo), features his jubilant radio hit “Stars,” which peaked at #34 on the Alternative Radio chart, and recent singles “Skywriting,” co-written with K.Flay, the synth-pop “VHS,” and romantic ballad “Built To Last.” 

    Andrew McMahon performing

    For tickets and more information, please visit https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/30005E26A07D15AC.

  • The Wallflowers Tour Drives by The Egg and Bardavon in May

    The Wallflowers 2023 tour has been announced and the 90s MTV darlings will wind through New York with stops in Albany at The Egg on Wednesday, May 3 and in Poughkeepsie at Bardavon on Friday, May 12.

    wallflowers

    For the past 30 years, the Jakob Dylan-led Wallflowers has stood as one of rock’s most dynamic and purposeful bands, a unit dedicated to and continually honing a sound that meshes timeless songwriting and storytelling with a hard-hitting and decidedly modern musical attack. That signature style has been present through the decades, baked into the grooves of smash hits like 1996’s Bringing Down the Horse as well as more recent and exploratory fare like 2012’s Glad All Over. 

    Even so, in recent years, Dylan – the Wallflowers’ founding singer, songwriter and guitarist – has repeatedly stepped outside of his band, first with a pair of more acoustic and rootsy records, 2008’s Seeing Things and 2010’s Women + Country, and then with the 2018 film Echo in the Canyon and the accompanying soundtrack, which saw him collaborate with a host of artists classic and contemporary, from Neil Young and Eric Clapton to Beck and Fiona Apple. 

    Dylan’s vision has always been the core of the Wallflower’s music. How he chooses to express that vision, however, is what makes a song a Wallflowers song. “I usually just let the songs tell me what kind of arrangements they need,” he says. “And if they’re asking for full-band electric arrangements, then that’s what the Wallflowers provide. And I knew I wanted to make a full-band electric record this time out.” 

    So that’s always been my vision with the Wallflowers – to be a great rock ‘n’ roll band. And I’ve worked on it for 30 years now and I still have a lot to say. It’s something I started a long time ago, and it’s far from finished.

    Jakob Dylan

    And made one he has, with one special guest on board – Shelby Lynne, who lends her voice to three of the album’s tracks. “I hadn’t met Shelby before, but like most people, I’ve been a fan of hers for quite some time,” Dylan says. “She has one of those voices that’s very uncommon, very unique, very rare.” 

    But there was more to their duet than just a mutual appreciation. “You can have your favorite singer come in, but it doesn’t mean you’ll have any connection – there has to be more than that,” Dylan continues. “And as soon as I heard Shelby sing, I knew we had something.” 

    Dylan acknowledges that the tracks on the new Exit Wounds reflect the tumultuous times in which they were written. “The climate affects how you feel, which affects how you’re writing songs, even if you’re not writing specifically about current events.” He turns to the late John Prine to illustrate his point. “If we still had John Prine, I don’t think he’d be writing songs specifically about current affairs, but he’d probably be writing songs about characters affected by current affairs. I think that’s mostly what I do.” 

    When it came to realizing these new songs on record, Dylan assembled a backing band of musical associates – “people that I’ve wanted to play with or that I have played with through the years” – and headed into the studio under the watchful eye of producer Butch Walker. 

    That joyful experience extended to Dylan’s interplay with his fellow musicians. “This was not the type of thing where it’s a rotating cast and you call a different drummer for each song, or you pull out the Rolodex and ring the local sessions guys,” Dylan says. “The record was made as a band – the five Wallflowers.” 

    And to Dylan, a band, even one with a constantly shifting lineup, is a sacred thing. “I’ve always been a believer in collaboration,” he says, “and no matter who I’m playing with I’ve always tried to include them very heavily. Otherwise, why would they be around? Because I do think bands, whether it’s a long standing group or just five people who are working together for that one stretch of time, make better rock ‘n’ roll records than solo artists.” 

    The Wallflowers 2023 Tour Dates

    APR 13 THU CLUB LA – Destin, FL
    APR 14 FRI Ponte Vedra Concert Hall – Ponte Vedra, FL
    APR 15 SAT Tortuga Music Festival 2023 – Fort Lauderdale, FL
    APR 17 MON Charleston Music Hall – Charleston, SC
    APR 18 TUE Neighborhood Theatre – Charlotte, NC
    APR 19 WED The Ramkat – Winston-salem, NC
    APR 21 FRI Robert Kirk Walker Theatre – Chattanooga, TN
    APR 23 SUN Clyde Theatre – Fort Wayne, IN
    APR 25 TUE The Fillmore Detroit – Detroit, MI
    APR 26 WED The Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts – Carmel, IN
    APR 29 SAT Appell Center for the Performing Arts – York, PA
    APR 30 SUN Paramount Theater – Charlottesville, VA
    MAY 1 MON Birchmere – Alexandria, VA
    MAY 3 WED Hart Theatre at the Egg – Albany, NY
    MAY 6 SAT The Flying Monkey Movie House & Performance Center – Plymouth, NH
    MAY 7 SUN Greenwich Odeum – East Greenwich, RI
    MAY 9 TUE The Ridgefield Playhouse – Ridgefield, CT
    MAY 11 THU Stone Pony = Asbury Park, NJ
    MAY 12 FRI BARDAVON – Poughkeepsie, NY

