There's a curious way in which a musician or a band's rise or struggle is often coded into the music, inscribed in its DNA, from the Midwest working class country-punk of Uncle Tupelo, to the Southern small-town camaraderie of R.E.M. to the East Coast prep school...
Above: Dave Sarazen, left, and Evan St. Martin, the duo behind Laden Valley. Photo courtesy of Laden Valley One half of the duo is Dave Sarazen, who grew up in East Greenwich By Chris Parker Laden Valley is a Newport act that draws on Americana's roots verities,...
A classic British thriller with Python-esque verve Usually plays are adapted into movies, and that idea as well as the way it's addressed are at the center of Arctic Playhouse's lively, cleverly-staged production of the Patrick Barlow adaptation of the film The 39...
By Chris Parker Music is so contagious, you'd think they'd regulate how much children can have. It caught Rory Malloy when he was young, by way of his brother a decade older, who introduced him to the Beatles and the Stones. Then Malloy got a taste of it himself and...
By Chris Parker It's so often the case that Jimmy Buffet dedicated a verse of his most famous song to the time-tested trope: Will Evans's dad was to blame. He showed his son a few chords on the guitar, and the next thing you know he's off becoming a musician. Well,...
Above: Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum. Photo credit: Tony Nelson In 1981 Dave Pirner began punk rockers Loud Fast Rules with high school friends Karl Mueller and Dan Murphy, playing drums in a power trio that would evolve in a couple years into alt-rockers Soul Asylum....
Richard Thompson is a pegasus, which is to say, a rare being whose existence seems more conjectured than real. And in true human fashion, this magical artist walks among us because the number of people who recognize him for what he is are vanishingly small. He's sort...
Photo: mavisstaples.com By Chris Parker Mavis Staples is playing at the Greenwich Odeum Saturday night (March 11). Author's note: I have written about music for over 30 years and interviewed hundreds of musicians, only encountering a handful as charming and...
Cutler and the Men of Great Courage play the Updike Room Friday By Chris Parker Mark Cutler is what in the music business they call a lifer. The former frontman of local legends The Schemers and Boston roots rock act The Raindogs, Cutler stepped away from the...
By Chris Parker Thirty years ago, Brad Roberts notched a hole-in-one with “God Shuffled His Feet,” which sold over 8 million copies. Pause for a moment and consider what you might do to appeal to so many people, not just here, but across the globe. A skinny guy with...
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