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The Wailin’ Jennys (Photo by Morten Fog)
The Wailin’ Jennys opted to start Wednesday’s show — the second of three sold-out performances at The Birchmere — singing the traditional “Long Time Traveller” a capella. Over two sets, the trio, made up of Ruth Moody, Nicky Mehta, and Heather Masse, cycled through a number of instruments and styles: folk, gospel, a little country.
The New Pornographers perform at the 9:30 Club on Nov. 5, 2019. (Photo by Matt Ruppert)
I remember when I first discovered The New Pornographers: My roommate blasted Twin Cinema in the late morning after classes, their adventurous pop songs flirting with the saccharine and well-balanced with touches of bitterness, surreality, and unflinching honesty. The interplay of Neko Case’s, A.C. Newman’s, and Dan Bejar’s voices added textures that allowed the songs to float from gauzy to meaty in three minutes.
The New Pornographers (Photo by Ebru Yildiz)
Canadian rockers The New Pornographers released In the Morse Code of Brake Lights, the band’s eighth studio album, in September via Collected Works Records. The group’s accompany tour takes them to the 9:30 Club, for a sold-out show, and the Lincoln Theatre on Wednesday, Nov. 6!
Bruce Cockburn performs at The Birchmere on Oct. 27, 2019. (Photo by Mark Caicedo)
“The thumb drone or an alternating bass. You sort of have one or the other and Mississippi John Hurt was a great source of direction, I guess would be the way to put it, because of the beautiful and simple way he used to put the melody over the alternating bass. I mean he just played the melody of the song, and that was like nobody else I had heard, it wasn’t just licks, it was the actual melody. That sort of opened up a whole new thing and because of my interest in Jazz and other types of music that all got added in so when you take that same sort of right hand technique and apply it to a more complex musical approach you end up with something like what I do.” — Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn (Photo courtesy the artist)
Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn released Crowing Ignites, an instrumental album, in September via True North Records. The folk guitarist plays at The Birchmere on Sunday, Oct. 27.
Kacy & Clayton (Photo by Mat Dunlap)
Earlier this month, New West released the fourth album by Clayton Linthicum and Kacy Anderson — Carrying On. Better known as Kacy & Clayton, the duo brought their folk stylings to the Music Center at Strathmore recently, opening for Ray LaMontagne.
Daniel Caesar performs at Echostage on Sept. 24, 2019. (Photo by AJ Waugh@Waufflez — wauffleznotwaffles.com)
Daniel Caesar’s Case Study 01: Tour breezed through a sold-out Echostage recently with up and coming Reggae artist Koffee warming up the crowd. Daniel and his band performed songs from his newest album also titled “Case Study 01” that released at the top of the summer.
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