Blue Light Bandits (BLB) is an independent groove rock band from Worcester, MA. Their colorful sound is a mixture of pop, rock, and R&B with jazz, blues, and reggae stylings. BLB has 3 lead singers in front, filling each song with rich vocal harmonies.
After receiving the “Best Up & Coming” award at the 2016 Worcester Music Awards, BLB released their first LP in October of 2017. The self-titled LP climbed to #186 on the NACC 200 college radio charts.
It’s still as Alan Lomax wrote “folk music in overdrive” but the Resophonics introduce elements frequently lacking in modern bluegrass music – great original songs played with passion, energy and humor that would be as at home in a rock club as on a festival stage. Longtime members Sean Staples, Eric Royer, Tim Kelly and Paul Kochanski combine elements of the traditional string band and the contemporary songwriter to create a unique sound that is rooted in tradition without sounding dated, modern yet with substance. Following over a decade of local shows and international touring that culminated in a Boston Music Award as Outstanding Folk Act, the band went on hiatus in 2010. Tonight they joyfully reunite in the familiar and homey confines of Club Passim for a special show featuring new music as well as songs from their four studio recordings. The Resophonics are back!
Named ‘Performer of the Year’ in the 2024 New England Music Awards, Sarah Blacker captures hearts and minds each time she sings. Called “her own artist” by the Huffington Post with music coined as “soaring folk gospel” by the Patriot Ledger, Blacker has truly stepped into her power as a singer/songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and force to be reckoned with.
Based in the historical coastal witch city of Salem, MA, it’s no surprise that each note she sings comes infused with a touch of magic. Inspired by nature, connection and the human experience, Blacker’s hope is that listeners find themselves in the lyrics or her thoughtfully crafted original songs.
When it comes to releasing new music, 2024 has been fruitful for Sarah Blacker (and her band) the Light.’Live at Rockport Sundays’ released 8/23/24, features Blacker and her trio performing three of their most popular singles and was recorded live at the legendary Tom Rush’s studio in Kittery, Maine.
‘Horizon Line,’ Blacker’s newest studio EP is raw, stripped down and vulnerable, just the way she wanted it to be. Recorded (mostly) live and mixed at Boston Music Award winning producer, Sean McLaughlin’s 37’ Productions studios, and called “tender, defiant and genius” by the Boston Herald, it was performed and co-produced by Blacker and her husband, Aaron Z. Katz (Percy Hill, the Dejas). Featuring 3 songs about inner strength, the limitless parameters of time, being true to yourself, and the chaotic state of the world, ‘Horizon Line’ is Blacker’s most soulful and raw release, to date.
Blacker, LMHC, MT-BC is also a Psychotherapist and a Board-Certified Music Therapist, and isn’t shy to explore the soulful depths of human existence within her lyrics, providing honesty, a touch of sarcasm and always much hope in her songs and at a live show, when telling stories and jokes.
While she is regularly compared to Joni Mitchell with her stop-you-dead-in-your-tracks vocals and unique harmonic twists, she arrives with a side of Classic rock n’roll and jazz. Blacker was raised on Pink Floyd, CSNY, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Phil Collins and the songwriters of the ‘90s including Sarah McLachlan and Tracy Chapman, and then went on to study jazz vocals in high school and at the Berklee College of Music in Boston where she graduated with a degree in Music Therapy.
As a solo artist, Blacker has toured nationally and internationally playing sold out shows around Germany and the United States with favorite stops being Philadelphia, Central PA, Portsmouth, NH, Cambridge, MA and Asheville, NC.
Her band, featuring Aaron Z. Katz of Percy Hill on drums/percussion and harmonies, and Phil Selesnick on keys/bass and vocals, singer/songwriters Mark Lipman and Danielle Lovasco on backing vocals allows for familiar songs to find their way from compelling soulful pop shape into jazzy improvisation, and transport the listener from inner peace to gut-punch grooves.
Twice named ‘(Female) Performer of the Year’ in the New England Music Awards, a Boston-Music Award nominee and CBS Boston ‘Artist to Watch, Blacker has also supported Sara Bareilles, Jefferson Starship, America, Paula Cole, Richard Thompson, Leon Russell, Loudon Wainright and Suzanne Vega to name just a few.
SZLACHETKA (pronounced SLA-HET-KA) draws your gaze back to a simpler time when music was less about stylized production and more about its experiential nature.
