Concert Reviews

The War and Treaty give an amen performance

April 6, 2025 - When it came to press play, The War and Treaty were ready. This was not a night where the soul/country husband-and-wife duo of Michael Jr. and Tania Trotter exactly needed to ease into the set. The War and Treaty, along with their supple backing quintet, were ready to roll from the opening bell of what ...

X marks the spot for Myers, but maybe not for long

April 3, 2025 - X definitely marked the spot for Ty Myers. When concert attendees go to a concert, the checker at the door marks the fan with a big fat x on their hand if they are under age. They can get in, but no alcohol. The long sold-out show (this was also a venue upgrade of almost a ratio of four!) had an ...

Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats burn bright

March 29, 2025 - Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats' star is very bright these days. Only two nights before, he was headlining Madison Square Garden. Tonight was the second of two sold-out shows in Beantown. During the evening, Rateliff rattled off a few of the venues he had played in Boston with the city ...

Whitcomb is well on his way

March 27, 2025 - Life is really good for Cameron Whitcomb both personally – which he made abundantly clear more than once during his sold-out show – and professionally. To say that Whitcomb, who just turned 22 last week, brought the energy would be an understatement. After all, when was the last time you ...

Ledger wears the traditional hat well

March 26, 2025 - It's not that people showed up because Logan Ledger just released new music. Nor was it likely that they recalled one and-only previous outing in the Boston area as the opening act six years ago at a now-closed club. Maybe it's a testament to the internet that music lovers are able to embrace ...

Wild man of country, Adcock, stands on his music

March 22, 2025 - When Gavin Adcock told the sold-out, overly young crowd that this was a wild crowd especially compared to New York (somehow New York is the butt of negativity when artists talk about the Big Apple in Beantown), he wasn't joking. And he was in the thick of it himself. Adcock quickly took a swig of ...

Kennedy's Mishneach fest brings diverse sounds

March 18, 2025 - It may have been St. Patrick's Day in Boston plus one, but given the nature of the celebration in Beantown, the day after worked just as well at least from a musical standpoint. And a most special night it was given that this was the first of two nights of Irish singer Dermot Kennedy's ...

Passim takes Riccio far

March 16, 2025 - Calling all singers looking to make a musical dent...get a job at Club Passim, the venerated music club in the heart of Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. Proof perfect: the sold-out show featuring headline Jobi Riccio and opener Rachel Sumner. Sumner still works at the club. If she's as good at ...

Wade realizes the joy

March 15, 2025 - There's a consistency about Morgan Wade, and that's mainly a really good thing. That started with Wade's songs, many replete with anguish and what might've been. Fortunately, tough times make for good songs. Wade started with "Total Control," "Time to Love, Time to ...

Ballerini entertains, while offering group therapy

February 25, 2025 - A brisk Jersey chill outside was a sharp contrast to the warm reception fans had inside for Kelsea Ballerini on this clear winter night. The "Legends" army came prepared with their signs, pink cowgirl hats and bedazzled luggage tags (an homage to a new track called "Baggage"). ...

Blue collar Ole 60 ought to be going places

January 30, 2025 - These are heady times for Ole 60, some "blue collar kids from middle of nowhere Kentucky" (at least that's what the lead-in audio before the band hit the stage proclaimed). Barely a year into their existence, the band just made their debut at the Mother Church of Country Music, the Grand Ole Opry. ...

More country, less rock would serve Marlowe more

January 25, 2025 - Dylan Marlowe's preferred subject matter tends to be those good ol' boy Southern anchors of trucks, women and in Marlowe's case, deer. Throw a rock sound to the songs, and you get the sense for what most – but definitely not all – of a Marlowe concert sounds like these days. ...

G. Love and Special Sauce make a welcome return home

January 24, 2025 - The most personable G. Love and Special Sauce were home again, and it showed in spades during the first of two Beantown shows. G. Love is really a Philadelphia native, but the blues/soul/hip hop/folk singer also lived here for few decades and the city where he first forged a musical presence on a bigger stage. ...

Albino needs no slack

January 16, 2025 - It would be entirely understandable if headliner Jeremie Albino and opener Benjamin Dakota Rogers would have been accorded a modicum of slack by the 200 or so faithful supporters. It was opening night of Albino's tour after all. Meaning he had not played a show since October (although of course, ...

Watson's no rookie

December 9, 2024 - There is a healthy skepticism about whether Willie Watson's very strong recent self-titled CD release is his debut solo album. After all, Watson, who once upon a time was a founding member of Old Crow Medicine Show, has already released "Folk Singer, Vol. 1" and "Folk Singer, Vol. 2. ...

From now on, Wilson Jr. needs no introduction

December 8, 2024 - At the start of every Stephen Wilson Jr. concert, the bespectacled singer with an ever present baseball cap, comes out and proudly states, "I am Stephen Wilson Jr., and I am my father's son." That figured prominently for Wilson, who sold-out the club with an enthusiastic fan base singing ...