July 14 Barnaby Bright, Ernie Halter, Antigone Rising, Toby Walker

What a great night for Acoustic Long Island. The Seventh Annual Summer Concert was better than ever. The night kicked off with Barnaby Bright. Becky’s voice was pitch perfect and beautiful. Her husband Nathan’s guitar energetically soared as he beamed with an infectious smile that lived up to the group’s name. Ernie Halter followed with shades of Stevie Wonder with his soulful voice. Antigone Rising blew the doors off Deepwell’s Mansion. Nini Camps vocals made the band a true headliner that lifted the summer concert to another level.Cathy Henderson on lead guitar tore a page out of the Allman brothers. Toby Walker ended the night. Determined not to be outdone, he stepped to the edge of the stage and dazzled the audience with his fiery fingers and his irreverent songs. Toby may call himself a blues player, but he always leaves the audience awed and smiling. Thanks Dave Dircks and company.

11/02/11 Micah & Jean-Paul Vest's Last Charge of the Light Horse

In the last concert of the 2011 season, Micah and Jean-Paul Vest’s Last Charge of the Light Horse played at the Deepwells’ Mansion for Acoustic Long Island. The night started off with an over the top comedic spoof on the new I-phone apps, revealing a side of the host Dave Dircks that proved he’s ready for prime time standup.

Micah, a young performer, with a wonderful rich voice and an affable style performed the first set with charm and poise. His songs very quickly, while covering the themes of romance, lost love and regret, all seemed to blend into one another indistinguishably. There were none of the highs and the lows that you would expect from a musician who truly does have a voice, a rarity in the folk world. Yet instead of using the full range of what is undoubtedly there, he often sang at the top of his register as if to authenticate emotion, rather than take us on a musical emotional roller coaster ride. His rendition of Killing me Softly probably gave the first clear indication of what he could do with a song even though who can top Roberta Flack. His final song, coauthored with his college roommate was more textured which made me wonder if collaborating might lift him out of a musical rut where he can chart new territory and reach a wider more deserving audience.

Jean-Paul Vest’s Last Charge of the Light Horse brought to Acoustic Long Island one of the best shows in a long time. I don’t know why I thought of Lou Reed sings Tim Buckley or if the comparison is apt, but it stuck with me. Jean-Paul Vest is one of the more intelligent song writers out there. He has the poet’s true gift of turning the mundane, the ordinary, the daily ups and downs of life that we all face and transforming them into heartfelt songs. An ATM machine, the automobile, New Years Eve, all instantly become poetic images and iconography that resonate for the listener in a manner that only a gifted artist’s brush can accomplish. Jean-Paul Vest has a rich palette from which to draw which is contrasted, almost ironically, by his monochromatic singing style. I wondered at times if his bassist, who joined in occasionally could have added more detailed harmonic richness. Regardless, the band was top notch, totally in sync with each other and with Jean-Paul Vest looking like a cross between Buddy Holly and James Dean. The music was driving and exhilarating. Instantly, the audience was transported into a better place through lyrics that were consistently rich and haunting, self-reflective and honest. Each song honored the daily human struggle that wears us down in our pedestrian lives, but which are desperately in need of recognition and edification. Songs like Get Away Car and The Second Time Around and The New Year all deserve second and third listens because there is something to be learned not only about the artist, but about yourself.

10/05/11 Jack's Waterfall & Flearoy

Jack’s Waterfall headed up by singer/songwriter Jack Licitra came to Deepwells to share his energy, excitement and sense of humor. The music became non-stop theatre with his motley crew of musicians: a tuba player, Jon Preddice on cello, a young female high school senior and a percussionist who played not only drums, but pvc tubing. If Jack Licitra’s goal was to make the audience part of his band then he aptly accomplished that. If Jack Licitra believes that paying homage to his muse adds a transcendent mystical dimension to the creative process, then, in the final analysis, the lyrics seemed rather bland and unimaginative as each song very quickly blended seamlessly into each other until they disappeared from memory. If, indeed, as John announced, music is a healing art form, then he, like an evangelical preacher who makes bold promises and wild claims that he is filled by the spirit, then the audience can only leave energized, but still broken.


