Music Park: Mountain Man @ Sixth & I — 10/22/18

Posted on October 24, 2018 by David LaMason in Live Review and tagged Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, Amelia Meath, Americana, Bella Union, folk, Molly Sarlé, Mountain Man, Nonesuch Records, Sixth & I, Sylvan Esso.

Mountain Man performs at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue on Oct. 22, 2018. (Photo by David LaMason)

Six years between tours and eight between albums seems like a long time, but for the North Carolina-based Mountain Man, it certainly doesn’t sound like years apart on their second full-length LP, Magic Ship (Nonesuch / Bella Union). Part of that reason is that recipe of rhythm and harmony that Amelia Meath, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Molly Sarlé each add to the pot. Part traditional Appalachian folk songs and part post-modern Americana, the music created by this trio was both pleasant and off-center, an often transcendent stew that was totally engrossing at Sixth & I on Monday.

Music Park: Xylouris White @ Creative Alliance — 3/1/18

Posted on March 5, 2018 by David LaMason in Live Review and tagged Antonis Xylouris, Australia, Baltimore, Bella Union, Creative Alliance, Creative Alliance at The Patterson, Crete, Dirty Three, experimental rock, folk, George Xylouris, Greece, jazz, Jim White, post-rock, world music, Xylouris White.

Xylouris White entrances at the Creative Alliance on March 1, 2018. (Photo by David LaMason)

Almost immediately after you see George Xylouris (laouto, Cretan lute) and Jim White (drums), you get the feeling they are two halves of the same whole. As the story goes, Jim met George back in 1990 in a bar in Australia but didn’t start recording and really touring together until 2013. And to a degree that friendship, built over decades, is the fuel for Xylouris White as we saw in a harmonious performance on Thursday at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson Theatre in Baltimore.