Upstate Beat: New albums of note; celebrating Josh Chambers @ Caffe Lena

As we settle into winter and a fresh start for 2024, the local music scene hasn’t slowed down. Among a flurry of high-quality musical releases of late, here are several notable full-length albums that came out at the end of 2023.

“Reflect and Oppose,” Sky Furrows. “Happy people are intrusive,” says the narrator on “Shopping Bags,” the first track on the second album by Sky Furrows, a four-piece featuring guitarist Mike Griffin, drummer Phil Donnelly, bassist Eric Hardiman and vocalist-lyricist Karen Schoemer, who recites her lines over surging art-rock riffs. The thought-provoking album balances relatable, everyday moments of frustration and angst – unsent texts, the suburban glow of McDonald’s arches – with deeper concepts and experimental flourishes. It’s like listening to great poetry recited over music crafted to evocative yet fleeting memories.  

https://skyfurrows.bandcamp.com/album/reflect-and-oppose

“Piece of Head,” Mr. Cancelled. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Paul Coleman of Architrave, 

this full-length from Saratoga Springs post-punk group Mr. Cancelled contains tasty tunes such as “My Hands Are Ghosts” as well as covers of local artists, including the catchy “Split the Difference” by Coleman’s Sinkcharmer; “I Can’t Be Alone” by Tiki Bats; and “Why Try?” by Ghoul Poon. The future is uncertain for this band, as drummer Chris Wildy moved to New York City after the recording, and frontman and guitarist Gary Ziroli continues treatment for pancreatic cancer, but here’s hoping they soldier on. 

https://mrcancelled.bandcamp.com/album/pieces-of-head-2023

“Not Until Four,” Saucer. Jim Crawley and Jim Temple, formerly of Poestenkill rock band Blue Factory (and Albany’s Private Plain), team with Crawley’s son Evan – a talented musician and recording engineer with his own solo work – for a second album that demonstrates the trio’s songwriting talent on songs about life and loss recorded in the band’s new home recording space. Songs such as the wistful “Brown Sound,” the upbeat rocker “Jump” and the forceful “Vicious Lies” brim with shining melodies and driving guitars.

https://saucerbandny.bandcamp.com/album/not-until-four

Celebrating Josh Chambers at Caffe Lena

“Josh would take us down the darkest paths and he would meet us there with his disarming smile and beautiful blue eyes. You all took the wild ride, so let’s celebrate,” said Caffe Lena executive director Sarah Craig at the start of the sold-out “Rock & Recitation in Memory of Josh Chambers” event last Friday night.

It was the third annual memorial event for Chambers, a local musician and theater artist who died in 2021 at the age of 45. Chambers performed often at Caffe Lena with the experimental Fovea Floods theatrical troupe, which he co-founded as a student at Skidmore College in the 1990s. Chambers also played frequently at Caffe Lena on classical guitar during open-mic nights as a teenager and with his rock band Throwdown Bouquet. 

Chambers’ parents Betty and Joe Chambers of Greenwich covered the costs for the event, in which musicians donated their time to raise funds for the historic music venue. The audience heard songs written by Josh Chambers – or important to him – and performed by Chambers’ childhood friend Dave Bengle and his band the Radio Junkies, as well as musicians Sue Kessler, Michael Eck, E.B. Brooks and Jane Pickett. 

An especially poignant song was “So Refined,” one of more than 750 songs Chambers wrote during his lifetime, according to his father. And Eck gave a raucous yell in honor of Chambers after performing a cover of the Billy Bragg and Wilco collaboration “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key.”

“Josh believed in me more than I believed in myself,” said Brooks, telling the crowd how Chambers inspired her to take her music more seriously before she played a moving hybrid of Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Shenandoah” and Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me.”  

The Week Ahead

Due to snow, last weekend’s Elvis birthday concert with the Lustre Kings at the Hangar on the Hudson was postponed until Jan. 21, but until then you can celebrate the birth of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll with a Lustre Kings party at Rustic Barn Pub in Troy on Friday night. 8 p.m.

Albany’s Lark Hall presents the Wheel on Friday, a high-energy dance party featuring a handful of talented local musicians who reinterpret the music of the Grateful Dead and more. 8 p.m.

Gringo Starr’s Annual Winter Dance Party gets shaking at the Hangar on the Hudson on Saturday with the Everly Hillbillies (which includes guitarist Graham Tichy, frontman Ian Carlton and drummer Chris Sprague of Los Straitjackets) and retro roots-rock outfit Lara Hope and the Ark-Tones. 8 p.m.

The second event in the Jive Hive Live series hits the Cohoes Music Hall stage Saturday as the Jam’uary Apiary features reggae act Dr. Jah and The Love Prophets, blues-Americana group Rob Beaulieu Band and psychedelic-improvisational trio T.V. Doctors. 7:30 p.m.

The 20th anniversary celebration of the River Street Beat Shop record store in Troy continues Sunday with an afternoon show by Albany’s the Va Va Voodoos, a band influenced by monster movies, flying saucers and Mexican wrestling. 12:30 p.m. 

Haitian guitarist and singer Wesli brings joyful, passionate music and the authentic rhythms and sounds of Haiti’s culture to Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs on Sunday. 7 p.m.

Reach Kirsten Ferguson at theupstatebeat@gmail.com.