Artist Category: Rock | Page 2

Hush Club

Boston’s Hush Club are pioneers of Milky Way music––their new album, Fingerprints & Stains, has a lush sonic majesty as vast as the galaxy and a melodic beauty as sweet as the candy bar. The album’s meticulously crafted tracks take you on a sensory journey far from home as only potent music can, spiraling past stars and moons, reveling in interstellar tranquility, and traversing asteroid belts.

Hush Club is made up of Chris Haley (guitar, vocals), Liz Kantor (keys, vocals), and Alasdair MacKenzie (drums, bass, vocals), who found each other in college and then isolated together during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Fingerprints & Stains, they take listeners beyond peaks and valleys to examine the nuances of our shared human experience: making sense of heartbreak and pain, questioning the path you’ve chosen, repeating mistakes you thought you had outgrown, and trying to tell your real self apart from disguises.

Whether you let Fingerprints & Stains wash over you like a sonic tsunami or take it in one song at a time, this is a distinctive musical project, with depth and dimensionality that beckon for your exploration.

EG Vines

Having burst onto Nashville’s bustling Americana scene with his debut EP in 2018, E.G. Vines is preparing for the release of his first full-length album as a solo artist. Produced by Jordan Lehning (Kacey Musgraves, Robert Ellis, Rayland Baxter), Family Business is a deep dive into Vines’ broad-ranging roots rock sound paired with lyrics that relate themselves to the human condition. As its title suggests, at its core lies a focus on what makes us, as a collective society, family. With lead single “The Salesman” already in rotation at regional taste-maker Lightning 100, Vines is poised to break out on a national scale.

Spotted Tiger

Spotted Tiger formed around the songwriting of Laurence Scudder & Erik White. Drawing on shared musical influences the band has shaped a unique sound from the ground up. Join them for an evening full of new material & arrangements exploring the inner workings of their songs. This show will be different than any other Spotted Tiger show thus far.

Russ Gershon

Russ Gershon is a saxophonist, composer, arranger, educator and record company founder. He has been based in the Boston area since the late 1970’s.

His work with the Either/Orchestra, the ten piece jazz/Latin/Ethiopian band he founded in 1986 has earned him a Grammy nomination, endless critical accolades, and performances around the world. The E/O has released ten albums and a DVD, with two new records slated for release in the near future.

Gershon and the E/O have collaborated with the greats of Ethiopian music, including Mahmoud Ahmed, Teshome Mitiku, and Mulatu Astatke, who recorded Russ’ composition “Azmari” with his own band. The E/O’s 2004 concert in Addis Ababa was released as a double CD on the Ethiopiques from France, the only album by a non-Ethiopian group included in this prestigious series.

As well as playing regularly with his trio, Gershon also music directs, plays and sings in Lookie Lookie, an eight piece band devoted to the revival of 1960’s Latin Bugalu music. He does regular work as a studio player and arranger for rock, pop, commercial and jazz recordings. In recent years he has been a leader, arranger or player in projects devoted to David Bowie’s “Blackstar,” Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, Marvin Gaye and Rickie Lee Jones. He has performed with Cab Calloway, the Four Tops, Medeski Martin & Wood, the Boston Pops and others.

Gershon has taught music history at Lasell College and instruments and band in Brookline and Nahant Massachusetts schools. He has also served as a visiting clinician or artist-in-residence at Harvard, New England Conservatory, Berklee, Tufts and numerous other colleges across the US.

As founder of Accurate Records, Gershon has helped bring over 100 albums to the marketplace, for artists as diverse as Medeski Martin & Wood, Morphine, the Alloy Orchestra and the Ghost Train Orchestra. Accurate released Josh Roseman’s “New Constellations” in the US market.

Will Evans

Will Evans has spent the last decade as the primary songwriter, drummer, and front man for the Roots Rock outfit Barefoot Truth. The band released four full-length albums and has surpassed over 20 million plays on Spotify.

With BFT on an extended hiatus, Will has opened a new chapter in his musical journey. In 2018, Will joined his good friend Trevor Hall as a member of his touring band. Together they have performed to passionate crowds across North America and Europe.

On Election Day in November 2018, Will released his third full-length solo album “RISE”. His deepest and most personal album to date, songs contain topics of humanity, compassion, and a reflection of the current political times. In a time when many are looking for words of inspiration and reassurance, the singer-songwriter is once again speaking from his heart, advocating his own brand of socially-conscious messages of love and inclusion. A lifelong surfer and environmentalist, his songs also speak to the importance of connecting with and protecting the earth. The album features guest appearances by Trevor Hall, Mihali of Twiddle, and more.

