Above The Basement - Boston Music And Conversation

On one fine day back in early March, The ATB team drove out to Greenfield, MA to Great Spirits Tattoo to not only talk with musician and artist Ben Reigal, but also to get Chuck another tattoo!Chuck got a tattoo of a compass on the inside of my left arm. I think we can all agree that a compass is something that we as a country, as a society and as human beings need in our lives. We have all been struggling with life in the time of COVID, with many of us losing a friend or family member to this awful pandemic. Businesses have been greatly affected and certainly we all miss our social interaction – going to concerts and other gatherings.And of course we recognize the terrible murder of George Floyd and the protests that have followed to call out, once again, racial injustice that needs to be addressed.We know we all need to be better and need to work hard to make sure we are part of the solution in our words and actions.So we think it is time to get back to what we do – promoting musicians and artists in the Ci

Our first visit to the Boston Music Awards a few years ago was an eye opener and introduced us to many new and established Boston Artists we had not yet seen or heard. That was in the earlier days of this podcast.  At one point, a lone musician with a guitar took the stage and began playing. Gianna Botticelli (aka Ghost GRL) stopped us in our tracks. With her haunting, ambient guitar and ethereal voice, the entire room paid attention.  It took us a few years to finally get her on ATB, but we did it at the right time as she just released her third album Rewired and we’ve been listening to it ever since we first heard it.  Assuming this Corona Virus pandemic burns out and we survive the zombie apocalypse, Gianna is about to tour on the album.So go to ghostgrlmusic.com to see where she will be over the next few months. (girl is spelled GRL with no 'i'). 

If you did not know, the City of Boston has a Poet Laureate.  The job maintains that the appointed poet must be a significant fixture in Boston's cultural and artistic arena. The Poet Laureate may learn, teach, and embody the great literary traditions of Boston.If embodying the great literary traditions of Boston means you are a rock star 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and 2015 National Poetry Slam Champion who is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas, then PorshaPorsha Olayiwola  fits the bill.We’ve been hearing Porsha’s name over the past year or so and as far as poet laureates go she must be the most visible and active poet laureate we have ever had on ATB.Porsha just released her first book I Shimmer Sometimes Too which has received rave reviews. We were fortunate to have former guest and hip-hop artist Moe Pope as our very special co-host this time around.

You’ve hopefully heard us talk about a new project we have in partnership with the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame – a podcast called Hallways.  If you haven’t been to the FARHOF, you should check it out. You can visit FolkAmericanaRootsHallofFame.org for information, but basically The Hall is housed in the Wang Theatre in Boston and it celebrates the history of Folk, Americana and Roots music through displays, memorabilia, artifacts, multi-media, lectures and concerts.  As much as any city in the country, Boston has been the musical birthplace for the styles and artists we celebrate, making it a fitting home.  While performing recently at the Wang Theatre, Neil Young said, “Boston is the Folk Music capital of North America.”  And who are we to argue with a recently sworn in American Citizen.  We were fortunate to talk with the wonderful Patty Griffin before her performance at Club Passim's 60th birthday event. We’d like to share this Hallways episode with you to introduce you to the new podcast and hope yo

If you have ever been to the Verb Hotel, or perhaps seen the recent documentary WBCN – An American Revolution, or hopefully visited the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame at the Wang Theater in Boston, you have seen artifacts gathered by Mr. David Bieber.David hails from Cleveland but has lived in Boston since he moved here to attend BU as a journalism major in 1968 – right at the beginning if the reign of WBCN.  From there he went on to work for WBCN, as well as WFNX, and The Boston Phoenix among others and through those many years gathered all the posters, magazines, photos, reel to reel tapes, LP’s and other ephemeral to fill enough tractor trailers to necessitate moving into an enormous warehouse in Norwood, Mass at the Norwood Space Center.We were lucky enough to chat with David at The David Bieber Archives recently surrounded by piles of memorabilia and boxes upon boxes of awesomeness.

We met with Bestor to talk about JFK - The Last Speech – the very last public speech John F. Kennedy gave before he was assassinated three weeks later. We were fortunate to have a special guest Roger Hirschberg join us who was actually present at Amherst College when JFK gave the speech. It made for a great discussion. For more episodes, please visit www.abovethebasement.com

About a year ago we had the great opportunity to speak with Baseball Writer’s hall of famer and longtime musician Mr. Peter Gammons at his annual event celebrating the Peter Gammons College Scholarship.  This scholarship, which allows Boston and Chicago area high school students a cash scholarship to the college of their choice has sent 150 Boston and Chicago area students to college by awarding them over $600,000 in scholarships.But this wonderful foundation is only one piece of the puzzle – just one beneficiary of many in Boston and Chicago under the umbrella of the Foundation To Be Named Later.After Theo Epstein became the general manager of the Red Sox in 2002, being a guitar player himself, Peter Gammons asked Theo to join him onstage for the next Hot Stove event. And so the Foundation to be named later was born. The foundation – now celebrating its 20thyear, is dedicated to improving lives through education and leadership and works to raise funds and awareness for nonprofit agencies serving urban youth

Boston documentary filmmaker Bestor Cram founded and also serves as creative director for the Boston-based documentary film and museum production company called Northern Light Productions. He has had films screened at Sundance Film Festival, The Boston Film Festival, The Austin Film Festival, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, The Woods Hole Film festival and many others.Titles include the film How Far Home about the dedication of th Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C., Birth of A Movement, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, Circus Without Borders and coming soon a documentary about American Blues harmonica player James Cotton.We met with Bestor at The Better Sorts Social Club to talk about the great James Cotton, but also about another documentary - JFK: The Last Speech – the very last public speech John F. Kennedy gave before he was assassinated three weeks later. We were fortunate to have Roger Hirschberg, Amherst College Class of '64 join us who was actually present when JFK gave the speech.

