Jake and Taylor Armerding Tearing Up The Cantab Tonight!

My latest shameless plug. Come to the Cantab tonight (2-20) for Jake and Taylor Armerding.

If you’ve just been to Joe Val and saw Taylor perform with Bluegrass Gospel Project, then you won’t want to miss Taylor playing with his son tonight. What makes Taylor Armerding so amazing is that he can play bluegrass gospel over the weekend and bluegrass versions of 80’s pop the following Tuesday. If you didn’t go to Joe Val and live in the area, then you definitely won’t want to miss tonight’s show.

Jake is a star in his own light. He also writes some of the best newsletters around.
This is what he said about tonight’s show:

Tuesday, February 20
Cantab Lounge, Central Square, Cambridge, MA. By now, most Bostonians know the best ‘grass in town is at the Cantab every Tuesday night. We’ll be jamming on our usual fusion of trad grass, originals, and eighties pop. (This week, we turn to those beloved synthesizer cowboys, Genesis.) With Taylor Armerding, Zack Hickman, Neil Cleary and Wes Corbett. 10pm, free ($5 donation suggested).

Jake is an excellent musican with a penchant for telling great stories as well. The musicans with him tonight are also stellar. I try to see Jake every time he plays around here and am never let down.

Hillbilly take me home

January 29th was a cold night in Cambridge but luckily I had the music of Hillbilly Pilgrim(featuring Mark Erelli) to warm me up. I arrived at the Plough and Stars just in time to see the band walk in and begin tuning. I found a seat at the end of the bar and ordered my favorite draft beer: New Castle.

A show with Mark Erelli has never let me down before and this proved to be no exception. The band opened with an instrumental that got everybody tapping their fingers. Mark’s opening banter included him telling us that they were playing without a set list.

After that we were treated to Mark singing “Brand New Baby”, a swinging song about finding the “one” with some socially conscious lyrics thrown in as well:

Boys if you want to find the girl of your dreams
Stop looking in the movies and the magazines
Find yourself a woman with some meat on her bones
Don’t fall for all the plastic and the silicone

“Brand new Baby” was written by Mark and is one of my favorites because it makes me smile and think simutaneously.

The rest of the set included the super fast and super delightful instrumental “Remington’s Ride”. The band quieted it down a bit after that with a Hank Williams cover.

The show was a perfect mixture of fast ( “Devil’s Train”, “Flash,Crash and Thunder”) and slow (the aformentioned Hank Williams, and “Crazy” by Patsy Cline.” There were many other songs whose titles escape me now. Sorry.

The encore of “Crazy” was the song that caused me to miss the last t home and walk nearly a half hour back to my apartment. Just can’t resist a Patsy Cline cover. It was all worth it.

Highlights of the night included Mark laughing out loud during one of the fast numbers, Jerry Miller getting a standing ovation for “Remington’s Ride” and being me one of two people dancing in the bar.

It’s evident from their live shows and album, Hillbilly Pilgrim, that this is a band that truly enjoys playing together. I look forward to them possibly getting together for more shows and if I am lucky another album.

Zack Hickman and Barn Star

The Cantab 1/9 Feature

This show may not have appealed to traditional bluegrass purists but it was a hell of a lot of fun. Barn Star was truely All Star. The band drew a standing room only crowd at the small bar. There were even people sitting directly in front of the stage. The energy was contagious, so sweeping that I found myself dancing in my favorite spot to listen to music – behind the stage sitting next to my favorite bouncer.

The setlist included everything from “why you been gone so long?” and “City on a Hill” to Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” and various songs from the eighties including: “Jenny Jenny”, “Something to Believe” and “Centerfold.” All of the covers were done with a bluegrass twist and quite enjoyable. I find myself torn with these kinds of shows. I really love the high lonesome sound of traditional bluegrass and the dark ballads that fit so well with the uptempo music. I also have a weakness for covers and since the eighties is the decade I grew up in there is a nostalgia factor. So while I missed some of the more traditional tunes I appreciated the diversity of the music.

This was an excellent show even if it wasn’t truely bluegrass.