Flearoy, which I assume is a tongue-in-cheek take off on Leroy, came onto the stage at Deepwells like an unassuming collection of street musicians dressed in plaid who just happened to be passing through St. James on their way to somewhere else—and that somewhere else just might be fame and fortune. It’s hard to know where to begin. Jon Seale on vocals, at first seemed too much for one person to bear the weight of, but like other soul and blues singers, Bill Withers, Wilson Pickett, and John Fogerty, Jon Seale, in perfect pitch, quickly became the heart and soul of the band. Zack Rosen on bass had to be the most inventive stand up bass that I’ve heard in a long time. What he did on standup bass almost served as lead guitar and percussionist as he riffed off Dan Knobler (looking like a young Bob Dylan) on lead guitar who never stopped playing that American steel guitar which has the risk of sounding tinny, but which always soared in his hands without overshadowing the rest of the band. Flearoy sang a mix of their own songs and few covers ended the night with a rousing rendition of The Band’s Ophelia. Matt Porter, who I sensed has a good voice in his own right but who adopted the harmonium rather than his instrument the electronic keyboard, was never given his chance to shine, should be brought back into the band. Flearoy deserves a second, third and fourth listen.

September 07, 2011 Kate and Nate; Avi Wisnia

Kate and Nate from Ithaca New York, who performed at Deepwells last night, are hard to classify. Were they vaudeville, old timey music, early folk? Whatever their roots, they brought something completely unique and entertaining. Nate’s body never stopped. His guitar playing was equally energetic. Kate sat stoically behind her cello which she played with sensitivity and grace. Their songs were complex, inventive, and defied pigeonholing into any one genre. I heard some overtones of Incredible String Band in Nate’s voice as he and Kate overlay rhythms and harmonies that were remarkably in sync with each other and gave a richness and depth to their performance. Their opening number with the refrain There you were, Here you are immediately show-cased their strength and weakness as artist. The song, original in every way that was so promising and captivating initially, which went longer than Dylan’s Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, becoming numbing and begged for an ending. However, once they escaped that unfortunate opening number, they performed songs that were sometimes playful, like ttyl now baby, a song capturing the hypnotic shorthand of texting that led to the breakup of a marriage, and Anna’s Afternoon, a beautiful song about the family dog, now gone. When our day is done captured everyone’s dream of heaven or hell, depending on how you view an eternity in your bathing suit with everyone you love. The Dancing Screen intelligently contrasted the bucolic with the mass corporate culture. Nate graced us with a brief juggling performance, balancing his harmonica holder and banjo on his forehead. All in all, they are a very talented duo. But their songs are demanding and challenging and need many listenings to appreciate.

Avi Wisnia, who has played at the Kennedy Center and the Highline Ballroom, brought a Brazilian bossa nova style to Deepwells. Avi stood center stage with an upright keyboard accompanied by a percussionist and guitarist who never upstaged him and always remained tastefully in the background. He had a pleasant voice and a nice demeanor, unafraid to talk to the audience about the inspiration of his songs or to admit that as a gay male, he has suffered loss and disappointment and confusion about love. This on the night of the Republican presidential debates was particularly poignant, considering that they would have blamed the recent east coast earthquake and Hurricane Irene on Ari. His songs, in many respects, were derivative. They always sounded like some other song, from another artist. But Ari wasn’t shy about admitting that and even highlighted in Something New, a clever mix of favorite lines from other artists, in which the audience was asked to participate on such lines as “smooth operator” from Sade’s song of the same name. I wish I could stop writing songs about you poignantly underscored the loss of an important relationship in Ari’s life. New Year focused on the near suicide of two friends, and their ability to rise above their despair and discover a new reason for living, a tragic reality that the general public is only recently coming to understand that gays have painfully had to face alone. Rabbit Hole was probably Ari’s best song. An equally derivative and very stylized song that captured the enjoyable trap called love. This time the audience was given the chance to playfully join the band, each given a kazoo, to accompany Ari’s lively vocal sound effects. Ari is certainly one who is destined to be a club favorite.

