Lenny Zenith teams up with New Orleans musicians for Quarantine album
Quarantine, two songs recorded remotely with musicians in New Orleans, New York, and New Jersey.
“Always Near Me” (Side A) is a jazzy ballad featuring Lenny’s longtime friends, drummer Carlo Nuccio (Continental Drifters, Pat McLaughlin), and Paul Clement (Twangorama, Woodenhead), both veterans of past Zenith bands. Featured performers include New Orleans pianist Brian Coogan, and trumpeter Scott Frock, as well as another longtime friend, Alison Young (Songdogs), who contributes intimate vocal harmonies. The release raises money for House Of Tulip, a shelter for transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming people experiencing housing insecurity in Louisiana.
On April 1, 2021, singer-songwriter-guitarist
Jon Klages, who helped create the Hoboken Sound as lead guitarist for the Individuals, will release Fabulous Twilight, a collection of original songs and instrumentals hailed as “an exceptionally broad and rich work … mature but still playful…[that] shows off Jon’s considerable songwriting and musicianship skills proudly” (Peter Holsapple of the dB’s and Continental Drifters).
With a songcraft, melodic inventiveness, and humor that recalls the early albums of Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman, Fabulous Twilight is a fresh and bold addition to Klages’s musical resumé. Weaving songs and instrumentals in the style of the long-players he loved as a child, Klages and producer Todd Solomon take the listener on an emotionally rich and musically diverse journey, from soulful ballads and plaintive blues to surf guitar and R&B instrumentals to a smile-raising, country-tinged ode to the Columbia House Record Club, all set against
Dean Falcone’s 24th Annual Vomitorium holiday variety show, featuring musicians “overcooking perfectly good songs,” normally takes place at Cafe Nine in New Haven but is happening virtually this year. In association with NHDocs: the New Haven Documentary Film Festival, it will stream from this Friday, Dec. 18 at 6 p.m. through Dec. 26 at 11:45 p.m., paired with a screening of “a truly delightful documentary,” “North Pole, NY.” All proceeds benefit the Cafe Nine employee tip jar. For tickets, go to www.NHdocsTix.com.
Contributed photo / Dean Falcone /