Calendar
Grant Bloom was brought up learning classical piano; wedged between Dallas and Ft. Worth Texas. Much like a kid eating broccoli, he pushed it away, not realizing how beneficial the music was. Some years later, he was baptized into the world of jazz and from this, music began to tug at Grant’s sleeve. After being taught basic guitar chords from his father, and becoming comfortable in his vocal prowess, Grant began to craft songs.
More on David Johnston: You’re rushing through the city streets, maybe late for an appointment, distracted by your life’s many obligations, and you blow right past a street musician, hard at work. And you stop. And you listen. And you enter the moment and think, ‘Wow, this guy can really play.’
Blue Mondays at TOAD – Listen to Dennis Brennan: “Hey all you progressives, radicals and outcasts out there. It’s Monday and time for the blues with THE WHITE OWLS, featuring Tim Gearan, Jim Haggerty, Andy Plaisted, Steve Sadler & me along with David Johnston starting the night off.”
The Boston Globe on The Franc Graham Band:
“Immensely Underrated… cool and commanding… an unusually rich blend of singer-songwriter rock…”
The Blue Ribbons was formed by singer/songwriter/keyboardist James Rohr.
They have been building a base of devoted fans with their original and soulful music.
Described as
“Ray Charles and Tom Waits on a pirate ship with Sun Ra and Captain Beefheart,” they combine “upbeat disillusionment and celebratory fatalism with musicianship” – Charan Devereux; Boston Globe.
“I still believe the lessons I learned when I was raised in a Roman Catholic household. Like, it’s harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” – Michael Moore –
Celebrate Hump Day with Fandango
ET – phone home – yeah, yeah –
but only after the Baker Thomas Band show . . . they’re out of this world. . .“A whole bunch of musicians and a whole bunch of instruments, come together to deliver an electrifying show which promises a whole bunch of fun” -Tracey Delfino, Trespass Music
He may wield an acoustic guitar and write achingly beautiful universal truths, but Ciaran Lavery couldn’t be further from the sensitive singer-songwriter archetype.
David Wax Museum‘s
ELECTRIC ARTIFACTS TOUR
It’s true! Our jarana-strumming, jawbone-whacking collective is about to turn 10 years old! To celebrate this decade of making music together and our 1000th show, we’re doing what we love best, hitting the road for our ELECTRIC ARTIFACTS TOUR! Mark your calendars because in September we’ll be traveling with a seven-piece band (including a HORN SECTION!) plus a NEW ALBUM of unreleased tracks from the past decade.
Come celebrate the old and the new, the Mexican and the Americana, the jawbone and the jarana, the yin and the yang. We’ll play songs you love and songs you haven’t heard in a long time. Help us remember the past 1000 shows and look ahead to the next 1000. We couldn’t be more grateful to you all for traveling with us and sharing this incredible experience of a life in music.
Hailing from the cobble stone streets of Boston, The Wolff Sisters blend rock, blues, and roots music into their own unique sound. Their gritty songs draw from adventures all over New England that shaped their lives.
“Stan Martin is a keeper of the traditional country music flame. He’s a Don Rich/Danny Gatton-schooled Telecaster-loving guitar picker, a virtuoso who is not a showoff. And he’s a skilled writer and musician who is unabashedly, unapologetically country. Martin’s original songs have a moving, sometimes comic, honesty. He retains a romantic toughness, as with some of Waylon Jennings early 1970s tunes written before the outlaw stance became a circus act.” Rick Allen Vintage Guitar
“Vinyl record sales are at a 28 year high” – Fortune April 2016 – See/Hear for yourself at Sunday Spins – every Sunday – bring your records and take turns sharing your faves!
Ship of the Sun celebrates the music of the Grateful Dead with a fun, free-wheeling, danceable show that pays tribute to the sounds of rock & roll’s most unique band.
Ship of the Sun came together in 2015 around each member’s love of the songs, spirit, and improvisation adventurousness of the Dead.
Tonight on the day before the anniversary of Jerry Garcia‘s passing (sight) and featuring beer by Magic Hat –
Peter Wolf (formerly of the J Geils Band), whose brilliant Midnight Souvenirs—released in 2010—included David Johnston’s “I Don’t Wanna Know.” This song went on to become the second single from that album, and was performed on the David Letterman Show in June of 2010.
Just look at the band; Dennis Brennan on harmonica, guitar and vocals. Tim Gearan on guitar and vocals. Steve Sadler on lap steel. Jim Haggerty on bass and Andy Plaisted on drums.
Check out a clip from one of their shows HERE – After making it thru Monday, YOU deserve a night out!
” Universal heartland Americana that should resonate profoundly
to anyone with an ear.”
– Mike Greenblatt
“If there still were a recording industry, this would come out on a major label and would be such a big hit you’d be sick of her by now. Not many people make records this good.”
