Author: spencer-lathrop

It has been 15 years now that Dave Matthews came out from behind the bar at Miller’s and assembled the band that got struck by lightning. As they take to the road—their annual summer ritual—see if you remember whom the boys in the band were playing with when they formed DMB.

Probably any fan can tell you that Stefan was 16 and going to school at Tandem. Known as an extremely dedicated musician even at that age, bassist Lessard was recommended to Dave Matthews by John D’earth. Lessard left high school, and put in a short stint at VCU before deciding that DMB was too good a thing to put second.

Before they were hitched and perched on high, Dave Mathews, Boyd Tinsley, Stefan Lessard, LeRoi Moore and Carter Beauford were playing the field in the local music scene.

Carter Beauford, LeRoi Moore and Boyd Tinsley all grew up in the same Charlottesville neighborhood, and Beauford and Moore played together a lot prior to 1992. Drummer Beauford was 3 when his dad took him to see Buddy Rich, and played his first professional gig at the age of 9. In 1978, when he was 16, he joined Aric Van Brocklin’s group Morgan White. The band played jazz/rock a la Jeff Beck, Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder. They even covered the Focus tune “Hocus Pocus” with the yodeling vocal. Talk about big balls. Van Brocklin says that Beauford’s parents approached him once, just to have a talk about keeping Carter out of trouble. But, V    an Brocklin says, “he didn’t need it. He was very mature.” Beauford went to The Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, and later played with the Richmond-based fusion band, Secrets, that Van Brocklin and many other musicians say was the best.

Guitarist and fiddle player Joe Mead took both Beauford and Moore on the road with his band The Belligerent Brothers. Mead says they asked to play with him when they heard his Christmas song, “Santa Claus is Dead.” Beauford was also a regular player in the house band on TV station BET out of D.C. Mead fondly recalls an evening when he, Carter, Dave, and Dave’s sister and mom ordered pizza and beer and watched Carter on The Ramsey Lewis Show. “It was the biggest thing ever. We thought the big time had come.”

Mead also reminisces about Moore and Beauford playing with Sal Soghoian and George Melvin in Blue Indigo. “That was the greatest jazz combo ever. They were freakin’ fabulous. LeRoi would stand down at the end of the bar at Miller’s until his solo came up.”
While LeRoi could often be found at jazz sessions in town, his own band, The Basics, with Houston Ross and Johnny Gilmore as rhythm section, played an “out funk” style, according to longtime collaborator Mike Sokolowski. The band was so good that saxophonist John Purcell, who was making a name for himself in New York City, especially with Jack DeJohnette’s band, would come down and sit in. Moore also played regularly with The Uptown Rhythm Kings, a very tight R&B outfit. And even after the formation of DMB, Moore played in a local, all-star classic rock outfit, Alma Madre, that featured Indecision alum, Aaron Evans and Doug Wanamaker, and vocalist Kristin Asbury.

As far as Boyd Tinsley, he went to CHS and played violin in the orchestra there. When I met Boyd, he and Jamie Dyer were the kitchen crew at The Garrett, upstairs on the Corner. Boyd kept a band under his own name, but for three years he also played with guitarist/songwriter Harry Faulkner. Faulkner says he was living at 2 University Cir. when he was a student, and there was a front porch that was big enough to encourage an ongoing jam session. Faulkner and Tinsley met there and started Down Boy Down. The band played blues rock and tunes by The Dead and The Band. Originally a duo, DBD played every Sunday night for three years at the Blue Ridge Brewery. They later added a rhythm section and continued to play around town until 1992, when Tinsley sat in with DMB at Miller’s and was asked to join. Faulkner says, “I think we were both getting married at the time, and we shook hands and walked away.” Tinsley continued to talk to Faulkner about band ideas as late as 1995, when DMB was literally taking off. The last time they played together, Faulkner was playing at a frat party, and Boyd jumped on stage with him. “That was really nice of him.”

In all my years here, I don’t think I’ve ever, not once, heard a single person say that the DMB guys were anything but the nicest guys in the world.

