The weekend’s cultural highlights in the region include a huge, 3-day bluegrass and roots music festival; a solo piano recital by a renowned virtuoso; a scion of Afrobeat; an alternative rock and arts festival; dance works; and a whole lot more.
What do Rosanne Cash, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Old Crow Medicine Show, Glen Hansard, the Devil Makes Three, the Infamous Stringdusters, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and AoifeO’Donovan have in common? First of all, they’re all roughly in the category of bluegrass, country, folk and roots music. Secondly, they are all performing at this weekend’s FreshGrass Festival at MASS MoCA in North Adams, today through Sunday, along with 50 other acts.
Also on the bill at the annual festival, which was a 2014 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards nominee for “Event of the Year” – are banjoist Alison Brown, Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen, guitarist StephaneWrembel, John Reischman and the Jaybirds, Mr. Sun, UK experimental folk group Lau, mandolin virtuoso Sierra Hull, Texas blues and roots sensation Ruthie Foster, Northampton-based alt-folk group Parsonsfield, and Mexican bluegrass artist RanaSantacruz, as well as 2015 FreshGrass Award winners Old Salt Union, Zoe & Cloyd, and Mile Twelve.
For something a little more ethereal, renowned concert pianist Simone Dinnerstein will perform a solo recital of works by two of my all-time favorite composers - Franz Schubert and Philip Glass - in the Music & More Series at the Historic Meeting House in New Marlborough, Mass., on Saturday at 4:30pm.
Singer-songwriter VieuxFarkaTouré will bring his signature blend of Malian blues and world-music fusion to Club Helsinki Hudson tonight at 9pm. On his own and with collaborators from all over the world, VieuxFarkaTouré has forged a distinctive musical blend, drawing on the music of his native Mali, and particularly that of his father, the late legendary Malian guitar player Ali FarkaTouré, combining rock, Latin music, and other sounds from around the world. In particular, his music explores the tonalities of West African music that is echoed in American blues.
Minimalist-metal duo Bell Witch, black-metal duo Wolves in the Throne Room, indie-folk rocker Angel Olsen, and Texas post-rockers Explosions in the Sky headline this year’s Basilica SoundScape festival, at Basilica Hudson, today through Sunday. Visual Artists featured include Cal Lane, Heather Benjamin, and Lisa Laratta. Spoken-word performers, reading from the rafters, will include Genesis BreyerP-Orridge and Amber Tamblyn. Performances take place beginning at 6pm this evening and 5pm on Saturday.
Dancer-choreographers Jodi Melnick, Steven Reker, and Dan Hurlin will perform excerpts from their work at American Dance Institute’s “End of Summer Shindig” – which will also mark the debut of the organization’s reinvention as a multidisciplinary performing arts organization called Lumberyard, paying tribute to the new space being renovated at a former lumberyard in Catskill, N.Y. – on Saturday from 5 to 8pm. The event will also feature live music provided by Buckeye Rooster.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of Berkishire Daily and the Rogovoy Report, available online at rogovoyreport.com
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.