This week in Freak Scene, we have new singles from Wallace Field and the Suitcase Junket, plus former Springfield resident Taj Mahal is among the last living links to the giants of post-World War II blues. Let’s get to it!

Wallace Field was dealing with some heavy stuff on her 2023 album All Costs (I wrote about it for the Boston Globe), but the Northampton singer and songwriter is simply celebrating summer on her new single “July.”

The song opens with the sound of insects chirping at night and the distant whistle of a freight train before Field’s strong, assured voice comes in with an ode to her favorite month. With Field’s rise-and-fall melody, pastoral “La-li-la-la-la-la-la” refrain and sturdy blend of acoustic guitar and bass, with flourishes on organ and harpsichord, the song has a psychedelic-folk feel right out of the late ’60s.

Wallace FieldFantasy

Field grew up in Shelburne Falls, and she went back more than once as she tried to make a recording of the train whistle.

“Its echo from across the river is one of my favorite sounds in this life, I find it so beautiful and nostalgic,” Field says by email. “On one such try to capture it (freight train schedules are not posted publicly), I hid in a stranger's bushes for 3 hours in the dark without it ever coming!”

The song is the last track on Fantasy, a five-song EP that Field recorded with producer Michael Lesko. Fantasy is due Sept. 22.

The Suitcase Junket Ponders Grief on ‘One More Mile’

Grief was on Matt Lorenz’s mind even before his sister, Kate Lorenz, died unexpectedly in 2022. It’s the subject of “One More Mile,” the first single from To Go On, the Amherst singer’s seventh album as the Suitcase Junket.

Though it’s a studio track, “One More Mile” captures the one-man-band feel of what Lorenz does onstage, with a thumping bass drum pushing along fingerpicked electric guitar and violin fills as he sings a melody that is bittersweet, and very catchy. It’s the only song on To Go On that Lorenz wrote before his sister died of heart failure after she was stung by a wasp.

“It’s about another dear friend who was dying. She was in her 90s and died in a way that was very different from Kate,” Lorenz says in a press release. “Grief is universal, but it’s as unique as the relationship you lost.”

To Go On is due Oct. 2, and the Suitcase Junket performs Oct. 17 at the Iron Horse in Northampton (tickets).

Taj Mahal Keeps the Blues Going at the Academy

There aren’t many blues musicians left of Taj Mahal’s vintage, and even fewer who can stay front-and-center for a two-hour show the way Taj did Wednesday at the Academy of Music.

He’s one of the last living links to the post-World War II blues sound that yielded artists like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Albert King and Buddy Guy. Of those names, only Guy is still going at 89, though his live shows were disappointing 25 years ago. (His cameo last year in Sinners was great, though.)

Taj Mahal, on the other hand, is still a nimble picker on guitar, banjo and ukulele, and his voice has a throaty power that makes him sound younger than his 84 years. Backed by his formidable Phantom Blues Band, the former Springfield resident and UMass alumnus (Class of ’63; he majored in animal husbandry back when he was still known as Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr.) offered a leisurely overview of his catalog, from his self-titled first album in 1968 all the way up through his most recent LP, this year’s Time.

Like any worthy bluesman he mixed in standards, including “Statesboro Blues” and “Fishing Blues” (a song more than a hundred years old, “so you know it’s a good’un,” Taj said by way of introduction) with some of his own biggest songs. “Going Up to the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue” got almost as big a cheer from the capacity crowd as “She Caught the Katy (And Left Me a Mule to Ride),” which appeared in The Blues Brothers in 1980.

With accompaniment from the band on bass, drums, percussion, keys and electric guitar, with a saxophone and trumpet, Taj mostly strummed an acoustic guitar, though he fingerpicked the pattern to “Lovin’ in My Baby’s Eyes” on a metal resonator guitar, and added harmonica accents here and there on other tunes.

After playing “EZ Rider,” his version of the blues standard “C.C. Rider,” he and the band wrapped up with a version of “Way Back Home” by the Crusaders.

Upcoming Concerts

Boston/Maine band bellwire play tonight, Friday, July 17, at Tin Can Alley Lounge in Southampton.

In addition to the Suitcase Junket, the Iron Horse hosts Scottish Celtic rock band Skerryvore Sept. 1 (tickets), improvisational jazz trio Okonski Sept. 28 (tickets), Willi Carlisle Nov. 4 (tickets), Sarah Jarosz Nov. 15 (tickets) and the James Montgomery Band Jan. 23 (tickets).

Coming to The Drake in Amherst: Kaleta & Super Yamba Band Nov. 12 (tickets) and the Bones of J.R. Jones Nov. 13 (tickets).

Brooklyn singer and guitarist Liz Hogg performs Sept. 24 at Brick House Community Center in in Turners Falls and Sept. 27 at Flour Girl in Hebron.

JJ Slater Trio perform a free show July 30 at the Marigold in Easthampton (more info). Nashville trio Thunder & Rain play Aug. 14 with Moon Hollow and Clay Pigeons (tickets).

Sun O))) perform Oct. 10 District Music Hall in Norwalk (tickets). Cradle of Filth are there Oct. 16 (tickets), a band that always makes me think of English cult comedy The IT Crowd.

The Space Ballroom hosts Katie Pruitt Sept. 30 (tickets), the Number Twelve Looks Like You Oct. 16 (tickets), Jessica Lea Mayfield Nov. 10 (tickets) and Valencia Grace March 17 (tickets).

The full concert calendar is available here for paid subscribers.

That’s it for now. Thank you for reading! Previous issues are available in the online archive. Freak Scene is free, but donations help make this happen and are gratefully accepted. If you’re able, please consider a paid subscription!

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