This week in Freak Scene, we hear from Kimaya Diggs with a Q&A about her new album, Green, while New York group Bandits on the Run have a couple of Western Mass. ties, and they want your pie recipes when they come to town Wednesday.

The extent of Kimaya Diggs’ connection to this region really sank in for the South Hadley native after she and her husband moved into the house they share in Northampton.

“I realized at some point that I’ve lived in Western Mass. for so long that I could anticipate exactly what bugs would be in the soil if I turned over a shovelful of earth on any given day,” Diggs says by phone.

Kimaya DiggsGreen

Exploring that connection from her perspective as a musician, writer and woman of Black and Indian heritage became the theme that Diggs pursued on Green, her new album out today. It’s a collection of 13 tracks that cover a lot of ground stylistically, including the breezy pop of opener “I know that I’m perfect,” the indie-soul vibe of “Dance with me” and the torchy ballad “A love that lasts.” The range of sounds was an intentional way of side-stepping genre constraints that are often applied to artists who look a certain way.

“I've always had a hard time with genre because I feel like it really puts people in a box, and as far as the big industrial-machine side of music, certain genres are really racialized, and certain people are really racialized,” says Diggs, who plays an album-release show Saturday at the Academy of Music (tickets). “I just thought, ‘I’m gonna make the songs I want to make. We'll figure out the genre stuff later.’”

Diggs recorded basic tracks in Nashville with collaborators including Rhees Williams on bass, Jess Nolan (Katie Pruitt, Jenny Lewis) on keys and Dr. Dog’s Eric Slick on drums and percussion. She and her husband, LuxDeluxe guitarist Jacob Rosazza, spent four or five months fleshing out the songs in their home studio.

“I assembled a crew of collaborators who I just have such deep trust in, and I trusted everyone to bring their unique background and perspective to the table,” Diggs says. “And so, a lot of the stuff that happens from a genre perspective kind of surprised me. They really helped bring the songs to life with unexpected contributions.

What was your songwriting approach on Green?

Especially in Western Mass., with so many incredibly prolific, gifted songwriters, I think of myself as kind of a songwriting late bloomer. For a long time, I really took the approach that I need to be inspired. I need to have the idea. I need to have the muse with me to write a song. That ended up feeling like I was just making excuses not to write, like, I don’t have my notebook with me, blah blah blah. So, I decided, OK, let's get away from like the notebook and pen. And I wrote most of the album in a Google Doc, which is as unromantic as you could possibly get.

Did you set out to tell a specific story on Green?

I set out to answer a couple of specific questions, and the ways that I explored the questions came up through the writing process. And visually, there were some images that came up while I was working on music videos, music videos. I tried to be open to whatever inspiration appeared to me, and just try to learn. I don't think that there's such a thing as wasted time when you're being creative. I liked to follow the thread of an idea just to see where it would take me in case it had something to teach me, and so often it did.

How you are currently thinking about the idea of home?

This is a special place to me. But at the same time, there is this sort of isolation in a lot of ways, being a non-white person in the Valley. But I'm surrounded by incredible friends and incredible community. The question that I set out to answer is kind of loosely a question of what does it take to have a sense of belonging. Does it take seeing yourself reflected in the people around you? Does it take the connections you have with the people around you? Does it take like an intimate knowing of the land? And I didn't come to a definitive answer through the process of making the album, but I learned so much and feel even more grateful for the community that I have.

Have you been able to reconcile your love of the community with that tension of being a person of color in a largely white area?

Yes, in some ways. There’s always going to be a tension there. When I leave the house, I am making considerations that white people don't have to make, and they don't stop after I've made one decision or assessed one situation. It's constant, whether it's being in a boardroom or being in a rehearsal or shopping at a store or driving my car. Sometimes that takes a lot of me-against-the-world energy, which I don't like to have because I like to be more open to what the world has to offer. But my end conclusion is that this really is my home, with all the good and the bad, and there’s no place I would rather be.

Bandits on the Run Live for the Stage

New York trio Bandits on the Run have a fondness for the stage, so much so that Adrian Blake Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd and Regina Strayhorn are nearly always performing on one or creating music for one.

The folk-pop band, which performs Wednesday at the Parlor Room (tickets), released the album Rough Magic in June, and are currently at work on three different musical theater productions, included an adaptation of the 1993 movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape that will feature them in acting roles. Also, the band members all have other gigs: Enscoe and Shepherd are actors on screen and stage, and Strayhorn works in casting. It’s a wonder they ever find time to tour together.