In his live performances, Will uses his impressive looping skills to combine his drumming background with his highly energized and entertaining acoustic style. Displaying his technical mastery of looping on the stage, crowds always get to their feet and he always reaches their hearts.

Will has shared the stage with many top artists including Crosby and Nash, Grace Potter, Bruce Hornsby, Rusted Root, Trevor Hall, Nahko, Xavier Rudd, Donavon Frankenreiter, Railroad Earth and members of Dispatch.

The Alternate Routes

The Alternate Routes are the band that helped us to remember “we are how we treat each other, and nothing more.” Now they’re back with a new single, “Safe Haven”—a love song that uses real life as its backdrop.

“Nothing More” propelled the band into new ears and new heights, having been featured prominently in the 2014 Winter Olympics, on NCIS, and in a partnership with TOMS shoes. It was followed up with “Somewhere in America,” a poignant and personal conversation about gun violence that earned the band a 2016 Independent Music Award and a visit to the White House.

“Safe Haven” continues the socially-conscious, no-hold-barred examination on modern living that the band has increasingly embraced. It reflects an evolution and maturity that results from sticking together and trying new things, musically and lyrically, for over a decade.

“Safe Haven” was self-produced by guitarist Eric Donnelly, drummer and engineer Kurt Leon, and singer Tim Warren, a sonic departure from previous efforts that highlights the use of the recording studio itself as an instrument. It was mixed by fellow Bridgeport, Connecticut native Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, The Swell Season).

The Alternate Routes first burst onto the scene in 2005 with their breakthrough album Good and Reckless and True. They released several albums on Vanguard Records and on their own, toured extensively, and relentlessly refined their craft. They have collaborated with such seemingly disparate artists as singer-songwriter Patti Griffin, director Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), and guitarist Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket. They’ve performed on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” and have been repeat guests on NPR’s “Mountain Stage.”

The core lineup of the Alternate Routes includes:
TIM WARREN (VOCALS)
ERIC DONNELLY (GUITAR)
KURT LEON (DRUMS)
IAN TAIT (BASS)
TARYN CHORY (VOCALS)

American Ink

Willy Porter

Some folks are lucky to find what they love to do at an early age and quietly settle in for the long haul expanding and developing their work over the arc of a lifetime. Willy Porter is one of those artists. He has followed his own path to explore the sacred language that music truly is. 30 years after his solo recording debut, he continues to reach further into his guitar & pen while stretching the form of what his own music can be. He’s currently working on his 13th album for release in 2022.

Corporate Punk

“It doesn’t take long into the first listen through Corporate Punk’s debut album “Of Course” to hear that their humor is a close second only to their talent. Hot takes on love, meme-ery and modern cultural references abound in their lyrics with self-effacing millennial panache, bubbling above instrumentals you’d hear being played in Marty McFly’s band; freshly back from the future, with new material for a gig on New Year’s Eve, 1986. Giggle or dance, it’s your choice. And if you can’t yet do both at once, this album just might teach you how.”

–Mike Calabrese & Bridget Kearney (of Lake Street Dive)

Fronted by Boston-based drummer/vocalist Sean Trischka, Corporate Punk is a collaborative machine, often working with members of Oh Pep!, Lula Wiles, Josh Ritter & The Royal City Band, and The Mountain Goats. For this show, Sean Trischka will be joined on stage by Mairi Chaimbeul, Kat McLevey, & Stash Wyslouch.

Liz Longley

Best known for her stop-you-in-your-tracks voice, Liz Longley is an accomplished singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. With her deeply emotional songs, Longley has earned accolades from some of the most prestigious songwriting competitions in the country and cultivated a following that enthusiastically supports the creation of her music.

In 2020, Longley’s “Funeral For My Past” received widespread acclaim, with Forbes hailing it as a “stunning new album.” Billboard described it as spanning genres from Americana to gospel-flavored soul to shimmering pop anthems. The album was also included in Newsweek’s list of “100 Albums Released in 2020 to Put on Your Radar.”

2024 brings a new release from Liz, “It’s Me Again,” an EP featuring acoustic remakes of career-defining songs. Notably, among the revisited songs is “Unraveling,” a track that previously earned Longley the prestigious BMI John Lennon Scholarship Award. Fans eagerly anticipate this next chapter in her career, alongside hints of an upcoming full-length record.