Pamela Means is an exceptional guitarist and songwriter. Her protest-leaning folk songs are legendary. She fronts a Jazz band and as a trio in the Pamela Means Band. But her latest project is ambitious indeed. She has challenged herself to learn the Beatles’ Abbey Road and play it solo acoustic in it’s entirety.

Our set includes two such pieces from Abbey Road, George Harrison’s “Something” and Lennon/McCartney’s “Golden Slumbers” from the side two medley.

We also visit some of Pamela’s Jazz Project with “My Funny Valentine” and a gorgeous tune from her latest solo release, Plainfield, called “Castor and Pollux”.

In between our conversation, we listen to the newly released 2019 “Super Deluxe Package” of Abbey Road including “Come Together”, “Sun King”,”Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and “Here Comes the Sun” .

Pamela will play the Abbey Road album on Friday October 4th at Northampton’s Parlor Room. Her complete catalog and information on lessons etc can be found at Pamela Means.com

Christa Joy and Michael Stephens joined me for a “joy”ful in-studio performance on Nine Volt Heart. Our wide-ranging conversation includes a healthy dose of tunes from her upcoming album, “Get on,Heart”. We talk about the evolution of her sound over her three releases. Christa delves into her personal history documenting the heartbreak and joy behind these songs. Our session includes cuts from her new disc along with three live versions. Included are “Get On, Heart”, “Honey Bee”, “Ready or Not”,”You Don’t Know”, “On the Shunpike”, “She’s Enough”, and “You’re Not There”.

The commentary is honest and in-depth throughout. Give it a listen.

Christa Joy and the Honey Bees CD release shows are 6/23 at The Parlor Room and 6/27 at Dream Away Lodge. Catch them if you can.

Allison DeGroot and Tatiana Hargreaves will release their new self-titled album at Northampton’s Parlor Room on 5/5. In advance of that show, I had the chance to talk to them about their careers and their latest songs and tunes.

Allison DeGroot plays clawhammer banjo on these recordings while Tatiana fiddles. Folks might recognize Allison for her work with the Canadian quartet, Oh Darling or perhaps her appearances with The Good Bye Girls; a collaboration with Molly Tuttle, Brittany Karlson and Lena Johnson. Her latest visit to the area was with Bruce Molsky’s Mountain Drifters.

Tatiana may be familiar to our listeners from her time at Hampshire College or as part of Western Massachusetts Ephemeral Stringband. She has played with Gillian Welch as well as Laurie Lewis in her tribute to Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard. Tatiana also has a new project called “Hard Drive”.

Our conversation covers their musical educations, their myriad projects and their teaching at camps. Tatiana is on UNC’s Music faculty this year teaching bluegrass fiddle. They are both teaching at summer workshops all over the country.

Our soundtrack includes Tatiana’s “Say Darling Say” from her first CD release, The new duo album songs spotlighted were “Cuckoo’s Nest”, “Farewell Whiskey”, “Dry” and “Beaufort County Jail”. Additional songs include Tatiana’s work with Laurie Lewis’s “Walking in my Sleep”, Hazel and Alice’s “Sing Me Back Home”, Molsky’s Mountian Drifter’s “Grandad’s Favorite/Flatwoods” and the Goodbye Girls live recording of “I’ve Always Been a Rambler”.

Check out their Parlor Room show on Sunday May 5th.

The ladies of Emma June Band came to Valley Free Radio’s studio to sing some songs and let their fans and radio listeners know about their upcoming shows and plans. Emma Ayres is the lead vocalist, guitarist and song-writer but shares vocal duties with Zoe Young who also plays guitar. Abby Kahler plays fiddle and Abbie Duquette plays bass (she plays a wild uke-bass in this session). They all sing.

We open the segment with their song, “For Icarus” followed by Joni Mitchell’s “Amelia” which also uses the Icarus metaphor. Live in the studio, the ladies continue the “mythology imagery” with a song called “Odysseus”. They perform “Little Bird” which is an unrecorded song for the band. I played an amazing song from the only recorded release, Graduate, that is called “Progress”. Emma introduces the song as a tribute and reminder of the history of the towns submerged by the Quabbin Reservoir. The band finishes our set with a gorgeous affecting acapella version of “Bread Winner”.

The Emma June Band will be performing tonight April 14th at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls, Ma. They are also scheduled to perform at the Sustainability Festival on the Amherst Common on April 27 as well as the Taste of Amherst in June.

Lisa Bastoni has revisited and re-energized her musical career in the last two years. She took ten years away from singing to get a degree and raise a family. We’re glad that the muse hit her again while pushing a baby stroller or late at night after her children were put to bed. Her 2017 release is named after those times, The Wishing Hour. Those ten original songs brought her back to performing and to great acclaim. She was chosen as Emerging Artist at Falconridge Folk Festival, a showcase Artist at North East Regional Folk Alliance, winning awards for her songwriting at places like Rocky Mountain Folk Festival among others.

