Category: Music

Live Music on the Lawn with Matt York!

Posted on by Sue

We are excited to welcome back musician Matt York for another live, outdoor acoustical performance on the lawn on Tuesday evening, July 12th, from 6-7:30. Bring your chair or blanket!

Longtime New England singer/songwriter Matt York will perform some of the great summertime and beach songs of the past fifty years and also talk a bit about the origins of the songs. The music will range from the early days of Motown and the British Invasion to modern hits. York has twice been nominated as Best Male Artist by the New England Music Awards and recently authored a book called “The Highwaymen – Songs & Stories”. Check out his site by clicking here!

Matt grew up in Foxboro, Massachusetts and began playing Boston’s clubs as a teenager. Since then, he’s played on stages throughout the United States and Canada. He has three albums and a recent single.

The Boston Globe named his album “Bruisable Heart” on of their top albums of 2019, and he has been nominated twice as Best Male Artist by the New England Music Awards.  The Boston Herald said of his album, “Boston, Texas”, that the singer-songwriter uses basic building blocks-Buddy Holly’s chords, Hank Williams’ swagger, Steve Earle’s boozy wisdom, Paul Westerberg’s straight-up drunk wisdom-to construct an album of beauty, optimism and heartbreak”. Matt’s music explores a cross-section of everything from straight-up rock and roll to hints of country.

We thank the Trustees of the Falmouth Public Library for sponsoring this concert!

Live Music on the Lawn with Hungrytown

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

The Falmouth Public Library is excited to announce the third Live Music on the Lawn concert of the summer!  Join us and the folk music duo of Hungrytown for a free, live, outdoor concert on the library lawn on Saturday, August 28th, from 2pm-3pm!  Just bring your own chair or blanket and sit back and relax to the wonderful music of Hungrytown!

“After more than fifteen years of world-wide touring and three album releases (Hungrytown, in 2008; Any Forgotten Thing in 2011; and Further West in 2015), Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson have earned a reputation for the quality and authenticity of their songwriting.”  “Lyricist Rebecca Hall is credited with compositions “that sound as timeless as any traditional songs” (Northern Sky, UK) while producer/multi-instrumentalist/husband Ken Anderson is lauded for his “remarkable affinity for instrumental embellishment” (No Depression) and for crafting Hungrytown’s “gorgeous vocal harmonies” (Folk and Roots, UK).””

“Their third and latest album, Further West, made the top 10 on the American Folk DJ charts for two months, and at least 14 “Best of the Year” lists. “Not only is this one of the best albums of 2015, it’s one of the best of the decade,” proclaimed New York Music Daily.” “Hungrytown’s music has also received extensive radio airplay worldwide and has appeared on several television shows, including Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, IFC’s Portlandia and Netflix’s Lady Dynamite.”

 

Live music on the lawn with Matt York!

Posted on by Sue

We are excited to present a live, outdoor concert on the lawn by musician Matt York on Tuesday evening, June 29th, from at 6-7:30 pm (rain date Tuesday, August 3rd)! Bring your chair or blanket.

This outdoor series is an acoustical performance. He will be telling stories and playing songs by the great band the Highwaymen, which consisted of Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings, and answering questions at the end.

Matt grew up in Foxboro, Massachusetts and began playing Boston’s clubs as a teenager. Since then, he’s played on stages throughout the United States and Canada. He has three albums, “Boston, Texas”, “Between the Bars” and “Bruisable Heart”-he also released a single in May 2020, “Scent of Sin”.

The Boston Globe named his album “Bruisable Heart” on of their top albums of 2019.  The Boston Herald said of his album, “Boston, Texas”, that the singer-songwriter uses basic building blocks-Buddy Holly’s chords, Hank Williams’ swagger, Steve Earle’s boozy wisdom, Paul Westerberg’s straight-up drunk wisdom-to construct an album of beauty, optimism and heartbreak”. Matt’s music explores a cross-section of everything from straight-up rock and roll to hints of country. Also, check out his website at mattyorkmusic.com!

This is a free event. We thank the Trustees of the Falmouth Public Library for sponsoring this concert!

Browse Our Collections

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

We hear that you all miss being able to browse our shelves! To help everyone to scan through the last year’s acquisitions, click on our links below.  These links will be updated and refreshed as we learn more about what you would like to browse and through the seasons, and the links are dynamic and will show new titles as they are added to our collections.

