I have two new favorite local musical acts, both witnessed at the second week of the Red Dragon’s Fenceapalooza fundraiser last Saturday. The first is singer-songwriter Erin Miley, sitting alone with a simply and confidently strummed guitar as the framework for her haunting, spectral voice. Somewhere between mournful and moonstruck, it’s the kind of voice that’s thrilling to witness. I really hope she records something soon so I can sing its praises. You can take it in for yourself when she performs with Elsah and Atomic Hearts at Red Star on Saturday.
A different kind of sonic purity was found in Becca & the Levee Pushers, a bona fide string band that does not cute up the material with a milligram of shtick, opting to allow a song its own charms instead. Closely surrounded by her bandmates on guitar, fiddle and banjo, all singing with the gale force unity of the Carter family, Becca held onto her upright bass like she was dancing with a charmed bear. I don’t know where they are playing next, but I hope I’m there to see it.
The Pine Hill Haints are a backwoods rock ’n’ roll tornado appearing at Chelsea’s on Friday. Pitting singing saw against banjo against actual washtub guitar against manic guitar, they summon some of the most feral music I’ve heard in a long time. The Legendary Shack Shakers deal in the same kind of firewater at Spanish Moon on Monday—along with Bobby Bare Jr., a master portraitist of the gloriously downtrodden. All in all, it’s a week of music that might just set you right once the hangover subsides and that tattoo you woke up with heals. Enjoy!
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