photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Lost in the Trees at Lincoln Center - 2/28/13

Folk rockers Lost in the Trees came to NYC last week (2/28) for a show as part of the ongoing American Songbook Series in the Allen Room at Lincoln Center. Their set consisted mainly of material off of their two most recent full lengths and also covered Blonde Redhead's "Misery Is A Butterfly." More pictures from that show and the setlist are below.

Lost in the Trees will also be touring this April, but have not announced a return to NYC.

Continue reading "Lost in the Trees played the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center (pics & setlist)"

Lost in the Trees at Prospect Park in 2012 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Back in December of 2012, North Carolina indie folk collective Lost in the Trees made their way over to local college, Duke University, for a collaborative performance the school's Reynolds Theater with Chamber Orchestra. A video of the large group on stage doing a powerful rendition of "Garden" is making its premiere in this post and can be watched below.

LITT have some dates coming up this year, including a previously discussed NYC show as part of the American Songbook Series in the Allen Room at Lincoln Center on February 28. Tickets for that show are still available. American Songbook is the same series that Bonnie "Prince" Billy just played.

Video and a list of all dates below...

Continue reading "watch a video of Lost in the Trees performing w/ an orchestra, see them on tour (American Songbook Series included)"

photos by Sachyn Mital

Bonnie "Prince" Billy @ The Allen Room, 2/7/2013

As you prepare to perform in the "American Songbook" series, what does the notion of the "American songbook" mean to you?

I would like to think that certain songs find relationships with other songs in the ear of the listener. I think it means that there's a group of songs that people know or are familiar with outside the context of any particular artist that become ingrained in people's perception of their culture.

Is there something particularly "American" about it?

To some extent, the reception of all the songs we've gotten a chance to hear over our lives and the lives of people throughout the history of recorded music are commercially recorded releases. So the "American songbook" is characterized by the American music business and how that business has been run over the last 100 years. Of course, the music business reacts to our hybrid culture. I don't think the United States is unique in that its popular music reflects a common denominator of a diverse population. But our diverse population, of course, is uniquely ours. - [WSJ]

Is there a more spectacular NYC locale for a show than The Allen Room in Lincoln Center? Only falling snow could have made a better postcard last night (2/7) when Bonnie "Prince" Billy (aka Will Oldham) played as part of the 2013 American Songbook Series. Will played mainly alone, with a few covers thrown in amongst his originals, but was joined by collaborators Matt Sweeney on guitar and Ryan McNair on melodica for a few songs. It was a conversational evening in general, with Oldham stopping in the middle of songs to tell a story -- like one of him meeting Connie Britton (aka Tami Taylor on Friday Night Lights) at a party, and pulled out a picture with her as evidence -- and even led the crowd in a group singalong.

Check out more pictures and the evening's setlist from The Allen Room below...

Continue reading "Bonnie "Prince" Billy played the 'American Songbook Series' at the Allen Room (pics, setlist)"

Thurston Moore & Samara Lubelski in Austin (more by Tim Griffin)

As you may have seen on BV Austin (and above), Thurston Moore brought his current tour to Austin last week and played sold out show at St. David's Church, not long after his NYC show at the Allen Room as part of the American Songbook Series (that Tune-Yards and Bill Callahan also played)...

"Why can't we play facing this way?" Thurston Moore asked during his February 2nd acoustic, solo concert at New York's Allen Room, turning from the audience and gazing through the floor-to-ceiling glass behind his band. In fact, he did. Halfway through "Ono Soul," from his 1995 album Psychic Hearts, the Sonic Youth guitarist swung around toward the winter's-night view across Central Park, holding his instrument over his head, then aiming it at his small amp like a divining rod, drawing out a broad drone of distortion." [Rolling Stone]

Watch a video from the NYC show below (of Thurston playing and reciting poetry), and check out the pictures from Austin.

Thurston's band included Samara Lubelski on violin, and that's who will be playing with him next Thursday (2/23) at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn as part of a poetry event called "Littoral: Flowers & Cream" and along with sets (or poetry?) by Anselm Berrigan, John Coletti, and Ben Estes & Elaine Kahn. Admission is FREE, but you need a ticket.

Speaking of Issue Project Room, Ensemble Pamplemousse plays there tonight (2/17).

Speaking of St. David's Church in Austin, Islands plays there tonight.

Speaking of churches in Austin, Pitchfork announced their SXSW showcase.

Continue reading "Thurston Moore & Samara Lubelski playing free Brooklyn show (RSVP), played the Allen Room & Austin (pics & video)"

photos by Chris La Putt

""Occupying the original occupier" tUnE-yArDs in Columbus Circle." - Bill Bragin

Merrill Garbus in Columbus Circle - 2/9/2012

As tUnE-YarDs' show at Lincoln Center's Allen Room, part of the American Songbook series (which Bill Callahan played one night earlier), was coming to an end last night, the tweets started pouring in: "@brooklynvegan tUnEyArDs will be playing Columbus Circle within the hour. Get there!", "@brooklynvegan can u spread word that Tuneyards doing free show out by Lincoln Center fountain", "@brooklynvegan tune yards are playing in Columbus circle NOT lincoln center fountain", and "@brooklynvegan She said it was NOT a show. A gathering." Whatever it was, it included video cameras, and you can see what it looked like along with pictures from the actual show and the setlist from the show, below...

