Freak Scene #2: Gentle Hen Goes Wandering
A Guide to Music in Western Mass. (and sometimes Connecticut)
Welcome to the second installment of Freak Scene. This week we dig into Gentle Hen's new album, ponder news of an improbable Miracle Legion reunion and hear a local guitar slinger pay tribute to California in the '60s and '70s, plus the first batch of bookings at the new Iron Horse Music Hall.
Gentle Hen on the Loose
Every music scene must surely have a Henning Ohlenbusch. They’re the people who play in multiple bands, have the gear to record other people’s bands and pitch in however else they can in the interest of musical mutual support. That’s Ohlenbusch in Northampton. He’s everywhere. He’s played with Chris Collingwood's Look Park band, Winterpills, Spouse, Mark Mulcahy and Mulcahy’s TV band Polaris. He’s part of the Fawns with his partner Lesa Bezo, releases solo records and also fronts Gentle Hen, which somehow found time amid all his (and his busy bandmates’) other pursuits to make a new album.
The Whole Point of the Trip, released in December, is Gentle Hen’s fifth album, though the band’s history extends further back: formed in 2001, the group released three albums as School for the Dead before changing its name in 2016. Gentle Hen’s latest is a travelogue of sorts, but one that’s less about adventure on the open road than exploring local avenues that will eventually loop back around to your driveway. “We’ll leave the highway to the squares / And take the scenic route,” Ohlenbusch sings over jangling guitars and a swift, thrumming rhythm.
It’s a theme on The Whole Point of the Trip — “is to get back home,” goes the rest of the line on the title track. The band takes a similar tack later on “Some Folks Venture Out,” completing the thought with the phrase, “and some dig in.” Throughout the album, Gentle Hen builds songs around everyday life, stacking them with trebly guitar hooks Ohlenbusch’s pliable voice and layers of vocal harmonies. There are variations: “Birds of Massachusetts” opens with a compact beat from drummer Brian Marchese that leads into minor-key guitar arpeggios cascading around Ohlenbusch’s overcast vocal melody. Elsewhere, Ohlenbusch sounds glum at the start of “Ghosts Fill the Sky” before the song bursts into a chorus that lights up like Fourth of July fireworks. There’s an odd little instrumental break in the middle comprising acoustic guitar and distant atmospheric keyboards, before the band kicks back in (Max Germer on bass and Ken Maiuri on guitar, keyboards and vocals round out the group).
The homebody sensibility on The Whole Point of the Trip calls to mind (for me, anyway) a song from the soundtrack to A Mighty Wind, Eugene Levy and Christopher Guest’s 2003 folk mockumentary. The Folkmen’s “Never Did No Wanderin’” is a wonderfully deadpan subversion of the roaming troubadour trope that formed such a big part of the folk revival of the late ’50s and early ’60s. Gentle Hen’s music doesn’t sound anything like the Folkmen’s, but in the spirit of their fake-folk predecessors, Henning and his bunch are embracing the idea on The Whole Point of the Trip that there’s no need to gallivant all over everywhere: there’s plenty to discover right around the corner.
A Miracle Legion Miracle
This will not become a Mark Mulcahy-themed newsletter, I promise, but the guy keeps doing stuff. This time, it's a Miracle Legion reunion: the New Haven-born group will perform at Wilco's Solid Sound Festival June 28-30 at Mass MoCA in North Adams, in their first performance since 2017. Featuring core members Mulcahy and "Mr. Ray" Neal, the band's influence outpaced its commercial success between forming in 1983 and splitting in 1996 with the release of the LP Portrait of a Damaged Family. After 20 years apart, Miracle Legion reunited in 2016 for a string of shows that was supposed to have wrapped up April 29, 2017, in San Francisco. "As it turns out that was a scam. Sorry," the band wrote on Instagram. Will there be more dates? Will Mulcahy have time to regrow the giant beard he sported for the initial Miracle Legion reunion? (I wrote about the group's 2016 incarnation for Pitchfork.)
Tom Guerra Tips Hat to California Folk-Rock
Hartford guitarist Tom Guerra is well into his third (or maybe fourth?) act as a musician. The longtime bandleader and session player was part of garage-rockers the Dirty Bones Band in the late '80s and early '90s, before fronting Hartford blues-rock trio the Mambo Sons from 1999 until they went on hiatus in 2012. Since then, Guerra has released five solo albums, including the 2022 LP Sentimental Junk. More recently, he's found a new focus: "Late last year, I decided to join the 21st century and release singles," Guerra says. His latest is "Sister Topanga," a ripping tribute to the California folk scene in the late '60s and early '70s that was centered around Laurel and Topanga canyons in Los Angeles.
Iron Horse Returns
This will also not become an Iron Horse-themed newsletter, but new owner the Parlor Room Collective has started filling out the Iron Horse calendar, and there's a lot of local flavor. The grand reopening May 15 features Rachael & Vilray, with Taylor Ashton. The great Erin McKeown is there with Spouse May 17, Stephen Kellogg plays May 18, Session Americana with Eleanor Buckland stops in May 23, Mtali Banda is there with Kimaya Diggs May 25, and Mister G does a free daytime kids show May 26. The Alarm plays the new 'Horse on May 28, Winterpills are there June 1, the Ballroom Thieves play June 2 and the Suitcase Junket is booked on June 8. The new calendar will look a lot like the old calendar in a lot of ways, with the return of Gaelic Storm June 11 and Bettye LaVette booked for June 14 (I saw her there in January 2008, and she was outstanding). Tysk Tysk Task, Sapling and Ex-Temper on June 29, slide guitar wizard Sonny Landreth with Cindy Cashdollar Aug. 1, Tuba Skinny Aug. 24 and a singers-in-the-round setup Sept. 27 with Seth Glier, Crys Matthews and Vance Gilbert. Tickets for all of those shows go on sale March 5 to members, March 15 for the general public.
It's worth noting that there's always something great happening at other venues in the area: Red Baraat (March 17) or Caroline Rose (April 1-2) at Bombyx in Florence, for example, or Ted Leo (this Saturday, the 17th!) or Mike Viola Feb. 28 at the Drake in Amherst. And don't forget about Northampton's own Outro, with Gold Dust and Bring it to Bear March 9 at the Marigold Theatre in Easthampton.
Next week: new(ish) music from Connecticut's Ken Cormier! For coverage consideration, check out the guidelines here.