The other night at Saxx, I overheard a guy shouting at his friend, “This is the first time I’ve been in here. This place is really unbelievable. Normally I would only tell my closest friends that it is here.” Imagine owning a place so good, that your patrons want to keep it secret.

Saxx you up: Ryal Thomas (left), owner of Belmont’s jazz lounge, and Jeff Lambert (right), who books the bands, are betting you’ll pay to enjoy the lounge’s acoustics, spacious dance floor and funky vibe.

Four months ago, Saxx went from being a private club to a public space hosting live music Wednesday through Saturday nights. And three months ago, owner Ryal Thomas hired Jeff Lambert to book all those nights of music. While Saxx’s focus is still jazz and blues, Lambert says that many of the bands playing the club are a “hybrid, a little jazzy, a little funky.”

Lambert, who was setting up for the Roc-a-Fella and Freeway after-party when I spoke with him, moved to Virginia from Massachusetts. He spent his first month here on the phone tracking down bands—now they are approaching him about dates. He says that American Dumpster, Eli Cook and Red Shoes have all been very good draws, as well as the regular swing dance that happens the last Friday of every month.

Why pay $5 to get into a show at Saxx? “The room was set up with music in mind,” says Lambert. Besides a full house sound system and a great dance floor, the room is beautiful, with a generous stage, house Steinway piano and lights. Plus, like Starr Hill, it is a nonsmoking venue, which has gotten much more positive feedback than negative.

Saxx’s other draw is its location, which is the bustling intersection of Carlton Road and Hinton and Douglas avenues. Belmont is chock full of 20- and 30-something professionals who are spending their time and money at Mas, La Taza and Saxx. “We are on the forefront of what Belmont is becoming,” says Lambert. Bands interested in getting on Saxx’s calendar should contact LambertatJlambert_75@yahoo.com.

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The other great, new offering from the other side of the tracks is The Kings of Belmont, an offshoot of the Ween cover band Peen. Ross Van Brocklin, Max Collins and John Spagnolo have teamed up with bassist Dan Sheets and keyboard player Aaron Ahlbrandt to create The Kings, who play original music with a few covers thrown in for fun. Drummer Spagnolo says that having three songwriters in the band makes for a diverse sound. Van Brocklin brings a Ween style, and Collins writes in a more jam-based vein. The band practices in Belmont, hence the name. Catch The Kings at Orbit on June 27 and downstairs at Starr Hill July 6.

As for Peen, the band is still together and taking a short breather, but with the addition of Tucker Rogers, Peen is geared up for future gigs.

Since being purchased by Live Nation last year, Musictoday has started to see some clients come into the fold as a result of the acquisition. Musictoday now handles fan club, ticketing and merchandise sales for The Police and Celine Dion, while some other very big name artists are in the negotiation phase.

Kings of Belmont drummer Spagnolo, who has been a product manager at Musictoday for the past three years, says that two bands that are really successful with the site are DMB and Gov’t Mule. “They are the bands that drive the fans to the website, and who have a very loyal fan base who purchase a lot of merchandise online. DMB is really the perfect client.” But fans of Gov’t Mule are no less plugged in. In fact, Warren Haynes and boys were just cited for posting their millionth digital download from their Musictoday distribution site, Mule Tracks.

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No strings attached: C-VILLE’s own Tim Granlund moonlights as an air guitar virtuoso.

Finally, as we reported last week in 7 Days, Tim Granlund, advertising assistant at C-VILLE, saw the film Air Guitar Nation last month and was inspired enough to enter the U.S. Air Guitar National Championship. His preliminary round took place in D.C., where he “played” 60 seconds of “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” Granlund was slightly pissed after he was eliminated in the first round, but partly because the second round featured his favorite song of all time, Boston’s “Foreplay/Long Time.” “I got to appear on TV internationally though,” Granlund says, “as my performance was used to open and close the BBC’s segment on the competition. If the BBC thought I was the poster child for air guitar, then clearly the judges suck. Regardless, it was a kick ass show, and I had a total blast rocking a sold out crowd of 1,200.”

