Ain't that a Shane: Rocker hosts Japan benefit

There were times during the go-go '80s — and we have the deliciously dated videotape to prove it — that Gary Shane would pull double duty, playing in the opening and headlining acts — exchanging the goofy cowboy hat he wore with Alan Laddd and the Abashed, his country-tinged side project, for the de rigueur skinny tie for his power-pop band The Detour. Well, time flies. More than two decades have passed, but there he goes again. The Ipswich rocker has not slowed down at all. Or learned his lesson. In fact, he's going to redouble his efforts, literally. Shane will be front for four (count em, four) bands — The Detour, The Silvertones, Alan Laddd and the Abashed and, where it all got started more than a quarter-century ago, the Shane Champagne Band — during the Japan Disaster Relief Concert, a four-hour shebang set to ... Nah, scratch that. Make it five. He’ll also play in Imojah and the Skylight Band, the reggae act fronted by ex-Cultural Roots singer Wade Dyce. We hear there’ll also be a few other acts on the bill. We’ve heard some names, but aren’t saying nothing until it’s nailed down. Except for Asa Brebner and Friends, because he’s on the poster. Shane will probably be playing with him, too, but we’re hoping that Brebner will bring along some other friends, like, um, maybe the girl singer from that band he was in... what was the name? Oh, yeah. Robin Lane and the Chartbusters. Here’s to hoping. The gig had originally been scheduled for the Rowley VFW, the site of Shane’s last benefit concert — for the 2004 tsunami that battered Indonesia. At that show he opened for a sock puppet performance, a la Spinal Tap. Ah, good times, good times. The show runs from 4 to 7 p.m. April 17 at Ipswich Town Hall, 25 Green St. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door. For more information, check out Shane's web.

Cellist takes a break. OK, done.

When the credits started rolling on the screen behind her at Cape Ann Community Cinema, Kristen Miller was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Finally. She’s been busy, busy, busy, releasing and promoting two albums — “Walk,” a distinctive solo album that mixes world beat rhythms and Eastern melodies with a rock attitude and a beat sensibility, and “Winter Loves Company,” a celebration of a maligned season, with Tom Eaton. Then she wrote and premiered an original score to “At Land,” a silent film by Maya Deren. And then she wrote two more and premiered them in four shows over the course of two weekends. Whew! “It feels like a bit of a marathon,” the cellist says. And now her plate is clear. It's time to take a well-deserved break. Isn't this nice? OK, done. Now it's time to think about her show at Finch Coffeehouse on Friday That will be more of a "regular" concert: cello, looping, singing and spoken word. She may throw one Deren short film into the mix. Maybe. She’s being a little cagey because it’s a day off — “a luxury I haven't had in months,” she says. She’s chilling with a second cup of tea and listening to ”Hejira,” the 1976 Joni Mitchell album. (“Heaven on earth,” she says.) But Miller admits she’s thinking about the Finch show and feeling that excitement build. “Trying not to make mental set lists on my day off,” she says, “but I am, in the back of my brain, working out a set list." Ah, the joys of down time ...  She performs at 8 p.m. March 18 at the Finch, located at First Religious Society Unitarian, 26 Pleasant St. Tickets are  $15 and can be purchased at Dyno Records, 1 Middle St., or at the door. Small place, though. Best bet is to think advance ticket. For more information, check out Miller's web. 

