THE DOZEN: April’s Must-See Concerts

By Greg Haymes

You could call it Best Bets, Prime Picks, Top Tips or whatever. We call it The Dozen, whereby we offer a monthly round-up of 12 (or so) of the shows around Greater Nippertown that have got us jazzed the most. Only one entry per venue. Of course, your results may vary, so please feel free to comment below and let us know what you think we missed or overlooked.

Here’s The Dozen for the merry month of April:

WEDNESDAY (APRIL 6): Silent Film Spectacular @ Albany Public Library Main Branch, Albany. Kicking off the month-long Wednesday night series, Nelson Esposito Quintana perform a live improvisational soundtrack for the screening of the 1913 film “A Message From Mars,” the first sci-fi movie made in the United Kingdom. 7pm. FREE.

SUNDAY (APRIL 10): “Down Every Road: Songs of Merle Haggard” @ The Hangar on the Hudson, Troy. A benefit concert for SongwritingWith:Soldiers featuring an all-star line-up of Local 518 talent – including Jim Gaudet & the Railroad Boys, Ramblin Jug Stompers, Big Frank & the Bargain Bingers, the Lazy Suns, the Coveralls, Lonesome Val, Caroline MotherJudge, Red Haired Strangers, Michael Eck, Peggy LeCuyer and Mike McMann – digging into the Hag’s songbag. 6:30pm. $10.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13: Graham Parker Duo @ the Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton. Graham Parker and Brinsley Schwarz reunited from the Rumour days. With My Darling Clementine. 7pm. $25 in advance; $30 at the door.

THURSDAY, APRIL 14: Davell Crawford @ the Cock ‘N Bull, Galway. It’s the return of the New Orleans piano man. Just check out our review of his January tour stop there… 8pm. $60 with New Orleans-themed dinner; $15 for standing room.

FRIDAY, APRIL 15: Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience @ the College of St. Rose’s Massry Center for the Arts, Albany. It’s the return of the Grammy Award-winning soulman of Louisiana’s contemporary zydeco scene. 7:30pm. $20; $10 students.

SATURDAY, APRIL 16: The Brad Mehldau Trio @ The Egg’s Swyer Theatre, Albany. Over the past two decades, no artist has done more to extend and refine the piano trio’s possibilities than Brad Mehldau. Along with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard, the trio is at home performing Thelonious Monk classics, American Songbook standards, as well as contemporary tunes and originals. 7pm. $29.50. GO HERE to read our review of their last concert at The Egg…

SATURDAY, APRIL 16: Jason Martin @ the Low Beat, Albany. Jason Martin returns to the spotlight for the album release party celebrating The Power Animal System Methods, combining the species and gender queer trans-missional-dimensional themes with deftly crafted pop tunes, folk tales of inter-dimensional space travel, laser gun battles, personal stories of love, loss, shame, cross-species romance and more. 8pm. $10 advance tickets only; no tickets sold at the door.

SATURDAY & SUNDAY, APRIL 16 & 17: Albany Symphony Orchestra with Evelyn Glennie @ Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy. The last time that David Alan Miller & the ASO teamed up with the powerhouse percussionist, the result was a Grammy Award. Can lightning strike twice with Michael Daugherty’s “Dreammachine”? 7:30pm on April 16; 3pm on April 17. $19, $36, $48 & $60.

FRIDAY, APRIL 22: Winterpills @ The Linda, Albany. Philip Price and Flora Reed lead the Northampton-based chamber-folk-pop band in support of their new album Love Songs on the Signature Sounds label. 8pm. $15.

FRIDAY, APRIL 22: Amy Helm @ Cohoes Music Hall, Cohoes. The daughter of the Band great Levon Helm steps into the spotlight at Cohoes’ intimate Music Hall in support of her solo debut album, Didn’t It Rain. With Connor Kennedy & the Minstrel. 8pm. $27 in advance; $32 at the door.

SATURDAY, APRIL 23: John Mellencamp @ the Palace Theatre, Albany. The veteran Heartland rocker and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer brings his Plain Spoken Tour to town. With Carlene Carter. 7:30pm. $39.50, $59.50, $79.50 & $115.

SUNDAY, APRIL 24: Loudon Wainwright III @ Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs. LW3 was one of the first shows I ever saw at the Caffe in the early ’70s, and he was something of a regular there before moving on to larger venues. Now he’s coming back for a rare and intimate coffeehouse concert. 7pm. $55.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29: Nellie McKay @ the Van Dyck, Schenectady. “Quirky” is a vastly over-used, cliched adjective these days, but it also perfectly describes the singer-songwriter-keyboardist-ukulele player, who bounces from Tin Pan Alley standards to ’60s rock hits to anything-goes originals. This time around she’s performing “Follow the Money: An Election-Themed Show.” 6:30 & 8:30pm. $22 in advance; $26 at the door.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29: Jill Hughes & the High Rollers featuring Matt Mirabile @ Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Troy. Greater Nippertown’s jazz-soul queen roars through an evening of the blues with guitarslinger Mirabile scorching the fretboard. 9pm. FREE.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29: Fatoumata Diawara @ Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy. Perpetuating Mali’s rich traditions with a spectacular contemporary sound all her own, Fatoumata Diawara fought the cultural prejudice faced by women throughout the continent and parental opposition to her artistic ambitions to win success as an actress in film and theater before finding her feet in the medium she was always destined to make her own: music. 8pm. $25.