08/12/11 The Grand Slambovians

The Grand Slambovians came to Hechscher Park. They are compared to Pink Floyd, but maybe on bad-acid. They’re called hillbilly, but I didn’t hear that. Their costuming, at best is hillbilly bohemian. Joziah Longo, lead singer, heart and soul of the band, while well intentioned in his songwriting skills, was uninspirational as a singer. Their lead guitarist Sharkey McEwen was fiery and inventive, playing some wild earsplitting slide guitar, but never with any memorable riffs. Tony Zuzulo their drummer was equally frenetic almost in the style of The Who’s Keith Moon. Tink Lloyd, who lingered in the background and played accordion and cello, was barely a presence on stage. If nothing else, the band is honest and homespun. They bring intensity and a refreshing self-effacement to the stage even as they attempt to win you over with their energy and the outrageousness. The best comparison for me was to the Ramones, but without the nihilism. Sadly, when it was over, I couldn’t remember a single song, or a single riff that I might want to revisit. For an audience who wants to scream and yell and have an excuse to let their hair down while being bathed in unrelenting noise that never quite crystallizes into a song, this is the group for you. For me, they’re not going to make it to my I-pod.

08/05/11 Little Toby Walker

Little Toby Walker performed in the parking lot of the Hauppauge Library. He didn’t miss a beat. From the moment Toby Walker stepped on stage his fiery fingers began working that guitar—an old Gibson, an American steel, and a twelve string to be exact—as he took us up and down the Delta through the South along highway 66 and up into Chicago, playing Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and more, while also educating us like John Lomax once did, and mesmerizing us with his personal inventiveness (it’s never just Muddy Waters, but Muddy played Toby style) and entertaining us with his personal stories that invariably lean playfully toward double entendre. Little Toby Walker is a Long Island treasure, now living in New Jersey. What makes Toby so interesting and electrifying as a performer is that he’s the whole deal: all ten fingers are moving, the thumb acting as the bass, the index, middle and ring fingers as rhythm and lead, while his left hand is using every fret to perfection, playing the blues or slide guitar, so that if you closed your eyes you’d think there was a full band in session and not the one and only Toby Walker.

08/03/11 Emi Meyer & Adam Levy

Emi Meyer, a singer-songwriter came to Deepwells to perform her jazz compositions for Acoustic Long Island. Emi, a tall willowy understated performer was simply radiant onstage seated behind a Yamaha digital piano. Her voice was mellifluous. Her phrasing captured all the essential elements of jazz performers that have preceded her. Her piano playing was very much in the jazz tradition. Each of her songs are intelligently designed and well crafted. Yet it was one particular song that she co-wrote regarding the mean streets of New York that really connected with her audience. It’s difficult for a performer to do both interesting things on the piano and with her voice at the same time, either one or the other must be subordinated, but I had a sense that if she were to let go of the piano, walk up to the mike and really belt one out that she would reach that wow level that lingers in the background of every one of her songs. The fact that she is multilingual and sings as beautifully in both Japanese and English positions her to be a true crossover artist in a multicultural world. She has a great future ahead of her.

Adam Levy comes from a storied background of having written for and performed with Nora Jones. His minimalist guitar playing was thankfully augmented by his accompanist, an inspired slide guitarist. His songs are highly introspective and personal. His tender song, Promised Land, an ode to his grandma Jenny, a closeted singer-performer piano player, got the greatest applause. No Dancing, a song about a New York bar that had been recently closed down due to complaints from a testy unreasonable neighbor who detested bars and dancing captured the comic-tragic nature of any business trying to prosper in New York. His song The Heart Collector, that seemed to channel Tom Waits, captured the dark undercurrent of all the broken hearted that people that litter the landscape. A native Californian, he gave voice to the natural beauty of that state that has always represented the last frontier in America in A Promise to California. Given the long list of accomplished performers that Adam Levy has worked with over the years, he is more songwriter than singer-song writer. But that’s fine. Anyone who can make a living in the music business can count himself among the lucky elite.