Granlund, who plays to win, promises to get his revenge when the last competitor is chosen in an online competition in August. The finalists compete in New York City, and the winner there gets a chance at The World Air Guitar Championship in Finland. Rock on, Dude!

Local band Under The Flood gets an upstairs appearance at Starr Hill this month, and lead singer Dave Nadolski offers up some advice for up-and-coming bands on how to get there. “If I had one piece of advice to give, I’d say get good management. You’ve got to know people.

If you don’t know anyone, you’re not going to get anywhere.”

The hardest working men in show biz: Locals Under The Flood will be home only 10 days over the next four months—catch them while you can at Starr Hill June 23.

Under The Flood has been together about two years, and only eight months in its current lineup. But club owners have been picking up the phone since the band signed with Concept Artist Management in February. UTF has been on the road a lot in the last four months, playing good-sized rooms, or “A and B clubs” as Nadolski describes them. The band plans to be home all of 10 days in the coming four months.

The band members are young, 19 to 27, and they play hard rock with melodic vocals. And they are big believers in playing the rock ‘n’ roll game by the rules. They have a CD, The Witness, which was produced by Daughtry guitarist Brian Craddock at Stacy’s Music. They are currently shopping that disc to major labels, as well as playing a number of industry showcases. UTF is also looking forward to writing tunes with Craddock and Chris Daughtry himself.

“There is a way to go about it, and that is what we are doing. Radio play and constant touring,” says Nadolski. His self-confidence seems vital to the band’s success. “In the next few months, something will happen for us.” But Nadolski also goes out of his way to remember and thank his family who have supported the band and allowed its members to “chase our dream.”

Nadolski says, “It is going to be a really good show, a rock show that Starr Hill hasn’t seen.” You can go judge for yourself upstairs at Starr Hill on June 23, when the band appears with tour mates Copper and Agents of the Sun.

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The members of Under The Flood seem happy to keep Charlottesville home while they are working the business. Though there may be pressure to schmooze, some bands feel playing music for a living is easier done here than in the big city.

Abbey Linfert and Chris Amsler of The Rusticators spent 15 years in San Francisco. Linfert claims that the Bay Area is a great place to play music, but a terrible place to try and make your living doing it. In 2004, they up and explored possible home locations from Nashville to Charlottesville. She says that they were attracted to Floyd County from an online perspective, until they got there and saw how tiny it is. They ended up in Staunton, partly because of the Victorian architecture and the hilly terrain that reminded them of San Fran. But Linfert says that the music scene has made them very happy. “Staunton has been more than we expected. We have been blown away by the caliber of songwriting here. And people here really, really love music.”

The Rusticators (Chris Amsler and Abbey Linfert) are “blown away” by the caliber of songwriting here—and the cost of living sure beats the Bay Area.

The Rusticators have been influenced by everyone from Woody Guthrie to Gram Parsons, and Linfert says, “Although folk is a dirty word in L.A., I definitely embrace that style of music.” They have a recent CD out, Talking with the Dead, and they currently perform from NYC through the Carolinas. They have also figured out the most important element of all: how not to have day jobs. Linfert and Amsler often play as a duo, but their Starr Hill cocktail lounge gig Wednesday night will feature them with rhythm section and lead guitar.

The Rusticators show may also feature some other acts who are active with Song Sharing, a group of very good musicians, like Tom Proutt and Emily McCormick, who play to audiences who have limited or no access to traditional music venues, like the residents at Westminster Canterbury for example. Song Sharing has been active for years under the leadership of Greg Allen, and the organization gets a lot of support from bands like REM. Linfert says that some of The Rusticators favorite gigs have been Song Sharing gigs. “The audience can be very into the music.”

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In a sad piece of news, 214 Community Arts, after a short tenure, has lost its lease with First Presbyterian Church. Anyone looking to help out 214 Arts can contact them at brimstunes@yahoo.com.