New Boston Duo: A spicy performance

We’ve been so caught up in George Little’s other exploits — like bowling his best game ever, hitting the triple-figure mark for the first time in his life, or the … well, let’s just come out and say it plain, the masochistic “spice challenges,” like trying to gobble down 10 super-spicy at the El Diablo Wings Challenge at Wing Itz so he can get his name on the Wall of Flame — that we almost forgot about the other thing: You know, the music thing? The Amesbury guitarist is a man of many guises. He’s a folkie sometimes, and sometimes he’s doing the classical thing. That’s what the degree from Longy is all about. And sometimes he’s in the wings, providing accompaniment for local theater productions. But this week, Little will be in the Port City with violinist Elizabeth Burke to perform as the New Boston Duo, which may not be quite as spicy as those El Diablo wings, but is pretty hot stuff anyhow. The duo digs deep into the Django/Grappelli l.e. "red hot” gypsy swing repertoire, but you never know exactly what they’re going to kick out. It could be anything from Django's "Minor Swing" to standards like "All of Me” to pop tunes like “All My Loving.” The concert begins at 4 p.m. March 6 at Central Congregational Church, 14 Titcomb St. Ten bucks gets you in the door. For more information, check out the web. And, for the record, Little was able to gobble up five El Diablo wings in 6.5 minutes. The challenge was to finish ten in ten — definitely doable, but “being 90 seconds behind pace I could tell I would fail to beat the time and threw in the towel,” he says. "I'm now 2 for 4 on spicy challenges." Now, please, somebody pass the Tums.

Sunchunck: Spinning a celebration

Okay, my head is spinning. Everything seems backwards here. Usually you buy the tickets, then you see the show. But Sunchunck, those crazy kids, are mixing it up a little next time out. On July 2, the Port rockers will be playing a short set just outside the ticket entrance at LeLacheur Park, home to the Lowell Spinners, whipping up the crowd before the game starts. Then, during the seventh-inning stretch, the boys will be bringing out the big gun, playing their powerhouse cover of "God Bless America," on the right side of the 5,000-seat stadium. It's all part of the minor league Sox affiliate's  Americana Celebration. And they've got something to celebrate besides the country's birthday: They're sitting on top of their division, with a 45-30 record, a 9.5-game lead over Oneonta and an 11-game lead over the Vermont Lake Monsters, who they'll likely demolish when Sunchunck's in town. The hometown rockers, by the way, are no strangers to playing at sports events. They played "God Bless America"during the Pats/Dolphins game at Gillette Stadium on Veterans Day last year — in front of 60,000-plus fans, after the National Anthem, accompanied by an Air Force flyover. Yikes! For more information, check out the Spinners or Sunchunck webs.

Brewing up a bargain

Dude, the whole thing kind of smacks of effort, but this is New England and you know what that means. (That we're, um, thrifty people who will do any anything to save a buck.) And, besides, it's a good excuse to visit the Big Apple and support a hometown band you like in the first place — even though they're playing a couple of local dates in a couple of weeks just up the road a bit. But, anyhow, here's the deal. Drive to New York to see the Brew at The Mercury Lounge. Track down Chizzle, the Amesbury quartet's tour manager, and, someone cue Groucho, say the secret word (that would be shaqulkin, pronounced sha-kul-kin, which probably means something, we have no idea what.) Got it? Then you'll be entered into a raffle to win two weekend passes to one of the major summer music festivals. Like Mountain Jam, which will feature Gov't Mule, Levon Helm and Alison Krauss. And the Brew. Or the Naveva Festival, which will have George Clinton and Parliament Funk and Furthur, the current live-and-kicking project by the Dead's Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. And the Brew. Seems like, with the raffle and all, the odds of getting to one of these hippie fests are pretty slim, but that's just your New England pessimism. The Mercury holds just 200 people and not everyone will know the password, so, if you have the energy for a road trip, you have a good chance of scoring the tickets and bragging rights for bagging a major bargain — the passes for Mountain Jam are worth more than $320. (We're assuming the band's going all-out and including a camping pass.) We'll probably just catch the band at two dates at the Stone Church next month — and curse the bargain that got away. Check 'em out online for more information.

