Spring 2000 Preview
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 10, 2000) - With spring just around the corner - really, you can feel it in the air - it's time to take another long view of what's coming our way in the next few weeks and months. Before you know it, summer will be upon us, and then we'll be overwhelmed with too many choices of things to do, places to go, concerts to see.

Tonight at 8, the Williams College Jazz Ensemble performs a concert of Duke Ellington arrangements in Chapin Hall on the Williams campus in Williamstown. Admission is free.

Tomorrow night at 7:30, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (662-2111) in North Adams continues its dance party series with ballroom dancing to the tunes of the Gerard Carelli Orchestra. Dance instructors arranged by Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival will be on hand to help dancers learn to waltzes, fox trot, peabody and cha cha.

The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown continues its Irish music series tomorrow night at 8 with an encore performance by Anam. The group has undergone some personnel changes since its concert at the Clark two years ago. Singer Aimee Leonard is out and replaced by Fiona Mackenzie, and fiddler Anna Wendy Stevenson has been added to the core group of guitarist/singer Brian OhEadhra, accordionist Treasa Harkin, and mandolinist Neil Davey. The Dublin-based septet Kila closes the Clark (458-2303, ext. 324) series on March 25 with its fusion of Irish and other world-based ethnic musics.

While the Lion's Den at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge (298-1654) features local talent most nights, occasionally they host a performer of national stature, such as next Thursday, when folk-rock singer John Pousette Dart, of Pousette Dart Band fame, performs at 8.

Singer-songwriter Bil Krauss, formerly of the Berkshires, returns to his old stomping grounds for a St. Patrick's Day performance at LaCocina in Pittsfield on March 17.

Word has it that performance artist Laurie Anderson will be at Williams College on April 4. We're not sure yet if her program will be a full-fledged concert or something else; stay tuned for details.

The second annual Jazztown festivities in North County take place the weekend of April 7-9, starting with a concert by the Billy Taylor Trio with Sheila Jordan at Chapin Hall on April 7. The Tom Harrell Quintet will appear at Williams on April 8, and Wynton Marsalis will bring his Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra to Mass MoCA on the afternoon of April 9 for a dance concert that has been sold out for weeks. Supposedly there will be plenty of other activities programmed around Jazztown; maybe one of these days, perhaps when the Jazztown honchos are done placing ads paid for with state grant money in New York newspapers, they will let the local Massachusetts press know what's happening.

Beyond the county's borders there is a veritable pop invasion happening in the next few weeks. Tom Jones is at the Calvin Theatre (413-586-8686) in Northampton on March 17 and Proctors in Schenectady (518-346-6204) on March 20. Ricky Martin is at the Pepsi Arena (518-487-2000) on March 20, and Britney Spears follows him there on March 27. If you are the parent of a distraught pre-teen who has been shut out of Britney's concert, take heart - the teen sensation will be at the Saratoga (N.Y.) Performing Art Center (518-587-3330) on Aug. 30. I know, that's a long time from now. Elton John is at the Mullins Center in Amherst (413-545-0505) on April 8.

Fans of singer-songwriters typically are well-served in the region. Gordon Lightfoot is at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton tonight, Dar Williams is at the Grange in Montague tomorrow night, Warren Zevon is at Valentines in Albany (518-432-6572) on Sunday night. Christine Lavin is at the Iron Horse (413-586-8686) in Northampton on March 24, younger brother Livingston Taylor is at the Egg in Albany (518-473-1845) on March 25, Joan Baez is at the Calvin on March 31 and Lucy Kaplansky is at the Eighth Step in Albany (518-434-1703) on April 1.

Country fans have nothing to cry about either. Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith and Rodney Crowell share a triple-bill at the Calvin this Sunday, March 12, and Martina McBride and Mark Wills headline at the Mullins Center in Amherst on March 17. Country-swing band BR5-49 is at the Iron Horse on March 22; the reunited Judds and JoDee Messina are at the Civic Center in Hartford (203-727-8080) on March 23; and Doc Watson, Norman Blake and Tony Rice are at the Troy (N.Y.) Savings Bank Music Hall (518-273-0038) on April 1.