Do you know Tom House’s music? Local singer/songwriter Keith Morris thinks that you ought to, and he is offering to do something about it. “I don’t want to get all hyperbolic on you, but I feel kind of like we’re recognizing Van Gogh while he’s still alive, you know?” Poet-turned-songwriter House released his first CD in 1997, and he has been putting out interesting roots music ever since. House hails from North Carolina and, as Morris puts it, still has a lot of Roscoe Holcomb-style old-time in his music. Everyone who has heard his records or live shows knows that his style is raucous and literate.

Keith Morris really, really wants you to see Tom House—he organized a tribute/showcase concert for the man himself at Gravity Lounge June 13.

Morris loves House’s music so much that he organized a tribute/showcase concert at Gravity Lounge on Wednesday, June 13. The idea hatched during a late-night conversation at the C&O, and Morris ran with the proverbial ball. David Sickmen, Devon Sproule and Morris will play an in-the-round set to open the show. All three openers will incorporate some of House’s tunes into their own material. Paul Curreri wanted to get in on the gig as well, but he had previous engagements in Europe.

Morris says, “I like intense songwriters. The ones that scare me a little bit. And he just blows me away. He is like Cormac McCarthy put to music. When you talk about your own music, you kind of hold back. But with Tom, you can let it all out. I think people (who come to the show) will be hit hard by his music.”

If you want to sample some of House’s tunes, such as “I’m In Love With Susan Smith,” go to Keith Morris’ Myspace page and find them posted there. Then, take Morris up on his offer, and go see a great live show.

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Fiddler Alex Caton has put together a fantastic new group called Verbunk, which may be Romanian for “Oh No You Didn’t!” The band includes accordionist Matty Metcalfe, tremendous multi-instrumentalist Dan Sebring, whose sweet fiddle tone matches Caton’s, and bassist Lew Burrus, who is ever in demand. Metcalfe, Sebring and Caton all bring original tunes to the set, as well as interesting covers, from old gypsy standards to Daniel Lanois. When Verbunk stretches out, the musicianship is truly fantastic.

You can also catch Metcalfe’s zydeco band, Crewe d’Bayou, at Fellini’s #9 on June 16. John D’earth and Robert Jospé will be on hand to sit in with Matty and regular guitarist Mike D’Antoni. What if Jimi Hendrix had taken up the accordion after all?

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It has been seven years since the Hackensaw Boys believed in the idea of their band enough to get in their 1964 bus and make a nationwide seat-of-their-pants tour. In those seven years, as in life, much has changed and much has stayed the same.
Four of the original 13 members are still with the band. And while it seems like the natural front men have split (three of them, David Sickmen, Bobby St. Ours and David Goldstein, are all making great music here), the Hacks’ arc has continued upward, although not at a meteoric pace.

Resident accordion virtuoso Matty Metcalfe (right) assembles an all-star cast of supporting characters, including trumpeter John D’earth, for a night of zydeco at Fellini’s #9 June 16.

The band’s second CD for Nettwerk Records and fifth overall, Look Out, is due out June 19th. (You can preorder a copy on the band’s website.) Recorded at The Sound of Music in Richmond, H-Boy Jesse Fiske says that the band’s first Nettwerk release was its “make out album” and that the new one is the band’s “party album”—twelve back-to-the-roots, looking to get things fired up tunes. Ferd Moyse and Rob Bullington both contributed tunes to the new record, as did original bass player Tom Peloso. Peloso left the Hacks several years ago to join Modest Mouse, a band with a No. 1 record under its belt. Though he tours constantly, Peloso has maintained his ties with the Boys. Moyce’s fiddle playing is said to be particularly good on the new record, and the Hacks dedicated the new disc to early member Phil Gianniny.

The Hacks are just back from a tour of Europe, and now that it is summertime, gracias a Dios, the band’s touring schedule is rigorous, with outdoor events and festivals like Floyd on their itinerary. We here in town can see the band at the Pavilion Saturday, June 2, as they play the grand finale of the 2007 Festival of the Photograph.

