In Wellfleet Elementary School’s basement music room, five adults sit strumming guitars, led by their teacher, Austin Smith. “Was anyone able to get a little practice in this week?” Smith […]
Music
IMPROVISATIONS
The Key Is to Show Up
The Volunteers have found a regular home at Wellfleet’s Wicked Oyster
The air hums more than usual on Thursday evenings at the Wicked Oyster in Wellfleet. From 6 to 8 p.m., the Volunteers, a small jazz combo, occupies one low-lit corner. […]
VIRTUOSO
For Beppe Gambetta, Music Is Like Magic
The guitarist from Genoa whose life was changed by Doc Watson’s flatpicking
Beppe Gambetta grew up in the ancient port city of Genoa, Italy. His mother and father were “opera people,” fond of music, he says. Gambetta was more than fond of […]
MUSIC
Indie Playlist: New Sounds
Songs to soundtrack a new year, and a new you.
Every new year is an opportunity to renew ourselves: to plan new experiences, start a new exercise routine, or quit drinking (at least temporarily). It’s also a great time to […]
MUSIC
From Eastham to Hollywood and Home Again
Natalia Bonfini is a different musician after American Idol
Four years ago, Natalia Bonfini, who grew up in Eastham, found herself in Nashville, face to face with American Idol judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan. She would […]
MUSIC
Shannon Davis Sings Stories That Seem Real
A debut album weaves loneliness into love and betrayal and back again for more
When Shannon Davis was 16, she picked up her uncle’s jumbo acoustic Epiphone guitar. She had never known her uncle — he had died when she was a baby, but […]
MUSIC
Through Song, She Travels
On Susan Werner’s recent albums, she tries to understand the unfamiliar
Susan Werner grew up on a farm in the “pretty part” of Iowa, she says. That is, five miles southwest of Manchester, where there are hills and trees. She picked […]
SCHOOL OF ROCK
The Kids Are Better Than All Right
The young rockers of Watch Your Step will take the stage at Preservation Hall
Twelve-year-old Alison Long stands front and center onstage, a bass guitar in her arms, her face shadowed by long brown hair. Behind her, nine-year-old Trent Burritt holds his drumsticks above […]
CABARET
James Jackson Jr. Likes to Change People’s Minds
The Broadway star favors the unexpected in music and social activism
Singer-actor James Jackson Jr. doesn’t take well to other people’s preconceptions about what he should and shouldn’t be doing. He’s turned defying expectations into something of a trademark in his […]
REVELATIONS
For a New Album, Women Are the Muse
In Silver City, Amy Helm turns secrets into songs
For her fourth solo album, Silver City, Amy Helm had a muse: a young fan. “The first time I met her, she was in the deepest, darkest throes of addiction,” […]
THE SONGWRITER
For Monica Rizzio, Music Is Everything
The Washashore Cowgirl says she’s here to stay
Monica Rizzio is singing something new. Her strong, sure voice fills the room; the guitar in her hands sounds bigger than it is. It creates its own kind of gravity: […]
PIANO MAN
Tedd Firth Plays With the Greats
The art of listening to a singer breathe
Pianist, arranger, and musical director Tedd Firth says he has always had only one goal in life: “I just wanted to play.” He took piano lessons as a child and […]
SING OUT
Mozelle Andrulot Comes Full Circle
The Cape Cod crooner makes time for family, a corporate job, and a swinging jazz career
It isn’t much of a surprise to learn that Mozelle Andrulot was a musical child. “My mother said that I didn’t talk at first — I sang everything,” she says. […]
MUSIC
Indie Playlist: Summer Sounds
Songs for sun, sand, and blue skies
For this installment of Indie’s Playlist, we asked six members of the Independent team to describe their songs of the summer: the song that best encapsulates the feeling of the […]
THE GREATS
The Borromeo String Quartet Does What the Music Demands
In its 34th appearance at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, the group will play Beethoven and Schubert
Yeesun Kim says she and her Peregrino Zanetto cello, built in 1576, have a happy marriage. She accepts its shortcomings — its struggle, once, to project powerfully enough against an […]
