Afropop duo Amadou & Mariam bring their cool, funky and soulful fusion of traditional Malian sounds and contemporary electronic dance music to the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., tonight at 8pm. The husband-and-wife duo have collaborated with the likes of Damon Albarn, TV on the Radio, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. (Fri, Mar 24)
World-renowned guitarist Beppe Gambetta brings his acoustic flatpicking skills to Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., tonight at 8pm. A native of Genoa, Italy, where he still lives, Gambetta fell in love with the sounds of Doc Watson, and has performed with the likes of David Grisman, Gene Parsons, Norman Blake, and Tony Trischka. (Fri, Mar 24)
Emma Donovan and the Putbacks bring their blend of funk and soul music with the protest music of indigenous Australia to the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, N.Y., tonight at 7:30pm. (Fri, Mar 24)
Composer and National Sawdust co-founder Paola Prestini returns to MASS MoCA in North Adams on Saturday at 8pm, with a work-in-progress preview of her new opera, The Old Man and the Sea. The piece interweaves Hemingway’s classic fable with original portraits of quotidian life to create a look at aging, legacy, and our relationship to oceans. (Sat, Mar 25)
Hudson’s own Bindlestiff Family Cirkus returns to Hudson Hall in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday for two programs, a family-friendly matinee at 3pm and a cabaret-style show for adults at 7pm. Both feature aerial acts, acrobatics, balancing feats, sword swallowing, juggling, physical comedy, and more performed by internationally renowned street performers, acts from Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Brothers, and artists made known by America's Got Talent. Live music will be provided by Sabrina Chap, and the evening show will feature burlesque artist Boo Boo Darlin’. (Sat, Mar 25)
Concerts in the Village makes its Berkshire debut on Saturday at 2:30pm, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Stockbridge, Mass., with a program called Singing with Strings, featuring works by Barber, Butterworth, Puccini, Vaughn Williams, and Verdi. The program will be repeated at CITV’s home base at Van Buren Hall in Kinderhook, N.Y., on Sunday at 3pm. (Sat, Mar 25/Sun Mar 26)
Guitarist and singer Steve Katz, a founding member of the Blues Project and Blood Sweat & Tears, brings his Night of Story and Song to the Spencertown Academy in Spencertown, N.Y., on Saturday at 8pm. The Brooklyn-born Katz got his start in show biz in the late 1950s on a local Schenectady, N.Y., television program called Teenage Barn. (Sat, Mar 25)
Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” a work in ten movements inspired by a visit to an art exhibition that challenges the greatest of piano soloists, is on tap when Close Encounters with Music performs at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, on Sunday at 4pm. Braving the 88 keys will be Max Levinson, accompanied by soprano Danielle Talamantes and cellist Yehuda Hanani. The program will also include works by Liszt and Debussy. (Sun, Mar 26)
And singer-songwriter Al Stewart, whom you will recall for his 1970s soft-rock hits “Time Passages” and “Year of the Cat,” will be joined by Chicago-based roots rockers the Empty Pockets for a concert at the Egg in Albany, N.Y., on Sunday at 7pm. (Sun, Mar 26)
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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