Legendary downtown performance artist Penny Arcade brings the curtain down on Bridge Street Theatre’s 2024 SoloFest in Catskill, N.Y., with her one-woman show Longing Lasts Longer with three performances, tonight through Sunday. A unique blend of stand-up comedy and memoir set in a riveting rock-and-roll soundscape mixed live onstage, Longing Lasts Longer is, according to a press release, “a fierce, visionary, and ultimately forward-looking critique of the erasure of history, the rise of nostalgia, and the pervasiveness of cultural amnesia created by international gentrification.” (Fri-Sun, Mar 22-24)
Grammy Award-winning roots-music trio Nickel Creek, featuring mandolinist Chris Thile, violinist Sara Watkins, and guitarist Sean Watkins, bring their blend of folk, bluegrass, and Americana to the Troy [N.Y.] Savings Bank Music Hall tonight at 8pm. The trio recently released the innovative, pathbreaking Celebrants — their fifth studio album and first release in nine years – which some have called the Sgt. Pepper’s of modern bluegrass. (Fri, Mar 22)
Trumpeter-vocalists Bria Skonberg and Benny Benack III will “reimagine” some of the classic partners in jazz and popular song, including Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby, and Dean Martin and Peggy Lee, performing songs by Gershwin, Ellington, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin, in “Sing & Swing” at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday at 8pm.
Innovative banjoist Tony Trischka, one of the pioneers of progressive bluegrass, brings his rootsy, vital sounds to the Egg in Albany, N.Y., on Saturday at 7pm, in a concert devoted to the music of bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs. (Sat, Mar 23)
Guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Tinsley Ellis will celebrate the release of his first-ever solo acoustic album, Naked Truth, swapping out the blistering, electric blues for which he is best known in favor of the folk blues traditions of Skip James, Son House, Robert Johnson, and Leo Kottke, with a live solo acoustic performance at The Linda, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, in Albany, N.Y., on Saturday at 8pm. (Sat, Mar 23)
Bobby Grossman arrived on the New York scene in the mid-seventies with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Grossman lived and worked from the Chelsea hotel, photographing the scenes at the Chelsea, at Andy Warhol’s Factory, and C.B.G.B.’s, where his camera captured the likes of Blondie, David Byrne, Andy Warhol, Fab5Freddie, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, the Ramones, and Jean Michel Basquiat. The exhibition Low Fidelity featuring his images is on display at Time and Space in Hudson, N.Y., now through Sunday, March 31. (Now-Mar 31)
Also of note:
Masha Gessen, Mark Whitaker, Sophie Strand, Lucy Sante, Elissa Altman, Simi Stone, Sari Botton, and Nick Flynn among many others will participate in the annual Woodstock Bookfest, based at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, N.Y., running today through Sunday, March 24.
A Shayna Maidel, by Barbara Lebow, tells the story of the reunion of two sisters after World War II, one having survived the Nazi concentration camps. The play will be staged at the Copake Grange in Copake, N.Y., tonight and Saturday, March 22-23, at 7:30pm, and on Sunday, March 24, at 3pm.
Acoustic folk duo Jay Ungar and Molly Mason bring their patented blend of original and traditional acoustic music to the Stissing Center in Pine Plains, N.Y., on Saturday at 7pm.
The Feelies bring their guitar-driven indie-rock to the Colony in Woodstock, N.Y., on Saturday at 8pm.
Montreal psych-rockers Elephant Stone, led by Rishi Dhir, bring their power-pop mixed with classical Indian touches to No Fun in Troy, N.Y., on Saturday at 7pm.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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