Musical Showcase – Dr. Westchesterson ‘I’m From Western Mass’
The most famous rapper in Western Massachusetts. https://www.drwestchesterson.com/
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The most famous rapper in Western Massachusetts. https://www.drwestchesterson.com/
Emma Ayres is an Azorean-American singer-songwriter. She calls what she writes: folk journalism. Like a magpie atop a shimmering nest of 27 years of stories, the cinematic reel of Americana inspired sounds leads the listener through an archive of familial memory, the high lonesome rasp of loves lost and won, and an unshakable political ethos. Like a dog howling at something you can't see but makes you bristle regardless, her music makes you stop… and listen. Ayres’s passion for storytelling steers the helm of the song—she is releasing the much-awaited EP “Encyclopedia of the Broken-Hearted” on December 31, 2019, recorded at Echo Base Studios and Produced by Nate Mondschein. She is currently working on a folk-opera about the socio-political history of the flooding of the Quabbin Valley titled: “The Water Project,” which will be performed in Spring of 2020. Emma Ayres plays and sings in Western-Mass based projects EMMA JUNE BAND and OLD FLAME. Ayres’s voice has been compared to Lucinda Williams with the fire of Ani DiFranco and her lyrics call upon her passion for metaphor and mythology.
The latest album from The Suitcase Junket, Mean Dog, Trampoline is populated by characters in various states of reverie: leaning on jukeboxes, loitering on dance floors, lying on the bottoms of empty swimming pools in the sun. Despite being deeply attuned to the chaos of the world, singer/songwriter/ multi-instrumentalist Matt Lorenz imbues those moments with joyful wonder, an endless infatuation with life’s most subtle mysteries. And as its songs alight on everything from Joan Jett to moonshine to runaway kites, Mean Dog, Trampoline makes an undeniable case for infinite curiosity as a potent antidote to jadedness and despair. Produced by Steve Berlin (Jackie Greene, Rickie Lee Jones, Leo Kottke) of Los Lobos, Mean Dog, Trampoline marks a deliberate departure from the self-produced, homespun approach of The Suitcase Junket’s previous efforts. In creating the album, Lorenz pulled from a fantastically patchwork sonic palette, shaping his songs with elements of jangly folk, fuzzed-out blues, oddly textured psych-rock. Engineered by Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr., Speedy Ortiz) and mixed by Vance Powell (Jack White, Houndmouth), Mean Dog, Trampoline rightly preserves The Suitcase Junket’s unkempt vitality, but ultimately emerges as his most powerfully direct album so far. The follow-up to 2017’s Pile Driver, Mean Dog, Trampoline takes its title from a lyric in “Scattered Notes From A First Time Home Buyers Workshop,” a brightly tumbling folk romp built on ramshackle rhythms and jeweled guitar tones. “I found the notes I’d taken during a first-time homebuyers workshop years ago and they were completely incomprehensible, so I decided to put them into a song,” says Lorenz, an Amherst, Massachusetts-based artist who’s made music under the name of The Suitcase Junket since 2009. “Mean dogs and trampolines are two things insurance companies really hate,” he adds. With its name nodding to Lorenz’s longtime love of collecting old suitcases (including an antique that he’s refurbished into a bass drum) and to a secondary definition of junket (i.e., “a pleasure excursion”), The Suitcase Junket reveals all the warmth and wildness to be found within such limitation. Not only proof of his ingenuity as a songmaker, that improbable richness is ineffably bound to Lorenz’s purposeful fascination—an element he alludes to in discussing one of his most beloved tracks on Mean Dog, Trampoline, the gloriously clattering “Stay Too Long.” “I’m the kind of person who wants to stay around till the very end of whatever’s happening,” Lorenz says of the song’s inspiration. “Whether it’s a party or something else, I always want to know how it ends. Even if it’s probably gonna be a total disaster, I want to be there to see it all.”