    Tickets go on sale Friday, January 20 at 10am. Tickets will be available online at theegg.org and bardavon.org

  • Deb Cavanaugh and Dandelion Wine Share “Electric Avenue” Cover

    Deb Cavanaugh, an award-winning folk artist from Saratoga Springs, has recently formed Deb Cavanaugh and Dandelion Wine, with their first release a cover of “Electric Avenue” by Eddy Grant.

    Deb Cavanaugh Dandelion Wine

    ​Very much like Deb Cavanaugh‘s former band, General Eclectic, Dandelion Wine’s line-up may vary depending on the venue and availability of musicians. Dandelion Wine is Jared Carrozza on bass and Ben Hart on drums, who also provides vocals and occasional lead guitar.

    The unique blend of blues, rock & roll, and folk is what gives Dandelion Wine a genre best defined as “psychedelic folk.”

    Cavanaugh is a singer songwriter, artist educator, multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mountain dulcimer, mandolin & more) in Petersburg, NY playing feel-good Americana.

    The group have also released a video, “New Age Guy,” recorded at The Jive Hive.

  • Venezualachian Duo Larry & Joe Announce New York Show

    Venezualachian music duo Larry & Joe are headed to Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs on Wednesday, January 25 as part of their first ever tour to the Northeast.

    Larry and Joe Venezualachian
    Duo Larry & Joe

    Larry & Joe is the latest project of Joe Troop, founder and bandleader of former GRAMMY-nominated Latingrass ensemble Che Apalache, and Larry Bellorín, a powerhouse of Llanera music who’s also an asylum-seeking migrant.

    Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina, both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. These two will bring their unique fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music to the Capital Region, with an electric show that is sure to be a treat for all ages. The duo fuse their respective Venezuelan and Appalachian folk traditions (hence, Venezualachian) on the harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, upright bass, guitar, and maracas. Their bilingual program will include storytelling, humor, and singalongs. This show will feature both distinct blend of their musical traditions as well as storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.

    Venezualachian
    Fusion Duo Larry & Joe

    Tickets are $20 for general admission, $18 for members, $10 for students and children, and $5 for livestream. Tickets available on Eventbrite and at the door. Doors for seating open at 7 pm, show begins at 7:30 pm. All ages encouraged to attend. For more information, visit www.larryandjoe.com

  • Renowned Pianist Philip Edward Fisher Reunites with Schenectady Symphony Orchestra

    On Sunday, January 29, The Schenectady Symphony Orchestra will return to the main stage at Proctors with Philip Edward Fisher joining.

    The performance will encompass illustrious pianist Philip Edward Fisher in Mozart’s “Piano Concerto in D Minor, along with Rossini’s “Overture to the Barber of Seville,” Salieri’s Sinfonia in D Major and Brahms “Variations on a Theme by Haydn.” Fisher’s first collaboration with SSO was during their 20-21 virtual concert season, which resulted in him being featured by the “Back to Basics” program.

    Philip Edward Fisher

    Philip Edward Fisher began his music journey at the age of nine and made his first public appearance a year later. At age twelve, he performed “Shostakovich’s Second Concerto at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall”. Years later Fisher acquired degrees from the Royal Academy of Music and the Juilliard School, studying with Christopher Elton, Joseph Kalichstein, and Jerome Lowenthal.

    When questioned about what audience members can expect from the upcoming concert, Fisher stated “This is a wonderful program and, although it is centered around the ‘great classicists,’ the audience will get a true taste of the move towards romanticism and the way in which each of these great composers influenced the music that would follow them.” Regarding his opinion about reuniting with The Schenectady Symphony Orchestra, Fisher said, “My first appearance with the orchestra was actually one of my very first performances during the COVID crisis… so I am particularly excited to return and play for a live audience. As enjoyable and fulfilling as the virtual concert was, there is simply nothing that can replace the thrill of making music for a live audience!”

    Philip is globally acknowledged as a unique performer of urbane style and exceptional versatility. Touring as a prolific soloist and ensemble musician has allowed Fisher to travel from his home in the United Kingdom to Italy, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Norway, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Japan, Ukraine, and the United States. 

    Tickets are on sale and available through the Box Office at Proctors, or via phone at 518-346-6204. Tickets are also available online at www.proctors.org.