Freak Scene #38: Matt Hebert Teams With Lonesome Brothers on New LP
Plus, Ray Mason has a new solo album, and the Nields keep on keeping on with "Still Alive."
A Guide to Music in Western Mass. (and sometimes Connecticut)
This week in Freak Scene, Matt Hebert has a new album that he made with the Lonesome Brothers, and one of the Lonesome Brothers, Ray Mason, has a new album of his own. Plus, a new tune from the Nields. Also, Tuesday is Election Day: make a plan and vote!
When circumstances shifted late last year and Matt Hebert’s new band Hidden Skyline had to delay a run of shows to promote their new album, Causeways, the Ware native got right to work on his next project. Hebert had thought the songs he was writing would consist of vocals and acoustic guitar until he wrote one that seemed to need a “jagged country treatment,” à la Neil Young’s “Lotta Love.” Who better to provide such a treatment than Valley’s longtime country-rock outfit the Lonesome Brothers?
As often happens in close-knit music scenes, Hebert already knew them: Jim Armenti, Ray Mason and Keith Levrault had all played at various times in Hebert’s previous band, Ware River Club, so it didn’t take much persuading to get them on board for Hebert’s new project. The resulting album, it’s a lot baby …, is a collection of 10 songs featuring Hebert and the Lonesome Brothers, along with another Ware River alum, Bob Hennessy, and Scott Hall of Drunk Stuntmen. (They play an album release show Sunday at the Iron Horse.) The ad-hoc assembly clicked: they recorded the album in two short stints in the studio after one rehearsal (and Hebert wrote lyrics and recorded vocals on his own later).
“These Words,” the song that first put Hebert in mind of the Lonesome Brothers, turns out not to be so jagged after all. The song opens the album with a swift current of intertwining guitars and piano for a sensibility that nods as much toward classic ’70s pop as it does weather-beaten roots-rock. Later, “I Horrify Myself” is a scruffy rocker that speeds along on blistering electric guitar leads, while the springy “Throw It Away” is as hooky as you could want. Elsewhere, Hebert & Co. lean into a folkier sound. Glimmers of guitar and keyboards blend over loose-limbed drums on “Until the Morning,” while “Love to Let You Down” features subtle pedal steel guitar behind trebly electric licks as Hebert’s narrator indulges a contrarian streak.
Hebert has a pleasantly rumpled voice with just a hint of a sandpapery rasp, and he sings as though he’s considered every word. He probably has: the singer says he’s very deliberate about lyrics, which he writes in batches. “I like the continuity of writing all the lyrics at the same time,” says Hebert, who recently moved back to Holyoke after years away in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico. “I work out the melodies with mumbles then when I’m in lyric writing mode I get very regimented. I wake up every morning and write for an hour before work and edit when I get home. This goes on for a while.”
Yet never so long that the songs feel hackneyed or overthought. Knowing when to let go of a song (or any other piece of writing) is an acquired skill, and it’s a lot baby … shows that Hebert has the timing just right.
Matt Hebert & the Lonesome Brothers perform Sunday, Nov. 3, at the Iron Horse in Northampton. Tickets are here for the 7 p.m. show.
Ray Mason Does His Thing on ‘You Never Lose That Grip’
When Ray Mason isn’t playing with the Lonesome Brothers or contributing to other musicians’ projects, he’s working on his own thing — just as he’s been doing since 1964, when he got his first guitar (a Silvertone, naturally). His new album, You Never Lose that Grip, is the latest release in the Holyoke native’s long-running career.
As befits a guy who simply is who he is, it’s a no-frills affair: just 10 rock ’n’ roll songs with a sunny disposition. He’s satisfied with his circle of acquaintances on opener “People Can’t Meet Enough People,” which burbles along on organ from Ken Maiuri and understated guitar from Dennis Crommett, with a taut beat from drummer Chet Pasek. Elsewhere, “Here’s to the Whole Damn Thing” celebrates going all-in, on whatever it may be. “Why only a part, a half or a third? / Like flipping someone off with only half a bird,” Mason sings, backed by a ’60s-style psych-rock arrangement with stately guitars and big, sweeping string charts (Maiuri again, on keys) that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Procol Harum album.