Continue reading "tUnE-YarDs played Allen Room & then Occupied Columbus Circle (pics & setlist)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Bill Callahan @ the Allen Room - 2/8/2012


Following performances by a diversity of musicians including Keren Ann and Thurston Moore, Bill Callahan continued Lincoln Center's 2012 American Songbook Series last night (2/8) at the Allen Room, a show Mr. Callahan said seemed like an appropriate finale to his "Apocalyspe Tour." Here are some pictures.

tUnE-yArDs plays the series tonight (2/9).

In other news, Bill Callahan recently covered Leonard Cohen's great ""So Long Marianne" for a MOJO Magazine covers CD. Listen to that, with more pictures from the NYC show, below...

Continue reading "Bill Callahan played the Allen Room (pics), covered Leonard Cohen (stream)"

Bill Callahan @ MHOW in July (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns to the elegant Allen Room in January for its fourteenth season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 16 nights the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today's most dynamic songwriting. The music of Broadway, Latin culture and hip-hop, bluegrass, rock, and pop will be presented, along with three evenings devoted to great American composers and lyricists. The 2012 season - January 11 through February 11 - will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song, including Tony Award winners Laura Benanti, Michael Cerveris, and LaChanze, as well as the "Queen of British Musicals," the great Elaine Paige. In keeping with American Songbook's tradition of honoring great composers and lyricists, those being celebrated this season are William Finn (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Falsettos), folk icon Woody Guthrie, and Jule Styne (Gypsy, Funny Girl). A relatively new composer on the scene, multiple Tony-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights) will open the series with a new rap composition about Alexander Hamilton. Also performing in the rap/hip- hop vein is the exciting ensemble Ozomatli.

From the rock canon will be J.D. Souther, performing songs he wrote for Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles as well as newer compositions, guitar god Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth doing an acoustic set, and the wildly expressive Merrill Garbus, known as tUnE-yArDs.

Singer/songwriters, both emerging and veteran, are part of American Songbook as well. Diva of the demi-monde Keren Ann is part of the series, as is the man whose deep voice and masculine presence has earned him the nickname "The John Wayne of Indie Rock," Bill Callahan.

The spectacular Allen Room is located in Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center on Broadway at 60th Street. The Allen Room possesses one of New York's greatest settings - a stunning vista of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline that provides an evocative backdrop for the performers.

TICKETS can be purchased online beginning November 14, 2011 at Lincoln Center's website www.AmericanSongbook.org, via CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, at the Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, or at the Frederick P. Rose Hall Box Office. Tickets for the Friends of Lincoln Center go on sale November 3, and single tickets go on sale to the public beginning November 14.

The full schedule is at Lincoln Center's site and below...

Continue reading "Lincoln Center's American Songbook 2012 Season (Thurston Moore, tUnE-yArDs, Bill Callahan, Keren Ann & more)"

My Brightest Diamond @ LPR in 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns in January for its thirteenth season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 16 nights of pop, folk, cabaret, country, rock, and show tunes, the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today's most dynamic songwriting. The 2011 season - January 12 through February 20 - will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song, starting with the luminous legend Barbara Cook, the multi-faceted Joan Osborne, as well as the newest toast of Broadway, Kate Baldwin. It will feature opportunities to hear the acclaimed opera star
Pfizer is a proud sponsor of Lincoln Center's American Songbook 2011.

Stephanie Blythe and stage and film actress Anika Noni Rose who make their solo pop concert debuts, and the enduring influence of Latin music in the American Songbook canon will be represented by the modern bossa nova of Bebel Gilberto and the Cuban rhythms of Broadway star Raul Esparza. Arguably the greatest songwriting team in American Songbook history are the brothers George and Ira Gershwin, and they will be the subject of a Rob Fisher tribute with an array of dazzling voices.

Carolina Chocolate Drops also play one of the shows. Full schedule and more info at Lincoln Center's site.

Back in 2005, an earlier iteration of the Dirty Projectors released their concept album The Getty Address, which Pitchfork's Jason Crock called "a modern opera about post-9/11 America, the destruction of our natural wilderness, the confrontation between Hernan Cortes and the Aztecs in the early 16th century, and a protagonist named after Don Henley." An ambitious album, to say the least.

Dirty Pro frontman Dave Longstreth has come a long way since that album, but he hasn't forgotten it. And at two forthcoming shows in New York and Los Angeles, the band will play the album in full, with the 15-piece ensemble Alarm Will Sound and conductor Alan Pierson helping out. They'll also play songs from last year's Bitte Orca at both shows.

The New York show will go down February 19 at Lincoln Center, as part of the American Songbook concert series. The L.A. show is scheduled for February 27 at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the band will co-headline with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. During the first half, the Philharmonic will play orchestral pieces that Longstreth picked out. The band will take over and play the album during the second half. [Pitchfork]

The NYC show is already sold out, though tickets are still available for the one in LA. I can only imagine how much preperation needed to go into all of this (and for only two shows), so it's not a surprise that the Dirty Projectors will not be one of the artists playing the Tibet House Benefit show this year.

