Music & More

On Wednesday, November 14th, The Art of Sound, a high end audio store located in Lambertville, NJ hosted a performance by Lindsey Webster as part of their "Unplugged" jazz series. Attendance was limited to fifty by the size constraint of the space; The Art of Sound is located in a former nineteenth century paper mill nestled along the Delaware River and Canal. I had just seen an email from Webster listing two tour dates, one in California and the other in New Jersey. The NJ booking turned out to be The Art of Sound, and we were lucky enough to secure the last pair of tickets to this special show. The conversion of the paper mill to an audio showroom can be seen in the pictures below. This had to be one of the coolest and most unusual spaces in which to see such an event. Webster sat on a stool and just sang, accompanied by Keith Slattery on piano. Don't get me wrong, I love her three albums but this show was truly special in that Webster sang a good number of stand...

Photo courtesy of Average White Band This is a special pairing of two bands that are each headliners in their own right. They both live on the road, and since they record new albums very infrequently, they both earn their keep playing live. As they often do, their tour schedules coincided at The Keswick on Saturday, October 20th. I've seen these bands many times, both separately and co-billed. Historically, Tower of Power has always been the larger band in terms of their number of musicians. As such, I think that the order of performance is pre-ordained. It's been about five years since I last saw the Average White Band (AWB). Up to that point they had been a five piece. The then-newest member, Klyde Jones, was such a talented multi-instrumentalist and singer that I couldn't imagine the band without him. When he left to spend more time with his family, AWB ultimately added three new members, a lead vocalist and two keyboard players (one of which doubles on sax). As...