Berkshire artists release new music: Ravin Mavens, Xavier, Chaula Hopefisher, Bernice Lewis
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Feb. 20, 2000) - Ever wonder what musicians do in the wintertime? Apparently they spend a lot of time in recording studios. A slew of new CDs by Berkshire artists have come across this desk in the last few weeks, and several performers will be premiering their new material, as well as having their CDs available for sale, at CD release concerts this weekend and next.

The Ravin' Mavens are a kind of Berkshire/Northwestern Connecticut, all-female, acoustic folk supergroup - call them Berkshire women's answer to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. On their own, Kathy Jo Barrett, Louise Lindenmeyer, Lisa Sturz and Catherine McKinnon have all made their mark in various groups and as solo performers. On "Brave New Girl," the female foursome combine talents for a remarkable bit of rootsy, country folk, mixing originals, traditional tunes and some well-chosen covers by contemporary female singer-songwriters.

The quartet bring to this project a depth of wide-ranging experience. Louise Lindenmeyer, who plays mandolin and accordion, has performed around the world with her husband, Eliot Osborn, as Project Troubadour, which they describe as an organization which uses music as a medium for cross-cultural communication. She also performs with Joint Chiefs, a trio that includes her husband and singer/bassist George Potts. Lindenmeyer's accordion spices up instrumental numbers such as "Dever the Dancer," where it is joined by Catherine McKinnon's fiddle. McKinnon, who also plays bodhran, an Irish hand drum, on the album, hails originally from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, where she began playing Celtic music at age eight. McKinnon's Celtic influence is heard on several numbers, including her own composition, "The Last Rose."

Kathy Jo Barrett, who handles bass and flute chores, is perhaps best known for her acting roles on local stages, particularly at the Berkshire Public Theatre and Mixed Company. She also performs for children as a member of David Grover's Big Bear Band; perhaps that is where she gets the inspiration to inject a version of the Roches' "Little Bitty Betty" with such childlike naivete.

Lisa Sturz has been performing folk, country and roots music for 20 years in various groups, including in a duo with her husband, Joel Sturz, and with the Out of the Blue Band. "Brave New Girl" features two Sturz originals, including "The Bottle," a haunting portrait of a woman addicted to alcohol, as well as her version of Karla Bonoff's "Home."

"Brave New Girl" is an album of women-penned songs performed, produced, engineered, mixed and distributed by women. It was recorded at a studio built and run by a woman (Sturz's MuseMix Studio in Lee). It has the word "girl" in the title. It even may mostly be about women and addressed mostly to women. But it's not an album of "women's music," but, rather, good music, music that speaks clearly, openly, and warmly, to men and women alike.

Ravin' Mavens celebrate the release of their new album this Sunday, Feb. 27, with a CD release party from 6 to 9 p.m. at Castle Street Café in Great Barrington.

Anybody who was around and aware of the Berkshire music scene in the 1980s remembers Xavier. In an era of ridiculous outfits and really bad MTV-derived blow-dried hairstyles, Xavier was the Berkshires' answer to bands like Poison and Warrant, aesthetically speaking.

But the bad taste was only skin-deep, and in retrospect it can be forgiven as a youthful lapse on the part of some impressionable high-schoolers. For at its core, Xavier, and its subsequent incarnation or transformation as Lord Hill, was just a soulful rock band, one part blues, one part folk, one part country, a dash of heavy-metal, but all harmony and heart.

This is not the place to recount the 15-year history of the band, but rather to commend the group's new album, the aptly-titled "Full Circle" (Rising Son), a comeback effort of sorts that reunites the founding trio, keyboardist Abe Guthrie, guitarist Randy Cormier and guitarist Tim Sears (who contributed his middle name, Xavier, to the group), with new member Dan Teichert, for the first time in 10 years.

"Full Circle" boasts a dozen new songs by the band, many of which touch on coming and going, and can't be heard without reference to the band's own history. "I don't know why/We said goodbye/I don't think I'm ever gonna feel this again/And I don't know why" could be about a woman, but it could also be about the mixed feelings the singer had when he split up his band. The overall feel of the album is like a mainstream Tom Petty record. The singers trade lead vocals and harmonize on guitar-driven tunes. The album, recorded at Derek Studios in Dalton and produced by Abe Guthrie, boasts a professional polish undoubtedly honed throughout the years of experience on the road as headliners and touring with Arlo Guthrie, Little Feat, Pete Seeger and the Outlaws.

And for anyone nostalgic for 1980s-era Xavier, replete with the pumping bass lines below synthesizer hooks and snaky guitars, the CD includes two bonus tracks recorded back in 1987.

Xavier celebrates the release of "Full Circle" with a CD release concert at LaCocina in Pittsfield tonight at 9:30.

Singer-songwriter Bernice Lewis is releasing her brand new CD this week, kicking off a slate of local and regional performances tomorrow night at Uncommon Grounds in Great Barrington at 8. She will also perform next Friday night at the Main Street Stage in North Adams at 8, before leaving on a two-week jaunt through California.

Lewis's CD will receive an in-depth review in this space next week, but in the meantime, an advance listen shows it to be a great leap forward for the nationally-known singer-songwriter, who recently showcased at the national Folk Alliance conference in Cleveland.

A mix of rootsy folk-rockers, intimate ballads and novelty songs, infused with Lewis's taut songwriting, the album features many of Lewis's best compositions to date. Produced by Pittsfield native Adam Rothberg, who also plays guitar, keyboards and drums on the album, the CD also boasts a bevy of all-star, new-folk talent, including Dar Williams, Jennifer Kimball of the Story, Ellis Paul and Brooks Williams, as well as such top Berkshire talent as Rick Tiven and Bobby Sweet.

Chaula Hopefisher, of Pittsfield, recently released her solo debut, "Multi-Colored Chant." A collection of original and traditional prayers and chants from various spiritual traditions arranged in a variety of world-music settings, the album boasts Hopefisher's deep, rich, honeyed vocals, redolent of her experience as a jazz singer and professional chorister and soloist.

Hopefisher's album opens with her "Music of the Open Sky," an ode to her muse in which the singer asks, "How can we take credit for the songs that sing us as the wind moves trees?" The song features the concert harp of Monika Stadler and Hopefisher's own accompaniment on harmonium, cymbals and tamboura, giving the piece an Indian feel.

The 11-minute "Shiva Hari Om" features the jazzy saxophone of Erik Lawrence and John Hollenbeck's muscular, inerrant drums, as well as an entire chorus of Hopefisher's overdubbed vocals. Hopefisher, an impressive multi-instrumentalist as well as vocalist, also handles guitar, bass and keyboard duties on the number. The album also includes two renditions of Hebrew prayers set to new melodies by contemporary Jewish songwriter Rabbi Shefa Gold, a medieval chant by Hildegard von Bingen, and several Sanskrit chants.

This isn't sing-along music, but neither is it new-age ear candy to fall asleep by. For one, Hopefisher's warm, colorful vocals melt any icy tendencies, and for another, her reliance on earthy rhythms, such as the reggae-infused "Goddess Chant," insures that the proceedings stay somewhat grounded.

Among the local talents who contributed to Hopefisher's effort, recorded at Derek Studios in Dalton, were pedal steel guitarist Peter Adams and guitarist and co-producer Bobby Sweet.

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Feb. 25, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]