Eight-piece soul-pop band, Lawrence, has announced the U.S. leg of their world tour.
The band will play four dates in NY at such venues as: the Empire Live in Albany, on Mar. 7, Buffalo RiverWorks in Buffalo on Mar. 9, The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, on Mar. 28, and The Paramount in Huntington on Mar. 29.
Fronted by siblings Gracie and Clyde, Lawrence will embark on a 16-city tour of the U.S. to support their fourth studio album, Family Business. This will be their biggest solo headlining tour to date after the massive 65-date stadium run with the Jonas Brothers in 2023.
Released on June 21, 2024, Lawrence’s fourth album, Family Business, has brought the band to new heights. The album’s opening track, “Whatcha Want,” broke into the Top 40 on the US Pop Chart, while Lawrence has performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Today with Hoda & Jenna, and CBS Saturday Morning. The album is accompanied by their biggest headline tour yet which not only brought them to Australia for the first time but will bring them back to Europe and the UK, in addition to their US tour which has new dates to be added.
Clyde and Gracie Lawrence created Lawrence, an eight-piece soul-pop band comprised of musician friends from childhood and college. The band has gained a following for its high-energy, keyboard-driven sound, which features tight, energetic horns and explosive lead vocals.
Tickets are available now. Learn more and purchase tickets here.
Lawrence: The Family Business Tour Part 2 Tour Dates:
Thu Mar. 06 – Providence, RI – The Strand Ballroom
Fri Mar. 07 – Albany, NY – Empire Live
Sat Mar. 08 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues Cleveland
Sun Mar. 09 – Buffalo, NY – Buffalo RiverWorks
Tue Mar. 11 – McKees Rocks, PA – Roxian Theatre
Thu Mar. 13 – Knoxville, TN – The Mill & Mine
Fri Mar. 14 – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz
Sat Mar. 15 – Jacksonville, FL – FIVE
Sat Mar. 16 – Orlando, FL –Universal Studios – Mardi Gras
Thu Mar. 20 – Richmond, VA – The National
Tue Mar. 18 – Charleston, SC – Charleston Music Hall
Fri Mar. 21 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage
Sun Mar. 23 – Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s
Tue Mar. 25 – Grand Rapids, MI – GLC Live at 20 Monroe
Thu Mar. 27 – Montclair, NJ – The Wellmont Theater
Fri Mar. 28 – Port Chester, NY – The Capitol Theatre
Singer-songwriter Katie Gavin, who rose to fame as lead singer of indie pop trio MUNA, gave a heartfelt performance at The Bowery Ballroom December 10âthe first New York show of her solo What a Relief tour.
Photo by Molly Higgins
After an opening set from Liam Benzvi, Gavin strutted on stage to Frank Sinatra’s “(Theme From) New York, New York,” and poured herself a cup of tea before she sat down to tune her guitar. Immediately, the atmosphere in the 575-capacity venue was cozy and personal, as if Gavin was inviting her fans into her living room for a private acoustic show.
Candles flickered and the stage lights warmed as Gavin began her set with “Today,” a soft track that set the tone perfectly for an evening of showcasing her folk-leaning solo record What a Relief.
Katie Gavin and Nana Adjoa
In contrast to the upbeat pop sound of much of MUNA’s discography, Gavin’s solo project is stripped-down, with an acoustic sound and deeply personal lyrics that highlight her artistic versatility. Throughout the live show, Gavin delivered warm vocals, chatted with the audience like friends, and seamlessly cycled through instruments, trading in her acoustic guitar for everything from the keyboard to the violin to a shruti box.
After playing an additional Bowery Ballroom show December 11 (which featured an appearance by surprise guest Emily Saliers of The Indigo Girls), Gavin will continue on the What A Relief tour through December 18.
