A selective, curatorial view of the cultural highlights of the upcoming weekend in the greater Berkshire region.
SUPERSTAR ROOTS-MUSIC DUO BLENDS PUNK SPIRIT AND BLUEGRASS AT CLUB HELSINKI (HUDSON, N.Y.) – Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, from the Punch Brothers, and Nickel Creek guitarist Michael Daves perform a concert of bluegrass standards played with punk-rock abandon at Club Helsinki Hudson on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, at 8 p.m. Last year, the vocal-instrumental duo…
A BRANDENBURG NEW YEAR’S EVE with BERKSHIRE BACH (GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – The Berkshire Bach Ensemble continues its tradition of over two decades on Saturday, December 31, 2011, by performing all six Brandenburg Concerti of Johann Sebastian Bach, directed by harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center at 6 p.m. Bach’s colorful…
HOLIDELIC at CLUB HELSINKI HUDSON (HUDSON, N.Y.) – Everett Bradley’s Holidelic comes to Club Helsinki on Thursday, December 22, 2011, at 8 p.m., for a ‘Holiday Freak’ concert. Holidelic blends the musical influences of 1970s and ‘80s funk and soul bands in original songs that celebrate diversity, mild familial seasonal dysfunction, individuality and holiday booty…
LYLE LOVETT at the MAHAIWE (GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Four-time Grammy Award-winner Lyle Lovett will perform at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center with his five-member acoustic group on Saturday, December 17, 2011, at 8 pm. Finely wrought and full of wit, wisdom, and Texas-sized storytelling, his songs are rife with characters and concepts that loom…
FAMED CELLIST, CHOREOGRAPHER TEAM UP for MULTIMEDIA OPERA at MASS MOCA (NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Artists from the classical music and dance avant-garde will join forces when, after a 10-day residency, contemporary cellist Maya Beiser, the founding cellist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, teams with radical choreographer Karole Armitage to perform the psychological…
FIDDLER NATALIE MACMASTER PRESENTS CHRISTMAS IN CAPE BRETON AT THE COLONIAL (PITTSFIELD, Mass,) – Renowned fiddler and Celtic musician Natalie MacMaster performs Christmas in Cape Breton at the Colonial Theatre on Wednesday, November 30, 2011, at 7:30 pm. MacMaster’s Cape Breton-style fiddling has resonated with world audiences through 10 albums, multiple gold sales figures and…
BOBBY SWEET CONCERT TO BENEFIT CENTRAL BERKSHIRE HABITAT FOR HUMANITY (PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Bobby Sweet and the BSweet Band with special guest the Tommy Filiault Band will perform a concert to benefit Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity on Saturday, November 26, 2011, at 7 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 55 Fenn St.…
SUPERSTARS of AFROBEAT and FUNK PAY TRIBUTE to JAMES BROWN at the MAHAIWE (GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Former James Brown sidemen Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker team up with Afrobeat superstars Cheikh Lô and Vusi Mahlasela in Still Black, Still Proud, a musical exploration of the give-and-take between James Brown’s funk soul and African…
‘CURIOUS GEORGE’ EXHIBITION at ROCKWELL REVEALS CREATORS’ ESCAPE FROM NAZIS Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and H.A. Rey, a traveling exhibition created by the Jewish Museum in New York City on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., from November 12, 2011 through February 5, 2012, reveals the little-known…
PROGRESSIVE BLUEGRASS by THE GREENCARDS and GRAM PARSONS TRIBUTE at CLUB HELSINKI HUDSON Austin-by-way-of-Nashville progressive bluegrass outfit the Greencards, Grammy Award nominees noted for touring with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, perform at Club Helsinki Hudson on Friday, November 4, 2011, at 9 pm. The evening before, Helsinki presents Twenty Thousand Roads, a tribute to…
