Peter Mulvey

Peter Mulvey is working on his thousandth album, all of which are good. He’s been known to collaborate in the past and really he doesn’t need to. But it seems he enjoys it, finding new musical inspiration in the styles he adopts depending on what the tunes call for, with whom he’s making them, or just how he’s growing up. If you follow his Facebook page you already know the new tracks he’s working on are produced by Ani DiFranco and, apparently, she’s overdubbing toy piano and xylophone, among other things. Rumor has it that Peter might introduce some of these songs to the fans in Bellows Falls on Friday, March 11, where he’s on a bill at the Windham Ballroom with Northampton’s guitar fiend Pamela Means. Means is a transplant to Northampton from the midwest, whence Peter hails, and between the two of them there’s more chops than at a blackbelt Karate competition.

Peter’s last album, Silver Ladder, kept him on the road for a couple years during which time he wrote the influential and globally augmented Take Down Your Flag about South Carolina’s confederate flag. Many musicians recorded the song and contributed verses and YouTube is awash with participants. One of them was Pamela Means, the firey guitar player, singer, and songwriter – and incidentally, a friend of Mulvey’s – whom you’ll get to see on Friday, March 11, as well.

Mr. Mulvey has played here at the Windham several times over the last fifteen years – even back when we just had the little listening room in the hotel lobby. We’re always happy to see how he stays current while retaining the same warm and captivating presence on stage. We hope you might make it down for the show. Doors are at 8:00pm and the show starts at 8:30. Be sure to make a dinner reservation early if dining’s your thing. We recommend reservations between 5 and 6:30 to make the
show after a leisurely meal. Tickets for Mr. Mulvey and Ms. Means are $24 in advance and $28 on the day of the show. All at popolomeanspeople.com

Kristin Hersh

Kristin Hersh is one of the most critically-acclaimed, pioneering female rock musicians of the past three decades. The New York Times called her “a truly fear-inspiring rock innovator,” Rolling Stone dubbed her band, Throwing Muses, “trailblazing” and “one of alternative rock’s most influential but under-appreciated groups.” Over the course of her career, she has released over 20 albums, including 9 solo records, and several books. Her coming of age memoir, Rat Girl, was chosen by Rolling Stone as one of ten best music memoirs ever written.

Ms. Hersh’s live shows have become a combination of songs and reading from her acclaimed books. The songs are cathartic and sometimes terrifying so it might come as a surprise the in person Ms. Hersh is hysterically funny. Her incisive and self-deprecating wit allows her to occupy the same space as what ails her but also with the audience, as well. She’s the best example of extraordinary things emanating from an ordinary person though, truly, this woman’s work is and has always been extraordinary.

At the tender age of 14 she founded the seminal band Throwing Muses with her step-sister Tanya Donelly (Breeders, Belly). The first signing to England’s prestigious 4AD records but Throwing Muses found themselves at the top of the Village Voice “Pazz and Jop” poll before they even had a recording contract.

Ms. Hersh’s career is long and prodigious so it’s difficult to sum it all up in a short bio.

She played the first official concert when the Windham Ballroom opened in October of 2012 and we are honored to host her performance again.

Tickets are $25 in advance with $40 for an Angel ticket that gives you bragging rights. On the day of the show tickets are $35 while they last. Doors open at 8:00pm and the show starts at 8:30pm.

Rusty Belle

They’re back. After a stellar show sometime in the spring we exchanged phone numbers and are going on our second date – in public!

Both these bands do something one might call country bar music but Rusty Belle skew folky and the Break Maids skew cowpunk. Neither really subscribes to a genre though both are eminently listenable. There’s a strong sense of melody and some well played harmonies and one can only imagine that the months since we saw them last have given them even more grace and poise.

We’re serving a full brunch menu, a cash bar, and specials to boot as well as a generous helping of signature afternoon drinks.

Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 day of show, and $20 for the best seats in the house.

Jon Dee Graham

The inimitable Jon Dee Graham returns to the Windham Ballroom with the esteemed Mike June.

Jon Dee Graham has played around, as it were. With eight or nine solo albums behind him, he’s made at least that many records in collaboration with a who’s who list of indie credibility. Names you know or, rather, names you would know if you paid attention to that sort of thing. What’s the point in listing them all because, in listing them, the point is lost. What’s the point? The point is that fame is no measure of value and fame by association is only reflected light. Value also is derived from stick-to-itivenss and authenticity and in this regard, Jon Dee Graham is priceless.

