JimSullivanINK.com - a guide to Boston Arts & Events...with attitude http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM 2010-03-11T18:17:03+01:00 text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1723/38/ Sat. May 8 We saw English singer-songwriter-guitarist Findlay Brown along with maybe 50 other folks at T.T. the Bear’s Place earlier this year. On his just-released second album, “Love Will Find You,” Brown’s moving songs were enveloped by multiple vocal harmonies, orchestral arrangements and rock beats. On that disc, he’s the modern-day Roy Orbison, aided and abetted by ex-London Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. The 30-year-old Brown a recent transplant to Brooklyn, NY, played a 50-minute, solo-acoustic set. At T.T.’s, There, Brown came across as a modern-day Nick Drake – not a bad thing at all – while still evoking Orbison. That came through in the resplendent vocal range and in the melancholic tone of the songs. And, like the late great Roy, Brown sported a tall, black pompadour. He – like Orbison devotee Chris Isaak - is a wounded romantic. He sings songs for the lonely. He can be dejected, but not unsparingly desolate, scarred but not stranded. If he’s been battered, there’s still fight in him. “I hope you like love songs,” Brown said, almost disingenuously, beginning his set. text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1618/38/ Thurs. April 22 Singer-songwriter Philip Ekstrom brings his quaret the Mary Onettes from Sweden to Great Scott Thursday April 22. Should you expect to party hearty? Not exactly. Songs on their new disc, Islands, like The disapperance of my youth and Cry for love were written in his girlfriend's mother's estate after her death. Says Ekstrom: The songs are almost too personal and I've had a hard time playing them for friends. It's like all I want to do is keep them for myself. But, being in a band, recording music ... well, that sort of forces the music out into the world, and, hey, you know he wants to do that, however painful the process might have been. And these songs are not mopey drones; there's a shimmering guitar pop sparkle to them, aiding the inrosuctive and retrospective lyrics. On the album, there's strings, a piano and a children's chorus. Probably none of that at T.T.'s but the melancholic charm the Mary Onettes have should waft through the small club. Of Islands, Ekstrom says, I see the tracks as small islands in different shapes and forms every song is like a record of its very own. Hear/learn more at www.myspace.com/themaryonettes (http://www.myspace.com/themaryonettes) or www.themaryonettes.net (http://www.themaryonettes.net/). Show starts at 9 with Of the Opera and Bearstronaut opening. Tix: $10. No opener announced yet. The MO should be on 10-ish.1222 Commonwealth Ave., Allston, 617-566-9014 www.greatscottboston.com (http://www.greatscottboston.com/) text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1683/38/ Thurs. March 18 Songs You Should Know is the name of a musical program Thurs. March 18 put together by two members of the Tufts University music faculty, Rabbi Jeffrey Summitt and Paul D. Lehrman. (Paul, in photo, is a friend and a former Boston Phoenix writer. We played softball on the Boston Phoenix team I was on back in the '80s.) Now, you might have some reservations called Songs You Should Know. Should is that kind of word that makes you think, wait, I don't like to be told I should do anything. But the subtitle here is ( ... and still matter. ) It's a concert of music from the 1960s featuring songs that defined the issues and political climate of the time. The artists whose music they will play include Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pete and Peggy Seeger, Malvina Reynolds, John Prine, Tom Paxton, Donovan, Joan Baez, and many more. They did this at Tufts earlier this year and are kicking it up again at Johnny D's.It came about when composer and music technologist/guitarist-keyboardist Lehrman sat down to jam with ethnomusicologist/guitarist Summit at a Tufts music department party not long ago. They realized they had something powerful in common: a great love for and knowledge about the “protest” songs of the 1960s. And they also found they shared a strong desire to teach their students about these songs, the era that spawned them, and why they were so important—both during the social upheavals of their day, and to the music and political struggles of today. text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1722/46/ ongoing Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island is a well-crafted mystery – though likely not a film that will be remembered as one of his very best. Some critics seem eager to blow the whistle when a master takes a step to the left or right, incorrectly