LIVE: Session Americana @ the Low Beat, 3/7/14

Review by Joel Patterson

Somewhere, sometime, you’ve had this experience: wandering into a dorm room or a living room or a backyard and stumbling onto a group of people sitting around, playing music. You remember the energy pouring off of them, and how joyful and uplifting it was, and maybe the night sky was a canopy of brilliant, glistening stars… it was magic.

Session Americana – the combined talents of Dinty Child, Billy Beard, Jon Bistline, Ry Cavanaugh, Jim Fitting and Jason Anick – is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to this kind of impromptu, spontaneous spirit. Their two sets, mixing a few originals in with a bird’s-eye-view survey of recent folk/indie/pop trend lines, were tight, dramatic and over way too soon.

The Low Beat (the re-birthed Valentine’s, now in the heart of Albany on Central Avenue) feels like a nice upgrade: wooden walls, immaculate potties. They serve lunch! Conveniently near The Linda for you after-hours pub crawlers. Congrats to Howard Glassman for making the transition so successfully. We eagerly anticipate its bright future. We’ve got our shades…

HEADS UP: Session Americana’s Dinty Child returns to Nippertown at 9pm on Saturday (April 5), playing as a member of the rollicking Catbirds at the Ale House in Troy. The elusive Pete LaBonne opens the show.

And you can mark your calendars now: Session Americana return to Nippertown for a show at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs at 8pm on Saturday, May 10. Advance tickets are $18.