singer-songwriter

Tomorrow night at Caffè Lena, Pioneer Valley based singer-songwriter and visual artist Heather Maloney will play a concert marking the release of her first full-length album in five years.“Exploding Star” - now out from Signature Sounds - is a reverie on loss and grief. A collection of songs written after her father died in 2021, “Exploding Star” is made up of sweet and sour memories, wistful, beautiful melodies, and heart.

Last year, thanks to her management and PR, singer-songwriter Al Olender came on our show to talk about her second annual Alentine’s Day show at The Old Dutch Church in Kingston, New York. She presented it as a love-fest to her found home and the people in and around it. I attended - with a number of friends - and it was a waking dream. The good kind.In the intervening 12 months, Al has toured in support of Shovels and Rope and Deer Tick, playing shows all over North America. She’s working on and tuning up the magic for her second record. She filled in for Neko Case on a batch of shows with The New Pornographers.She’s back today with a preview of the third annual Alentine’s Day show - coming up on February 7. The website - alentines.com - hails potential attendees with the question and the gentle command: “Heartbroken? Meet me at the rodeo.” It feels to us like everyone is a little heartbroken right now and we can’t think of anyone better than Al - or anything better than her music - to help us.

September 13-15, the Stone Ridge Orchard in Stone Ridge, New York will host the Meadowlark Festival. The festival’s proceeds support organizations that advocate for farmers in the Hudson Valley including Farm Aid, Rondout Valley Growers, and Hudson Valley Center for Food, Culture, and Agriculture. The line-up includes Fruit Bats; Deer Tick; Slaughter Beach, Dog; Blonde Redhead, and many others - including our guest, Laura Stevenson.

Early this summer, the Capital Region based Americana band Zan and the Winter Folk released their first full length album “New Morse Code.”Led by songwriter Zan Strumfeld on guitar and vocals, The Winter Folk are Michael Gregg (banjo), Will Brown (lead guitar), Sean Fortune (Upright Bass) and Brendan Tompkins (drums). In addition to the core group, “New Morse Code” features other artists from the greater-Troy music community - adding vocals and instrumentation for various of the personal, haunting, resilient songs.

Harpist and singer-songwriter Mikaela Davis is playing two shows in our region this week - the first on Thursday, June 27 at The Colony in Woodstock, New York with Nashville based band Rich Ruth opening and the second on Saturday, June 29 as part of Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts.

Aoife O’Donovan is a Grammy Award winning artist. She performs and records solo, as well as with Crooked Still and the trio I’m With Her.“All My Friends” began as a commission from The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra which resulted in 5 songs on the 9 track record. The three other original songs were commissioned by the FreshGrass Foundation. A commission celebrates the centenary of the 19th amendment, which first granted American women the right to vote.

On April 26, KRO Records released songwriter, musician and producer Lawrence Rothman’s new album, “The Plow That Broke the Plains.”Born in St. Louis, Missouri and now based between Los Angeles and Nashville. Lawrence is known for their genre-bending music and work as a producer and songwriter for artists including Angel Olsen, Margo Price, Amanda Shires, Soccer Mommy and more.

As she releases her new album, Montreal singer-songwriter Myriam Gendron is performing in Williamstown, Massachusetts tonight.

The band Hello Emerson was founded in Columbus, Ohio by Sam Emerson Bodary in 2015. The band has won attention with erudite chamber-folk compositions that unwind with vivid imagery and responsive empathetic sentiment.On March 29 of this year, the group released their third record, “To Keep Him Here” on indie label Anyway Records. The thematic collection of songs serves as a conduit - channeling the thoughts, questions, ideas, and most of all - emotions surrounding a specific event in Sam Bodary’s life.

Lamenting the roll-back on women’s rights around the world, folk singer-songwriter Dawn Landes re-imagines The Liberated Woman’s Songbook in a new album that is available today.First published at the height of the Women’s Liberation Movement, Landes’ revision of the work is a collaboration with producer Josh Kauffman.