If It's Too Loud...

I'm a fan of bands like The Pogues, Flogging Molly, and Dropkick Murphys, but I always avoid Irish music in the month of March. I dislike the whole St. Patrick's Day thing, I'm just a grump like that. But yesterday Deer Tick released a cover of the Irish folk song "Muirsheen Durkin" and brought together an all-star crew of guest stars for it. The "Friends" are Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), James Felice (The Felice Brothers), Spider Stacy (The Pogues), MorganEve Swain (The Huntress & Holder of Hands, Brown Bird, The Devil Makes Three), and Spencer Swain (Flogging Molly, The Devil Makes Three). Deer Tick and these guests doing a traditional Irish folk song sounds exactly like what you'd expect, and truly demand. It's an upbeat, fast paced ode to being sick of working and just wanting to court ladies and head out to California to make it rich. It's pure fun and joy in musical form, and it's enough to have made me lift my snobby self-imposed ...

Now that we're just a month out, the Green River Festival has announced their schedule for 2016. It's a doozy of a line up, and with any all day festival with three stages, some major decisions will need to be made. Luckily for you, we're here to help you along and pick some of the must see acts of Green River 2016. (Note: We're only going to make it for Saturday and Sunday, so those are the two days we'll focus on.) Also, if past history with festivals are any indication, these plans could be completely scrapped once the music actually starts. Tickets are still available for the Green River Festival. You can get yours, and see the entire line up and schedule here . Lula Wiles The three members of Lula Wiles met at Maine Fiddle Camp, which apparently is a thing. They honed their talents at Berklee College of Music, and are now this beautiful traditional Americana group. While most Americana groups tend to be either a throw back or progressive, they really bridg...

Last year was the year I finally was able to make it to the Green River Festival in Greenfield, MA after a few years in a row of false starts. Everything about the festival blew me away, from the music, the variety of food available, hot air balloons, the incredibly laid back environment, etc. You really get the feeling that the festival is organized by huge music fans that somehow tricked a bunch of bands into playing a show for them by opening it up to the public. This morning, the line up for the 2016 edition (which also happens to be their 30th anniversary) was announced, and this is their best one yet. While all three days boast an incredible array of bands (Friday has Peter Wolf and NRBQ and Sunday features the Wheels of Soul Tour which features Tedeschi Trucks Band, Los Lobos, and North Mississippi All Stars plus Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear,) Saturday is the day I'm personally looking forward to the most. Any festival that has Dawes, Shakey Graves, Shovels and Rope, T...