We sat with Sybil Gallagher and her husband Chadwick Stokes from the band DISPATCH – aka The Biggest Band No One Has Ever Heard Of. This despite the huge following and many, many loyal fans they continued to have even after a long hiatus that began in 2004.  Just before that hiatus - that is now over, Chadwick Stokes started another band out of Boston called State Radio which allowed him to continue his personal musical journey as wel  l as satisfy his itch to be more vocal on social issues.To that end in 2008, Chad and Sybil founded Calling All Crows, the social activist organization that brings their commitment to hands-on service and activism on the road. They work with musicians, fans, and nonprofits to better the lives of women locally and globally. Their current focus is preventing sexual violence at shows and festivals through their #HereForTheMusic campaign, which has trained over 1700 musicians, venue/festival staff, industry professionals, and fans to-date.Chad and Sybil are about to celebrate their

WBCN legend Charles Laquidara and also the infamous Dwayne Ingalls Glasscock joined us for a conversation at the recently opened Woods Hill Pier 4 in Boston. This just a week before Charles as well as Red Sox Hall of Fame pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee take the stage at The Wilbur Theater in Boston on Tuesday, December 10.  So many of us listened to WBCN on our morning commute joining Charles on his program The Big Mattress. Charles was part of a family of DJ’s and personalities at BCN that created the radio renaissance in Boston with their groundbreaking irreverence and general hilarity that accompanied so many of us on our radios.It was so great to sit with Charles and our only regret is that we only got an hour. But we discovered that Charles is as raw and honest as ever. We had so many questions and topics we wanted to cover. But fortunately, we really didn’t get to any of them.Charles didn’t skip a beat. It was like listening to The Big Mattress all over again. We just let him riff, tell us some non PC ‘not

Chuck Clough  0:00  Hello, this is Chuck from Above the Basement Boston music and conversation. Hey, we have missed you all so much and hope to get back on a regular schedule. We are still working out some new projects and we will tell you about those very soon. But one thing we can tell you about something we are honored and excited to announce we have been nominated for a Boston Music Award for the 2019 Podcast of the Year and since I have personally never won a thing in my life, never mind a cool trophy. We would love for you to vote for us, or honestly whatever podcast you like and support as well as for you to vote for one of the many talented Boston artists nominated in their categories. Go to Boston Music Awards. com forward slash vote to make your choices. And thank you as always for supporting the Boston music community. This time around we finally got a chance to talk with singer songwriter and Boston native Matt York. Matt has been in the Boston music scene for quite a while now after stepping away

We sat with Lori McKenna before her recent show celebrating the 15th anniversary of her album Return To Bittertown at Cary Memorial Hall in Lexington, MA. The Stoughton, Mass. native is a multi grammy-winning singer songwriter and the first woman ever to win the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year two years running as well as Academy of Country Music’s first female Songwriter of the Year. In addition to her own songs, she has written for Faith Hill, Keith Urban, Little Big Town and Tim McGraw to name just a few. And just this past week we were all able to watch her on the Americana Music Honors and Awards show where she, well as former ATB guest Mark Erelli were each nominated for Song of the Year. Along with her incredible songwriting chops and beautiful voice, we discovered that Lori is truly one of the most down to earth and nicest person you could ever meet.

When we think of the blended art forms of music and photography, there is a something iconic that can come out of a still picture of the great artists of the past. Catching a glimpse of Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock or Leonard Bernstein conducting at the Philharmonic, it’s as if you can see the music coming out of the page - the thoughts coming from the artist as they glance to the side, backstage. We can let our imagination come up with scenarios, like picturing a scene or portrait while we listen to the music itself. Recently Ronnie was fortunate to be introduced to Mr. Jack Bradley at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital on Cape Cod. Nancy, His wife of 48 years, who you just heard, spoke of the death of “Louie” in 1971. That man was legendary Jazz trumpeter, vocalist and composer Louis Armstrong, who from the 1920s-60s was the lead influencer of both structural and improvisational elements of instrumental and vocal jazz for decades to follow. Ronnie's colleague Dr. Anne-Marie Thomas had known of Above The Basemen

