ALMANACALMANAC WEEKLYWEEKLY A miscellany of Hudson Valley art, adventure and ideas | Calendar & Classifieds | Issue 3 | Jan. 17 – 24 night music stage art movie kids taste garden sky history calendar The Eagles Have Landed LOOK UP BRENDAN LALLY 2 ALMANAC WEEKLY Jan. 17, 2019 MUSICMUSICMUSIC Rock Academy plays Kings on Saturday, January 19. The Radiohead at Colony Albany-area Lustre Kings are a well- known force nationally in the rocka- The skilled apprentices of the Rock billy revival movement, and their trib- Academy set their sights on the epoch- ute to the King, who would have been al space-rock of Radiohead at Colony 84 this year, is inspired and authentic. in Woodstock on the third weekend For this special date, the Lustre Kings in January. Radiohead’s career can be will be joined by other members of the understood in terms of its “before Kid region’s talented rock ‘n’ roll revival A” atmospheric guitar rock and the scene. Tickets cost $20 in advance, “Kid A and after” trailblazing electro/ $25 on the day of the show. art-pop. The Rock Academy intends to do justice to both, announcing that Elvis bash they will draw on everything from The Saturday, Jan. 19 Bends (this writer’s preferred record) 9 p.m. through In Rainbows, thereby hon- Club Helsinki oring Radiohead’s own longstanding 405 Columbia St. tradition of denying the existence of Hudson their debut record Pablo Honey, as if www.helsinkihudson.com it were nothing more than an embar- rassing baby photograph. – John Burdick Falcon hosts David Amram this Sunday Radiohead by Rock Academy Friday/Saturday, Jan. 18/19 7:00 p.m. Colony 22 Rock City Rd. Woodstock www.colonywoodstock.com Hear Woodstock Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition champion this Saturday An eccentric and playful eminence of American music, David Amram brings his New Year Salute to the Fal- Chris Barron JESSE DITTMAR con on Sunday, January 20. The show features classics of jazz and world mu- MUSIC sic by Ellington, Gershwin, Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Lester CHRIS BARRON OF THE SPIN Young, Mary Lou Williams, Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs and David Amram, DOCTORS TO PLAY THE FALCON as well as spoken word with music ade with an A-list cast of New York session players, a number from the writings of Jack Kerouac, of whom are Woodstock-area residents, Chris Barron’s new re- Langston Hughes and Edna St. Vin- Photo of violist Alex McLaughlin by cord Angels and One-Armed Jugglers is a surprisingly broad and cent Millay. There is no cover charge Elena Sloman Mrangy chamber/roots effort, moving from the sophisticated jazz/ at the Falcon, but generous donation blues of the title tracks through pretty folksongs and a variety of rockers that is encouraged. The Woodstock Symphony Or- wouldn’t sound entirely out of place on a record by his former band, the Spin chestra presents the “Woodstock and Doctors. Chris Barron performs at the Falcon in Marlboro on Friday, January David Amram Beyond” Concerto Competition win- 19. There is no cover charge at the Falcon, but donation is strongly encouraged. Sunday, Jan. 20 ner at the Woodstock Playhouse on 8 p.m. Saturday, January 19. Violist Alex Chris Barron show, Friday, Jan. 19, 8 p.m., The Falcon, 1348 Route 9W, Marl- The Falcon McLaughlin, will be featured in a per- boro, www.liveatthefalcon.com 1348 Route 9W formance of the 20th-century British Marlboro composer William Walton’s famous www.liveatthefalcon.com Viola Concerto, conducted by mae- program are Sibelius’ Symphony No. Tickets cost $25, $20 for seniors and stro Jonathan Handman. Also on the 2 and Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. $5 for students. Datura Road plays Woodstock Symphony Orchestra Unison this Saturday SUNY ULSTER SPECIAL EVENT Saturday, Jan. 19 7:30 p.m. Woodstock Playhouse 103 Mill Hill Rd. Woodstock (845) 679-6900 www.woodstockplayhouse.org ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Elvis Presley Birthday STORYHORSE DOCUMENTARY THEATER Bash with Lustre Kings Mary Stuart Masterson & Jeremy Davidson at Helsinki Hudson The Hudson Valley quartet Datura Saturday, February 2, 7:00 p.m. • Quimby Theater, Vanderlyn Hall Road plays a global fusion of sorts. Al- (Snow date: March 30, 7:00 p.m.) though their instrument locker is deep THE FACE OF IT in both Eastern and Western depart- three one-act documentary plays about identity ments, and the players skilled and based on conversations with people in the Hudson Valley. well-versed in their source materials, Datura Road is not really a world Written by Jeremy Davidson • Directed by Mary Stuart Masterson Sound Design by Seth Chrisman • Projection Design by Rasean Davonte Johnson shred platform. This is a pop band – a progressive, acoustic/electric world- pop band that mixes in a few concise Club Helsinki hosts For more information: its yearly