If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Shervin Lainez For their latest single, The Ballroom Thieves brought in friend of the band Aly Spaltro (aka Lady Lamb) to help them out. "Woman" is a gorgeous almost but not quite folk song. The focus throughout is the vocals. Calin "Callie" Peters takes the lead while the instruments come in and out as the song needs. Even as the horns come in, you've already been trained to follow Peters' voice. Not that we needed much training. Her soulful vocals are going to command our attention no matter what. Spaltro provides a perfect vocal counterpart, and the highlight of the song is when the two let loose around the bridge of the song. "Woman" is simply a must hear for all of our readers. You can listen to "Woman" below. The song is available as a single here . For more on The Ballroom Thieves, check out the artist's website .

Summer is over, which usually means the end of free outdoor concerts. Somehow New England decided to squeak out three more free shows this weekend, with something for every fan of rock based music! Boston Local Music Festival September 28 and 29 City Hall Plaza, Boston MA To me, this seems like a direct response to Boston Calling. It's right at Boston Calling's first location, and Boston Calling previously included a September show. This one features fifty Boston based bands over three stages for two days! With any festival this large, there are a lot of bands we're not hugely familiar with, but there are a bunch we know and love! You get the mainstream alternative rock of blindspot, the synth pop of Pyramid Thieves, the experimental hardcore punk of DNZL, the garage rock/pop of Carissa Johnson, the glam punk of The Knock Ups, the garage rock of Salem Wolves, and the Celtic punk of The Gobshites! New England Roots Festival September 28 Downtown Nashua, NH Now ...

The Green River Festival has slowly shed it's identity as being one of New England's best kept secret and is now a truly great festival. Gone are the years when the hot air balloons were the main focus and the music was just a bonus. 2018 might boast its greatest line up yet, and given the history of the festival, that's saying a lot. Michael Franti & Spearhead, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Josh Ritter had been announced last month, but today Green River announced most of their 2018 line up, and... just... wow. They've added Dr. Dog, folk supergroup I'm With Her, Deer Tick, Robert Earl Keen, Femi Kuti and the Positive Force, Lucy Dacus (!!!!), Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express, Birds of Chicago, The Ballroom Thieves, Bella's Bartok, and more!  The 2018 Green River Festival will run July 13-15 on the campus of the Greenfield Community College in Greenfield, MA. For more on the festival including tickets, head on over to their website .

This is a ridiculously busy new release week, so let's just go through what we can today, and we'll get to the rest tomorrow. The Ballroom Thieves - The Wolf in the Doorway : Ken sent this over to me saying he felt it was too Lumineers for his taste, but I can't really agree. Yes, it's got hints of the sort of strident folk/rock hybrids that have been so pervasive in the music culture as of late, but the only real negative thing I can say about this debut is that they don't do enough to set themselves apart. They come across a lot like The Wind and the Wave without being so aggressive, or perhaps a less interesting Civil Wars, and, while being good is fine and all, it misses the mark in possibly being great on first listen. Definitely take a flyer on this, though, it may have a lot of growth potential. They Might Be Giants - Glean : I'm perfectly within the wheelhouse of who should be a fan of TMBG. Still, maybe I'm just a little too young to have re...