Born in 1959 in Texas near the Mexican border, Graham has spent his life immersed in the Austin music scene for which he was awarded the Artist Of The Decade in 2009. Back in the mid-1980‘s, Graham left his band, The Skunks, and joined the True Believers, pioneers in the genre of cowpunk. Teaming up with Alejandro and Javier Escovedo, Graham brought smarts to the art form around the time so much of rock n roll was getting smarter. One shouldn’t forget that Graham dropped out of law school to do this music thing. Back then we called it college rock because it mainly got played on college stations and for good reason. Don’t get me wrong: this wasn’t the Talking Heads, this was gristly rock n roll but newly literate. And from Texas no less! In any event, despite mountains of promise and brief deals with Rounder Records and EMI-America, by 1987 the band drifted apart and Graham went on as a sideman for the aforementioned passel of luminaries. Legend has it that, after nearly a decade of that, Graham took his smarts back to Austin and got a construction job. That could have been the end of it, but no.

Somehow, in 1997 he released Escape From Monster Island, his solo debut, an astute and mature observation of the world and our place in it. Then, as now, the gravel in his voice and the rawness in his playing mask a tenderness and a quiet intellectualism and let his songwriting masquerade as rootsy, Waitsean Americana.

Starting there, Jon Dee Graham has been a critics’ darling, swimming in the shallow water of clubs and bars, driving a van around the country doing what he does, never quite breaking big, never quite breaking bad.

It ain’t the winnin’ / it ain’t the losin’ / it’s the going beyond our choosing that makes us kings. – Kings: Escape From Monster Island

There’s a lot of press written about Graham and most of it talks about the prevalent ideas of loss in his oeuvre but in that depiction, the point is lost. Whether or not he looks for hope, he seems to often find it so why isn’t that’s what’s noticed? In an interview with the Houston Chronicle in 2010 he’s quoted as saying,

“… with all the frustrations, obstacles, disappointments, injustices… we still get Texas twilight, babies, thunderstorms, friends, dogs, second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth chances, fireflies; if that was all we got, you’d still have to admit it’s a pretty good deal, all things considered.”

And this from a fellow who survived a near fatal car crash, falling asleep while driving home from a gig after his third induction in the Austin Music Hall of Fame. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up.

We might scratch our heads and wonder how it is that he’s going to stop in Bellows Falls to tell us a thing or two. We’ll just have to chalk it up to our good fortune. We’re proud to host Jon Dee Graham for one show on Thursday, September 19. He’s Texas twilight, he’s fireflies, he’s thunderstorms.

Come here you beautiful thing / Come here you beautiful everything / It’s a big sweet life – Big Sweet Life: Summerland

Brought to you by Popolo in association with Flying Under Radar, LLC.

Richard Shindell

Richard Shindell is a master songwriter and performer with an assured baritone and a marvelously fluid and intricate guitar technique. Songs such as “Are You Happy Now,” “Fishing,” “Reunion Hill” and “Transit” are peopled with deceptively complex characters, propelled by strong, folk-based melodies and delivered with a dry, deadpan wit.

“Mr. Shindell is a lapidary craftsman, matching pared-down imagery to forthright melodies. With quiet assurance, he finds new ways to portray familiar situations, from breakups to the loneliness of the long-distance trucker… He performs his own songs with grace and suspense. As he picks and strums intricate guitar parts, he sings with a concentration that reveals the tension behind his lyrics. His voice recalls James Taylor and Michael Stipe… The tone is reflective, but the dilemmas and disappointments couldn’t be more vivid.” – Jon Pareles, NY TIMES

Doors open at 7:30pm and showtime is at 8:00pm. Tickets are $26 in advance, $28 Day of Show, and a limited number of “best in house” seats are available for $38. Tickets are available at the restaurant and at the door.

“Richard Shindell is one of the finest songwriters of this or any other age.” – Joan Baez.

Primate Fiasco

A year ago we tried to get these guys to play at our grand opening. Alas, they were busy. Popolo has been busy ever since, serving more than 30,000 meals in our first year not to mention a pile of concerts, movies, and parties. At long last this genre bending psychedelic Dixieland army comes to the Windham Ballroom for the very special occasion of our first anniversary party. Admission is free and there will be special cocktails and giveaways. Prepare to be dazzled by our unlabelable brothers from Northampton. File under Extreme Party.

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