This week in Freak Scene, the Whiskey Treaty Roadshow return with their second album, and Connecticut singer and songwriter Margot Miller has a new EP.

Six years later and one member fewer, the Whiskey Treaty Roadshow are back with the follow-up to their first album. Like Band Together in 2020, the name of the new LP has a double meaning: Keep Rising, as in the Western Mass. group keeps rising, through whatever may come.

In contrast to Band Together, the new album is an in-house affair, written, performed and produced by the band members without any outside collaborators. One of the Treaty’s selling points is that everyone in the group is a singer and a songwriter, which lends a sense of stylistic variety to the eight songs on Keep Rising, while falling under the umbrella of Americana. More specifically, these songs sound distinctly like the collective work of Tory Hanna, Chris Merenda, David Tanklefsky and Greg Daniel Smith. (Founding member Billy Keane left the band, though he has a writing credit or two on Keep Rising.)

The group leans into a slow-burning roots-rocker with supercharged lead guitar on “I’m on Fire,” where close harmony vocals back Smith’s gruff lead, while the string band arrangement on Merenda’s “Harley Danger” sounds like it could have come from some forgotten Appalachian holler, until a bright, clear trumpet line adds a Tex-Mex undercurrent. Though “Late Night Laid Back” tops out at less than 4 minutes, the song has the makings of an extended jam with a low-key groove that lays a foundation for bluesy guitar workouts and staccato bursts of brass.

Tankelfsky has said that the band is “pretty unapologetically big tent,” and indeed, there’s something here for just about anyone who likes rootsy music, from up-tempo rock to a folkier sound. The band has played nearly 500 gigs since forming in 2014 as an offshoot of a mini-festival for whiskey aficionados in Greenfield, and all that time playing together has honed the Whiskey Treaty Roadshow into the one thing every band should aspire to: becoming the truest version of itself.

The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow perform this Saturday, June 13, at Memorial Hall in Shelburne Falls (tickets).

Margot Miller Charts Self-Discovery on New EP

Connecticut singer and songwriter Margot Miller is on a more accelerated quest for self-realization. Downy Hair (Turns Into Stubble), the Trumbull musician’s latest EP, her third, is a collection of indie-folk songs about coming of age, and also coming into oneself.

Margot MillerDowny Hair (Turns Into Stubble)

There’s a deeply personal, confessional tone to most of the six tracks here (though one, “FROGGY,” feels like the kind of call-and-response number you’d have sung at camp when you were little, and it might well be: Miller said in an email that these songs reflect, among other things, her experience as a camp counselor). There’s a loving, regretful goodbye on “Dirt Under Nails” as Miller sings over a soft, repeating guitar figure accompanied by Hannah Alexander on cello, Harley Griffin on clarinet and Gracie Lamar on bassoon — Miller’s classmates at Western Connecticut State University. Electric guitar crackles through a full arrangement of bass and drums on “Chest Bruised,” a passionate ode to urgent assignations, while closing song “Downy Hair” starts with Miller singing over a spidery sounding acoustic guitar, before a wistful orchestral arrangement joins in.

Lyrically, the song reads like a philosophical examination of how we become who we are as Miller sings, “Downy hair turns into stubble, / A child changes their name / What of that baby still remains?” The songs on this EP serve as a kind of answer as they chart the path of someone discovering who they really are. If we have the capacity to reinvent ourselves, or simply to invent ourselves in the first place, then what remains of that baby is the kernel from which we germinate the rest.

Margot Miller next performs June 20-21 at Robin Hood's Medieval Faire in Harwinton.

Upcoming Concerts

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

The Academy of Music in Northampton hosts country singer Randy Travis Oct. 4 (tickets), Rodrigo y Gabriela Oct. 26 (tickets) and English folk group the Longest Johns Nov. 10 (tickets). Rodrigo y Gabriela also play Oct. 25 at College Street Music Hall in New Haven (tickets).

The Iron Horse in Northampton hosts an album release show Aug. 13 for Wishbone Zoë, with the Taxidermists and Sweat Enzo (tickets), soul veteran Bettye LaVette Sept. 16 (tickets), the Secret Planet show Minyo Crusaders Sept. 26 (tickets) and AJ Lee & Blue Summit Nov. 20 (tickets).

The Drake in Amherst has Karrin Allyson with Freddie Bryant & Friends Aug. 8 (tickets), Gyedu-Blay Ambolley Sept. 12 (tickets), Virginia alt-country band Dogwood Tales Oct. 13 (tickets) and a Secret Planet show with LEENALCHI Oct. 31 (tickets).

Jamaican dancehall titan Yellowman plays July 30 at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls (tickets). Also coming: Reid Genauer and Assembly of Dust Aug. 5 (tickets), Danielle Nicole Band Sept. 26 (tickets), Sam Grisman Project Oct. 2 (tickets), Dustbowl Revival Oct. 18 (tickets) and Donna the Buffalo Nov. 21 (tickets)

Detroit rockers Mac Saturn play July 24 at the Space Ballroom in Hamden (tickets). California post-hardcore band Thousand Below is there Sept. 23 (tickets) and singer-songwriter Kevin Atwater performs Sept. 29 (tickets).

Memphis blues-rock guitarist Eric Gales plays Aug. 20 at Infinity Music Hall in Hartford (tickets). In Norfolk, ukulele maestro Jake Shimabukuro plays Aug. 28 (tickets) and AJ Lee & Blue Summit are there Nov. 22 (tickets).

That’s it 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!

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