This week in Freak Scene, we check out the latest from Westhampton singer Indë, and catch up, finally, on Harry Remer’s first full-length album.

“Be the change you want to see in the world” is a bumper-sticker platitude, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful advice. That aphorism, often misattributed to Gandhi, underpins Role Model, the latest from Indë. The Westhampton singer, songwriter and visual artist is keen to provide for others what they lacked as a queer, Black kid growing up in Western Mass. — that is, a positive example who could have helped them make sense of themself at a precarious age.

IndëRole Model

Indë’s take on mentorship is less an instruction manual than a reminder that life can encompass a rich variety of experiences, that love takes many forms and that it’s always worth being kind to ourselves. Role Model by turns offers encouragement and exhortation, with enough room for frank sexuality on songs spanning R&B, gospel, jazz and indie-soul. Indë has a silky voice that can flutter softly toward the upper end of their range, as it does on “POLYRAY,” or flow smoothly through a wash of vocal effects on “TRUTH,” where Indë seeks to break through boundaries and barriers in pursuit of an elusive truth about themself.

Many of the songs on Role Model have a conversational tone: it’s as if Indë is talking aloud to themself on “DANTE (wish u were my homie),” while fantasizing about what could happen between them if Dante’s girlfriend weren’t in the way. On “Come on Home,” Indë sounds joyful as they sing about a welcoming place where anyone can be just who they want to be. Their enthusiasm is punctuated with by a swinging rhythm part, curlicues of electric guitar from Hazel Basil and layers of backing vocals from the Queer Joy Chorus.

Later, on “DUST OFF UR CROWN,” Indë sings over a glitchy sounding arrangement featuring guitars, bass and oboe (the latter from Jöel Angel Roches), and you can read the song in a couple of ways. “I’m lookin’ up to you / And you’ve got some shit to prove,” Indë repeats, and that could be an admonition. More likely, though, it’s psychic nourishment intended to bolster someone who is blossoming into themselves: “So prove it, baby, cuz you’re the role model” is the next line Indë sings, and you can almost picture the singer with a hand on the tiller as they head in a more all-embracing direction.

Harry Remer Has an Eye for Detail on ‘Clean Break’

The pandemic was a tricky time for many touring musicians who suddenly found themselves stuck at home, sometimes for the first prolonged stretch in their careers. Those months of lockdown seemed to have a different effect on musicians who had been largely dormant prior to March 2020: many of them found themselves gravitating back toward instruments they hadn’t touched in a while. Harry Remer is one of them.

Harry RemerClean Break

Remer played music consistently from the time he picked up his mom’s acoustic guitar in New York City in 1980, when he was 16, and he was playing original songs and fronting post-punk bands in college and beyond. Inspired by John Hiatt, Remer switched to a singer-songwriter track in the ’90s and moved to Boston. Eventually, worn down by the grind of trying to make a living as a musician, he earned a Master’s in psychology, set up a therapy practice in Western Mass. and shelved music for 18 years before coming back to it in 2020.

Last year, Remer finally released his first full-length album, Clean Break, a rootsy collection of songs about the details of daily living, in all their highs and lows. A bobbing bassline from Adam Rothberg and a mix of guitars and Peter Jones’ accordion convey the youthful excitement of a late-summer excursion on “Friday Night at the Fair,” while acoustic guitar and sad piano (also from Rothberg) help express empathy and concern for those who have been shunted to the fringes of society on “Fragile as a Sparrow.”

“Love in the City” shows the Hiatt influence on a fast shuffle shot through with piano and brawny slide guitar as Remer sings about how hard it is to find a meaningful connection amid metropolitan bustle, while the sprightly jam “Farmer’s Hands” celebrates people who work the earth so the rest of us can eat. The overall effect on Clean Break is of a singer and songwriter with a genuine interest in, and affection for, the world around him, and has been waiting for a long time to express it.

Upcoming Concerts

These are new shows announced this week. The full concert calendar is available here.

First, this weekend, Teen Driver play Saturday, April 4, at Hutghi’s at the Nook in Westfield, with Mass. band Hush Puppy, the smart, engaging Brooklyn singer Kira Metcalf and New York singer-songwriter Honeycrush (tickets).

Coming to the Pines Theater in Look Park: Gillian Welch & David Rawlings July 24 (tickets) and Lyle Lovett and His Small Large Band July 25 with Hayes Carll (tickets). Lovett was last there in 2019, when he did "Pants Is Overrated" three years before it appeared on his 2022 album 12th of June.

The Iron Horse in Northampton hosts Shawn Colvin June 23 (tickets) and White Denim with Arc Iris Oct. 10 (tickets).

L.A. rockers the Toxhards play June 17 at the Drake in Amherst (tickets).

Bombyx in Florence presents Kathy Bullock performing Songs of Slavery and Emancipation June 21, with a workshop beforehand (tickets). Bullock is professor emerita of music at Berea College in Kentucky and an adjunct at the University of Kentucky.

De la Luz in Holyoke presents Eleanor Levine, Niagara Moon and Thin Lear April 25 (tickets); Thin Lear's upcoming album Many Disappeared is gorgeous, and it comes out the day before this show.

The Space Ballroom in Hamden hosts Flight Attendant with the Props May 7 (tickets), Saintseneca with Lily Seabird May 18 (tickets), Boston hardcore band Vanna June 14 (tickets), the Toxhards June 22 (tickets), Midnight North June 26 (tickets), Sun Kil Moon July 10 (tickets) and APB Sept. 18 (tickets).

Infinity Music Hall in Hartford hosts Mo Lowda & the Humble Oct. 16 with Surf Hat (tickets), while the Norfolk outpost brings in Howie Day July 18 (tickets).

This Week’s Shows