Irv Lyons delivers his songs with love

Irv Lyons Jr., , Wonderland Syracuse guitarist and singer Irv Lyons Jr. obviously put his heart and soul into his new album Wonderland. The 10-song collection bursts with love songs touched with his rich guitar work, innermost lyrical poetry and plenty of help from his Syracuse music community friends. The veteran member of standout blues…

The B-Sides sound A-1 at Shifty’s

When my good friend Dave Kaspar gives me the heads-up that a trip to Shifty’s is needed to see a new band on the Syracuse scene, I believe him. After all, over the last quarter century, I’ve stood next to the guy hundreds of nights, appreciating the best our city has to offer. And then…

Jason Bean goes deep, Eddie Z digs it stripped down

Jason Bean, Mudfish Records Black Then Blue Then Gray Syracuse singer-songwriter Jason Bean thought he’d had emptied that musical well after he’d written, recorded and released his fourth album, Twenty Seven, in 2012. “My songwriting had become so personal, and in some cases, personal, that I walked away,” Bean says. A people person, he got…

Celebrating a Sammy with Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers didn’t just accept his shiny black Sammys trophy and go home. Well, the singer, guitarist and songwriter perhaps did something of that sort the night in March after he won the Syracuse Area Music Award category for best Americana recording. Rodgers instead planned a Syracuse gig for the band that recorded the…

Andrew Grau feels the groove in hip-hop and jazz

The Grautet is about to record an album with a bunch of musicians from New York City making the most out of a day booked in a New Jersey studio. The people of upstate New York — Skaneateles and Oneonta, in particular — should take notice. The band leader of the Grautet is bass player…

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers gets there with folk strings style

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, “Almost There” Label: Words and Music Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers starts this dozen-song collection off with “Eight Days in January,” an interesting story in which the Syracuse singer, songwriter and acoustic strings player enlists the help of Rani Arbo on fiddle and harmony vocals. I thought I was off on a trip to…