What’s occupying your calendar for this upcoming Sunday afternoon (June 10)?
Odds are good that you can hold off on the laundry for another day and instead bring the whole family out to the Middle East for a great afternoon show featuring the extremes of local folk music all gathered together in one show. This all-ages affair begins with doors at 1 PM (though nothing is stopping anyone from showing up earlier and letting the Middle East make brunch for you as well).
http://www.mideastclub.com
First up is Most Bitter, whose keyboards and loops and toys and North Indian classical instruments can seem as far from folk as possible. However, once you boil songs down to their essence, the results are still a collection of notes and words no matter what instruments are used. Bringing poetry and music together doesn’t need to be a high art form, it just needs to make good songs and this is a glimpse at the folk music of the future.
http://www.myspace.com/mostbitter
Hailing from New London, Connecticut, the Can Kickers are a trio whose irreverence for the folk idiom is only overshadowed by their love of it. With banjo, fiddle, and a backbeat, they bring traditional songs into the punk era and take punk forms and tack them to tradition. It’s a whirlwind of bliss, that reminds you that the dancing part of folk can be just as important as sitting back on the porch swigging whiskey (or at least helps you understand why those same people that created our popular folk forms are the same folks who nowadays cook meth in
their sheds).
http://www.cankickers.com/
Kurt Weisman is a songwriter whose music truly possesses an otherworldy musical allure. Usually he’s heard within the confines of his band Feathers, whose self-titled CD was released on Devendra Banhart’s Gnomonsong record label, but this afternoon he takes wing on his own. With tunes about rainbows and bird songs sung as if they are coming from those voices themselves, Weisman is a talent for the ages.
http://www.feathersfamily.org/
The event is headlined by Mike and Ruth Merenda, the recently married couple who have spent their past few summers hitting every folk festival in the nation as part of the Mammals. After drawing more attention in the parking lots at the Newport Folk Festival than many of the main stage acts, the group has ascended the ranks boasting the slogan “Trad is Rad.” Supporting solo records and a forthcoming disc recorded on their honeymoon, the Merendas make music engaging and fun, without being afraid to get a bit political.
http://www.michaelmerenda.com/
Sun 6/10
Mike and Ruthie Merenda (the Mammals), Kurt Weisman (Feathers), The Can Kickers, Most Bitter - All Ages - $8– NOTE: 1pm Doors
http://www.michaelmerenda.com/
http://www.feathersfamily.org/
http://www.cankickers.com/
http://www.myspace.com/mostbitter
http://www.mideastclub.com
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