Liam Benzvi and Katie Gavin
Katie Gavin – Bowery Ballroom, Manhattan – December 10, 2024
Setlist: Today, Sparrow, As Good As It Gets (with Liam Benzvi), Casual Drug Use, Inconsolable, Sanitized, Sweet Abby Girl, I Want It All, She Gives Me Feeling, The Baton, Keep Walking, Sketches, Aftertaste
Spoken word artist FlowPoetry and multi-instrumentalist Noah Lehrman have announced the release of their live album slated to release Dec 17.
FlowPoetry (aka Adam Pergament) is a neo/beat spoken word artist who hails from Madison, Wisconsin. Noah Lehrman is a NYC-native world/fusion drummer and multi-instrumentalist. The two artists were recently on tour in the Northeast when an opportunity arose at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC.
Upon finishing their July 31 gig, the duo met up with pianist Shoheen Owhady for their second show of the day, a breakout midnight jazz set as a trio. The three talents felt a connection with Adam’s languid words and Noah and Shoheen’s stunning improvisation on “Tonight”, “DripStuck”, and “Get Up Off the Floor”, along with sparkling reimaginations of FlowPoetry classics “Holy Man”, “Garden”, and “Braincells”, topped by a literally show stopping version of “Rachet”- for an audience crawling with electricity.
Flames & Flowers & Steam is the resultant live album of that late set at Rockwood. The album’s first two singles “Tonight”, an opening incantation that distills the evening’s magic down to its lyrical and experimental essence, and “Drip Stuck”, a romantic meditation on love and loss, are no available on Apple Music, Amazon Music, iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, and all streaming services and digital platforms.
FlowPoetry and Noah Lehrman’s Flames & Flowers & Steam boasts 11 tracks. Each track more unique and exciting than the last. With sensational wordplay, fantastic musical dynamics, and overall, an intoxicating bunch of melodies, this live album is sure to impress the listener as it did the audience in attendance.
That show marked the end of a Midwest-East Coast tour that spanned 3,000 miles, 11 cities, 8 states, 6 guests and 2 time zones, and saw the debut of music and improvisations touching on styles spanning jazz to jambands and edm to cosmic cowboy tunes.
FlowPoetry/Adam is the originator of the lyrical jam poetry form, with over 1800 live US performances under his belt. As a drummer/percussionist, Noah has performed with members of moe., Phil & Friends, RatDog, and more, and he appears internationally as a singer-songwriter. Together they bring a lyrical sense and melodic beats to their song-structures, improvisational explorations, and psychedelic imagery.
For more information on FlowPoetry and Noah Lehrman’s upcoming live album Flames & Flowers & Steam, click here.
Organized by the artist-led organization Fight for the Future, over 600 artists have signed a letter demanding major labels to drop a lawsuit that threatens the existence of the Internet Archive.
Considered the Library of Alexandria of the digital age, the Internet Archive non-profit is one of the only dedicated spaces for digital preservation with the renown, care, and attention it has retained. With a large majority of its material being out of print or obsolete in the modern day, the Archive is a precious resource for artists, fans, and historians alike.
Are you a fan of a band that existed prior to the ritual of posting on social media after a concert? Check the Internet Archive, as they may be featured among the website’s hundreds of thousands of concert recordings. Curious about obscure VHS tapes or radio shows of the past? The Archive has you covered.
Looking for a track only available on the 78 rpm records that predated the vinyl record in the 1890s? The Internet Archive’s community-driven Great 78 Project that seeks to digitize the rare materials is a treasure trove for the niche fanatic or merely curious individual.
If this sounds like an awe-inspiring, nearly endless resource built upon the passion of preservation, that’s because the Internet Archive is exactly that- however, to major record labels, such a space seemed to pose a major threat.
Filed in August of 2023, Universal Music Group and Sony Music filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Great 78 project, describing it as an “illegal record store” that performed “wholesale theft of generations of music” under the guise of preservation and research- which the labels claim is all but a “smokescreen.”