His songwriting finds inspiration in the threads that connect us, weaving a tapestry of familiar moments that pay homage to the past while leaning into a future that promises both wonder and grace. Now based in Nashville, SZLACHETKA grew up in New England and began his career as the frontman for the acclaimed roots-rock band, The Northstar Session, with whom he recorded five albums and appeared in the second season of NBC’s “Parenthood”. After nearly a decade of touring he left the band and struck out on his own, releasing his first solo album in 2014, “Waits for a Storm to Find”. SZLACHETKA’s sophomore album (produced by Grammy winning producer David Bianco), “Heart of my Hometown” is set for release in early 2018.
Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading progressive rock (‘prog’) musicians, there is now no doubt that NEAL MORSE is a “big success,” but his desire to move people through his music burns brighter than ever.
Now in his mid-fifties and his children grown up, there is a sense on his new album, LIFE AND TIMES, that MORSE is looking around and taking stock. “I’ve come through a lot of difficult times and I’m in a fairly content place now,” he says. “You can feel that on some of the songs.” Much of this ‘acoustic-orientated, singer/songwriter’ album was written while he was travelling around the world on “The Road Called Home” tour in 2017, with some of the songs being inspired by the places he visited, while others are from spending time with his family.
Dan & the Wildfire began in 2011 as an indie/folk trio. Since then, the Boston-based outfit has evolved into a “soulful rock n’ roll” quintet. Though their sound is ever-changing, the core of the band hinges upon carefully crafted lyrics, saturating vocal harmonies, and high-level musicianship.
In early 2018, the group began to record and release “The River’s Gonna Rise,”: a multivolume project that saw its first installment delivered to listeners this winter. With two studio albums in tow, Dan & the Wildfire’s most recent offering is proving to be their most impactful, personal, and genuine yet. When listening to The River’s Gonna Rise, expect an emotional and sonic roller coaster, complete with soaring solos, bluesy guitar riffs, and honest poetry.
Whether on a large stage, like Foxwoods Resort Casino’s Grand Pequot Theate or a smaller stage like Harvard Square’s famous Club Passim, Dan & the Wildfire brings the same passion and intensity to every performance. Armed with new music, the @DATWILDFIRE crew, as you’ll find them on social media, is ready to show you why they’re soon to be your new favorite band.
2015 Boston Music Award Winners, The Blue Ribbons was formed by singer/songwriter/keyboardist James Rohr. They have been building a base of devoted fans with their original and soulful music. Described as “Ray Charles and Tom Waits on a pirate ship with Sun Ra and Captain Beefheart,” they combine “upbeat disillusionment and celebratory fatalism with musicianship” – Charan Devereux; Boston Globe.
Together and individually, the members of The Ribbons have performed and/or recorded with lots of other people who make good music too.
All very active musicians, each member of The Blue Ribbons brings his influences and experiences to the music and this is at the heart of their creativity. Anything goes in this band, and it usually does.
Steve Addabbo is known as a Grammy winning producer, musician, writer, recording engineer and owner of Shelter Island Sound Recording studio in NYC. Steve’s production and engineering work on Suzanne Vega’s first two albums set a new standard for the singer songwriter genre and helped pave the way for artists like Shawn Colvin, Tracy Chapman and others. Suzanne’s second album, Solitude Standing, with the worldwide hits Luka and Tom’s Diner went multiplatinum. Steve also co-produced Shawn Colvin’s Grammy Award winning debut album, Steady On. Recent projects include mixing Bob Dylan’s Bootleg X, Another Self Portrait, unreleased recordings from 1970, mixing all 400+ tracks from the 2017 Grammy winning Bob Dylan Bootleg XII, The Cutting Edge, Jeff Buckley’s recent posthumous release from 1993, You and I, Richard Barone’s newly released Sorrows and Promises and Steve’s own debut album, Out of Nothing.
Richard Barone is an acclaimed recording artist, performer, producer, and author. Since pioneering the indie rock scene in Hoboken, NJ as frontman for The Bongos, Barone has produced countless studio recordings and worked with artists in every musical genre. He has recently collaborated with Tony Visconti, Beach Boy Al Jardine, Sean Lennon, Dion, John Sebastian, Alejandro Escovedo, Jill Sobule, and Donovan, as well as Moby, the late Lou Reed, and American folk icon Pete Seeger. He has scored shows and staged all-star concert events at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the SXSW Music Festival. His memoir Frontman: Surviving The Rock Star Myth was published by Hal Leonard Books. His latest album “Sorrows & Promises” was produced by Steve Addabbo and celebrates the early 1960s music scene of Greenwich Village, where Barone lives. He is affiliated with the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University.
Amory Sivertson dabbles in the folk-indie-pop-rock musical genres, with piano as her main instrument. Her music was most recently described in Em Magazine as being “beautiful, yet quirky.” Originally from Shaker Heights, Ohio, Amory is currently living in Boston, attending Emerson College and actively pursuing her musical endeavors with humility and enthusiasm.
