Porter has long been known for his innovative and expressive guitar playing which the press have called everything from "startling," to "dazzling" to "killer." The Boston Globe compares his playing to speed picker Leo Kottke. But it’s his songs that have been gathering more attention of late. His songs are equal parts muscle and intimacy, and reveal a rarely achieved relationship between an artist and his craft.
Robbie Schaefer "Songs For Kids Like Us" Saturday, May 10 12pm *All Ages Matinee* $13.50
For over a decade Robbie Schaefer has played guitar and sung with the other adults in his band, Eddie From Ohio. But his favorite musicians to play with are about 30 years younger. What do Robbie and his favorite earthlings do when they get together? They sing songs about chicken lips, salamander thighs, and nutty professors; they whisper and yell about cows at the bottom and top of their lungs; they march around the room like an Emperor with no clothes on (just pretending, of course). You know, all the regular stuff. Oh, and they have lots of fun.
For most of the early '70s, the New Riders of the Purple Sage™ (yes, the name is trademark-protected) were the successful offshoots of the Grateful Dead. Although they never remotely approached the success or longevity of the Dead, they attracted a considerable audience through their association with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart. Their initial sound was a kind of country-acid rock, somewhat twangier than the Dead's usual work and without the Dead's successful forays into experimental jams, but they later acquitted themselves as straight country-rockers.
Tea Leaf Green
Sunday, May 11 4pm ALL AGES | 8pm 21+ $22.50
The compelling reach of Tea Leaf Green grabs you in the opening seconds of their latest release, and never lets go through the course of a sonic hayride that takes us away from our troubled towns and into a brighter countryside. Tea Leaf opened shows in fall 2005 for Gov't Mule & Trey Anastasio, and they spent the summer gracing stages at high profile gatherings like the Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, and High Sierra festivals. The band tours relentlessly, headlining packed houses coast to coast. Every performance carries a kind of apostolic zeal, a belief in the innate power of music to deliver truth and pleasure.
Winterpills bring you a tender, filigreed sound, a humming, a buzz, a fragmentation of warmth and chill, a delicate suspension of belief. They are a band playing you songs of pretty losses and hollow hopefulness. They formed on a bare wood floor during a snowy winter when mutual friends met to nurse wounds of various depths, drink, and play other peoples songs, and found they had their own. They now give those to you in all their friendly, angry fragility.
Joan Osborne
Wednesday, May 14 6:30 & 9:30pm $39.50
On her latest album, Breakfast in Bed, Joan Osborne got the chance to make her very own mix, a collection of soul classics and new songs she wrote to fit in seamlessly alongside them. “I love this music and these songs,” Osborne explains wistfully. “When I first started singing with any kind of seriousness, I was involved with the roots music scene in NYC and got a real education in soul, rhythm and blues. Etta James, Howlin’ Wolf … it was the same for me back then as it is now. I try to emulate the emotional rawness of their music and wanted to revisit the simplicity of the lyrics and direct style of songwriting.”
Jim White
w. Peter Case Thursday, May 15 7:30pm $18.50
Southern Gothic singer/songwriter Jim White grew up in Pensacola, Florida, enamored with the sounds of the white gospel music he heard on the Gospel Jubilee television series. After spending his formative years on the outskirts of a deeply Pentecostal community, he entertained a career as a professional surfer, followed by a stint in Milan as a fashion model. A band-saw accident which resulted in a maimed left hand seemed to end White's hopes as a musician, but after writing a collection of simple songs on his guitar, a friend convinced him to record a demo which ultimately made its way to the offices of David Byrne's Luaka Bop label.
From “Poor Old Tom” and “Two Angels” to “Beyond the Blues” and “Blue Distance,” Grammy nominated Peter Case’s songs resonate for artists as diverse as Robert Earl Keen, the Flamin’ Groovies and Chris Smither, to Alejandro Escovedo and James McMurtry, all of whom have covered him. Over the last two decades, Case has recorded nine solo albums including the highly acclaimed and influential the man with the Blue post-modern fragmented neo-traditionalist Guitar.
One of the early 90s most succesful pop rock groups, the Gin Blossoms featured ringing guitar hooks and a solid, rootsy drive on their biggest hits, "Hey Jealousy", "'Til I Hear it From You", "Found Out About You" and "Alison Road."
**The Wednesday, April 9th show has been rescheduled to Saturday, May 17th. The box office will be contacting all current ticket holders.**
At the conclusion of The Blind Leaving the Blind, the 40-minute, four-movement suite that is the heart of Punch Brothers’ Punch—the band’s Nonesuch debut—composer-singer-mandolin player Chris Thile conjures up the image of a heartbroken young man nursing his psychic wounds at a bar with his friends. In real life, the 26-year old Thile, who was recovering from his own tattered marriage as he developed the piece, took a more constructive approach, joining four of his own musical buddies to form a kind of super group/support group. The quintet did visit some bars along the way, but, more importantly, over the course of two years, these performers helped Thile to realize the most conceptually daring, emotionally cathartic work of an already impressive career.
Bell X1 and Damien Rice used to be a band called Juniper. Juniper berries are used to make gin. "Gin and tonic dressing gown..." is a lyric from Bell X1's debut album, Neither am I, released in 2000 in Ireland. Ireland used to be poor, and now it's blingin, with scattered showers. Showers of critical acclaim followed the release of their (multi platinum n ting) second record, Music in Mouth, in 2003 in the UK and Ireland; the public too were keen. Keane, Snow Patrol, The Frames, Bon Jovi (?!) and Elliot Smith are some of the people that Bell X1 have toured with.
Hal was a member of the Texas music scene in the early eighties where he made his mark with future pals Lyle Lovett, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Willie Nelson, and Asleep at the wheel, among others. Since then Ketchum has had 15 top ten hits, countless songwriting awards, and was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. Hal's release, Lucky Man, scored the top 40 hit, "She Is.”
The English Beat
Monday, May 19 *Second night added! Tuesday, May 20* 7pm $31.50
One of the earliest and most important ska revivalist groups, Birmingham's the Beat formed in 1978. The multiracial band carved a distinct sound through the use of alternating lead vocals by guitarist Dave Wakeling and punk-toaster/rapper Ranking Roger, supported by a tight band consisting of Andy Cox (guitar), Dave Steel (bass), and Everett Moreton (drums).