The latest album from The Suitcase Junket, Mean Dog, Trampoline is populated by characters in various states of reverie: leaning on jukeboxes, loitering on dance floors, lying on the bottoms of empty swimming pools in the sun. Despite being deeply attuned to the chaos of the world, singer/songwriter/ multi-instrumentalist Matt Lorenz imbues those moments with joyful wonder, an endless infatuation with life’s most subtle mysteries. And as its songs alight on everything from Joan Jett to moonshine to runaway kites, Mean Dog, Trampoline makes an undeniable case for infinite curiosity as a potent antidote to jadedness and despair. Produced by Steve Berlin (Jackie Greene, Rickie Lee Jones, Leo Kottke) of Los Lobos, Mean Dog, Trampoline marks a deliberate departure from the self-produced, homespun approach of The Suitcase Junket’s previous efforts. In creating the album, Lorenz pulled from a fantastically patchwork sonic palette, shaping his songs with elements of jangly folk, fuzzed-out blues, oddly textured psych-rock. Engineered by Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr., Speedy Ortiz) and mixed by Vance Powell (Jack White, Houndmouth), Mean Dog, Trampoline rightly preserves The Suitcase Junket’s unkempt vitality, but ultimately emerges as his most powerfully direct album so far. The follow-up to 2017’s Pile Driver, Mean Dog, Trampoline takes its title from a lyric in “Scattered Notes From A First Time Home Buyers Workshop,” a brightly tumbling folk romp built on ramshackle rhythms and jeweled guitar tones. “I found the notes I’d taken during a first-time homebuyers workshop years ago and they were completely incomprehensible, so I decided to put them into a song,” says Lorenz, an Amherst, Massachusetts-based artist who’s made music under the name of The Suitcase Junket since 2009. “Mean dogs and trampolines are two things insurance companies really hate,” he adds. With its name nodding to Lorenz’s longtime love of collecting old suitcases (including an antique that he’s refurbished into a bass drum) and to a secondary definition of junket (i.e., “a pleasure excursion”), The Suitcase Junket reveals all the warmth and wildness to be found within such limitation. Not only proof of his ingenuity as a songmaker, that improbable richness is ineffably bound to Lorenz’s purposeful fascination—an element he alludes to in discussing one of his most beloved tracks on Mean Dog, Trampoline, the gloriously clattering “Stay Too Long.” “I’m the kind of person who wants to stay around till the very end of whatever’s happening,” Lorenz says of the song’s inspiration. “Whether it’s a party or something else, I always want to know how it ends. Even if it’s probably gonna be a total disaster, I want to be there to see it all.”
Praised by NPR for their “upbeat, poppy vibe; energetic, driving rhythms" and "virtuosic solos,” Twisted Pine has quickly become one of the most acclaimed young string bands in the Northeast. Audiences across the US and UK have been drawn to their forthright songwriting, lush harmonies, musical daring, and charismatic appeal. Steeped in traditional music, these musicians are also fearless, tuneful improvisers and passionate lovers of pop. Fiddler Kathleen Parks' command of the vocal mic is as charming as it is gutsy. On her instrument, Parks is an insatiable risk-taker, seeking out exciting new musical territories. Mandolinist Dan Bui is a master of melody and drive, celebrated widely for his dexterous, tasteful picking. And bassist Chris Sartori holds down the low end and a lot more, introducing creative, funk-inflected cadences that never overwhelm the beat. But while it’s easy to celebrate each of the band members individually, Twisted Pine is more than a collection of talented musicians - it’s a unit that grooves together. Their intricate arrangements of swelling, syncopated rhythm and precise instrumental interplay bring the enveloping sound and hooks of indie pop to an acoustic instrumental setting. You’ll find Twisted Pine on stages large and small, entertaining festivals of thousands and intimate rooms alike. Winners of the 2018 Boston Music Award's Americana Artist of the Year and selected as one of Improper Bostonian's 2018 "Top 10 Local Acts on the Rise," Twisted Pine has played major events from Grey Fox to DelFest to Glasgow’s Celtic Connections and beyond. “They absolutely rule their musical world with humor and relish,” says legendary fiddler Darol Anger. Twisted Pine released its debut, self-titled album of original music in 2017, followed in 2018 by Dreams, an EP of “wildly innovative covers… full of spark, light, and irresistible force” according to PopMatters. Check out Twisted Pine on tour and see why the Boston Globe calls them “a wider version of stringband, boundary jumpers akin to outfits like Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek, and Crooked Still.”