More good stuff coming into the mailbox, thank you, thank you and thank you.
Central New York musicians, producers, venue owners — old friends and newcomers who’d like to introduce yourself — please keep dropping me a line.
Send an email to markbialczak@gmail.com. Direct message me on Facebook or Twitter, if you’d like. Alert me to links, or we can come up with an address for you to send a hard CD, if you’d prefer.
Just last night, I received a message from Maureen Sheridan of the Easy Ramblers, so I’m already planning the next installment.
Singer Tish Oney sent over news of her holiday performances with the Syracuse Symphoria.
The jazz singer is particularly excited about performing with the orchestra at this time of the year. "It is a spectacular show conducted by Sean O'Laughlin, with arrangements written by Grammy Award-winning arrangers," says Oney, who is considered a mainstay in the jazz scenes of New York and Los Angeles. Among Oney's favorite works is "The Peggy Lee Project."
With shows this good, you don't just put them on stage once. So the Symphoria will perform the holiday pops program on Sunday in Oswego, Monday in Cortland and Wednesday in Rome.
The big Syracuse show will be 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20, at the Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater, in the Mulroy Civic Center.
Tenor Nick Ziobro joins Oney on the program, along with the Syracuse Pops Chorus and the Empire State Dance Center. The performance will include expected traditional favorites, some surprises and a sing-along.
Tickets are priced from $29 to $64.
Waydown Wailers musician Scruffy Scriminger sent over a note asking if, pretty please, I’d consider a band from the North Country local enough to include in these roundups of Central New York music items.
“Can we be considered part of the Syracuse scene?” he wondered. “There is no original music scene north of Watertown.”
Sure, thing, Scruffy. Your cool name alone merits strong consideration. And take into account the fact that your recorded your last album, “State of the Union,” at SubCat studios in Syracuse’s Armory Square, and that you’ve played at The Westcott Theater in Syracuse, too, and you are in.
I sampled the sounds. Big, powerful, rootsy stuff, with a bit of a jam feel to it, too, coming from brothers Dave and Christian Parker, along with Scriminger and Connor Pelkey. It’s powerful stuff, building bridges between rock and country and bluegrass.
Tasty, even.
Scriminger later reported in with the news that “State of the Union” has been made available on the Touch Tunes digital jukebox at mytouchtunes.com, thanks to Woodstock Records and its musician and owner, Professor Louis of Professor Louie and the Cromatix.
Trent Park made sure to remind me in his note that he was one of the artists that visited the white studio to record one of his songs for the original music video series I oversaw while working at the big daily.
Of course I remember. Park is a well-spoken, thoughtful artist proud of his craft.
He still is, and sent along a link to his EP “Don’t Wake Me,” out last summer, to prove it.
Yes, the five songs are dreamy, alternative, filled with soft keyboard work and heartfelt words and ideas.
It’s been compared to the work of “Frank Ocean with it’s poetic lyrics and an experimental and ambient Miguel,” he reports. Can’t beat that description.
The release has prompted Park to visit the U.S. in support, including stops in Boston, LA, San Francisco and New York City. He’s now living in Oakland, where he’s studying for his master’s in English and working for the Grammy Foundation, both meant to sharpen his craft.
“I have learned to be a great musician, you have to listen and write constantly,” Park says, “listen to music of every time period and genre.”
I expect more to come from a man who’s working so hard to build from a solid base.
Pamme Swan, the singer-songwriter who calls the Hamilton-Earlville-Sherburne axis her home turf, has been sending me her music for almost two decades. I’ve written big daily reviews, and also invited Swan to perform a song for the original music video series.
Swan has seven CDs to her credit now, an increasingly interesting timeline that delves into her life, these times, local history and the human condition.
The latest is “Wednesday’s Riches,” a 12-song collaboration with Steven Sklollar.
The each wrote songs, plays strings, and also share lead vocals. Skollar, an artist, also created the CD cover artwork.
It’s beautiful, with a rich and earnest modern folk sound, both subtle and strong.
The opening cut, Swan’s “Osceola,” sets the scene with a strong tie to Chenango County and Sherburne. Skollar’s “Friends of Gas,” is a protest song, a plea to think before grabbing the big cash promised for fracking, or drilling the earth to release natural gas reserves.
I must tip my winter hat to the sweet, affectionate cover of Bob Dylan’s poetic “Buckets of Rain,” too, as well as the closing pair of traditionals, “Eye on the Prize” and “Old Joe Clark,” treated with respect and oodles of talent.





Nice post and way to expose local music! Very cool!
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Thanks, CBXB. I spent 21 years writing about the great music around Syracuse as my job. And it’s as well-made as ever.
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cool and thanks for the gift of new music )
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The best thing about writing about one region’s music, Beth, is that when you come down to cool sounds, there are no regional boundaries. You rock. (Or you folk, or you R&B … OK, I’ll just stick with you rock.)
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Great! I have an image in my mind of you Mark. It is either happening now, or in the future, you writing editorials in newspapers all over the country. I’m not a fortune teller, but I think this is going to happen.
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Thank you for that endorsement, PJ. I spent 29 years working for the big daily in Syracuse, so I guess it’s still in my blood. Editorials all over the country, though, that’s perfect for my blog!
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Trent Park’s CD features the contributions of numerous CNY artists and studios. To name a few players, Joey Arcuri, Adam Fisher, Maddie Horrell, Sean Conway, Brett Hobin, Langston Masingale, Kinyatta King, Swell Perry and many others. Recordings took place at Skypad Studio, Hobin Studio, Le Moyne College and studioDOG Pro. Production and engineering was a group effort between Trent, Swell, Brett and Langston Masingale. Literally this is a great project that saw a huge outpouring of support and love. Just goes to show how we can come together and great things happen. Trent is going places and fast at that.
Cheers
Langston Masingale
Owner
studioDOG Pro
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Langston, You know how to pick the right projects to love and support. Thank you, sir.
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