Jazz fans, too, have some exciting concerts from which to choose, beyond the menu at Jazztown. Saxophonist Sonny Fortune will blow his neo-Coltrane riffs at the Iron Horse tomorrow night at 7, while mouth-harpist Toots Thielemans and pianist Kenny Werner duet at the Van Dyck in Schenectady, N.Y. (518-381-1111) at 7 and 9:30. Bassist John Pattitucci brings his quartet to the Van Dyck for two shows on March 19; the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra is at the Fine Arts Center in Amherst on March 25; and fusion guitarist John Scofield is at the Iron Horse on March 26. Grammy-winning vocalist/pianist Diana Krall is at the Troy (N.Y.) Savings Bank Music Hall on March 31 and at Northampton's Calvin on April 8, and saxophonist Frank Morgan and pianist Sir Roland Hanna duet at the Van Dyck on April 1. Saxophonist Joshua Redman is at the Iron Horse on April 20.

Even the region's underserved soul and hip-hop fans can get into the concertgoing act this season. Old-school rappers Run-DMC are at Valentines in Albany on March 15; R&B great Gladys Knight is at Symphony Hall in Springfield (413-787-6600) on April 2; Sweet Honey in the Rock is at the Troy Music Hall on April 15; and Groove Collective is at Pearl Street (413-586-8686) in Northampton on April 15.

Rock fans can catch Korn's sludge-rock at the Hartford Civic Center on March 28 or at the Worcester Centrum (508-755-6800) on March 30 or 31, and the triple-bill of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters and Muse at the Mullins Center on April 2 or the Pepsi Arena on April 3. The Mullins Center also hosts Creed, Sevendust and UPO on April 15. And aging rockers Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young will try to prove they still can rock the house at the Hartford Civic Center on April 12.

Looking ahead to summertime, hold the following weekends open for area festivals: July 13-16, the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival (formerly Winterhawk) in Ancramdale, N.Y.; July 21-23, Falcon Ridge Folk in Hillsdale, N.Y.; July 28-30, Noppet Hill Bluegrass in Lanesboro, featuring the Del McCoury Band and James King, and the new Winterhawk Roots Music festival in Hillsdale.

Backstage bits

Berkshire singer-songwriters Bobby Sweet and Robby Baier have written a song called "Sky High" that is used in the movie, "Drowning Mona," released last week. The PG-13 comedy flick stars Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Neve Campbell.

Also of local note, the title track of "Everything You Want" by Vertical Horizon, powered by Berkshire native Sean Hurley on bass, is making its way up Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart, and bringing the group's album along with it on the album charts. The band recently made its national TV debut on the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno. Hurley is a former member of Xavier who backed Arlo Guthrie on tour for several years with the band.

We thought it was incredibly appropriate that in their recent ad in this paper thanking the National Music Foundation, the Friends of the NMF continued that organization's longstanding practice of misspelling performers' names. For the record, that's Nanci Griffith, Emmylou Harris, and Tony Trischka.

It's the season for Yusuf Islam fans to celebrate. Early albums by the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens will finally be re-released on CD in May, beginning with "Mona Bone Jakon," "Tea for the Tillerman" and "Teaser and the Firecat." In honor of Stevens's 30th anniversary as a recording artist in the U.S., Universal Records is releasing "The Very Best of Cat Stevens," featuring 20 hits by the Greek/English singer-songwriter, on March 28, including the previously unreleased 1970 song, "I've Got a Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old."

And on the occasion of Stevie Wonder's 50th birthday, Universal will also be re-releasing Wonder's classic '70s albums, including "Music of My Mind," "Talking Book," "Innervisions" and "Fulfillingness' First Finale" on March 21. Next month will see the re-release of Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life" and "Hotter Than July," all remastered for CD.

Speaking of the '70s, what does Don McLean, who penned the classic 1971 song, think of Madonna and her remake of "American Pie," currently climbing its way back up the charts?

"Madonna is a colossus in the music industry and she is going to be considered an important historical figure as well," said McLean in a statement released by Madonna's record company, Maverick. "She is a fine singer, a fine songwriter and record producer, and she has the power to guarantee success with any song she chooses to record. It is a gift for her to have recorded "American Pie." I have heard her version and I think it is sensual and mystical. I also feel that she's chosen autobiographical verses that reflect her career and personal history. I hope it will cause people to ask what's happening to music in America. I have received many gifts from God but this is the first time I have ever received a gift from a goddess."

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on March 10, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]