Kath Bloom is some kind of legend. She comes from a special place where country, blues and folk are made beautifully translucent and emotive. Highly regarded but a bit of a mystery. The Connecticut based singer/songwriter has a special gift - her almost supernaturally beautiful, wavering soprano is one that has to be heard, she has a clear transparent moonlight tone combined with an earthly raw quality that can silence a room.
Kath made some very very limited edition albums in the 70’s and 80’s with the amazing (and equally dreamlike) guitarist Loren Mazzacane Connors, full of songs that float and melt into the ether. Impossibly beautiful. However, music was put on the back burner as life changed and she raised a family, trained ‘problem horses’ and taught special music programs to kids. Just as she was starting to write and release CDs again, Richard Linklater decided to use her song ‘Come
Here’ in his 1995 film ‘Before Sunrise’. Life altered - not much - but the public consciousness was rightfully tweaked. Slowly her old recordings and new material have been seeping back into the world. This includes a special tribute album by artists such as Josephine Foster, Bill Callahan, Devendra Banhart, Meg Baird and Scout Nibblet. Since 2017 she has been recording and performing with New Haven, CT based guitarist David Shapiro.
Classically trained and rigorously de-trained, possessor of a restless, semi-feral spirit, Lori Goldston is a cellist, composer, improvisor, producer, writer and teacher from Seattle. Her voice as a cellist, amplified or acoustic, is full, textured, committed and original. A relentless inquirer, her work drifts freely across borders that separate genre, discipline, time and geography.
Current and former collaborators and/or bosses include Earth, Nirvana, Mirah, Jessika Kenney, Ilan Volkov, Eyvind Kang, Stuart Dempster, David Byrne, Terry Riley, Jherek Bischoff, Malcom Goldstein, Steve Von Till, Lonnie Holley, Cat Power, Ellen Fullman, Maya Dunietz, Mik Quantius, Embryo, O Paon, Tara Jane O’Neil, Natacha Atlas, Broken Water, Ed Pias, Christian Rizzo and Sophie Laly, Threnody Ensemble, Cynthia Hopkins, 33 Fainting Spells, Vanessa Renwick, Mark Mitchell, Lynn Shelton, and many more.
Her work has been commissioned by and/or performed at the Kennedy Center, Sydney Festival, Cineteca Nacional de México, Tectonics Festival, Frye Art Museum, Time Based Art Festival (TBA), WNYC, The New Foundation, Paris Fashion Week, Northwest Film Forum, On the Boards, Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle Jewish Film Festival, Bumbershoot, Crossing Border Festival, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Joe’s Pub, the Stone, University of Chicago, and venues large and small throughout North America, Mexico, Australia, and Europe.
On A New Kind of Hat, the new long-player from Massachusetts's own Jake McKelvie, indie-rock melodicism slow dances with alt-country ramble. A kind soul that's just a touch world-weary, McKelvie's careful economy of language belies a sly sense of humor set against a backdrop of unadorned instrumentation.
Thematically, the record strikes the perfect balance between serious musing and whimsy. With his band of in-the-pocket players at his side, McKelvie has crafted a record that is equally at home in the listening room as on the dance floor. Eminently engaging and full of nuance, A New Kind of Hat is a record destined for a treasured spot in your collection.
Jake McKelvie has been writing songs and performing them since his teens. With his band The Countertops he's released three full length records and toured relentlessly to support them. His last proper solo effort was 2016's Rhinestone Busboy.
This time around, McKelvie has decided to file the new record in the “solo project” bin. “The Countertops are known for energetic live shows and goofy stage behavior, whereas as a solo act I do more of the folk singer thing” he explains. “This new record floats somewhere in between those two things.”
Written over the years in myriad apartments and tour vans throughout the northeast and beyond, McKelvie turned to Grain Thief's Mike Harmon and his studio Wachusett Recording to track the record. In addition to McKelvie, the record features appearances by Michael Holland on bass, and Countertops drummer Matt Bacon. Keith Dusoe makes a cameo on pedal steel. It was mixed by Harmon and Roger Lavallee.
There's a lot here if you really listen — but you can just as well hum and tap along.
Doors are at 7pm and music will begin at 730 sharp! Seating is limited and first come first served!