New album reviews, Robby Baier
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Oct., 29 1998) -- A slew of artists with new albums will be coming to the greater region in the next few weeks, giving concertgoers a chance to check out some favorite performers or heretofore unknowns playing new songs.

On Saturday night, Oct. 31, Boston-based songwriter Greg Greenway -- new-folk’s answer to Jackson Browne -- comes to CC’s Café at the college formerly known as North Adams State. Greenway’s latest CD, “Mussolini’s Head” (Eastern Front), features the sort of careful writing and soulful vocals Greenway is known for. The album features both confessional numbers and political songs, such as the title track, which inveighs against neo-Nazis and other assorted racists.

That same night Susan Werner, another leading-light on the new-folk scene, performs at the Eighth Step in Albany. Werner’s new “Time Between Trains” (Bottom Line), one of the best singer-songwriter albums of the year, shows why the Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter draws frequent comparisons to Shawn Colvin and Joni Mitchell

Funky upstate New York rockers Moe are at the newly-renovated Calvin Theatre in Northampton with Moon Boot Lover on Saturday, Nov. 7. The group’s new “Tin Cans and Car Tires” (550 Music) features an array of its horn-accented, rootsy, surprisingly soulful jam-rock.

On Sunday, Nov. 8, esteemed contemporary singer-songwriter John Gorka headlines at the Iron Horse in Northampton. Gorka’s latest, “After Yesterday” (Red House), features more glistening, dark, acoustic folk from the New Jersey native transplanted to Minnesota, with simple, memorable melodies, gorgeous harmonies by Lucy Kaplansky and some surprising, industrial-folk percussion courtesy of Ani DiFranco’s drummer, Andy Stochansky.

Speaking of DiFranco, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, the Iron Horse presents a foursome of up-and-coming, female singer-songwriters in the DiFranco mold. “Wishes Well Disguised” (Motherlode) by Jess Klein, who received a Boston Music Award nomination as best new folk act this year, includes some DiFranco-like feminist folk-pop anthems -- “Solid Ground” is a LilithFair-style gem that could be a hit single -- and Klein boasts some serious vocal and guitar pyrotechnics of her own. Klein will be appearing along with Rose Polenzani, who at the young age of 23 has already appeared at the Newport Folk Festival and with the LilithFair. Fresh from the Indigo Girls’ recent Suffragette Sessions tour, on which they sang backup on one of her songs, Polenzani is touring behind her stunning, acoustic solo debut, “Dragersville,” which has drawn justly-deserved comparisons to Leonard Cohen. Beth Amsel and Erin McKeown are also on the bill.

Postmodern rock band Cake is at Pearl Street in Northampton on Thursday, Nov. 12. On “Prolonging the Magic” (Capricorn), the group tempers its irony somewhat, and even veers into country territory, but it still comes up with state-of-the-art pomo rock on songs like “Never There” and “You Turn the Screws.”

Irish folk-rock group The Saw Doctors kicks off “Songs From Sun Street” (Paradigm), due out next week, with one of its patented political anthems, “Good News,” and doesn’t let up, with numbers like “Sugartown,” which decries the loss of jobs and with it hope for the future in a dying company town. Catch the group at Pearl Street on Nov. 18.

Judging from his CD, “Morning in the Garden” (Neoga), pianist Joe Parillo, who brings his trio to the Castle Street Café in Great Barrington on Nov. 20, straddles the fine line between melodic jazz and new-age, but some of his tunes swing nevertheless.

On his new, live solo album, “Edge of the World” (Watch Bird), singer-songwriter Jon Carmen plays two songs not his own -- one by Richard Shindell, one by Neil Young. That alone merits some attention, but Carmen, who performs in Goodrich Hall at Williams College in Williamstown on Nov. 20, is a first-rate songwriter in his own right.

Robby Baier

Housatonic-based singer-songwriter Robby Baier is on the cover of this month’s Northeast Performer magazine. The October issue includes a profile of Baier, tracing his career from his days with German rock band Pearls At Swine to his current project, promoting his most recent CD, “Soul Tube.” The first single, “Seriously,” is already garnering airplay in Texas, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maine. That song and another from the album, “Right on Track,” are included in an upcoming Molly Ringwald movie, “Shady Places,” which is headed for the next Sundance Film Festival. Cheer the hometown hero when he performs this Friday night, Oct. 30, at O’Leary’s in Brookline, and again on Nov. 14 at the Worcester Common Outlets. On Dec. 3, Baier unveils his new band at Cambridge’s venerable Kendall Café.

Housekeeping

With this column, The Beat will revert to a biweekly schedule. Look for The Beat to return to its regular, weekly schedule sometime next spring.

In the meantime, you can hear a weekly preview of upcoming concerts on “Setting the Scene,” hosted by this writer along with free-lance DJ Jesse Milden, broadcast Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Williams College radio station WCFM (91.9 FM), whenever school is in session. Those beyond the listening range of WCFM can catch the broadcast over the Internet by pointing web browsers to http://wso.williams.edu/orgs/WCFM. In addition to highlighting music by artists coming to perform in the region, the show usually features ticket giveaways to shows in the Berkshires and the Northampton area.

And don’t forget to tune in to “The Klezmer Hour,” also on WCFM and the Internet, immediately following “Setting the Scene” on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. Also hosted by yours truly, the program features traditional and contemporary klezmer -- the instrumental dance music of Eastern European Jews -- as well as other styles of new Jewish music.

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Oct. 29, 1998. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1998. All rights reserved.]