There’s a music-related theme at work here and there on You Never Lose That Grip as Mason sings to and about musicians. Jaunty organ pushes “Jump Off the Bandwagon,” an ode to originality, while growling guitar and atmospheric keys frame “An Audience of One,” whose protagonist is a singer hard at work whether anyone is listening or not. Mason hardly comes across as a confessional writer, but there’s at least a sliver of autobiography in that last one. When I wrote a story about the Western Mass. music scene for Take magazine in 2015, I talked to Mason about the idea of musicians who tend to their craft without yearning for some kind of stardom. “An Audience of One” reminds me of what we he told me then:
“The whole thing about ‘making it’ — I don’t know what that is anymore,” he said. “If you go out and play your music the way you want to play it, and you’re doing that and you feel pretty good, you’ve made it.”
The Nields Persevere on ‘Still Alive’
New music from the Nields is pretty much always welcome. Nerissa and Katryna Nields posted the new song “Still Alive” yesterday, for Halloween. It’s a performance clip in a loose sense, in that it features the pair sitting on someone’s front stoop, singing while Nerissa strums an acoustic guitar (with a dog wandering through the shot).
It’s an elegiac song that is wistful about years gone by and all-too-human failings, and marvels that somehow we persevere the best we can through it all. According to the description on YouTube, Nerissa wrote the song last year for 30 Poems in November, a benefit for Center for New Americans in Northampton, which serves immigrants, refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers in Western Mass.
Upcoming Concerts
Love Child, a trio formed at Vassar in the late ’80s, made a splash in indie circles with a mix of aggressive alt-rock and arch pop before falling apart shortly after the release of the band’s second album, 1992’s Witchcraft. Rebecca Odes, Alan Licht and Brendan O’Malley this year began playing together again for the first time in three decades; their gigs include one Nov. 10 at Daily Operation in Easthampton with Lupo Citta and Phroeggs (tickets).
All Feels and True Jackie (featured in Freak Scene #34 and #4, respectively) perform Nov. 23 at Abandoned Building Brewery in Easthampton. The show is free.
Amherst’s own Black Francis a.k.a. Frank Black performs a solo acoustic show Dec. 3 at the Stone Church in Brattleboro (tickets), but don’t let the “solo acoustic” part fool you: it’ll be plenty intense. (The show is listed with doors at 7 a.m., but that’s probably a typo.)
Wallace Field and High Tea share the bill Jan. 31 at the Iron Horse (tickets). American Aquarium are there Feb. 12 (tickets). Tuvan group Alash Ensemble performs March 14 (tickets), while Liz Longley stops in March 21 (tickets) and Holly Near plays May 25 (tickets).
The Academy of Music in Northampton hosts comic Mike Birbiglia for a pair of shows Feb. 21-22 (tickets here and here). Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes are there April 4 (tickets) and Dweezil Zappa performs April 13 (tickets).
Yeison Landro, who bills himself as “the heir to cumbia,” performs Jan. 9 at the Drake in Amherst, courtesy of Secret Planet; ticket are here (wouldn’t you know it, I just wrote a story about cumbia for Paste). Spellling performs May 10 at the Drake in Amherst (tickets).
College Street Music Hall in New Haven hosts Greensky Bluegrass Feb. 14 (tickets), Westfield metal band Killswitch Engage April 8 (tickets) and Fontaines D.C. May 14 (tickets).
If you’re filling in your calendar for summer 2025, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard perform June 30 at the Westville Music Bowl in New Haven (tickets).
Freak Scene is always seeking submissions. You can send music for coverage consideration to erdanton at gmail or reply to this email. Check out these guidelines first.
Thank you for reading! Freak Scene is free at the moment, but donations are gratefully accepted. Previous issues are available in the archive.