Each link will take you to the CLAMS catalog and list the selections that are new to our shelves within the last year (2020). We’ve done the search for you, so each link will bring you to a selection of titles similar to browsing our new sections in our buildings.

Browse Adult Collections

Click on a link below to open the catalog and browse these collections.

Books

Movies, TV and Music

Browse Children’s Collections

Click on a link below to open the catalog and browse these collections.

Books

Browse Teen Collections

Click on a link below to open the catalog and browse these collections.

Jumpin’ Juba-a Zoom musical event!

Posted on by Sue

Listen online to a special offering from Steve Hurl and Bruce Ward of Jumpin’ Juba, on Tuesday evening, February 2nd, starting at 6:30 pm!

Jumpin’ Juba mixes regional blues from Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans together with roots-y rock & roll, jazz, calypso, and Latin flavors. It features Steve Hurl (guitars, vocal), whose playing draws from the great acoustic blues finger-pickers, and from the blues-y string benders of the 1950’s. Bruce Ward’s burly piano work recalls such greats as Prof. Longhair, Otis Spann, and Albert Ammons. The band’s two CD releases (Bumpity Bump and Slap Happy) have received regional and overseas airplay, and have garnered many favorable reviews in MA and beyond. Read more about the band on their page, here!

This is a free event, sponsored by the Falmouth Cultural Council! Registration is required to get the Zoom link. You can register online, by 5 p.m. on the day of the event by clicking here, or by calling the reference department at 508-457-2555 x 7.

Welcome back, concert violinist Joshua Peckins!

Posted on by Sue

Listen online to a special offering from award-winning concert violinist Joshua Peckins, on Wednesday evening, December 2nd, starting at 7 pm! In intimate settings, Josh usually presents a series of lecture recitals featuring solo violin music by Bach and other composers, with warm and personal stories about the composers and their music-his appearance here last winter was widely attended and loved. Due to the pandemic, Joshua is not able to perform in person, but has made a short concert film that registrants can listen to online, on one special evening!

“It is a 45-minute film, recorded in high-quality audio and video, with Joshua performing solo violin selections by Bach and Ravel, and a beautiful piece by rising star classical composer Jessie Montgomery.

In “Songs of Loss and Hope”, Joshua is both speaker and musician, sharing historical perspectives about the composers and their times, as well as their connections to each other as an introduction to each piece he then performs. 

This film is much more too – created both in and for this difficult time of social isolation, it’s a personal statement by the artist about the meaning of music in our lives, and importance of the connection between performer and audience.”

Joshua has been among the most active recitalists in New England, performing solo concerts of “particular brilliance” (Worcester Telegram) and with “a gift for capturing audiences’ attention” (Backyard News). He has presented solo recitals nationally and internationally in over 30 venues, including the renowned Figaro Hall of Palace Pálffy (where Mozart himself presented his “The Marriage of Figaro”), Crystal Hall in Japan, the Haydn and Mendelssohn Halls in Austria, as well on the Artist Series of the Bled Festival in Slovenia, the Salzburg Festival at the Mozarteum, the Orford Festival in Canada, and the Cervo Festival in Italy.

This is a free event. Registration is required to get the link, and the film will be available to view between the hours of 7 and 9 p.m., on that evening only. You can register online at falmouthpubliclibrary.org/events.  We thank the Trustees of the Falmouth Public Library for sponsoring this concert!

 

Hoopla Music Review: Dizzy Gillespie ‘Jambo Caribe’ (1964)

Posted on by Sue

You know how they always told you never to judge a book by its cover? Well, in this case, they’re wrong. Just look at that thing. Is it a child’s sugar-fueled scribblings, a Ralph Steadman/Hunter S. Thompson ‘Fantasia’ sequence, or Harry Belafonte’s worst experience on acid? It’s hella bizarre whatever it is, and it pretty much sums up the eclectic and eccentric music contained within.

Alternating between cool, catchy, Caribbean-influenced instrumentals like ‘Hello, Trinidad’ and ‘And Then She Stopped’ and the frenetic, infectious insanity of Dizzy’s vocals on songs like ‘Poor Joe’ and ‘Don’t Try To Keep Up With The Joneses’, this is one of the most exciting and unusual jazz/world albums you’re ever going to hear.
 
