Entertainment

In 1967, the late topical folksinger/songwriter Phil Ochs released his album Pleasures of the Harbor, with poetic liner notes including the often-quoted line “In such an ugly time, the true protest is beauty.”

You know that I like intimate musical performances, and to get to them, I’ll usually make a special effort. Well, I almost missed a wonderful event at the Carnegie Memorial Library’s meeting room one morning last week. About 40 people gathered to listen to fiddler, mandolinist, fiddle …

Have you noticed that some music goes well with food, and some doesn’t? And that even when it’s the right music, it can be the wrong moment? If you’ve ever had a relationship argument with your significant other, all eyes flashing daggers and both of you frowning, when the Mariachi band …

It’s hard for me to believe it, but another year and another New Bedford Summerfest has come and gone. Lots of traditional English singers and others singing English traditional songs were among nearly 40 acts on hand this year, and most of them performed on the stage at which I was emcee. …

My late friend Mary Herczog regularly used her blogs and e-blasts to brag on the exploits of her best beloveds, so that she could both sing their praises to the rest of us, and kvell (Yiddish for beaming with pride and pleasure) and shep nachas (pronounced nah-chuss, with the “ch” …

The most disappointing things about the live alternative and original music scene in Lake Charles are that it takes place in too few venues, and too few people know about it. Oh sure, the family and friends of individual artists and bands come out to local gigs wherever they happen, …

Downtown At Sundown is one of the nicest things the City parents provide for us under the stewardship of the Arts & Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana. For a month of Fridays, just as the spring starts to heat up and turn into our (always) early summer, beginning at 6 p.m. and …

I was reading Jim Doyle’s column in the last issue of The Jam with appreciative nods and chuckles, when suddenly my dear friend misspoke himself. Jim was waxing poetic as only he can about his hero, Willie Nelson, and named some songs he said were written by Nelson, well known to be one hell of a …

One of the most satisfying moments in the entirely delicious, pointillistically-paced concert by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers happened like this: The Rangers, having just wrung us out with a four-part a cappella gospel number in gorgeous layers of climbing spirals of ecstatic …

It doesn’t matter where I find myself; I always run into musicians trying to catch a break. I was flying from Lake Charles to New York for Passover, and who should my seatmates be but John and “Just” Lewis, reggae singers living and working construction in Sacramento, California, who were …