Ever fantasize about quitting your office job, leaving town and moving to the beaches of Brazil? Madeline Holly Sales did it. Speaking only Spanish, she lived there for three years, studied music and toured with a band.

“You begin by covering styles, but then you make the music your own,” says bossa nova and samba songstress Madeline Holly Sales of Beleza Brasil.

Sales went to Charlottesville High School and Duke. After college, she traveled in Mexico for a year, and then returned to D.C. to work for the Nature Conservancy. Here in town, she met Malian griot and musician Cheick Hamala Diabaté, who performed regularly at The Prism. She began singing with him in D.C., sometimes in English and sometimes in African dialects that she learned from him.

But Sales did not like the idea of being tied to a desk. She knew that she loved world music, and that she loved living close to the ocean. So in the fall of 2001, she packed up her belongings and moved to Salvador, the capital of the Bahia province of Brazil, known for its deep musical tradition. She began studying samba and bossa nova music, and singing both Brazilian and North American styles. She also started to study Afro-Peruvian percussion, and she was asked to be part of a band that included guitarist Humberto Sales. That band did so well that they spent six months touring outside of Brazil.

Sales says that, as a singer, “you begin by covering styles, but then you make the music your own.” And although she went to Brazil without a great deal of experience as a musician, she feels that she has become a vocalist.

Sales will appear with Humberto and their band Beleza Brasil at Saxx Saturday, June 7, for a multimedia event of music, photos and dance. The duo will have bass and drums backing up their usual show of guitar, vocal, percussion, and rhythm loops. Also, special guest dancer, Kristi O’Brien, will perform a short flamenco vignette as a preview to a Gravity Lounge show June 15th.

Humberto Sales has been working out a group of local drummers who are getting together to play in the big Carnaval style that is very popular in Bahia and quite recognizable here. That group will be on stage when Beleza Brasil opens for Son Quatro at Fridays After 5 at the Charlottesville Pavilion June 22.

Sales not only worked with Cheick Hamala during her time here, she also got to know Estela Knott and Dave Berzonsky. Knott and Berzonsky met in Charlottesville, and spent a good deal of time traveling through Latin America studying music. They formed their band, Lua, with the intention of exploring roots music from all of the Americas. For the last three years, they have been living in Berkeley, California, but they just recorded their second disc of music with some musicians and friends from Peru. The disc has an Afro-Peruvian feel melded with Berzonsky and Knott’s more Western songwriting. You can purchase the disc and watch for Lua when the couple returns to Charlottesville this fall.

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You can celebrate WTJU, the radio station that explores world music and all types of music, Saturday, June 2, at Satellite Ballroom. This weekend is Alumni Weekend, and the station expects a number of former DJs to be back in town for WTJU’s 50th Anniversary. And although this is an unofficial event, many current and former TJU jocks are expected to make the scene following a more formal event.

Station manager Charles Taylor says that former DJs and engineers are coming from as far away as California, and that a few DJs from the earliest days of the station, 1956-1959, should make the event. 

Happy hour begins at 7:30pm and the public will get a chance to rub elbows with colorful selectors from bygone eras. Then an early club show of music starts at 9pm, with bands that include current and former DJs. Maynard Sipe’s mid-1990s band Bombpop, with all original members plus guests, will perform. Gate Pratt’s group The Janks will play a set, as well as Dale Kutyna’s mid-1980s band Noman. John Beers of Happy Flowers fame was asked to play a set, but owing to a broken ankle, he is likely to join the music as a guest. RSVPs for the social hour are requested for planning purposes and may be directed to TJUcelebration@gmail.com along with any questions. Also, log onto www.wtju.net, and go to 50th Anniversary Event, and you can check out many details of the event, as well as audiophiles and photos from the past.