Elvis instrumentals. Rhythms and melodies Presley Birthday Bash, featuring, per with Arabic, Celtic, Latin, Mediterra- 845-687-5262 • www.sunyulster.edu A STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK COMMUNITY COLLEGE usual, Mark Gamsjager & the Lustre nean undercurrents are judiciously Jan. 17, 2019 ALMANAC WEEKLY 3 arranged in the service of a pretty sweet set of arty prog/folk songs, sung in the purely likable and rich tenor of Matthew Nobile, whose multi-instru- ment fluency also accounts for much of the band’s timbral richness. The themes on Datura Road’s impressive 2017 self-titled debut are of the kind that always seem to accompany progressive acoustic world-pop: natural imagery and symbolism, mystical suggestion, an optimistic poetry concerned with such trivialities as peace, fulfilling potential and the harmonious relations between living things. What, Nick Lowe still asks daily, is so funny about peace, love and understanding? Datura Road Saturday, Jan. 19 8 p.m. Unison Arts Center 68 Mountain Rest Rd. New Paltz (845) 255-1559 www.unisonarts.org Reynolds & Reynolds hosts Elias Krell this Sunday Laura Stevenson RACHEL BRENNECKE MUSIC The mysterious songs of Laura Stevenson he Long Island, then-Brooklyn, now-Saugerties singer/songwriter Laura Stevenson splits her bandwidth just about evenly between a rambunctious, stormy and keenly melodic power-pop on one side and a delicate (though still stormy) chamber Americana on the other. In both modes, her work is distinguished by an opulence, an embarrass- When pressed for a genre, Elias ment of inventive vocal harmony; dramatic and non-traditional song forms that take you for a ride; and lyrics that Krell describes their music as English Tdart smartly between acute detail and impressionistic flights of metaphor and pure language. It’s heady, wildly musical stuff, and Spanish transgenre dream pop. and my admiration for it is a matter of public record. Seems accurate to me. The opera- Everything about it says “pop,” and yet Stevenson’s work registers – to me, at least – as something more like art song. Perhaps trained singer keeps those chops it is the Chopinesque particularity of her melodic lines, her taste for dynamic and epic forms (even in tight spaces) or the mostly in the drawer in their slick and frequently oblique and surprising twists in her lyrics. She might want to write perfect, compact pop songs that hit all the earthy chamber-pop recordings, big targets, and the marketplace would certainly love her to; but her gushing talent breaches that narrow sluice every time. though an appreciation for all forms This suits me just fine. “The perfect pop song” is a genuinely dumb idea that tends to get all up in the heads of smart people, of art song, from the salon to the with stultifying consequences. In the face of boundless, exotic riches, we elect mundanity like a culture composed entirely of street, is in evidence all over Krell’s pundits and prognosticators. Smart people like perfect pop songs. I prefer music. five sparkling new solo folk records, Anyway, that’s me. It’s not easy in here. In late December, Laura Stevenson released a “double single,” some of her first new the last two of which were recorded music since 2015’s delightful rocker Cocksure. These two mysterious and emotionally saturated songs fall on the “chamber” locally and with some regional session side: acoustic, drumless, sparsely arranged with some light atmospherics, bowed strings and vocal harmonies that are, by aces on board. Stevenson’s standards, restrained. It is a conceptually unified set of songs as well, released on the occasion of her mother’s Elias Krell and Jem Violet perform at birthday and reflecting on the harrowing experiences of her childhood. “I grew up watching my mom go through so much,” the Reynolds & Reynolds Taproom in she said. “I just wanted to share this as a way of showing her my appreciation for everything she endured while raising me Woodstock on Sunday, January 20. and my sister.” The slower, rhapsodic “The Mystic & the Master” arcs along on its gorgeous, patient melody until jarred off the rails and to a Elias Krell and Jem Violet truncated halt by its violent concluding image: “her second man’s sucker punch.” “The Maker of Things” is brighter in tempo, Sunday, Jan. 20, 5 p.m. less resolute in harmony, and more focused on a single, pivotal moment in a family history, seeming to describe a mother/ Reynolds & Reynolds daughter standoff at a gas station. The songs share a striking undercurrent of violence, belied by Stevenson’s melodic acumen 104 Mill Hill Rd., Woodstock and pinpoint vocal precision. (845) 217-7921 Less stylized and genre-bound than some of her previous acoustic efforts, these songs suggest that a rich and mature chamber- www.eliaskrell.com folk vein is there for the mining. Both are now streaming in all the usual places.