A highly selective preview of cultural events taking place this weekend in the greater Hudson, N.Y., region, including vintage rock ‘n’ roll; a tribute to a legendary Yiddish advice column; a folk-rock jam band; and a whole lot more.
Lara Hope and the Ark-Tones
LARA HOPE & THE ARK-TONES BRING ROCKABILLY SOUNDS to HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Winner of the 2017 Ameripolitan Music Award for Rockabilly Female and named the “Best Up-and-Coming Band” by Hudson Valley Magazine, Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones turn back the clock 60 years to the earliest days of rock ‘n’ roll – the days of Bill Haley and “Rock Around the Clock” – with a joyful immediacy that makes them seem like only yesterday, as they will do once again when they entertain the crowd at Club Helsinki Hudson on Friday, May 26, at 9pm, when they will be celebrating the release of their brand-new album, “Love You to Life.”
LEGENDARY YIDDISH ADVICE COLUMN STAGED at HUDSON HALL
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – A free staged reading of “A Bintel Brief: Sixty Years of Letters from the Lower Eastside to the Jewish Daily Forward,” takes place at Hudson Hall on Sunday, May 28, at 3pm. The event will feature live musical accompaniment and a diverse cast of actors who will bring to life the history, the humor, and the struggle of the Jewish immigrant experience.
The Bintel Brief became such a great cultural touchstone that is has been the subject of books, essays, a graphic novel, a Yiddish play, and now this staged reading. It is widely believed that the Bintel Brief was the direct forerunner of mainstream American newspaper advice columns including “Dear Abby” and “Ask Ann Landers.” The “Abigail Van Buren” and “Ann Landers” behind those two columns were actually twin sisters Pauline Esther Friedman and Esther Pauline Friedman, American-born daughters of Yiddish-speaking Russian-Jewish immigrants.
Rusted Root (photo Jason Bone)
FOLK-ROCK JAM-BAND RUSTED ROOT KICKS OFF SUMMER at MAHAIWE
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) — Folk-rock jam band Rusted Root kicks off the summer season at the Mahaiwe with a Memorial Day concert on Monday, May 29, at 7pm. The Pittsburgh, Penn.-based group is known for its sincere, spiritual fusion of acoustic, rock, world, and other styles of music, with a strong percussion section that draws from African, Latin American, and Native American influences.
Indie-rock band Cake
INDIE-ROCKERS CAKE CAP OPENING WEEKEND at MASS MoCA
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Quirky alternative-rock group CAKE caps MASS MoCA’s daylong celebration of its grand reopening in an outdoor concert at Joe’s Field on Sunday, May 28, at 8pm. For a quarter-century the California-based group has been entertaining bands with its horn-fueled, deadpan, eclectic style that draws equally from 1960s garage rock, mariachi music, hip-hop, country, jazz, funk, and world music.
the Ahn Trio
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – The internationally acclaimed Ahn Trio will perform works by David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, and others at Club Helsinki Hudson on Sunday, June 11, at 7pm, in the inaugural concert of The Rogovoy Salon, a new music and literary series curated and hosted by cultural journalist and music critic Seth Rogovoy.