This lawsuit would cost the Internet Archive a total of $621 million in so-called damages for the supposed loss of streams grossed as a result of such a project. However, as critics of the labels have pointed out, these 78 records would only cost a total of $41,000 in their entirety based upon their streams thus far.
Such a lawsuit could spell the end for the Archive in its entirety, not just the Great 78 project- including its universally applicable WayBack Machine.
Defendant and expert audio preservationist George Blood who was recruited for the Great 78 Project argues exactly what countless fans and archivists have stated prior- a vast majority of the material being converted would have become media lost to time if not for the care and attention given by the folks behind Internet Archive, who in turn are maintaining not only the sounds of the past but the past itself.
The response from the music community has been a resounding echo of this sentiment, as in the efforts of the artist-led Fight For The Future which has been fighting legal battles for the online musician and user since 2011. In an open letter to Sony, Universal, and other major music labels, Fight For The Future and over 600 artists at the time of writing have demanded the lawsuit be dropped.
Above all, the letter states that musicians “don’t believe that the Internet Archive should be destroyed in [their] name.” The three main demands made are for the labels to 1. Protect our diverse music legacy, 2. Invest in living, working musicians- not back catalogs or monopolies, and 3. to make streaming services pay fair compensation.
Fight For the Future and all of the artists featured share one main argument- in a time where musicians are struggling to get by, why on earth should labels sink so much time, effort, and money destroying a public good?
“The music industry is not struggling anymore. Only musicians are. We demand a course-correction now, focused on the legacies and futures of working musicians.”
Thus far, notable names featured in the letter’s signatures include the lead singer of Riot Grrrl group Bikini Kill Kathleen Hanna, founder of Death By Audio and member of A Place To Bury Strangers Oliver Ackermann, Billie Marten, AJJ, and an ever-expanding countless more.
Want to take action yourself and make your voice heard on the matter? If you’re an artist, you have until Wednesday, December 18 at 12:00 PM EST to add your name to the list of signatures here.
In addition to signing, some musicians are planning to upload music files or live sets of their own to the Archive in solidarity. If you have a recording you’d like to contribute to the cause while simultaneously expanding a public resource for good, visit the Internet Archive’s uploading guidelines.
Are you a music fan or simply a user of the Internet Archive that wants to make a difference? You can sign in solidarity with musicians, archivists, and the average online consumer alike here.
To keep up to date on Fight For the Future’s fight against this major lawsuit and all of their other initiatives, as well as to preserve the Internet Archive for generations to come, be sure to visit their official website.
On February 3 and 4, Artistic Director Ted Sperling leads the 120–member MasterVoices Chorus in the premiere of the acclaimed opera, “Blind Injustice.” The show takes place at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
“Blind Injustice” features music by Scott Davenport Richards and libretto by David Cote. The opera tells the true story of the Ohio Innocence Project’s work to overturn the convictions of six men, women, and teens who were wrongly imprisoned for violent crimes they didn’t commit. The opera is based on the book of the same name by Mark Godsey and the casework by the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. The inspiring 90-minute work in staged presentation showcases an operatic score infused with jazz, gospel, funk, hip-hop, and musical theater. The shows take place on Feb 3 and 4 at 7:30pm.
“Blind Injustice” makes its New York premiere following a critically praised world premiere at Cincinnati Opera in 2019 and a subsequent production at PEAK Performances at Montclair State University (MSU) with Ted Sperling conducting and members of the MasterVoices Chorus joining MSU choristers in February 2024. Immediately following each performance, there is a 30-minute moderated conversation with four exonerees portrayed in the opera: Nancy Smith, Laurese Glover, Clarence Elkins, and Rickey Jackson, as well as artists and experts working in the field of criminal justice reform. Conversations are free to ticket holders.
Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center
MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) was founded in 1941 by legendary American choral conductor Robert Shaw. Under the artistic direction of Tony Award winner Ted Sperling since 2013, the group is known for its versatility and a repertoire that ranges from choral masterpieces and operas in concert to operettas and musical theater. Season concerts feature a volunteer chorus of 100+ members from all walks of life alongside a diverse roster of world-class soloists from across the musical spectrum.
Conductor Ted Sperling
One of today’s leading musical artists, Tony Award-winning Maestro Ted Sperling is a classically trained musician whose career has spanned from the concert hall and the opera house to the Broadway stage. Presently Artistic Director of MasterVoices, he has led such symphony orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Boston Pops, San Diego Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, the Iceland Symphony, Czech National Symphony, and BBC Concert Orchestra, as well as New York City Opera and Houston Grand Opera. Put simply, you’ll want to catch him live conducting this opera in February.
For more information on the upcoming “Blind Injustice” opera performed by MasterVoices at Lincoln Center, click here.
Progressive bluegrass unit The Infamous Stringdusters have announced a string of tour dates across the east coast, including dates in Saratoga Springs and Westhampton Beach.
The five member progressive band The Infamous Stringdusters are best known for their musical influences across the entire sonic spectrum. Most recognized for their strongest influence, bluegrass, the band has seen a wide array of acclaim including a win for Best Bluegrass Album” at the 2017 GRAMMY Awards and a number of awards from the International Bluegrass Music Awards.
Comprised of Andy Falco on guitar, Chris Pandolfi on banjo, Andy Hall on dobro, Jeremy Garrett on fiddle, and Travis Book on double bass, The Infamous Stringdusters are beloved by fans for their releases but even more so for their live performance- the stage is where they truly shine.
On the heels of their annual ‘Ski Dust’ tour that brings the band through the mountains of Colorado and Utah, the Stringdusters have announced an exciting extension to their travels with a set of seven dates spanning the east coast, including a stop at the Universal Preservation Hall and the Westhampton Beach Pac.
Tickets for The Infamous Stringdusters’ latest tour are available now, including their Saratoga Springs stop on March 13 and Westhampton Beach stop on March 15.
For more information on The Infamous Stringdusters, their latest tour and its subsequent expansion, and ticket purchasing opportunities, visit their official website here.
The full list of tour dates is below.
TOUR DATES
12/12 – 12/16 – Puerto Morelos, Q.R. – Strings & Sol 12/30 – Richmond, VA – The National 12/31 – Richmond, VA – The National 1/8 – Crested Butte, CO – Center for the Arts 1/9 – Beaver Creek, CO – Vilar Performing Arts Center 1/10 – Beaver Creek, CO – Vilar Performing Arts Center 1/11 – Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom 2/7 – Aspen, CO – Belly Up Aspen 2/8 – Telluride, CO – Sheridan Opera House 2/9 – Telluride, CO – Sheridan Opera House 2/10 – Telluride, CO – Sheridan Opera House 2/11 – Grand Junction, CO – Mesa Theater 2/13 – Park City, UT – Egyptian Theatre 2/14 – Park City, UT – Egyptian Theatre 2/15 – Park City, UT – Egyptian Theatre 2/16 – Park City, UT – Egyptian Theatre 3/13 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Universal Preservation Hall 3/14 – Harrisburg, PA – XL Live 3/15 – Westhampton Beach, NY – Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center 3/16 – Hartford, CT – Infinity Music Hall 3/20 – Live Oak, FL – Suwannee Spring Reunion 3/21 – Roswell, GA – From The Earth Brewing Company 3/22 – Mount Vernon, KY – Renfro Valley – New Barn Theater 5/16-18 – Aztec, NM – Tico Time Bluegrass Festival 5/22 – Mills River, NC – Sierra Nevada Brewing Company 5/24-25 – Pelham, TN – CaveJam 8/8-10 – Alta, WY – Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival
The Apollo Theater in Harlem has announced the 2025 winter and spring season with a stunning array of performances, exhibitions, and educational programs in performance spaces new and old.
