Aerosmith, Jay and Molly's family folk, Percy Hill
By Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., June 7, 2001) -

Aerosmith: Not just another band from Boston

Few if any bands can boast the longevity of Boston's own Aerosmith www.aerosmith.com. America's longest-running rock band released its latest album, "Just Push Play" (Columbia www.columbiarecords.com), this past March with the same lineup - vocalist Steve Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry, guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer -- that recorded the group's debut album in 1973. "Just Push Play," the group's first studio album in four years, contains a typical Aerosmithian mix of bone-crunching rockers ("Beyond Beautiful," "Under My Skin") and sensitive power-ballads ("Fly Away From Here," "Avant Garden"), with only a few concessions to post-1980 sounds, such as the Pearl Jam-like "Sunshine" and the scratching and rapping on the title track. Of course, Aerosmith played brooding, morose rock when Eddie Vedder was still in diapers and the mega-hit "Walk This Way" anticipated rap by almost a decade. Aerosmith does the classic-rock thing at the Saratoga (N.Y.) Performing Arts Center on Friday night, June 8.

Jay and Molly: Family folk

On the title track to 'Jay Ungar and Molly Masons www.jayandmolly.com "Harvest Home," Mason sings, "On a cool clear autumn evening, the whole family in the fields/Where they'll work all night by full moonlight to gather in the yields." While it's closer to summer than fall, the sentiment will still be an apt one next Tuesday night, June 12, when "Generations of Folk," featuring Pete Seeger and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, the Jay Ungar and Molly Mason Family Band, and the Mammals perform at the Mahaiwe Theatre in Great Barrington.

The subtext of the entire evening will be that of family, as the Mammals includes Seeger's grandson, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, and Ungar's daughter Ruth Ungar. In addition, Ruth Ungar and fellow Mammal Mike Merenda perform with Ruth's father, Jay Ungar, and Molly Mason in the Ungar-Mason Family Band. Got it? Of course, anyone playing folk music is in some way or another a descendant of Pete Seeger, who perhaps more than anyone alive has perpetuated the folk tradition.

In any case, Ungar and Mason are perhaps most familiar in the Berkshires from their public radio program, "Dancing on the Air," which originates from the WAMC Northeast Public Radio Network. The duo are also frequent guests on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion." They came to widespread attention and acclaim through their Grammy Award-winning soundtrack to the Ken Burns documentary, "The Civil War," which used Ungar's "Ashokan Farewell" as its theme. In concert the group mixes Civil War ballads, Appalachian, Cajun, Celtic and klezmer fiddle tunes, early American pop and jazz, western-swing and their own compositions. And be sure to bring the whole family - the performers will, too.

Percy Hill: Steely sting

Plenty of bands are funky, and too many of them jam, but few that are so inclined also boast songs -melodies and lyrics - that sustain a listener's interest. Judging from its CD, "Color in Bloom," New Hampshire-based quartet Percy Hill www.percyhill.com has it all figured out. Songwriters Aaron Z. Katz and Nathan Wilson have obviously spent thousands of hours immersing themselves in the complete works of Steely Dan, Sting and Stevie Wonder, and they've surfaced with a sound that combines the Dan's Fender Rhodes-based dork-funk and ghostly, lyrical enigmas, Sting's world-jazz inclinations and Wonder's giddy pop melodicism.

Not that they don't jam - the album's title track clocks in at 11½ minutes. Look for them to jam, funk, sing, dance and rock out on Friday night, June 8, at Club Helsinki www.clubhelsinkiweb.com in Great Barrington.

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on June 7, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]