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Sonya
Kitchell Trio
Iron
Horse Music Hall, Thursday
People go through a lot of changes in their late teens. Just
look at western Massachusetts native Sonya Kitchell, who was
signed to a national recording contract at age 16 and earned
her first Grammy before she was 20 (thanks to her work on
Herbie Hancock’s Album of the Year-winning River: the Joni
Letters.) Her 2008 record, This Storm, shed the
jazz-tinged arrangements of her earlier work in favor of a
more straightforward pop-rock appeal, much to the chagrin
of some fans. But on her new EP Convict of Conviction,
Kitchell makes another sharp musical turn, adopting a string
quartet to back her for a set of ornate chamber pop. Kids
these days. . . . Kitchell will be joined at the Iron Horse
buy violinist Dana Lyn and Apollo Sunshine guitarist Sam Cohen.
The Sun Parade opens. (Feb. 3, 7 PM, $15, 20 Center St.,
Northampton, Mass., 413-586-8686)
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| Todd
Snider |
Todd
Snider
Club
Helsinki, Friday
Publicity
101: If Rolling Stone calls you the “funniest folkie
since John Prine,” you put it at the top of your press release
in all caps. Todd Snider earned that very heady praise for
his terrific blend of humor and truth, and that blend is on
fine display on The Storyteller, the new double-disc
Snider live album out this week. The Nashville singer-songwriter
has more expansively been called “part Dylan and Kristofferson,
part Mitch Hedberg and Bill Hicks,” and The Storyteller
shows exactly why: His humor isn’t just confined to the lyrics,
but stretches out into long, off-the-cuff stories and song
introductions. On the album, Snider is backed by Colorado
band Great American Taxi; at Club Helsinki, it’s just
pure, unadulterated Todd. (Feb. 4, 9 PM, $20, 405 Columbia
St., Hudson, 828-4800)
Papa
Grows Funk
Venable
Gymnasium, Friday
It’s more than a cash crop; it’s a New Orleans legacy. Funk,
that is. For a decade now, Hammond B3 maestro John Gros has
been growing the sticky, stinky variety with a team of the
Crescent City’s most accomplished groove barons. This is the
second time Papa Grows Funk have headlined the MCLA Blues
and Funk Festival, and we doubt it will be the last. Rounding
out the blues end of things will be bassist Benny Turner,
who can name both Freddie King and Johnny Mathis in his musical
and genetic lineage. (Feb. 4, 7:30 PM, $5-$12, Massachusetts
College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, Mass., 413-662-5000)
Yarn,
Steven L. Smith Band
Putnam
Den, Saturday
What is this world coming to when some of the best country
music is being made in Brooklyn?! Next you’ll tell us hillbillies
listen to hip-hop. (Wait, really?) Yarn are the country band
in question, unabashedly spinning world-weary twange on fiddles
and Dobros—even yodelling—from their urban digs. Some have
likened the sound to Steve Earle or Whiskeytown-era Ryan Adams,
but there’s definitely a little Grateful Dead in there as
well. Opener Steven L. Smith is an Adirondack man, so the
country comes easier, and the fact that he makes his own guitars—like,
out of wood—should say a thing or two about his commitment
to craft. (Feb. 5, 8 PM, $10, 63A Putnam St., Saratoga
Springs, 584-8066)
Appetite
for Destruction
Jillian’s,
Saturday
You know what? Fuck it, we’re going to go ahead and endorse
a tribute act. It’s not something we usually do, but in this
case we see no problem with it. Because Appetite for Destruction
are named for one of the all-time great hard-rock records,
an album whose seedy riffs and screeching wails are an appropriate
soundtrack for our last year on the planet. And because, as
you probably know, the band who currently call themselves
“Guns N’ Roses” are not the band the rest of us call Guns
N’ Roses, so a reasonable facsimile of the band we used to
love will have to do. The only qualm we have with Appetite
for Destruction is their self-billed status as the “ultimate”
tribute to Axl, Slash , and the gang—we’d give that honor
to the all-female GN’R tribute, Paradise Titty. (Feb. 5,
10 PM, $10, 59 N. Pearl St., Albany, 432-1997)
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| Also
Noted |
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| Railroad
Earth |
Tonight
(Thursday) brings the return of New Jersey’s folk-Americana
travelers Railroad Earth to the Capital
Region, for a show at Northern Lights; the band
currently are riding high on the strong October
debut of their latest, self-titled record (7 PM,
$22, 371-0012). . . . Last week’s concert at Bearsville
Theater may have been canceled due to weather,
but it looks like all systems are go for Neko
Case and Lost in the Trees at the Calvin
Theater in Northampton, Mass., tomorrow (Friday,
8 PM, $25-$32.50, 413-586-8686). . . . Third time’s
a charm, they say: The twice-postponed concert
by 30 Seconds to Mars will finally hold
firm this Friday at Northern Lights, and, lo and
behold, it’s sold out (8 PM, 371-0012). . . .
If you missed the sublime young songwriter David
Berkeley when he played Club Helsinki last
week, you have an extra-special bonus chance on
Friday: In addition to playing music from his
latest album, Some Kind of Cure, this Friday
at the Kleinert/James Art Center in Woodstock,
Berkeley will also read from and sign copies of
his new book of short stories, 140 Goats and
a Guitar (8 PM, $15, 845-679-2079). . . .
Here’s a rare chance to see a local great do his
thing in a small-combo setting: The Keith Pray
Group will play Justin’s on Saturday (9:30
PM, $5, 436-7008). . . . At Valentine’s on Tuesday,
get your fix of good-time, prohibition-era swing
with Asheville, N.C. band Woody Pines;
they’re joined by Dan Johnson and his Expert
Sidemen (8 PM, $5, 432-6572).
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