Bandits on the RunRough Magic

“We don’t have any recreational hobbies,” Strayhorn says by phone, laughing.

Rough Magic comprises 14 songs with rootsy arrangements of guitar, cello, accordion, bass and percussion, topped with rich three-part vocal harmonies that are frequently spellbinding. Though Bandits on the Run have been releasing music since 2017, Rough Magic marks the first time they did a lot of the songwriting in the studio, in upstate New York.

“It’s probably our most present-feeling recording,” Strayhorn says. “It feels like a real snapshot of where we were in that moment.”

Not having written the songs beforehand or tested them out on tour means there’s plenty o room for the newer songs to evolve when the band performs them live.

“It’s been a really cool process to feel them finding their sea legs on the road as we're playing them for people,” Shepherd says.

Bandits on the Run started coming together a decade or so ago when Enscoe was busking at the Third Avenue subway stop on the L train in Brooklyn. Shepherd happened to walk by as he was playing, and they struck up a conversation where she mentioned some songs she had written with her college friend Strayhorn, who was still living in North Carolina at the time. Soon Shepherd and Enscoe were playing together, and within a few months, Strayhorn had moved into Shepherd’s apartment in New York and rounded out the trio. Initially, they played in subway stations.

“Naturally, the place to play music if you're a band is the subway,” Enscoe cracks. “So that's why we started out just busking, and then over time we got invited to come above ground. But that was where we cut our teeth.”

Everyone has balanced the band with other pursuits: Shepherd moved to New York after college because she got a job as an understudy on Broadway, and she has continued to land stage roles ever since. For three seasons between 2019-2021, Enscoe played the role of Emily Dickinson’s brother, Austin, on the Apple TV+ series Dickinson. He got the call to audition for the part while visiting aunts in Northampton, and the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst has invited him to perform songs he wrote to some of her poetry.

“I love that place. It's a beautiful area, and it's a pleasure to get to come back so much,” Enscoe says.

When Bandits on the Run set up at the Parlor Room, they have a request for people coming to the show: bring pie recipes to share, sweet or savory.

“Fall is pie season, so we do a lot of baking in the fall,” Strayhorn says.

This Week’s Shows

Queer alt-folk duo Sweet Petunia perform with Hoonah tonight, Friday, Oct. 9, at CitySpace in Easthampton (tickets).

Haze in Northampton has indie rock Saturday, Oct. 10, with Goldsetter, Jewel Thief, Consumables and Last Devotion, for $10.

Upcoming Concerts

Got your 2027 calendars yet? The Back Porch Festival returns to Northampton March 19-21, with artist announcements coming next month. Green River Festival comes back to the Franklin County Fairgrounds June 18-20 (tickets).

The Iron Horse in Northampton hosts indie singer-songwriter Marianne Beaulieu Dec. 8 (tickets).

The Academy of Music has Gambian griot singer and kora player Sona Jobarteh March 28 (tickets)

The tribute to Dolly Parton happening Nov. 24 at the Drake sold out, so now there's a second date, Nov. 23 (tickets), with Sandy Bailey, Lisa Bastoni, Zara Bode, Kimaya Diggs, Tracy Grammer, Ken Maiuri and the Deep River Ramblers. Also coming: Francisco Mora Catlett Nov. 20 (tickets) and indie-rockers Boys Go to Jupiter Jan. 28 with Thesaurus Rex (tickets).

Jazz bassist Avery Sharpe plays two nights at Hope Center for the Arts in Springfield Oct. 23-24, when he’ll record a live album with pianist Zaccai Curtis and drummer Yoron Israel as the Avery Sharpe Trio (tickets).

The Marigold Theater in Easthampton has bluegrass from Boston with Hound & Handler and the New Grown-Ups Oct. 24 (free), and Observation Room, Midnight Psychic, Burial Woods, Seva and St. Intel on Oct. 31 (tickets).

The Space Ballroom in Hamden hosts Bike Routes Dec. 11 (tickets), Australian singer-songwriter Iluka Dec. 12 (tickets), and Boys Go to Jupiter Jan. 30 (tickets).

Infinity Music Hall has moe. for three shows: Dec. 14-15 in Norfolk, and Dec. 16 in Hartford (tickets). Guitarness featuring Jeff Pevar and Scott Murawski play Hartford Dec. 20 (tickets), while Bronwyn performs in Norfolk Feb. 7 (tickets).

Stone Church in Brattleboro has Vienna Teng Jan. 16 (tickets), Hans Williams Jan. 31 (tickets) and Bronwyn Feb. 3 (tickets).

That’s all for this week. 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!