Miscellaneous

David Wax Museum has found success by blending traditional Appalachian sounds with rural Mexican folk to produce a unique roots folk sound they call ‘Mexo-Americana’. David Wax studied regional Mexican folk music on a Harvard fellowship and Suz Slezak brought bluegrass and Appalachian influences to the band from her time growing up in Albemarle County.

A breakout performance at the 2010 Newport Folk Festival led Paste magazine to name  David Wax Museum the breakout act of the festival.

Now more than a decade into their career David Wax Museum have evolved in many ways. David and Suz are married and have kids in tow and their music has grown with an influx of new genres and personal experiences. A great example of this is the appearance of their two children on the pairs’ latest single Spring is Here.

Released on New Years Eve in 2021, Remember My Future is their latest full album. It was recorded during the pandemic and features several collaborating Commonwealth artists. Suz Slezak has also been busy, releasing her second solo album this year.

After the Covid-19 pandemic prevented artists from touring for over a year and half, Waxahatchee held off from performing in support of 2020 album Saint Cloud until late last year. Katie Crutchfield and her band took to the stage at The National in Richmond on Monday to finally share the songs from their critically acclaimed release live, and were met with a packed crowd who’d been waiting in anticipation for her return.

Waxahatchee performs at The National

Following the opener Madi Diaz’s beautifully intimate performance of some soul-crushing numbers from her recent History Of A Feeling, Crutchfield and co. took to the stage and jumped right into Saint Cloud’s intro, “Oxbow”. From the pure jolt of energy that came as the band all joined in together, it became abundantly clear to all that they’d been waiting for this moment just as anxiously as we had.

Opener Madi Diaz performing at The National

They jumped back and forth, playing songs from the new record and going back to some classics. With the support of a full band, “Recite Remorse” filled the cavernous room with sonic tension, threatening to burst the ceiling. Crutchfield switched between electric and acoustic, and the crowd erupted in excitement as she began strumming the chords to the bouncy hit “Lilacs”.

The group followed with “The Eye”, and her voice seemed to smooth out the atmosphere in the room. Crutchfield handles the weight of her lyrics admirably in her Birmingham indie folk vocal style, and the songs carry you along as she and the band sway in unison.

She also shared one of the five songs she wrote for a new Apple TV series El Deafo, called “Tomorrow”, and played a cover of Lucinda Williams’ “Fruit of My Labor”, which appeared on the expanded version of their album Saint Cloud +3 last year.

Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee

She ended the show with the album’s title track, followed by the fan favorite “Fire” before leaving the stage to a thunderous applause.

As many acts make their eventual return to the stage, Waxahatchee is one you don’t want to miss. The band brings a newfound energy to the country ensemble sound evident on many of the tracks on the new album, and Crutchfield’s performing some of her best and most brutally honest songs with a passion that’s hard to match. They’ve also found a great balance in the setlist that counters the mellow songs with upbeat jam band anthems that melt away the despair. Crutchfield’s voice and their chemistry reaches new heights on songs like “Can’t Do Much” that make the show so very worth it.

At about 5PM on August 15th 1969, Richie Havens opened the first Woodstock Music Festival. Originally scheduled to perform only four songs, Havens was asked to perform much longer, as other bands scheduled for later in the evening were stuck in traffic and not on site.

Richie Havens started his career in Greenwich Village, initially reading poetry and drawing portraits. Only after a couple of years listening at folk clubs did Havens decide to try it himself. His solo performances were strong enough to get the opening slot at Woodstock. His concert performance and his inclusion in the Woodstock move catapulted his career, putting him before an international audience.

After exhausting his entire catalog on stage at Woodstock, Havens improvised his final encore, putting Freedom to the tune of an old spiritual, ‘Motherless Children.’

Ritchie Havens recorded more than 20 albums, with his biggest success coming from his soulful covers of popular music. Touring constantly throughout his forty-year career, Havens says he never planned a show beyond his opening and closing songs, preferring to feed off the energy of the audience.

Havens was also an accomplished actor, appearing in several movies and the original stage presentation of The Who’s Tommy. His philanthropic interests were focused on educating children about ecology.

Havens did not recover fully from kidney surgery in 2010 and in 2012 announced his retirement. In 2013 he died from a heart attack.

Happy Birthday Art Neville. The founder of the New Orleans funk band the Meters would have been 84 today. Growing up in the city Neville and his brothers started performing at an early age with Art playing piano. Influenced by R&B, doo-wop and local piano giants like Professor Longhair, Neville joined the Hawketts in high school and recorded Mardi Gras Mambo with Art on vocals.

In the early 1960s he and his brothers formed the Neville Sound and after some band mates left the group, they changed their name to the Meters. Early on the band was mostly improvisational and they developed a sound later referred to as New Orleans funk.

The Meters developed a following amongst the rock stars of the day, and in 1975 Paul McCartney invited The Meters to play a party on the Queen Mary in California.  Mick Jagger was at the party and was enamored with the Meters and their sound. From that exposure the Stones invited the Meters to tour with them in the US in 1975 and in Europe in 1976.

After the Meters run ended, Art and his brothers went on to form the Neville Brothers and win two Grammys with the group. Art Neville and the Meters also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The improvisational style that emphasized rhythm over melody employed by the bands had a lasting influence on hip hop and even more so on jam bands. Art Neville described his love of improvisation as “The best part, to me, is when the [rhythm] just evolves into some other stuff.”

The man known as “Poppa Funk” retired from performing in 2018 and passed away the following year.