We met up with Jake Shimabukuro before his concert in front of a sold out crowd at Cary Memorial Hall in Lexington, Massachusetts. Jake became an international sensation in 2006 when a YouTube video of him playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps in Central Park - without his knowledge - became one of the very first viral videos on that site with millions of views. Jake plays the ukulele (which we also discovered can be pronounced "ookelele") - and has performed at numerous festivals including the Stockholm Jazz Festival and Blue Mountains Music Festival and has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live, A Prairie Home Companion, NPR’s Morning Edition and World Cafe, and has spoken at several TED conferences. In 2012, an award-winning documentary was released tracking his life, career, and music, titled Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings. Jake is the founder The Four Strings Foundation, which creates music education workshops nationwide and provides ukuleles and other materials and training

Here is the long awaited live acoustic set that the wonderful Circus Trees performed for us after their episode back in June of 2019. They played three songs for us - two from their amazing album Sakura and a new one that we hope will be on their next album. Please enjoy, share, and then purchase their music at circustrees.bandcamp.com. You can listen to their great episode at www.abovethebasement.com. Recorded on June 10, 2019 at Woods Hill Table, in Concord Massachusetts. Song List: Song 1: The Theft Song 2: Despondent Song 3: The OE (The Observer Expectancy Effect)

We saw Circus Trees at The Sinclair in Cambridge when we were there to celebrate The Record Co. and their upcoming new space in Boston. Three young women came on the stage in front of a full house. And once they began playing, everyone paid attention. They blew us away. Finola, 15, Giuliana, 17 and Edmee, also known as Egg, 13, are sisters from Marlborough, MA. And they play sad music. We love sad music. And by the time they finished their set we had already gone over to Robert McCarthy - their manager/dad and founder of Five By Two Records - and he kindly gave us some vinyl of their debut album Sakura. Giving us free vinyl is a sure way to get on ATB, but in their case they did not need to bribe their way on. We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Egg, Finola and Giuliana and talked influences, writing, rehearsing and how three sisters can get along, collaborate and create intelligent, amazingly sad, but gut-wrenchingly beautiful and emotional rock music in a band that is garnering a lot of attention in

Here is a short live interview that we did on 91.5 WMFO radio with Anngelle Wood from Boston Emissions for On The Town with Mikey D - a show that was started 30 years ago. Sadly, Mike passed in 2003 but the show continues in Mikey’s D’s name, broadcasting On the Town every Wednesday night, from 9PM to Midnight EST on Tufts University’s WMFO, 91.5 FM. You can also hear it streaming at www.wmfo.org Being on the other side of an interview reminds me of the movie The Jerk with Steve Martin when Navin Johnson worked at a carnival guessing people’s weight and a daredevil biker named Patty Bernstein says she would like to guess his weight and he says "Hey that would be interesting for me – no one has tried to guess my weight – this will give me a whole different perspective in this!" Anyways – we digress – it was a lot of fun being on the other side of the mic.

Ronnie 1:19 Above the basement awesome music and conversation. We are listening to Melinda Doolittle singing I'm a woman in 2007 with a voice that transcends not only genres but generations. It is fitting that Melinda has come back as a special guest performer for the third time with our friends at the Boston Children's chorus. We sat with Miss do a little just before the BCC his final performance of the season at the iconic Wang theatre. The theme for this concert was lift every voice with gratitude and celebration of the women in our lives past, present and future. While Chuck was taking the day off celebrating two young women in his life as they performed in dance. I was joined by friend and a TB co host Ike Walker, can I had the honor to share the mic with a couple of super women of the future? Our own daughters and BCC singers is the nlb.So here's our conversation with Melinda doula, along with my friend, her dad and my dad recorded at the box center, Duane cedar in Boston, Massachusetts.Ronnie 2:22 Than

We are always fascinated to talk about the state of Boston music and Boston music history with people in the business. Terrestrial radio is a huge part of that – WBCN, WFNX, WZLX - if you grew up in Boston those stations were a seminal way to discover new bands that inspired so many musicians. We met Anngelle Wood at a State of Live Music event that she hosted at iZotope offices in Cambridge when we were trying to learn a bit more about – well – the current state of live music. Whatever your thoughts on the Boston music scene, Anngelle is doing her part to share the legacy and tell the story of Boston Rock and Roll that continues to inspire musicians young and old. Anngelle began and is still passionate about radio and has worked at all the legendary Boston radio stations including WBCN, WFNX and WZLX. She is the host of Boston Emissions which began airing on WBCN back in the 80's and has been instrumental in introducing and establishing thousands of bands from Boston and New England and she also hosts and pr

We sat with Zumix founder Madeleine Steczynski. ZUMIX is an East Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to building the Boston community through music and creative technology. What began as an idea around a kitchen table has blossomed into a wonderful place for kids to create and learn. As you will hear from Madeleine, they are taught valuable skills to instill confidence, collaboration and creativity in music that will follow them their entire life. Their core belief is that music is the most powerful means of developing adolescent self-identity. Their award-winning music and creative technology programming is designed to equip youth with the tools necessary to reach their full potential, while creating a safe space for youth to explore who they are and who they want to be. Co-hosting this time around is Kristina Latino. Kristina is founder and owner of CornerScape - an independent artist management company. Song List: (All songs by Wild Painting, from their album Emotions (available on iTunes & S