The historic Apollo Theater has been providing the community of Harlem and beyond with quality entertainment and education since it opened its doors in 1914.
Having played a major role in the exponential growth of quintessential American genres such as jazz, swing, R&B, gospel, blues, soul, and the list goes on- the impact felt by the Apollo within New York and across the world cannot be stated enough.
Beginning as a platform for emerging jazz and tap acts which would feature the likes of soon-to-be icons such as Ella Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, The Apollo has since evolved into not only a musical performance space but a nonprofit presenting theatrical and dance programs, film screenings, educational programs, and community outreach.
Returning with their 2025 winter and spring season, The Apollo has announced an extensive lineup of performances and events that explore legacy and lineage while celebrating the impact of Black artists with time-honored works alongside bold and cutting-edge new productions.
With three dates spanning January 9 to the 11, the Apollo will be hosting a multi-media performance of Loss in Under the Radar: Loss. Originally produced by The Theatre Centre, Loss explores themes of grief within Afro-Caribbean communities in an immersive experience towards healing as audiences follow the intergenerational family narrative retold live on stage.
Organized in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Black women-led theatrical dance company and social activism ensemble, Lineage Legacy and Liberation: An Examination of Urban Bush Women’s Art-Making and Community Organizing Praxis will open as a multi-media gallery on January 13 and remain open to the public through March 12.
In addition to its expansive display of rare photographs, performance footage, audio clips and more, the exhibition will feature a series of pop-up performances on select dates throughout its installation period.
A showing of Claudine directed by John Berry and starring Diahann Carroll will be held on January 17. Oscar-nominated, the romantic comedy balances warm humor with its serious approach to a variety of issues ranging from cyclical poverty to the indignities of the welfare system. An emphatic piece on both Black working-class strife and Black joy, Claudine is presented in collaboration with the Harlem Festival of Culture Foundation.
Returning once more is Apollo’s partnership with WNYC and the March on Washington Film Festival on January 19 as scholars, community leaders, and activists will engage with the audience of Harlem and beyond in conversation about the lasting legacy and teachings of Martin Luther King Jr.
Presented on the first Thursday of each month from February through May is the Apollo Comedy Club. Made in partnership with the producer of Def Comedy Jam and creator of Laff Mobb on Aspire Bob Sumner with Freddie Ricks as host, the Apollo presents the best of comedy’s emerging acts on their Stages at the Victoria.
The Apollo Music Café series returns for the first Friday and Saturday of each month from February through May, featuring diverse performances spanning the sonic pallets of R&B, hip-hop, soul, jazz, funk, rock, and more. The Music Café seeks to showcase artists of the independent music scene who have made/are making an impact on the way music as an art form is consumed and experienced.
On February 22, composer, pianist, and vocalist Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes will perform The James Baldwin Essays: As Much Truth As One Can Bear in celebration of Baldwin’s legacy. Commissioned by Harlem Stage in 2015, the piece is one of Pinderhughes’ many performances that utilizes music to examine socio-political issues.
Each Wednesday from February 19 to June 25 will host the time-honored Amateur Night, America’s longest running talent show. Having been revered by artists as a once-in-a-lifetime experience uplifting emerging talent, names such as Ella Fitzgerald, Luther Vandross, Lauryn Hill, H.E.R and more have graced Amateur Night’s stage where the audience has the power to shape a career.
The Grand Finale winner will receive $20,000 alongside the “Child Star of Tomorrow” who will win $5,000.
While the 2025 lineup is already full of rising stars, live auditions for the 2026 season will be held on March 22 at The Apollo’s Historic Theater.
Guardian Spirit will present the poems, prose, and essays of bell hooks set to the musical works of Martha Redbone on March 29. Highlighting and celebrating bell hooks’ work and influence on the modern artist and individual, Redbone will set her stories within the world of music and storytelling.
