“Stay open” is a phrase I’ve heard said by singer/songwriter Jane Siberry, and few performers interact with the pulse of a room as deeply as she does. She goes on a journey with her audience, getting it involved like a zen field trip leader, calmly introducing everyone to the wondrous landscape all around.
I first heard Siberry’s music in 1987, thanks to late-night MTV and her video for a quirky pop single (“YAHDEE YAHDEE YAHDEE” went the rousing refrain). I bought her then-current album, “The Walking,” and was surprised and transfixed by its long, progressive compositions, like short films, with different sections, characters and points of view. The powerful title track, both fragile and strong, builds to an emotional climax that still grips the heart after decades of listening.
Over the years it seems like Siberry has been paring away, letting go of complication and cleverness, trying to get to the heart of things, something personal and spiritual. (Van Morrison and Miles Davis are two artists she’s mentioned as inspirations.) There was even a time in the 2000s when she sold the majority of her possessions and changed her name to Issa.
Her best-known song is her 1993 duet with k.d. lang, “Calling All Angels,” but gems are found throughout her many albums, like “The Life Is the Red Wagon” (“you pull for me / and I pull for you”) and the hypnotically catchy ‘80s fave “Mimi On the Beach.”
Siberry’s in-the-moment live shows — which sometimes happen in large venues, sometimes in people’s homes — might include those songs, poetry, sing-alongs, stories, jokes, detours, improvised recitations, tunes from her childhood … whatever the moment needs.
She once told a standing-room-only, sold-out venue, “I’m first and foremost an entertainer.” But Siberry’s also been called a “superstar of the imagination with a passion for the truth,” and there is no one else like her.
Jane Siberry appears at The Parlor Room in Northampton on Tuesday, April 30, at 7 p.m.
Diana Alvarez, PhD — local singer-songwriter, poet, composer, documentary filmmaker, and scholar — creates work with “a queer Xicanx vision to dissolve oppression through art.” With a new album on the way, she’ll appear at Click Workspace in Northampton on Friday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m.
Singer/songwriter Mark Erelli (whose 2018 record “Mixtape” found him covering hits by Neko Case, Don Henley, Phil Collins, The Band and others) plays The Parlor Room on Saturday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m.
Northampton string band Mamma’s Marmalade (below) celebrates the release of their new album with a gig at The Parlor Room on Sunday, April 28, at 7 p.m. Izzy Heltai opens.
Last year folk legend Joan Baez unveiled her first studio album in nearly a decade, the Joe Henry-produced “Whistle Down the Wind,” featuring her takes on songs by Tom Waits, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Josh Ritter, Tim Eriksen and others. Baez is on her “Fare Thee Well… Tour” (she’s decided to end her “formal extended touring”) and she takes the stage at John M. Greene Hall at Smith College on Sunday, April 28, at 8 p.m.
The Lemonheads, led as always by vocalist/guitarist Evan Dando, have been interpreting others’ songs to great effect for decades (“Luka,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Frank Mills,” “My Hero Zero,” “Into Your Arms,” “Different Drum”), and the band’s two most recent albums have been all-covers affairs … you almost forget Dando has written strong original songs, too (“It’s a Shame About Ray,” “The Turnpike Down,” “The Great Big No” and more). The Lemonheads play Gateway City Arts in Holyoke on Wednesday, May 1, at 8 p.m. The opener is Tommy Stinson (The Replacements, Guns N’ Roses).
The Johnny Memphis Band and Court Etiquette make up the local double-bill at the Iron Horse in Northampton on Thursday, May 2, at 7 p.m.
Western Massachusetts native Lady Jane (the art-making name used by Esperanza Friel) started recording songs in her bedroom while in high school, and now she’s celebrating the release of her first studio album, “Soft Waltz,” with a show at The Parlor Room on Thursday, May 2, at 7 p.m.
Ken Maiuri can be reached at tunedincolumn@gmail.com.