This Sunday night, July 24, Taj Mahal is playing Nectar’s. Taj is huge and Nectar’s is small. Not small in taste or talent, mind you, but small in square footage. This is a very good thing. You will be just footsteps away from guitar greatness, rather than sniffing clouds while seated a football field away as at some arena stadium.
The name conjures up many questions but few answers; the Bee Eaters. What that means is anybody’s guess. What they do, however, is on the record.
The Bee Eaters are rocking musicians who trace their roots back to Celtic, jazz, bluegrass and old-time flavor. They have been called “bodaciously brilliant” by well tuned listeners. Renowned bassist Edgar Meyer enthused that the experience is “a joy to hear both the exploration of this music.. and the emphasis on the simple beauty of the acoustic instruments.”
A group of Island musicians was in the key of comfort Friday night at Nancy’s in Oak Bluffs, mixing old school tunes with a little new school funk. The Martha’s Vineyard Jazz Quintet was performing together for the first time. The group is a mix of jazz cats young and old — the three members of the Vineyard high school group Ramblin’ Tides and three members of the Brian King Nelson Sextet. Different ages, same passion.
Deer Tick is not just a really nasty strain of insect you could find attached to your leg after too much time spent at South Beach. It is also the name of John McCauley’s folk/punk/blues band playing at Nectar’s this Saturday night.
Mr. McCauley has carved out a reputation for his band within the crowded genre of indie rock bands with the prefix Deer (see: Deerhunter, Deerhoof) through raucous live shows.
Tuesday, August 9, was the 16th anniversary of the death of Jerry Garcia, the lead singer of the Grateful Dead. In honor of the late songwriter and musician, the Grateful Dread, a band of Island musicians who play Grateful Dead songs with a reggae flair, and play every Tuesday night at Nectar’s, decided to pay homage not with a moment of silence, but with an extra long guitar solo.
Sidra Dumont of West Tisbury, a 2011 graduate of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, is currently touring Europe with the Sound of America Honor Band and Chorus. The tour began July 1 and wraps tomorrow, July 23. It has included St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg.
She was chosen to join other select student musicians from across the nation after auditioning and passing a rigid character and musical evaluation. Sidra has been selected to sing two solos during the performances.
On Oct. 23 the Beatles are coming to the Vineyard. And you thought their debut at Shea Stadium was monumental.
For those worried, or excited, about ghostly visages, the folks playing the music will not be the Fab Four but rather local Island musicians who call themselves the Daytrippers. But close your eyes and it may truly be John, George, Paul and Ringo you hear.
“There have to be music festivals and someone has to do [organize] it. And I guess it has to be me.”
So says Rob Myers, also known as Deejay Jellybone Rivers, talking about his compulsion to provide the rest of us couch potatoes with a reason to get out of the house and get in the groove.
If the walls at Nectar’s could talk, or sing for that matter, they would share an intricate story of rock and roll, blues, folk, hip-hop, reggae and pop, but more than that, the story of the soulful music community on the Vineyard. Now, as the only remaining music club on the Island prepares to open for its third season, one thing remains true about the venue: No matter who’s in charge, the music continues to challenge a Vineyard audience.
Imagine Tom Petty crossed with Carly Simon and a dash of Jack Johnson and you have Erich Luening, rock artist and well-known Islander. And this weekend he will release Red Flags, his debut solo album. A decade in the making, the CD has a stellar guest list that includes Evan Dando of the Lemonheads, who is also Mr. Luening’s childhood Island friend.
