Live at the library

I've been absent from the blogosphere for a few weeks, so I thought I should check in today with an update on my recent musical adventures, both as a listener and as a performer:

My two-man string band, the Bentwood Rockers, plays relatively few gigs during the winter time, though we did have a good gig on Sunday at the Greenmarket in the Proctor's complex in Schenectady. If you haven't checked out the Greenmarket, you don't know what you're missing. It's a huge, eclectic, colorful bazaar of vendors (including several from Fulton County) selling fresh produce, prepared foods, crafts and gifts, and each Sunday it features a variety of free live entertainment.

My music partner, Roland Vinyard, and I have just recently recorded our first CD, and it's in the final stages of production now. We hope to unleash it on the world before Christmas. It's a collection of old-time American folk music and a good reflection of what we sound like in live performances.

Speaking of live performances, we had a warm and enthusiastic audience back in October when we played at the Gloversville Public Library. Here's a song from that concert that got the audience singing along:

November's highlight for me was a peformance by singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs. I've been a big fan of his music for about 10 years, but I'd never seen him perform live before, so this was a treat. Mulvey is what I'd call a real writer's songwriter; his songs are literate, thoughtful and pleasantly complex. His guitar work is nothing to sneeze at, either. Here's a video showing Peter Mulvey performing "Vlad the Astrophysicist" (not at Caffe Lena, alas). This is not a song but a narrative, one of several spoken-word pieces from his album "Letters from a Flying Machine."