In the Director’s Notes for the current Live Arts production of A Streetcar Named Desire, John Gibson writes, “There have been 20,000 productions…there might seem little left to discover at 632 Elysian Fields Avenue.” But Gibson decided to give it a shot, based in part on the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

“I was after an authentic New Orleans experience, a tapestry of street life surrounding the action,” says Streetcar director John Gibson (front).

Tennessee Williams is specific about musical directions for the play, but the idea of live music performed by the cast members is one aspect of the current production that was wide open for exploration. The music, which features blues piano and tunes from the era (“Blue Skies” for example), is there to make the audience feel it’s in late 1940s New Orleans.

Gibson says that the music is often subtle—it plays underneath dialogue to accentuate the action on stage—but the cast adds music in all of the places that Williams’ script asks for it. The director says, “We must be respectful of the play and still find the extra dimension that supports it.”

Gibson was lucky enough to find four actors who also brought a musical component to their parts: Michaux Hood plays accordion, banjo and violin, Ken Ferguson plays piano, Mark Gruber plays blues guitar and Kathleen Thompson plays percussion. While he relied on Live Arts mainstay Cristan Keighley to work out what music would be played, Gibson says that the four performers stepped up in a big way to contribute to the production.

Every member of the cast gets an opportunity to sing, even Stanley, who has an offstage moment singing the recurring theme of the play, a waltz titled “Varsouviana.”

Gibson is deeply familiar with staged musicals. As a kid in Raleigh, North Carolina, he was in the chorus of many productions. He also brought us The Hogwaller Ramblers in a Live Arts production of Threepenny Opera in 1993 and an updated version of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1999. “In a wide perspective, music and theater is all performance. While this show is not a concert, it is a very musical event. I was after an authentic New Orleans experience, a tapestry of street life surrounding the action.”

If you have never seen Streetcar, it is a powerful play, and the Live Arts production, which celebrates the play’s 60th anniversary, is a fine opportunity to check out an adventurous director and hear the locals sing. The show runs through June 10.

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In an equally theatrical vein, a version of Wunderkammer, last summer’s arts carnival, is back this year. This summer’s carnival is christened Shentai and is under the artistic direction of longtime Foolery member Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell. The multimedia extravaganza will include sculpture, film, dance and, of course, plenty of live music. Tidwell says that this year’s event is not a sequel, but is very much inspired by last year’s performance. The festival this year will be a more cohesive presentation centered around the main theme of “shentai,” a Japanese term roughly translated as “strange appearance and disappearance.” All artists and performers have been asked to respond to the concept of shentai.

Wunderbar: Shentai, a version of last summer’s arts carnival, Wunderkammer, under the artistic direction of Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell, will begin in mid-June.

Accordion Death Squad will be a “large presence,” says Tidwell. The band will appear at every show and is writing a piece of music that will be featured during the beginning of each performance. And, unlike last year, musical artists will appear during each show rather than at the conclusion. Sarah White will be one of the acts featured. In addition to live original music, some musicians have recorded pieces that incorporate a musical sample provided.

Shentai will run at The Ix Building from June 14 to July 1.

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And finally in the movie theaters, go and see the big summer blockbuster, Pirates of The Caribbean: At World’s End, and you will hear music scored by Nick Glennie-Smith, who was a Scottsville resident for the past 15 years. Glennie-Smith has had a long, successful career, playing and recording with the likes of Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Roger Daltrey, Phil Collins and others. McCartney asked him to tour, and he was in the band when Pink Floyd performed its magnum opus, The Wall, in Berlin in 1989. Lately though, he has been writing scores for films like The Da Vinci Code, Lion King II, Crimson Tide, Mission: Impossible II  and Gladiator. Glennie-Smith says that composing for the first Pirates film was a lot of fun and that the music for the second sequel took a very long time. Not one to relax, he is at work on a score for an upcoming film based on the very poplar kids’ toy: the Transformers.

The mark of a true artist can be a refusal to be pigeonholed. Charlottesville’s favorite hip-hop band, the Beetnix, have been considering new ways to express themselves, and to give their audience a new experience. This Saturday, May 12, the Beetnix will perform an “unplugged” show at The Gravity Lounge. Sometimes, “unplugged” means simply turned down, but in this case, the band is truly going after the concept.

