Berkshire Pop Scene 1997: The Year in Review
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Jan. 2, 1998) -- In the future, the year just past will be seen as a transition year when the groundwork was laid upon which to build a solid structure supporting a thriving climate for popular music in the Berkshires.

Nowhere was this more apparent than at the National Music Foundation in Lenox. After years of fitful and at times boneheaded moves, the organization rallied around a few carefully planned, safe programs that built confidence in the proposed center by demonstrating both creative and practical vision.

The foundation kicked off its best year so far with a weekend of activity last May which included a marathon showcase for local musicians and a headline performance by Emmylou Harris. A modest but successful three-date, summer music series boasted Shawn Colvin at the pinnacle of her career and an exciting concert by Talking Heads founder David Byrne that still has heads talking.

A collaboration with public-radio monolith WAMC in October in honor of Wanda Fischer's "Hudson River Sampler" folk-music program likely set the stage for more such cooperative ventures between the two outfits. Even a workshop/concert featuring the relatively unknown guitarist Martin Simpson in the dead of December defied tradition by attracting several dozen attendees. Look for the foundation to build upon all of these successes in the coming year.

Change at Tanglewood -- at least in terms of popular programming -- happens at a glacial pace, but some of the same trends that have the classical folks up in arms bode well for the vast majority of Tanglewood's potential audience looking for music other than that by dead, white European males.

While Lyle Lovett can hardly be considered racy, his particular brand of new-country music is left-of-center, which made him a somewhat surprising if low-risk choice for 1997's Independence Day concert. It's hard to know how Tanglewood will follow up on its most audacious booking in years -- the pairing of Bob Dylan and Ani DiFranco. It's a sad commentary that this sort of program is "radical" for Tanglewood -- a place where dinosaurs like Jethro Tull and the Who once roamed. One also hopes that the lack of any performers that launched careers post-1975 at this year's truncated jazz festival was an aberration, and that in the future the old and the new in jazz will meet again on common ground at Tanglewood.

The situation was not nearly as rosy for that other harbinger of hope for pop in the Berkshires -- the Studio in downtown Pittsfield. The list of performers at the former England Bros. building on North Street -- including Delbert McClinton, Maceo Parker, Bruce Cockburn, Little Feat and Yellowman -- reads better than it played out. In reality the programming was erratic and as unfocused as the venue itself, which has yet to establish the sort of identity and momentum that are essential to its eventual success.

The Studio was all but shut down the entire fall due to the insane, unwritten code of local politics that says if something good happens, it must be killed. Optimists say that a new political administration in Pittsfield will allow promoter Mort Cooperman a freer hand to do what is necessary to make the place a success. Max Creek fans, as oblivious to politics as they are to good music, could care less about any of this, as they were the one constituency well-served by the nightclub, which presented Connecticut's answer to the Grateful Dead nearly every other month. Look for more Max Creek shows at the Studio coming soon.

One of the most promising developments in years came out of left field. The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, until now hardly known for innovative programming of any sort, launched a winter folk-music series last March, with performances by singer-songwriter John Gorka, Celtic group Solas, African musician Samite and folk legend Odetta. Most shows were standing-room-only sellouts, proving once and for all that the off-season is no bar to presenting a successful series of quality music. The Clark follows up last year's effort beginning next month with an even more innovative "world-folk" series, with Celtic group Anam, Klezmer ensemble Brave Old World, folk-fusion supergroup Wayfaring Strangers and the African Troubadours, featuring traditional music of Morocco, Mali and Uganda.

The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield could use a little Clark-style sprucing up of its own music programming. Over the years the place has played host to the likes of Cecil Taylor and John Zorn. This past year saw a spotty parade of local and regional performers, but what most afflicts the Berkshire Museum is the lack of any overall sense of mission or excitement about its own musical offerings.

Up in North Adams, the year started off with a bang with "Music on Main Street" presented by DCN Entertainment at Milltown Studios. The series brought Iron Horse-type headliners including Les Sampou, Cormac McCarthy, Vance Gilbert and Deb Pasternak to downtown North Adams, but audience enthusiasm fizzled quickly. When Milltown itself took over the programming, the quality rapidly declined, and by the end of the summer, the venue itself was kaput.

On the plus side, DCN resurfaced in Williamstown this fall with a house concert series at the Old Stone Church which has steadily been attracting larger audiences than ever appeared at Milltown. This trend will undoubtedly continue in upcoming months with appearances by the Berkshires' own Bernice Lewis (Jan. 11) and Northampton's Cliff Eberhardt (Feb. 8).

One other trend is very suggestive of a growing awareness of a hunger for popular programming. Two of the county's theater companies appear to view popular music as a way to reach new audiences while raising money. Barrington Stage Company, which made its debut a few years back with a successful Billie Holiday tribute, presented a successful concert this summer by the Bacon Brothers, featuring movie star Kevin Bacon. And the Berkshire Theatre Festival, which brought Kinks' founder Ray Davies to Stockbridge in 1996, brought legendary concert promoter Bill Graham back to life this summer in a one-man show by Ron Silver, and then in a stunning coup, brought Billy Joel to Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood for a question-and-answer session with a little music in a program recorded for National Public Radio.

I submit that these developments, as much as any, bode well for the future of pop in the Berkshires.

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Jan 2, 1998. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1998. All rights reserved.]