| Return to Appalachia at Newburyport's Actor's Studio
The lives of six women born and raised in the mountains of Southwest Virginia return to the stage this weekend as The Actor's Studio in Newburyport reprises its successful 2006 production of "Daughters of the Appalachians, Six Unique Women."
The play, written by storyteller Linda Goodman and presented by Barnyard Productions, opens tomorrow and runs the next three weekends at the theater in the Tannery at 50 Water St.
Goodman offers an intimate glimpse inside the customs and attitudes of this distinctive part of the country. Byfield's EJ Ouellette lends his original music to the production, providing fiddle and guitar accompaniment to punctuate each character's dialogue.
Newburyport theater director and acting coach Marc Clopton, who owns The Actor's Studio, and Georgetown producer Arlene Barnard co-direct the production.
Take 5 with Tim
In less than five years, Ryan Strand has gone from the Jefferson High School stages to stages all across the county as part of America's hottest Off-Broadway tour, Altar Boyz. Strand plays Abraham, the Jewish member of a Catholic boy band. Strand, 23, is in the middle of a tour and is currently taking the musical to Hawaii. Strand was a member of First Edition and in the top bands at Jefferson High School. 1 Why is Altar Boyz so
popular? First of all, it's hilarious. It's a spoof on boy bands and everyone who has been through that time when boy bands were popular knows what that genre is all about. The show also goes back to older groups like the Jackson 5. It's not offensive even when it makes fun of a Catholic boy band. It gently pokes fun at Catholicism but it's really about the brotherhood between these guys.
The rap on hip-hop
Hip-hop is dead. That's the bold announcement Nas made with the title of his latest CD. And who are we to argue?
Nas told MTV that there's little political voice left in the music and that it's in a vulnerable state.
"If we don't change, we're gonna disappear like Rome," he said.
Things are definitely looking a little precarious, and it's more than the fact that radio is cluttered with club bangers, such as "Rock Yo Hips," "2 Step" and "Throw Some D's" — at the expense of more thought-provoking songs by Nas and his ilk. The 30-year-old genre has hit a point where its vital signs are being checked, its messages picked apart, its purpose questioned. .
Sara Gazarek in Los Angeles and Minneapolis
"Simple, straightforward, swinging — and emotionally believable at every turn — Gazarek's the real thing." Paul de Barros, Seattle Times Just a few years ago, Seattle native Sara Gazarek was deep in college studies at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Named by Downbeat as Outstanding Collegiate Jazz Vocalist, she soon found herself touring with Oleta Adams, Karrin Allyson, and Diane Schur, and a new client of the famed William Morris Agency. At only 23, Sara had a major label CD, Yours (Concord, 2005) and a national tour. Poised to release the wide-ranging Return to You (Native Language) in early June with the same able cadre of musicians, Gazarek will continue her spring tour this week with stops at Catalina’s in Los Angeles and Rossi’s Blue Star Room in Minneapolis.
Column: Show No Mercy
Almost a year into "Show No Mercy", it's no secret I enjoy the noisy, doomy, eccentric, and extended. Over the past month I came across a number of albums falling somewhere or other in that realm. In the interest of folks' busy schedules and stretched wallets, though, I decided to narrow things down a little: Of the piles of discs currently teetering on my living room floor (and, sadly, the kitchen table), these are some of the best (or most listened to) recent additions to my playlist. But first... I like the overall dynamics and eerily always-in-the-right-spot keyboards of Funeral Pyre's The Nature of Betrayal (Creator Destructor/Prosthetic). They're a West Coast melodic blackened metal quintet that doesn't entirely nail it on record, but possesses a lot of promise and charm.
Bowie, Bolan and bell bottoms
BY 1967 the Beatles were at their peak and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - released that year - was on its way to becoming the soundtrack of a generation. But the Beatles were not the only band idolised by teenagers. Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and the Kinks all had their slavish young followers, and by 1969 new sounds from the likes of Led Zeppelin, who released their first album that year, The Doors, Joni Mitchell and the Velvet Underground were attracting teens looking for something less formulaic than the traditional sounds of the Fab Four. And there was more to come. In 1972 David Bowie, right, exploded on to the music scene, simultaneously introducing the world to glam rock, make-up for men and bisexuality. His quirky looks, lyrics and music appealed to every teen who saw themselves as an outsider, and paved the way for a range of glam-rock acts including Slade, Sweet, Roxy Music and, of course, Queen.
The Platinum Collection
But they could never deny he has fashioned a universal voice, not so much crossover as melting pot, a style melding the jazz of his professional music background, the classical of his training at University of Wales, Cardiff, and the contemporary idiom of his inventiveness for film and advertising scores. But where to start in this three-disc boxed set, one of several in an EMI series showcasing various artists? Riches abound in the Jenkins box. He assembled incredible poetry, including Japanese Haiku, for his Requiem with its throbbing sorrow in Lacrimosa, urgent pounding rock in Rex Tremendae, minimalist reiterations in Dies Irae etc., all forcefully realised by Serendipity, Cor Caerdydd, Bryn Terfel, Catrin Finch (harp), Nigel Hitchcock (saxophone), West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Jenkins.
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