– Dave Marsh
“When Mike Hastings isn’t playing at local venues such as Toad, he can often be found busking around Davis and Harvard Square. Next time you’re out, keep an ear out for the sound of guitar and a tambourine, and if you see Mike, stop and listen for a while. You just might leave a little warmer.” – Sound of Boston
Give a listen HERE
Fred Griffeth fronts Fandango – Their celebrated selection of Americana music draws a loyal band of pious sisters and reform school brothers! – Truth . . .
Todd Thibaud is a Vermont born, Boston based Singer-Songwriter who’s songs are a slice of what life is really like…the pains and pleasures, love lost and life reborn. Using songwriters like Elvis Costello, Neil Finn, Johnny Cash and John Hiatt for inspiration, Thibaud has built a sound that is entirely his own. His music is meshed with elements of Americana, Folk, Country and Roots Pop Rock, making it seem at once familiar and new.
BAKER THOMAS BAND “…kind of a musical Robin Hood, robbing freely from the classic roots of American music and bringing it back to the common folks.” – Billy Beard, Talent buyer/Boston Session drummer.
“A veritable Grand Ole Opry with a modern sense of humor….” (Music Connection Magazine)
Featuring:
Bruce Bartone
(acoustic and electric guitars; bass guitar, keyboards; backing vocals);
Mike Eigen
(lead and backing vocals, percussion, acoustic guitar, clarinet, ukulele, songwriting);
Shamus Feeney
(bass guitar, acoustic, electric, and resophonic guitars; percussion; lead and backing vocals);
Chris Gleason
(lead and backing vocals, mandolin, tenor banjo, acoustic guitar, percussion, songwriting);
Paul Stewart
(lead and backing vocals, accordion, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, harmonica, songwriting)
…and whenever possible:
Jakub Trasak
(fiddle)
After some twenty-five years of marriage, long time local, touring, and studio musician Jimmy Ryan teamed up to form The Nocturnal Adoration Society with his wife, Donna Sartanowicz to write songs and play music. This new collaboration seamlessly blends a variety of musical perspectives and with only bass guitar and mandolin/mandocello this pairing is like nothing else out there. Straight-foward, honest songs delivered with heartfelt harmonies and intricate mandolin work.
Jimmy Ryan has been living, working, and playing in and around Boston for some 30 years. The founding member of The Blood Oranges in the late 1980’s, Jimmy has gone on to front a number of bands including Hayride, The Clockburners, Wooden Leg, and The Architects of Reason. An experienced studio musician he can be found on records by Mophine, Warren Zevon, and The Paddy Saul Band.
Donna Sartanowicz is a high school art teacher who moonlights as a musician, singer, and songwriter. Creative work is creative work whether it is painting or playing music. A member of the all-girl punk pop band Fertile Virgin back in the late 80’s early 90’s – Donna and two of the other women in the band reunited in Summer of 2016 to form a new band now called The Very.
The Whiskey Geese are:
Tyler Wayne – acoustic guitar, vocals, foot tamborine, melodica
Dane Anderson – acoustic guitar, vocals, foot percussion
A high flyin’ power duo.
“Vinyl record sales are at a 28 year high” – Fortune April 2016 – See/Hear for yourself at Sunday Spins – every Sunday – bring your records and take turns sharing your faves!
With tip my heart, Sally & George have made an engaging, eclectic debut album. It’s a thoughtful meditation on Means’ and Timmons’ courtship and love (the duo got engaged in July 2016 on a mountain in North Carolina after work on tip my heart was completed). The album deftly moves from rollicking, electrified rockers to stripped down, gauzy reflections on love and faith, to walking bass-led country-indebted duets. All of it is done tastefully, with an earnestness that does not shy away from humor or the occasional cuss word.
David Johnston – if you don’t know him, you have to stop by TOAD for Blue Monday – take a listen HERE where David talks about his influences and plays a bit of music –
Just look at the band; Dennis Brennan on harmonica, guitar and vocals. Tim Gearan on guitar and vocals. Steve Sadler on lap steel. Jim Haggerty on bass and Andy Plaisted on drums.
Check out a clip from one of their shows HERE – After making it thru Monday, YOU deserve a night out!
The Revelations include singers Andrea Gillis, Jenny Dee & Erica Mantone . . . bringing you gospel, rock and roll, and soul . . .
The Blue Ribbons was formed by singer/songwriter/keyboardist James Rohr.
They have been building a base of devoted fans with their original and soulful music.
Described as
“Ray Charles and Tom Waits on a pirate ship with Sun Ra and Captain Beefheart,” they combine “upbeat disillusionment and celebratory fatalism with musicianship” – Charan Devereux; Boston Globe.
FANDANGO is as much a spiritual renewal as it is a reinterpretation of some of the best soul, blues, gospel, and Americana music ever written. With a loyal flock of followers (the flock that rock) to their weekly Wednesday night residency at TOAD in Cambridge, FANDANGO fuels frontman Fred Griffeth to lead this congregation into soul and R&B righteousness! For he is like a refiner of fire and he shall purify!
“Ask not for whom the Fandan goes. It goes for thee. On Wednesday donchaknow.” –