A letter Dave Longstreth wrote to Don Henley as well as the source of the above picture, at thegettyaddress.com. A recent free digital 7" the band released, is in a previous post.

Other upcoming DP shows include the Big Ears Fest and Coachella.

Dirty Projectors' last NYC shows took place at Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom. David Byrne showed up at one of them. David Byrne more recently showed up at St Vincent's show just this past Friday night at The Allen Room which is the same location and part of the same 'American Songbook' series that the Dirty Projectors are playing on February 19th. All dates and two Getty Address videos below..

Continue reading "Dirty Projectors playing 2005 album The Getty Address in full w/ orchestra @ NYC & LA shows "

photos by Chris La Putt

"St Vincent brought out David freaking Byrne!!" - Kari

For the second week in a row, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) performed together at a NYC show. Last week it was the Haiti benefit. Last night it was St Vincent's headlining show at Lincoln Center's Allen Room. Last week included a bunch of covers. Last night included the Twilight song. Shara Worden, saxophonist Colin Stetson and a member of Megafaun were surprise guests last week. David Byrne, Budos Band horns, and a member of The National (and Justin) were surprise guests last night.

St Vincent appears on David Byrne's new album, as does Nicole Atkins who shares a bill with David at Bowery Ballroom on February 3rd. Bon Iver and St Vincent are both playing MusicNOW fest in March. The National just announced a new album and a tour that includes Radio City Music Hall, and the Big Ears Festival that St. Vincent is also playing.

St. Vincent heads out on tour with Wildbirds & Peacedrums on February 3rd. More pictures and the setlist from the Allen Room, below...

Continue reading "St. Vincent (and David Byrne, Justin Vernon, Bryce Dessner & more) played Lincoln Center's Allen Room - pics & setlist"

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns in January for its twelfth season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 16 nights of pop, folk, cabaret, country, rock, and show tunes, the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today's most dynamic contemporary songwriting. The 2010 season - January 13 through March 6 - will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song, including top jazz artist Dee Dee Bridgewater and rock's gritty queen, Marianne Faithfull. It will feature opportunities to hear the acclaimed stage actress Martha Plimpton and Broadway star Leslie Uggams in intimate concert settings. Two of the hottest composers on the theater scene - Jeanine Tesori ("Shrek The Musical" and "Caroline, or Change") and Michael Friedman "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" and "Gone Missing") - will perform evenings of their music along with special guests. The growing presence and influence of Latin music in the American Songbook canon will be represented by David Hidalgo and Louie Perez, two of the founding members of the band Los Lobos. Hidalgo and Perez will explore their four decades of writing and performing songs that are some of the best in Latin roots-rock. The series will close with an evening with one of Broadway's most enduring divas, the fabulous Chita Rivera.

American Songbook will be presented in the spectacular Allen Room of Frederick P. Rose Hall. The Allen Room possesses one of New York's greatest settings - a stunning vista of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline that provides an evocative backdrop for the performers.

TICKETS can be purchased online beginning November 1st at Lincoln Center's website AmericanSongbook.org, via CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, or at the Frederick P. Rose Hall Box Office. Tickets for The Friends of American Songbook go on sale October 27th.

Suzanne Vega, Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent, Gabriel Kahane, and Nellie McKay are also playing shows as part of the series.

Dirty Projectors' most recent NYC show was a short set at the Bell House as part of the New Yorker Festival. Their next NYC shows are sold out gigs at Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg. Full Lincoln Center schedule below...

Continue reading "Dirty Projectors, St Vincent, Nellie McKay, Marianne Faithfull, others part of 2010 season of Lincoln Center's American Songbook"

Dean & Britta @ Bowery Ballroom (more by Chris La Putt)

As previously posted, Dean & Britta are going on tour with Mercury Rev in early December - tickets are still on sale for the NYC show at Highline Ballroom. Tickets are also now on sale for this show at Lincoln Center:

13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, Composed by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips
Saturday, January 17, 2009 8:30 PM
The Allen Room

American Songbook
A selection of Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, the late pop-artist's fascinating film-portraits of visitors to his studio, is set to music by former members of the alt-rock outfit Luna, Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Dean & Britta - Tour Dates (Andy Warhol @ the Allen room)"

Chris Robinson & Patti Smith @ United Palace, NYC - Oct 31, 2007 (CRED)

Black Crowes Set: Give Peace A Chance, Space Captain, Black Moon Creeping, Darling Of The Underground Press, Sister Luck, Another Roadside Tragedy, Nonfiction (w/Patti Smith), Ain’t No Cane On The Brazos, Polly, Girl From A Pawnshop, Jealous Again, Soul Singing, Wiser Time, Thorn In My Pride

Encore: Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’? [via Glide Magazine]

No shortage of Patti Smith shows this year (and next)....

Continue reading "Patti Smith played w/ the Black Crowes, adds 5 NYC shows"