Winter Pop Preview
By Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Jan. 5, 2001) -- January is usually a slow time in the music business. Promoters are typically afraid of bad weather, and post-holiday hangovers tend to keep audiences at home.

But Club Helsinki, the little-Great Barrington-nightclub-that-could, isn’t skipping a step. In fact, it’s running headlong into the new year with a schedule of performances that rivals the likes of anything ever seen in the Berkshires and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with any but the top nightclubs in much larger towns and cities.

Club Helsinki kicks off its 2001 season tonight with local folk-rocker Michael Haynes. Tomorrow night Helsinki hosts roots-rock band Tarbox Ramblers. This Boston-based quartet plays a raw, gritty style of music rooted in the juke joints of the Mississippi Delta and the front porches of Appalachia, music that is at once pre-rock and post-punk, informed by folk, blues, and country -- the missing link among Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Hank Williams, Howlin’ Wolf, Spider John Koerner and Wilco. As heard on the band’s haunting, eponymous debut on Rounder, its seamless blend of guitar-driven string-band tunes, novelty numbers, field hollers, swing, blues, jug-band, rockabilly and hillbilly songs includes old-style originals, traditional numbers like “Stewball” and “St. James Infirmary,” and versions of songs by the likes of Charlie Patton, Bukka White and the Memphis Jug Band.

The guitar-fiddle-bass-drums quartet, formed in Cambridge in 1994, effortlessly connects white and black traditions in a manner that belies its post-modern origins. Or, as leader Michael Tarbox told one interviewer, “I want to put folk music back in the barrooms where it really belongs.” Also coming to Helsinki are modern funk outfit Soulwork next Thursday and Katryna and Nerissa Nields, the sister-duo that fronts the folk-rock band The Nields, next Friday night. (They will also be at North Adams State College on Jan. 20.)

Helsinki continues to present the best of the Berkshires alongside the best touring acts on the club circuit, and on January 18 Pittsfield native Adam Rothberg celebrates the long-awaited release of his fabulous new CD, “All the Whispering” (more on that album in next week’s column). Fellow Berkshirites Robby Baier, Bobby Sweet and Dave Lincoln will be on hand to help Rothberg kick off his solo career in style. For a sneak preview, you can catch Rothberg tonight at Mother Earth Café in Albany or tomorrow night at Fire and Water Café in Northampton.

Progressive funk-rockers Gruvis Malt are at Helsinki on January 19, followed by New Orleans blues band Big Al and the Heavyweights on January 20. The six-piece Chicago Rhythm and Blues Kings hold forth on January 25, followed by progressive roots-rockers Dreadnaught on January 26 and soul outfit Mother’s Favorite Child on January 27.

Looking ahead to February and beyond, performers coming to Club Helsinki include rocker Paul Cebar (Feb. 1), reggae group Princes of Babylon (Feb. 2), world-rockers Babaloo (Feb. 3), Ulu (Feb. 15), and local blues phenom Albert Cummings (Feb. 16.), who will also be warming up the crowd for B.B. King at Northampton’s Calvin Theatre on January 14. Soul-blues keyboardist Ron Levy returns to Helsinki (Feb. 17) as will Red Beans (Feb. 23). Singer-songwriter Cliff Eberhardt will bring his wry, introspective wit and catchy melodicism to Helsinki on March 2, followed by gospel soul group the Holmes Brothers (March 3), reggae group the Black Rebels (March 10), pop-folk singer-songwriter Steve Forbert (April 27), husband-and-wife country-rock royalty Buddy and Julie Miller (May 17) and blues singer-songwriter Chris Smither (June 1).

Helsinki is not the only place to hear live music in the Berkshires this winter, although there are not many other shows that have been announced yet. In Williamstown, the Clark Art Institute continues its unfortunately-named “Saturday Night Jazz” series with Afro-Cuban dance band Bobby Sanabria and Quarteto Ache on January 13, progressive-klezmer group The Klezmatics on Feb. 17, and funk-groove guitarist Charlie Hunter on March 24.

Also in North County, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, spoken word artist Everton Sylvester returns with his improvisational jazz trio, Searching for Banjo, on Jan. 16. Brazilian band Nego Gato will supply the samba rhythms at Mass MoCA’s Brazilian Carnival Dance Party on Feb. 24, and Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid and vocalist Nona Hendryx, perhaps best known as a member of ‘70s soul-vocal group LaBelle, headline a multi-media tribute honoring the Talking Heads on the 20th anniversary of the group’s trailblazing album, “Remain in Light.” Other events at Mass MoCA of potential interest to music fans include “Imagenation,” an all-day “multimedia jam salon” highlighting the culture of the African diaspora (Feb. 24), dancer/choreographer David Neumann’s “Dance in Two Parts,” including “So That You Could See Us Coming,” a collaboration with Laurie Anderson (March 10), and performance artist/poet Tracie Morris, who works with blues, ambient, hip-hop and jazz soundtracks (March 24). Back in Williamstown, the Boston-based Yiddish-swing group, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, will perform in Chapin Hall at Williams College on Jan. 14, and the third annual Jazztown festival will take place on April 20 and 21, featuring violinist Regina Carter and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, respectively. Other events will presumably be announced soon (unless the folks at Jazztown stick to their secretive ways of past years). There is some life in Pittsfield, in spite of that city’s best efforts to suppress any signs of such. Singer-songwriter Bill Morrissey will headline the second annual Pittsfield FolkFest, presented by Galaxy Entertainment this year on March 10 at Berkshire Community College’s Koussevitzky Performing Arts Center. Also scheduled are Jess Klein, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Bobby Sweet.

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Jan. 5, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]