Music fans were recently treated to some good news when Signature Sounds announced that it would host the Green River Festival this year.
The dates will be Aug. 27-29, which is a little over a month later than the usual mid-July date. They are currently putting together the lineup and hope to announce this and information on ticket sales in early March. If you held onto your 2020 tickets, they will be honored this year.
Signature Sounds also stressed that safety protocols will be followed. So stay tuned.
This is a bright light and an indication that we will be seeing the return of some live music this summer.
There were a few options for live music last summer, but I’m an optimist and believe that we will see more in the summer of 2021. But I do think it could be a slow and, at times, rocky process.
The Berkshire Theatre Group and The Colonial Theater in Pittsfield recently announced The Colonial Concert series, a string of socially distanced outdoor concerts that will begin in May.
The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow will play two shows on May 15.
Both shows sold out within two hours and there is a waiting list for tickets should a change in safety protocols allow more to be sold. The series also has two shows with multiple Grammy winner, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile on May 29. Tickets are going fast and they are $100, which is a bit of an indicator of the increase in ticket prices we may see as live music resumes with fewer tickets being sold due to the need for social distancing.
In the meantime, there are plenty of virtual shows and new music to check out.
I’m seeing a lot of new singles and EPs that are only being released in digital format. This was a trend that was happening before COVID-19, but has increased during the pandemic. A couple of weeks ago, folk singer Mark Erelli, a former Valley resident, released a mini-EP called “Jackpot,” which is a collection of three love songs.
Erelli, who now lives in the Boston area, is an accomplished songwriter with many love songs to his credit, but still views writing a love song as a challenge, knowing that it’s difficult to express the totality of love in a single composition.
Paul McCartney may have reassured us that the world hasn’t had enough of silly love songs, but Erelli didn’t want to go that route. So what prompted him to tackle the project, even if it’s just a few songs?
“I kind of think of all songs as ‘love songs’ in a way,” Erelli said. “Even a song like ‘By Degrees’ (2018 protest anthem to fight gun violence), which many would tag as a political song, is a song that I wrote inspired by a love for my country and a fervent hope it could rise above the scourge of gun violence. But the songs on ‘Jackpot’ are more stereotypically love songs, albeit ones that engage and examine love and relationships at different stages and from different perspectives.”
The opening track, “Handmade,” captures all the excitement and anxiety of newer love.
“Oh, you and me babe/We got a love that’s handmade/Bit by bit it’s taking shape/But I know that it’s worth the wait,” sings Erelli on the song, a duet with Maya de Vitry of the Stray Birds.
This mid-tempo rocker was originally recorded for his excellent 2020 album “Blindsided.”
The mini-EP concludes with “Jackpot,” an upbeat, bouncy song written from the point of view of a married man who can’t believe how lucky he is. It seems that the married couple in the song is Erelli and his wife, Polly, who he has been with for 23 years. The song details his first date with his wife, one where he forgot his wallet — a mishap she obviously overlooked.
All three songs capture some of the complexities of love in all its splendor and messiness.
One of the new singles that recently dropped is “Day Plan,” by Izzy Heitai of Northampton. Heitai’s debut album, “Father,” was released last October and is easily one of the best local albums of the year. Heitai is backed by a full band on this indie-folk song that explores the feeling of loneliness and monotony he has experienced living alone in a small apartment during the pandemic.
“And if you asked me to tell you/Why I don’t believe in/A goddamn religion/And all that might mean well/I’m learning that deep down/I don’t trust myself so/What good would/A god do now,” he sings.
The powerful and poignant “Day Plan” is yet another winning track that secures Heitai’s status as one of the areas’ rising singer/songwriters.
Erelli and Heitai’s new music can be heard on bandcamp.com.
Sheryl Hunter is a music writer who lives in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national magazines. You can contact her at soundslocal@yahoo.com.