This week in Freak Scene, Amherst musician Corey Cash wrestles with what might have been on a pair of new releases, while Connecticut’s James MacPherson steps out from his band Bonsai Trees with a new solo single.

Call it fate, or a sliding doors moment — either way, the idea that your life could have turned out differently if only you’d done this seemingly inconsequential thing instead of that one, is a resonant one. It’s at the heart of Corey Cash’s new EP Fingers Crossed Lies, though the Amherst musician is less inclined to credit coincidence than what he regards as his own missteps.

“It is my attempt to mourn past, present, and future versions of myself that mistakes have prevented from existing,” Cash wrote in an email. If that sounds like he’s being unduly hard on himself, well, yeah, kinda.

Fingers Crossed Lies is one of a pair of new acoustic releases involving Cash. The other, Leaving, is a collaboration with Chuka Stergios, his bandmate in the scabrously noisy Amherst group Bubble Scary. These EPs show a different side of the musicians, drawing on the influence of acts including Elliott Smith and the indie-folk projects Songs: Ohia and Mount Eerie.

Fingers Crossed Lies | Corey Cash

7 track album

Fingers Crossed Lies features Cash by himself, with a lot of minor-key guitar accompaniment. He strums dire sounding chords on opener “Zero” as he murmurs lyrics that find him keeping himself at a remove from someone for whom he has feelings. Later, on “Bats,” Cash adds a glowering bassline beneath dark, rolling guitar chords while he, um, bats away someone’s excuses and rationalizations.

Bass is the only instrument on a couple of songs, including “Lily,” where Cash’s slippery bassline sometimes washes over his soft-spoken vocals. “Lily” is one of several songs that includes ambient noise from Cash’s surroundings — in this case (and also on the more strident “No Matter How”), it’s the sound of crickets, as if he were playing these songs outside at dusk in the summer. Bass with the relentless rhythm of a ticking clock anchors the last song, “Ashamed,” where Cash sounds like he’s seeking reassurance that someone feels the same way he does, with no certainty that he’ll receive it.

Leaving has a softer touch, which Cash credits to Stergios, who handles the vocals in a quiet, pretty voice. Cash backs her on acoustic guitar (Harrison Ouellette adds cello, too), resulting in a reserved, insular sensibility on “Shore,” and a somber feeling as she sorts through feelings on “I don’t want to take care.” Though Stergios wrote lyrics for Leaving and Cash wrote them for Fingers Crossed Lies, the albums are emotionally linked, Cash says.

Softseed MusicLeaving, by COREY CASH and CHUKA STERGIOS

“Lots of Leaving is regret. Regret at moving forward, about being alone, and about not being alone,” he says. “Fingers Crossed is embarrassment about that sense of regret, about that feeling of being alone.”

It’s possible that the latter EP wouldn’t exist without the former: though Cash didn’t have much experience writing lyrics, he says that collaborating with Stergios on songs as honest and revealing as those on Leaving gave him the confidence to write lyrics for Fingers Crossed Lies.

“Working with Chuka really opened me up and gave me that bravery to write things that I believed in, when it finally came time to write stuff for my record,” Cash says.

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James MacPherson Previews Solo LP with ‘Instant Feedback’

After playing with the Hartford-area indie-rockers Bonsai Trees for nearly 15 years, singer and guitarist James MacPherson is stepping out on his own with a new solo album due in March. He released the first single, “Instant Feedback,” the day after Christmas.

With surging guitars, punchy drums and a big, sweeping vocal, the track is a pop-rock banger that sets the tone for the album, All This Happened. “The record is inspired by growth and resilience, touching on themes of healing, loss and self-reflection,” MacPherson says by email.

Upcoming Concerts

The Academy of Music in Northampton hosts John Butler with his band April 22 (tickets).

The Iron Horse in Northampton has added shows by the Travelin’ McCourys March 18 (tickets), the Afro-Latin combo QUITAPENAS March 21 (a Secret Planet show; tickets), the Surfrajettes March 25 (tickets) and House of Hamill June 11 (tickets). Also, if you have kids who will need to burn off energy at the end of February break, the K-Pop Demon Ravers dance party happens Feb. 22 (tickets).

Bombyx in Florence hosts a memorial service Jan. 24 for Eveyln Harris, who died suddenly last month. She was 75. Harris spent 18 years with Sweet Honey in the Rock before pursuing a solo career, serving as director of the Ku'umba Women's Choir through the Northampton Community Music Center and teaching at the Institute for the Musical arts in Goshen, among other activities. The memorial service is free, though Bombyx strongly recommends an RSVP.

Bombyx also presents Corey Harris Feb. 27 (tickets), the Ukrainian folk band Yagody April 16 (tickets) and the Sufi music ensemble Falsa April 25 (a Secret Planet show; tickets)

Bookings at the Parlor Room include the Brooklyn jazz collective Krissie & the Kranks Feb. 8 (tickets), Nashville Americana singer Amy Speace and Connecticut’s Frank Viele Feb. 15 (tickets), Hoonah, Hazel Basil and Stadia Feb. 19 (tickets), Sam Weber and Lily Talmers Feb. 21 (tickets), Skye Consort & Emma Björling Feb. 26 (tickets), Boston alt-country singer Sarah Borges March 5 (tickets), New Mexico country-blues singer Max Gomez March 7 (tickets), Will Kimbrough April 4 (tickets), indie-folk singer Al Olender April 26 (tickets), singer-songwriter Rose Cousins May 7 (tickets) and author and banjo player Max Wareham May 8 (tickets).

New concerts at the Drake in Amherst include a solo show by Soul Coughing singer Mike Doughty April 6 (tickets) and Boston indie-rockers Vundabar marking the 10th anniversary of their Gawk album May 9 (tickets).

Veteran indie-rocker Alejandro Escovedo plays Feb. 28 at Infinity Hall in Norfolk (tickets).

The Space Ballroom in Hamden hosts the volatile New York ska-punk band Leftöver Crack March 15 (tickets), the Surfrajettes March 21 (tickets), Holy Fuck April 11 (tickets), Austin, Texas, indie-rockers West 22nd April 22 (tickets) and Cold playing the Red album June 6 (tickets).

That’s all for this week — thank you for reading! If you like what you’ve seen, please share. Also, I’m always open to submissions. You can send music for coverage consideration to erdanton at gmail or reply to this email. Check out these guidelines first.

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