Future stars Kenny Barron (piano) and James Moody (flute) accompany throughout, but ‘Jambo Caribe’ is truly the personality and sound of just one man, bebop’s most famous extended cheeks, Mr John Birks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie. It may be his experimental, unpredictable trumpet playing that has kept this album relevant with critics and jazzopiles over the years, but it’s his playful sense of humor and obvious affection for the calypso music of the West Indies that will keep you laughing, singing, and jumping around your house every time you play it.

Falmouth Public Library, West Falmouth and Woods Hole cardholders can stream the album FREE on Hoopla here. For information on how to get a Hoopla account, click here! (reviewed by Josh)

Music by the Flaming Lips, ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’

Posted on by Sue
The title track starts off with a lone acoustic guitar strumming in a loose, Jonathan Richman style, a warbling synthesizer chirping out a couple of random, faltering notes behind it. Faint, far away voices can be heard speaking what sounds like Japanese just as a fat, stomping drum beat comes crashing in, immediately rerouting the song’s assumed course. Like Aladdin entering the Raja’s palace only after his loud procession of musicians, jugglers and elephants, it is then that frail-voiced singer, Wayne Coyne, steps up to the mic to deliver his ballad of the city-funded, black belt, robot fighter.
 
Much like The Flaming Lips’ first hit, ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’, ‘Yoshimi’s’ charm lies in its goofy, unusual rhymes (“She’s taking lots of vitamins cause she knows that it’d be tragic if those evil robots win”), and the fact that there is really no need for such a song ever to exist and yet it seems to fill some void that was ’til now unnoticed. It’s a semi-funky, instantly catchy number, perfect for nerdy manga fans and/or parents looking to play something other than the two Frozen soundtracks when their kids are in the car.
 
Then there’s ‘One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21’. It’s a mellow, melancholy song that expresses in five heartbreaking minutes what it has taken ‘Westworld’ three-and-counting seasons to get across.

If this were as good as the album got, I’d say go ahead and YouTube the first three or four songs and call it a day. But the other, non-robot tracks are some of the most purely-written songs of love and loss since Leonard Cohen dropped ‘Hallelujah’. (What?! Record reviews are all about hyperbole disguised as personal opinion!)

Although only two or three other songs will get you as amped as ‘Yoshimi’, the others possess a quality that inspires introspection and reflection, sadness and hope. Coyne’s wounded voice, Steven Drozd’s seemingly repetitious yet persuasive drumming, and Michael Ivins’ incredibly inventive use of synths as background sound effects and impressionistic soundscapes combine to create an album full of the same sort of excitement that their older, punkier albums had with the more intricate and psychedelic experimentation of their more recent records. Equal parts pessimism, existentialism and anime-inspired science fiction, with ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’, The Flaming Lips may have created the most honest and innocent album of their discography.

If you have a Falmouth-issued library card, you can listen to ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’ on Hoopla via this link! You can learn about-and sign up for-Hoopla here. 
 
Music review by Josh!

A Gentle Giant: In Memory of Bill Withers (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020)

Posted on by Sue

Singer/songwriter Bill Withers passed away on March 30 from heart complications. But for 81 years prior to that, he was a genius musician, poet, songwriter and activist.

Bill Withers released his first album, ‘Just As I Am’ in 1971. Featuring such classics as ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ and ‘Grandma’s Hands’, it immediately identified Withers as an artist on par with the John Lennon, Marvin Gaye and Joni Mitchell. His next album, ‘Still Bill’, was equally amazing, giving us the classics ‘Lean On Me’ and ‘Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?’

Throughout his career, Withers would release nine studio albums, one live album, and countless collaborations with other artists (most notably ‘Just the Two of Us’ with Grover Washington Jr.). Withers was nominated for seven Grammys and won three. In 2015, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 2009, the documentary film ‘Still Bill’, was released. It is a GREAT way to learn more about this icon and appreciate the art he gave us. If you have a Falmouth-issued card, ‘Still Bill’ is available as to stream free on Qello, through our RB digital platform. You can sign up for it on our site here-call us or email if you need help with this. 

The link to ‘Still Bill’ on Qello is here, you can access it by creating a free account with your card.

(written by Josh)