According to a friend who scours the New York music scene, Bowery Ballroom is the best venue in the city. It includes a downstairs bar area, (more Bowery than ballroom) with a large pine bar, dark lighting and red dirty pillow cushions, and it acts as a holding/drinking tank before releasing hipster upon hippie into the upstairs performance area.

The opening band was still moving their equipment out of the ballroom upon our arrival, so we snaked through the crowd to try and score standing room next to the stage.  As Man Man set up, I noticed a large number of fans dressed up like the band, draped in white and sporting war-paint with matching headbands (imagine The cast of The Road Warrior playing Wimbledon).  Clearly an  energized crowd had come to pay tribute to the band’s wild mix of music and performance art.

On the first night of what is scheduled to be a month-long celebration of Paul Simon at BAM, bandleader Oscar Hernandez conducted his Spanish Harlem Orchestra in a rendition of the music from Simon's The Capeman, the 1998 musical about the life of Salvador Agron (better known as “The Capeman"), a young member of the Puerto Rican Vampires gang who spent 20 years in jail for murder before receiving gubernatorial death row clemency from Gov. Rockefeller.

Listening to the songs unfold on stage, it is understandable to see why the original musical (which starred Marc Anthony and Ruben Blades a decade ago) failed on Broadway: the theme and the liberal use of language is a bit is a bit too harsh for pre-Rent audiences (the accusation that Simon was glamorizing gang life might have scared away some audiences as well), and the mix of Latin and doo-wop is not always that easy to digest, especially when one is looking for a fun night on the town.

Winter’s icy grip has kept much of the Midwest in a bitter chokehold this year, and though there’s no quick-fix remedy, temporary relief could be found in a night of smoldering bluegrass for the good of family. After the untimely death of guitarist and founding member Kirk Rundstrom, Split Lip Rayfield nearly called it quits. Now, nearly a year since Rundstorm’s passing, the remaining members regrouped for a winter tour to benefit the former guitarist’s family, in particular his two young daughters. The near-capacity crowd had clearly made an effort to support the cause and the band. Eric Mardis, Wayne Gottstine and Jeff Eaton responded by blasting through a slew of furious uptempo, punk-influenced bluegrass during the extended single set. 

Photo: David McClister

Jim Lauderdale took the stage at Nashville’s historic Station Inn dressed in a smart purple blazer decorated in lightning bolts. A smart contrast with the five black-clad musicians who preceded him, Lauderdale is a presence.

Less than a week earlier, Lauderdale earned a Grammy for Bluegrass Album of the Year (Bluegrass Diaries), and while he certainly delved into his bluegrass catalog, Lauderdale also offered country ballads, gospel, honky-tonk, Americana and Gypsy jazz. He sang songs that he had written with famed Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter along with a slew of other originals that spanned his career.