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By STEVE PFARRER

Over the past few years, Tony Trischka, considered one of the most influential banjo players around, has been delving deep into the music of another banjo master: the late Earl Scruggs.Scruggs, in the 1940s, developed a unique three-finger style of...

By STEVE PFARRER

When Chris Smither found his live gigs shut down during the worst months of COVID-19, he figured it might at least be a good opportunity to write some new songs — something the veteran folk/blues singer and guitarist admits is not the easiest process...

By STEVE PFARRER

The Valley continues to be a fertile place for music, with a number of groups and artists releasing new albums this spring. Here’s a look at two of the records, with female singers at the forefront.On the Water: Lisa BastoniLisa Bastoni has been...

By STEVE PFARRER

It’s finally happening. Nearly seven months after ownership officially changed hands, and following extensive renovations, the Iron Horse Music Hall, shuttered since late March 2020, threw open its doors this week with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a...

By STEVE PFARRER

The Holyoke Civic Symphony has titled its 2023-2024 season “The Brass Menagerie,” not to be cute but to highlight a series of concerts dedicated to celebrating the family of brass instruments: the horn, the tuba, the trumpet, and the trombone.On May...

By Alexa Lewis

EASTHAMPTON — “I’m gonna tell you the truth. Not that the truth really matters, but I’m gonna tell you anyway,” says Devin O’Brien, covered in tassels and sequins as she took to the stage as Roxie Hart during a dress rehearsal for Easthampton High...

By STEVE PFARRER

In late March, the fabled Iron Horse Music Hall, slated to reopen in mid May, was still a pretty raw construction site.Boards, pipes, boxes, and other materials were piled on the floors, along the walls, and on tables. Extension cords to power saws...

By JUDSON BROWN

Da Camera Singers Director Sheila Heffernon wasn’t hiding her exasperation in addressing her tenor section after a recent rehearsal preparing the group for a 50th anniversary concert coming up May 11 and 12.“Watch me! Watch me! Watch me!” she wrote on...

By STEVE PFARRER

’Tis the season of gigs by artists dropping new albums.In early April, the Valley indie-folk band Cloudbelly celebrated a new disc, “i know i know i know,” with back-to-back shows at The Parlor Room in Northampton, and Natalie Cressman & Ian Faquini,...

By STEVE PFARRER

Madison Cunningham, who comes to Northampton’s Academy of Music April 19, won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album, for her 2022 release, “Revealer.”In fact, Cunningham, who grew up in southern California and still lives there, also has won...

By STEVE PFARRER

Not so long ago, there was a general lament sometimes heard among Valley musicians: “There aren’t enough places to play around here.”That might have been true for professional players who wanted to be paid — and maybe, despite the opening of new local...

By STEVE PFARRER

The assignment is pretty straightforward: tell a concise story about your life, in no more than five minutes, that reflects a certain theme.The challenge is in telling that story with enough heart, spirit, verve, humor or whatever else you can conjure...

By STEVE PFARRER

Just days after former folk and Americana performer turned indie-pop singer Caroline Rose played in Florence, Cloudbelly, the Valley indie folk band led by singer-songwriter Corey Laitman, is set to showcase songs from a new album that has a...

This year’s spring musical at Anne T. Dunphy Elementary School is Disney’s “Newsies Jr.” Based on the 1992 film, the musical is inspired by the rousing true story of newsboys in turn-of-the-century New York City. When powerful newspaper publishers...

By SHERYL HUNTER

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Pete Seeger’s death. The legendary folk musician, political activist, and environmentalist touched lives around the world with his songs, which were rich in hope and history and exhibited a strong sense of...

By STEVE PFARRER

Can the arts help us reexamine our past and come to terms with injustice? Can music, film and other mediums become instruments for social change by helping us look differently at our history and our beliefs?Those are questions the Power of Truths Arts...

By STEVE PFARRER

Since opening in the spring of 2022, The Drake has featured a wide range of music, from blues to rock to folk (and various combinations thereof), to jazz and more.“More” includes the Amherst club’s periodic forays into classical music, with concerts...

By JOAN AXELROD-CONTRADA

I heard the song “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones on the radio early in my late husband Fred’s illness.Never before had I listened to the lyrics carefully enough to know they were about grief. I’d always taken it as a song about generalized...

Poetry night celebrates BIPOC writers andorganizing workNORTHAMPTON — Franny Choi, the new poet laureate of Northampton, will do a reading tonight (Friday, March 1) at 6 p.m. at the Northampton Center for the Arts, where they’ll be joined by a number...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Almost two months before the Iron Horse Music Hall’s scheduled opening date, its new owners received some bad news that could prove to be a major setback.At Wednesday’s city License Commission meeting, chair Natasha Yakovlev and the...