Adam Michael Rothberg launches his CD, solo career, at Club Helsinki (1/18/01)
By Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., January 19, 2001) - Some singer-songwriters seem so indifferent to what they're doing, even bored by their own material, that watching them perform you wonder why they even bother. The odds are certainly against making it in any big way for all but a tiny minority of performers. For them to inflict their indifference on audiences seems a particularly noxious sort of passive-agressiveness; besides, it usually makes for lousy music (although in a few rare cases, performers have been able to exploit this ambivalence and make it the focus of their art).

Fortunately, there are still some musicians who are seemingly in it for the love of it, who live and breathe music through every pore of their body. You can see this in their relationship to their instruments: they become skilled virtuosos, often on several instruments. Mostly, you can see it in the way they enjoy themselves in performance, throwing themselves into the music, their material, and the shared experience with fellow musicians and audience members.

Adam Michael Rothberg is a perfect example of the latter category. He's played just about every role one can play in music: instrumentalist, bandmember, singer, producer, engineer, publicist, manager, and probably plenty of things I don't know about. And as the crowd that packed Club Helsinki to the gills on Thursday night for his CD release party saw, he has the childlike spirit of one who just loves to play, and who throws himself into his music fully and unselfconsciously.

Accompanying himself mostly on guitar and backed by a band of all-star Berkshire talent, Rothberg, a Pittsfield native, showcased original songs from "All the Whispering," his fantastic recording debut. From the jaunty, minor-key pop of "Sanguine Sophia," which he said was about a pet cat that ran away, to the dark, moody "Available Love," to the giddy, upbeat banjo-inflected "Dear Jane" - so catchy it could conceivably be a pop radio hit if not for its subject matter (a grandmother with Alzheimer's disease) - Rothberg highlight his impeccable songcraft, considerable technical skills as an instrumentalist, and his versatile soul-folk vocals.

If Paul McCartney could only come up with as McCartney-esque a tune as Rothberg's "The Breakup" he wouldn't have to rely on repackaging his old hits for an annuity. Yet as quickly as you peg Rothberg as a Paul McCartney clone, he throws "Coming Back" at you, a searing ballad of anguish and regret that has "Double Fantasy"-era John Lennon written all over it. There you have it in one neat package: Rothberg as Lennon AND McCartney.

Equally impressive were the musicians on hand to help drive and color Rothberg's songs. Most all of them played on his album, and rarely has there been assembled such a talented lineup of Berkshire instrumentalists and vocalists, including singer JoAnne Redding, bassist Jody Lampro, drummer Dave Lincoln, saxophonist Charlie Tokarz, guitarist Darren Todd and multi-instrumentalists Bobby Sweet and Robby Baier. The group sounded like a well-honed ensemble, even though they were gathered solely for this event. It made one muse about what would be the results if all these diverse talents joined forces in a coherent group effort.

It was a celebration in many ways for Rothberg, the unofficial official launch of his long-delayed solo career. It was an auspicious beginning filled with unlimited potential. Over time Rothberg will undoubtedly become more confident as a frontman and he will develop a more engaging repartee with his audience. In the meantime, he's got the technical tools and a portfolio of original songs that measures up to just about anyone on the scene.

[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Jan. 20, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]