Highlighting the intricate dynamics of generations of Black female strength and resilience is Jeffrey Manor from April 7 through the 12. Set in the south side of Chicago, Jeffrey Manor explores themes of generational dysfunction and mental health struggles born of a lifetime of trauma through the secrets and tragedies of Black women bound together by lineage.
Jason Moran will celebrate Duke Ellington’s great canon on April 11 through his illuminating piano explorations alongside iconic images of The Duke taken by legendary photographer Gordon Parks.
Among all of these stunning productions, the Apollo offers a myriad of educational programs including but not limited to MLK Young Changemakers, Treasures from the Archives, professional learning workshops, and more.
For more information on the Apollo’s Winter and Spring 2025 season, their expansive educational programs, and ticketing information, be sure to visit their events page here.
From 1986 until 2014, David Letterman would close out his final show of the year with a Christmas episode that featured the one and only Darlene Love. Over the span of those 28 years, Love would perform her holiday hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” one of Letterman’s favorites.
The appearance found its origins after Letterman saw Love perform the song at the Bottom Line, in a show called Leader of the Pack. He immediately had to have her on the show. Love told Variety in 2014:
He had David [were] down to see the show. [Letterman] said, “You know that song that girl sings? That Christmas song? That’s the greatest Christmas song I’ve ever heard. We need to get her on the show.” That was 1986, and so I’ve been doing it ever since.
The tradition spanned two networks over nearly three decades, appearing from 1986 until 1993 on Late Night with David Letterman, and later on the Late Show with David Letterman when Letterman joined CBS.
The song was originally recorded for the 1963 Phil Spector album A Christmas Gift for You, and while Love performed the song on Letterman’s shows, she told the New York Times in 2014 that she will not sing it for any other TV talk-show hosts moving forward.
For her final performance, the Late Show paid tribute to Darlene Love. Following her brief interview with Dave, the stage filled in with additional musician, including string and horn sections and several backup singers. These singers would not overshadow Love’s powerful voice, and sang her final last verse from the top of Paul Shaffer’s piano, with fake snow falling around her.
Recently, an animated version of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” has been released through Legacy Recordings. The short video follows a young Black girl as she walks home through a snowy neighborhood, accompanied by a happy snowman. Along the way, she stops to admire a Christmas tree and runs into her dog, who is singing along with a pair of carolers. The girl and her dog arrive home, where they are lovingly greeted by her parents. As the video nears its end, the girl opens up one of her presents to find a snow globe with the smiling snowman inside.
At the end of the music video, Love posted a message paying tribute to her late sister, Edna Wright Perry, who sang backing vocals on the track.
Featured on the show prior to Love’s show-stopping performance, Letterman annually welcomed comedian Jay Thomas, to share, as Letterman put it, “the best story I’ve ever heard.” Thomas would then launch into his true story about an encounter with Clayton Moore, the actor famous for playing The Lone Ranger. For 17 years starting in 1992, Thomas would come on the show and deliver the joke, much to Letterman and the audience’s approval. Watch the story unfold over the years.
After Thomas delivered the punchline, he and Letterman would alternate throwing a football at the meatball on top of the Late Show Christmas tree. To wrap up the show, Darlene Love would come out for “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and send the show into the night.
The Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra (BCCO), led by its Music Director Dorothy Savitch, performed an afternoon of classical music spanning 180 years to a packed Brooklyn Museum Saturday 7th December.
The performance began with a rendition of the Siegfried Idyll by Richard Wagner, a delicate, soft Symphonic Poem for chamber orchestra. Wagner wrote the piece for his wife and first performed it with 15 musicians as she woke on Christmas morning in 1870, setting the bar absurdly high for those of us who can just about get the sprouts out on time.
Brooklyn Museum
The piece is gentle and beautiful, led by strings who never reach higher than a pianissimo whisper. A flute arrives, giving the audience an indulgent start to the weekend. After 20 minutes or so the piece breathes its last breath, coasting gently to a stop to enthusiastic applause.