They have invited Andy Waldeck to produce and direct the event, as well as a number of interesting local musicians to join them on stage. The ensemble will include Tucker Rogers on acoustic guitar, Jerel Jacobs from Acoustic Groove Trio on upright bass, Andy Roland on sax and Betty Jo Dominick playing keyboards. AGT’s Lester Jackson and Anonamys will also provide backing vocals. And, Waldeck has plenty positive to say about the young drummer named Wade, who Waldeck says, is a very aware musician. “He has a very humanistic feel, but he is also conscious of the kick drums parts, and can give you the syncopation that the music needs,” says Waldeck. But the icing on the cake, according to Waldeck, is a string trio, two violins and a cello, that will back up Glitch, Bovay and Waterloo on at least half of the 10 Beetnix tunes. Waldeck says that he is writing charts for the strings with Nina Simone and Marvin Gaye in mind. Former Hackensaw Boy David Sickmen will also be on hand to perform a tune he cowrote with Damani Harrison.

Musical melting pot: Start with three hip-hoppers, add two violins, a cello and a dash of Nina Simone and you get the Beetnix unplugged at Gravity Lounge on May 12.

“The Beetnix are a high-intellect rap group, and that is what draws me to them,” says Waldeck. The band, with the help of manager Chas Webster, seem to be exploring the possibilities of getting a hip-hop act into theaters and listening room situations. Part of the plan at Gravity is to film the show for a future documentary.

Gravity Lounge Lizard: Andy Waldeck produces this week’s Beetnix show and plays his own tunes with the Green Light Tour on Thursday.

Although you won’t get to hear Andy Waldeck perform on Saturday night, you can catch him playing some of his own tunes at Gravity this Thursday night. Waldeck will be on the bill with three acoustic artists who go under the name Green Light Tour. Waldeck was in Austin, Texas, recording and met one of the songwriters, Jen Woodhouse. Woodhouse has teamed up with Todd Sapio and Leslie Sanazaro. On its Myspace page, Green Light says that during the 22 dates on the road, “[the] Tour will be taking action in each city we play to offset the impact of our own CO2 emissions. We will do this by planting trees in each city we visit, with the help of local and regional environmental groups, city planners, local press and radio.” Green Light says it also will “provide information to be disseminated to all our audiences about the simple things we each can do to lessen our everyday, individual environmental impacts. We feel that as performers and songwriters we have a responsibility to further the progress of social development and sustainable living for the generations ahead.” Woodhouse contacted Waldeck about the gig here, and, as he says, “Bill Baldwin stands by me when I ask him for a gig, and it usually turns out very well.” On top of that, Waldeck is down with the cause. “It is time for people to start thinking about this stuff. This is not a one-party issue any more.”

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The folks at 214 Community Arts Center, formerly The Prism, are bringing back two great Irish acts who used to come regularly when Fred Boyce was in the house. On Tuesday, May 8, uilleann piper and rock ‘n’ roll personality Paddy Keenan, who, word has it, would have been one of the owners of The Prism if the move to Gordonsville had panned out, will bring his signature style back to Rugby Road. Also on the calendar is fiddler Kevin Burke, who made several trips here and has a number of fans. Here’s hoping that more Prism performing regulars return to 214 in the future.

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Hey, I like that new Amy Winehouse CD too. I especially like that she picked up Sharon Jones’ Daptones as the band, who play with a deep love of that style of soul music and can get that sound. But what I don’t get is why The Detroit Cobras, who has trolled the old school, soul songbook long before Winehouse, is not better known. The band parties twice as hard (local photographer Aaron Farrington has a hilarious story about one of their gigs in New Orleans), and singer Rachel Nagy takes no back seat to Winehouse’s great voice. The Cobras brand new CD is out on the excellent label Bloodshot (as well as are new discs by Graham Parker and The Silos). If you like Winehouse, go get it.