Cantemus sings Mother Nature's charms

One of the things we like about Cantemus is how the North Shore chorus always seems to include at least one “oddball” piece in their programs, something that throws you off balance a little — like last year’s take on R. Murray Schafer’s startling, magical “Snowforms,” a piece that doesn’t look or sound like anything remotely choral, that requires a leap of faith to be successfully performed. Or how the group may, on occasion, throw standard repertoire under the bus, just for a moment, with a program like “Voice of Jazz: Cantemus Swings,” a concert that found the 30-plus voice chorus “fronting” a six-piece jazz band, saxophones and all. And while folks from the chorus, like the publicist and music director may cringe a bit at the “oddball” characterization, they understand it and maybe even nourish it, knowing that they have a devoted audience — folks who have, as Music Director Gary Wood puts it, “been following the group for years, who are extremely supportive and are open to new experiences.” And Cantemus is doing it again with ”The Woodland Quiet: Songs of Nature and Beauty,” the spring program the North Shore chorus will bring to Newburyport next week.

At first blush, the program does not seem out of the ordinary. You’ve got your nature-themed works by major composers like Dvorak, Mendelssohn and Haydn — and now that the spring monsoons have finally ended, for now, we can restore our severely tested relationship with Mother Nature. You’ve got a couple of modern composers, the time-tested poetry by Goethe, Rossetti, Whitman and Millay — and then you’ve got “Earthsongs,” a nine-minute composition for piano, oboe and chorus by David Brunner, a professor at the University of Central Florida. The piece is not so unusual in form (despite its antiphonal section, which has two semi-independent groups of voices alternating musical phrases, which is unusual in secular music) as it is in content: It uses texts from decidedly non-standard sources: the 19th-century geologist James Gates Percival, a Buddhist writing from the “Sutta Nipata”; and a text from the United Nations Environmental Sabbath Program — all of which, the composer says, ”speak of the wonders of nature and of the importance of protecting the animals, caring for the plants and nurturing one another.”

 The program begins with “Waldesnacht,” a Brahms song. “I remembered some opening lyrics, translated from the original German,” Wood says, “something like ‘wondrous cool, thou woodland quiet.’ It seemed an intriguing statement, filled with lots of programming possibilities.” He began collecting songs that riff on that theme, like ”Woodland Bells” by Stephen Chatman. “These two opening works attempt to set the tone,” says Wood. “Music from the 19th century, then from the 21st, German texts and English texts, part song texts and evocative poetry, choral singing a cappella and accompanied, all celebrating Nature.” The program also features some of Mendelssohn’s “Songs of the Open Air,” one of Delius’ “To Be Sung of a Summer Night on the Water” works and a selection of Dvorak’s “Songs of Nature.” A contemporary song by Daniel Hall, for women’s voices with piano and oboe accompaniment, is set to words by Emily Dickinson that begin, “These are the days when birds come back…” Haydn’s “The Storm,” a madrigal, is the first time the composer wrote music for an English text, and captures the calamity and calmness of the sea. The 23-song program will close with the oboist and chorus performing Chatman’s “Thou Whose Harmony is the Music of the Spheres.”

Joining Cantemus and accompanist Frances Burmeister will be oboist Margaret Herlehy, principal oboist of the Hanover Chamber Orchestra and the Granite State Symphony, who also performs with Sospiri and Infinities ensembles.

JUST THE FACTS: Cantemus will perform “The Woodland Quiet: Songs of Nature and Beauty” at 7:30 p.m. May 1 at First Congregational Church, 12 School St., Rockport; and 4 p.m. May 2 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 166 High St., Newburyport. Tickets are $20 for adults, $17 for seniors and can be purchased online at cantemus.org. Save $2 by purchasing tickets at The Newburyport Printmaker, Nazir’s of Wenham, Norris Gallery and Frame Shop in Ipswich, the Book Shop of Beverly Farms, Toad Hall in Rockport and Gloucester Music. Admission is free for students age 21 and under.