Next up is Vivaldi’s Concerto for Oboe, strings and continuo, written more than 150 years earlier. This Baroque music contrasts vividly to the Romantic poetry of Wagner and was led by Alison Mari, the BCCO’s tenured principal oboe. Mari showed us that the oboe – presumably after far more years of dedication than the classmates who introduced me to it – can be a beautiful instrument.
The strings and oboe, accompanied by a harpsichord, deftly trade a call and response in melody. The piece is highly energetic, evoking, writes Mari in the program notes, the doomed search for an answer to some problem.
The Chief Executive of the BCCO spoke briefly to tell of the Orchestra’s long and proud history at the center of the community – he quoted a bulletin written in 1910 stating how the orchestra was open to anyone from any background. We heard of various fundraisers for the needy held throughout its lifetime, a refreshing reminder of the social power of music and the Orchestra’s mission.
The main event was Tchaikovsky’sSymphony No. 5. The 50-minute work is led by a central motif, dubbed the ‘fate theme’, which appears in various guises throughout its four movements.
The first movement, the Andante, begins with an ominous clarinet. Just at this moment a light draft breathes above our heads; is this fate, some extrasensory dimension slipping into the room? (Or did someone just open the door at the back?)
Finally, part way through this movement and after two relatively restrained performances, the Orchestra can huff out its full dynamic range. This – the raw acoustic power of lungs and fingers and elbows and chambers and valves – is the best part of seeing live classical music; there is something so powerful and timeless about seeing real people make this real sound. We feel it as much as we hear it.
The horns drive us to a staccato climax, pushing, for the time being, fate back whence it came.
The second movement begins with a French horn – plaintive and insecure. The horn and its brass-mates are the driving force behind the entire symphony, and Tchaikovsky and the BCCO show us that the French horn makes a strong case for the world’s most beautiful instrument. This sound, made by this person, is something otherworldly – pure, soft and perfect.
The theme is passed around the stage like a game of telephone, reminding us that one should never take this for granted, this primal, authentic, tangible magic that is acoustic live music. Later it returns once more, Darth Vader style this time – it’s that pesky fate come again to drag us out of our revery. The concert has ended and we must wake from this dreamlike state the BCCO has massaged us into. We trudge out into the cold December evening better-equipped, for this experience, to face whatever our fates hold.
On Dec. 30 and 31, in Kingston, The Felice Brothers, joined by special guest Merce Lemon, will perform two back-to-back shows for a New Year’s Eve celebration. These shows will mark the first-ever performances to be held at the brand-new Assembly concert venue.
The Felice Brothers return to New York after a European tour through the fall in support of their newest album, Valley of Abandoned Songs. The beloved Americana band began with Ian (guitar and lead vocals) and James (multi-instrumentalist and vocals) playing their songs for travelers at home in the Catskills. They have since expanded to include bassist Jesske Hume (Conor Oberst, Jade Bird), the inaugural female member of the Felice Brothers, and drummer Will Lawrence (also a singer/songwriter) as their rhythm section.
Merce Lemon will support the Felice Brothers at their shows in the Northeast. Following the release of her stunning 2024 album, Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild, Lemon’s pairing with the Brothers is a wonderful combination that blends her alt-country sound with the Brothers’ mellower, folky style. If you like the Felice Brothers, you’ll love Merce Lemon.
Photo by Alisha Goel
Located in Kingston’s vibrant Uptown/Stockade District, Assembly Kingston is poised to become a cornerstone of the region’s burgeoning arts and culture scene. These New Year’s Eve performances will be a special homecoming for the band, who will take the stage to ring in 2025 with their signature blend of folk, rock, and heartfelt storytelling.
“Friends and loved ones, we are doing it again! Holiday shows!” the Felice Brothers share, “Some old favorites and a NEW never before rocked venue in Kingston NY. Now you know what you’re doing to close out 2024.”