Lisa has moved to the Northampton area and has several upcoming shows scheduled in the area (as well as the Boston area). We were fortunate to spend an hour together listening to her songs and discussing her songwriting. Our set includes a number of tunes from “The Wishing Hour” like “In This Town”, “It’s the Staying That Hurts”, and “Wichita”.

We were fortunate to be able to hear a whole batch of soon to be released songs in this session. We heard versions of “Walk a Little Bit Closer”, “Beautiful Girl”, and “Nearby” among others. It was a pleasure to get to know Lisa while talking about a variety of subjects including busking, her Grandmother’s influence, and the new music series that Lisa is curating for the Montague Book Mill.

Maya DeVitry has just released a gorgeous solo release called “Adaptations”, a set of a dozen thoughtful songs covering issues like migration, civil and personal rights. The songs differ from her work with The Stray Birds in that they were written and conceived not in three part harmony but for her solo voice. She is ably supported by the stellar guitar work of Anthony Da Costa whose work includes Aiofe O’Donovan and Sarah Jarosz. Sam Grisman on bass and Jason Burger on drums fill out her band. Our segment covers a lot of territory with commentary about her trip to Jordan with the Boston-based bluegrass unit, Della Mae, to her solo trips to Cuba and remote cabins in Pennsylvania to write these songs. Her answers are thoughtful and full of insights of her journey from the aggressive touring of The Stray Birds to this very meditative soulful release on her own.

Our segment includes a healthy dose of the new album but begins with The Stray Bird’s song, “Dream in Blue” from 2012. New songs include “What the Moon Said”, “Anybody’s Friend”,”Go Tell A Bird” and “My Body is a Letter”.

Maya brings her band and her new batch of incredible songs to Club Passim in Cambridge on May 17th. Catch this talented singer songwriter with her trio of Ethan Jodziewicz on bass and Jason Burger on drums.

This newly formed trio have performed together only a handful of times but their joyful singing and harmonies would have you believe these ladies have been at it all their lives. They have been friends since high school and their comfort level  with each other adds to their natural ease performing together.

The group consists of Chelsie Field, Tess Burdick and Eliza Hollister. Ona Canoa will be opening the upcoming “Lilith of the Valley” series on 3/9 at Northampton, Massachusetts’ Bishop’s Lounge. Our in-studio session features four original songs by the band as well as songs by some of their favorite songwriters. Included are the songs; “Legs”, “River Rock”, “Aubergine” and Molasses”.

Included in our discussion is a chat with Kara Kharmah who is the organizer of these “Lillith Of the Valley” showcases. She is also the woman behind PRIA Music Marketing who aids bands in their quest to “brand themselves” in the effort to gain more fans. She helps focus their efforts through her work on social media platforms, website designs, promotions and more. She gives us details on March 9th’s lineup and participants.

Chris Brashear and Jim Henry will headline the Tribute to Doc Watson which will be held on 2/28 at the Parlor Room. They were kind enough to join me for the first hour of Nine Volt Heart on WXOJ. The live set began with the classic, “Deep River Blues” followed by the mournful “Dream of a Miner’s Child”. We also heard Jim Henry’s recorded tune “Doc’s Rag” in between the in-studio performances. A nice version of “Columbus Stockade Blues” is followed by Chris and Jim’s rendition of “Black Mountain Rag”. We listened to Billy String’s version of “Beaumont Rag” along with a live version of “Windy and Warm”. The recording finishes with Doc’s “Your Lone Journey” and “Whiskey For Breakfast”

Both Chris and Jim are incredible musicians and tell some great stories throughout.  There will be a full lineup of stellar players joining this duo including Paul Kochanski, Eric Lee, Rebecca Jones, Max Wareham and Tracy Grammar! Enjoy the session on the audio track above.

I admit to being a serious fan of Seamus Egan and his band, Solas. He’s a wizard on virtually every stringed instrument (and more). I was anxious about interviewing him because, well, he’s a big freakin star! I shouldn’t have worried, he couldn’t have been more genuine. Our conversation covers his early musical education in Ireland and the burgeoning  traditional Irish jams in Philly and NYC which led to the formation of his long lived band of virtuosos, Solas. We talk about the band’s hiatus and the opportunity to refocus on his first solo instrumental album in 23 years, “Everything Always Was”!

The Seamus Egan Project comes to Northampton’s Parlor Sessions on 2/10. Don’t miss this chance to see this multi-instrumentalist wow a crowd. Joyfulness personified.

Stephane Wrembel is quite simply one of the finest guitarists in the world. The New York Observer said,”Stephane represents the living face of Gypsy Jazz.” Rolling Stone has called him ” a revelation”. The music of Django Reinhardt is the beginning point for this amazing player. He was born in Fontainebleau, the birthplace of Impressionism as well as his musical idol, Django. Stephane is a Grammy award-winning guitarist for his work in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”.

Our conversation is far-reaching from the music he learned at the feet of masters in the Gypsy camps, to references about Plato, spirituality and chicken wings! The segment includes four songs as well. We begin with his version of Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia”, Django’s “Minor Swing”, Stephane’s Grammy nod “Bistro Fada” and a brand new version of a traditional tune played with Reinhardt’s grandson “Petriarka”.