dubbing it a step backwards. This film is not a giant leap forward, but it is hardly a significant regression of any kind.One of the strengths of the movie is that Scorsese allows the developments to occur very deliberately. There are no rushed conclusions, and events unfold at a tantalizing yet satisfying rate. Too often psychological thrillers make leaps in assumptions that detract from the story by forcing the audience to simply accept what they are told, logic and reason be damned. text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1721/38/ Sat. March 20 It's the fifth consecutive year for Brian O'Donovan's A St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn. a lively Celtic event which features traditional and contemporary Irish music, dance and storytelling to celebrate the St. Patrick’s holiday. This year’s show, Saturday March 20 at Sanders Theatre, features legendary Irish fiddler, Frankie Gavin, and his band, De Danann; world-renowned Celtic guitarist, Tony McManus; and harpist and Berklee alum, Maeve Gilchrist. The event is O’Donovan, the host of WGBH's Celtic Sojourn for over 25 years, to exlain the genesis of the event, how it's grown, what kind of mood he wants to establish and how Irish culture and music has grown in America over the years.O'Donovan e-mailed us: The St. Pats Day show was really a reaction to the myriad questions I would get each year from listeners: What do you recommend we do around St.Patrick's Day for music? I would regularly look around the calendars for answers, and while there were high quality concerts of individual performances here and there, the scene was really made up of over-the-top extravaganzas on the one hand, like Celtic Women or Celtic Thunder and Lightning, or as of now, six nights of the Dropkicks at House of Blues. On the other hand, a lot of bar music. Absolutely nothing wrong with any of the above, but I was aware that our weekly audience was more into the type of music they hear on the show. Traditional and contemporary, exploringceltic music's roots and branches. text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1720/38/ Wed. March 17 KISS is the greatest marketing machine the rock world has ever known. I glimpsed this back in the mid-'70s when I first saw KISS live, bought the Love Gun album, with its cardboard gun and its groan of a metaphor. At the time, I was a young semi-rebellious teen in the pre-punk era and KISS served up horror movie spectacle and god of thunder rock - plus an anthem about getting buzzed on gin, which I could relate to. I first met the guys in the band in 1976, doing a feature on them for a long-defunct music magazine called Sweet Potato. It was my first run-in and I mean that in a good way. I didn't ask patronizing questions and they didn't give pat answers. KISS - especially bassist Gene Simmons - was pretty upfront about the desire to make money. Hey, he was living in a material world and he was a material boy. Simmons was a big captialist and a big hedonist. Oh, there were lots of things we didn't know, things that later came out in his bio, like he was born in Haifa, Israel and named Chaim Witz a lot about his attitude toward women, which couldn't help make you wince. And the anti-drink and drug attitude he and co-frontman singer-guitairst Paul Stanley have always had. I'm not so sure if it was a demand for mental clarity or the knowledge that being messed up might lead you to make business mistakes and let the opportunity to license a KISS doll pass you by - or worse, agree to have it made and not get enough of a cut. text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1391/38/ Sat. April 3You know his name. You've heard his music if you lived through '80s new wave. But you may be surprised by what he's doing now. Greg Hawkes, former keyboardist for the Cars, will be playing a set of acoustic ukulele music at Magic Room Gallery Saturday April 3 at 7. It's a new room run by Dez Desmond (ex-of the Bentmen). Dez is also the proud father of up-and-coming singer Casey Desmond, who will be opening for Hawkes this night.Hawkes put out an album last year called The Beatles Uke, which is just what it sounds like: Beatles songs done on ukuleles. How did Hawkes come to this juncture - and we must say, very contented - point at age 56? Well … he came to the ukulele about eight years ago. And Hawkes saw the Beatles play the Baltimore Civic Center, Sept. 13, 1964. He was 11. As with a lot of kids, something joyous exploded in his head. Already taking piano and clarinet lessons, began to learn guitar. The first Beatles song he played was “She Loves You.” Fast forward: Nearly 46 years later, Hawkes releases a 15-track solo CD of all-instrumental Beatles covers. “I’ve come full circle,” says Hawkes, with a laugh, in his Lincoln home.