JUST THE FOLKS: Performers in Cantemus come from 15 communities on the North Shore and New Hampshire. Here is the current lineup: Manchester-by-the-Sea: Music Director Gary Wood and singers Isabella Bates, David McCue and Anne Wood. Haverhill: Accompanist Frances Burmeister. Beverly: D. Scott Hufford, Pamela Morris, Richard Salandrea. Bradford: Alison Garner. Byfield: Doug Guy. Essex: Betsy Vicksell. Hamilton: Marcy Homer. Ipswich: Bill Effner, Gary Freeman, Hugh McCall, Anne Maguire, Dorothy Monnelly, Nat Pulsifer Sr., Pat Rolinger, Debby Twining. Lynnfield: Phil Boehmke, Priscilla March. Melrose: Bill Dowdall. Newbury: Norm Stein. Peabody: Marjorie Short. Rockport: Marcia Siegel. Wenham: Jamie Cabot, David Geikie, Bill Holloway, Betsy Lebel, Conrad Willeman. West Newbury: Michael Fosburg, Susan Nash. Durham, N.H.: Sydney van Asselt.

Griffins, lessons at Carriage House

Something completely different, classical music fans: Violinist Nicholas Kitchen and cellist Yeesun Kim, half of the Borromeo String Quartet, will present what they’re calling “an exploratory concert of masterworks,” which is a little bit music and a little bit lecture. Before each piece, the husband-and-wife team reviews interesting aspects of the music, highlighting points through examples and manuscripts projected on a screen — and then roll the pieces out for an informed spin around the musical block. The program will include Bach’s Suite No. 6 in D major, and Chaconne for solo violin, BWV 1004; Bartok’s Sonata for Violin Solo, Sz.117 and Ravel’s Sonata for violin and cello, which the composer dedicated to his pal Claude Debussy. Does any parent names kids Claude anymore? Kim and Kitchen, also faculty members at New England Conservatory, will be joined by violinists Mai Motobuch and Kristopher Tong. And here’s something else to look out for: their axes. Kitchen plays the famous Guarneri Del Gesu violin known as the “Baron Vitta,” which was entrusted into his care after it was given to the Library of Congress by Miyoko Yamane Goldberg — the wife of legendary violinist Szymon Goldberg. The idea is that it would ultimately be reunited with its original twin, the violin Fritz Kreisler played. Kim plays a cello carved by Peregrino Zanetto in 1576, one of the very oldest cellos in the world, adorned with evocative painted griffins.

This is the last performance of the Firehouse’s Home Concert series. It takes place at 7:30 p.m. April 10 at the Carriage House, 203 High St., Newburyport. Tickets are $60, or $55 for Firehouse members. The cost includes a wine reception, dessert, coffee and conversation after the concert. Tickets are available by calling 978.462.7336 or logging on at firehouse.org. The photo of Kitchen and Kim are courtesy of Christian Steiner.

A shower of Romantic 'Rain'

RAIN, I DON’T MIND: Nobody, not even TMZ *really* knows what, if anything, went on between Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann, the wife of Robert Schumann, Johnny’s dear friend, mentor, the guy who put his name on the map, musically. He was crazy in love with Clara, but she, alas, merely loved him, like (words no guy ever wants to hear) a dear, dear friend. Even after Schumann died, he apparently struck out, romantically, as Clara, playing a 19th-Century Jackie Kennedy, made sure the big man’s legacy was secure. But, while no one knows what went on inside their heads, it’s pretty clear the dude was hurting big time. You can hear it in Sonata in G Major, op. 78 — the so-called Rain Sonata — in which the yearning is palpable, almost overwhelming. And Mrs. S got the message. In a letter to Brahms she confessed to “bursting into tears” on hearing it. We’re hoping that modern-day audiences can hold it together when violinist Gabriela Diaz and pianist Lois Shapiro play the Rain Sonata during “Eloquent Expressivity: The Violin Sonatas of Johannes Brahms,” the final program of this year’s Jean C. Wilson Music Series at the Unitarian Universalist Church, which takes place this weekend. Diaz, a New England Conservatory-trained musician who acted as concertmistress under Pierre Boulez at the Lucerne Festival Academy, is noted for her polished technique. Shapiro is a founding member of the Triple Helix piano trio. Also on the program will be Brahms’ Sonata #2 in A Major, Sonatensatz in C minor and Sonata #3 in D minor. The concert takes place at 4 p.m. March 7 at the Unitarian Church, 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport. Tickets are $15, $10 for seniors. Children and students can listen for free ... if they promise to behave.