"Drive" time Saturday night

McAlister Drive's Christoph Krey

 McAlister Drive, you could say, was heading down the wrong road for a while. The band formed in 2006, but it wasn’t until working on 2010’s “Missing Figures” that it found a way to house pop songs in a more rustic sound that simply rang truer to singer and front man Christoph Krey.

When Krey teamed with fiddle player Scarlet Deering and banjo player Grace Van’t Hof, it changed McAlister Drive’s direction.

“The instrumentation brought out a different vibe. It complemented my lyrical style and it brought my voice into a better realm,” Krey says.

Now all eight members of McAlister Drive_ oh there are drums, keys, and bass alongside fiddle and banjo_ can’t fit into the Coppertop for the band’s show there Saturday. But Krey assures even stripped down_ which McAlister Drive often does for radio appearances and other intimate shows_ the essence of the band comes through. The music starts at 8 p.m.

“It’s pop-rock with Americana. It lets me bring in more alt-country and folk influences into the songwriting, which I like,” Krey says.

Krey thought “Missing Figures” would be the first small step toward maturing the group's sound. But the E.P. generated a lot of interest in the band, which plays throughout the Northeast and builds tours around festival appearances.

“People wanted to hear more, and we didn’t want to give them our first album, it just isn’t representative of what we sound like now,” Krey says.

So the original plan to work slowly and craft a series of four E.P.s got tossed and the band settled into Q Division studio in Somerville and made the full-length “The Goddess” album.

Krey’s pop sensibilities_ big hooks, dramatic sweep_ come through in songs ranging from the rambunctious “Best Dressed” to the driven “Ocean Skip Away.” But the twang and pluck give the songs an enduring texture.

“It’s been a maturing process,” Krey says. “The band went through puberty finally.”

“The Goddess” paved the way for McAlister Drive to earn an invite to the prestigious Folk Alliance conference happening this year in Toronto. After that the band will tour the South and head to the South By Southwest music conference in Austin.

There are also a bunch of shows booked around Boston and New York City.

But Krey enjoys playing at Wachusett, saying his loyalty is rooted in the days spent skiing the Wah as a kid.

“I like that room,” Krey says of the Coppertop. “It’s got a nice grassroots feel to it and people check out the music. It’s not like playing at a ski resort where the people are just out to get a drink.”

Name your tune

Hoodoo Revelator

On the mountain it comes down to whether you want to ski or ride. In the Coppertop, it can get more complicated.

Feel like folk-rock? Blues? Americana? Country? All of the above?

It’s that kind of run in the ’Top, starting Thursday night with Fern & Rita, veterans of the North County club and singer/songwriter circuit. The duo returns tonight at 8 p.m.

Hoodoo Revelator plays in the Coppertop Friday, bringing a brand of blues that stretches from Muddy Waters to Rolling Stones. The band does a great job shifting gears from gritty to funky to soulful without losing focus. To get a handle on what these guys are all about download or stream their free live E.P. from the band’s Web site, http://www.hoodoorev.com/fr_home.cfm

Christoph Krey and a few of his McAlister Drive cohorts pull into the Coppertop on Saturday, and this troupe is about to break, if you ask me. The band’s new album is a fresh twist of pop and roots music that’s already earned McAlister Drive some coveted dates at the South By Southwest and Folk Alliance music conferences and festivals. Check back tomorrow for a more complete update and interview with Krey.

The Friday and Saturday shows begin at 8 p.m.

Joe Macey

Joe Macey played 217 shows in 2012. His stop into the Coppertop Sunday at 4 p.m. won’t even be his first of 2013; it’ll be his fourth. This is one hard-touring troubadour. Macey is a country artist, and one of the region’s few to go it mostly solo. But with a batch of polished originals and an ear tuned into what’s bubbling up on country radio, all Joe needs is his guitar to get the job done, like he has been doing since the ’80s.  

Kick in the New Year

Glenn Stewart

Still without a New Year’s Eve plan? Still haven’t carved up any of this fresh snow? Boom, problems solved. Hit the trails then catch Glenn Stewart in the Coppertop.

Stewart has become a Wachusett fave, playing both band shows and stripped-down acoustic sets. His brand of country music is so in line with the big guys_ think Eric Church and Jason Aldean_ that Stewart has been recording in Nashville at Fun House studio with producer  James “Bubba” Hudson. Stewart and Hudson return to Fun House in early January to continue work on what could be the singer’s next big professional step.

Stewart, who is from Auburn, has been at this for years, coming up through the local rock clubs and realizing that modern country is a lot like the classic rock and pop metal he liked performing in the first place. But the country setting let him update his writing and deliver songs that are mature without necessarily being grown up (this is a guy who can entertain a bar crowd, after all).

Stewart dug in, releasing a CD of his original country tunes a few years back just as the region’s country audience was growing at a crazy pace. He also honed a show that earned the title “Country That Kicks.”

Bridging traditional country and rock led to Stewart getting his first gig at Indian Ranch this summer, where he was called upon to open for Grand Funk Railroad, serving as an ambassador of sorts, welcoming classic rockers into the region’s preeminent country venue.

It’s pretty cool seeing Stewart sticking to his roots while he can, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find him having outgrown the intimate setting of the Coppertop by this time next year.  

Skiing and riding for NYE begins at 4 p.m. show time in the Coppertop is 9 p.m.

A "superhero's" welcome

 With his Coppertop shows last season and appearance at the MusicFest in September, Andy Cummings has quickly become a Wachusett favorite, so much so that he was tapped to perform Saturday, Dec. 22, for the ski area’s 50^th anniversary. Cummings will be the party entertainment from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Coppertop.

Andy Cummings

Watching Cummings, it takes no more than a couple of songs to know how well the guy can sing and play guitar. But the real eye-opener may be how seamlessly he moves from smooth crooning to fist-pumping anthems.

That talent is especially pronounced on “Backyard Superhero,” Cummings' new CD. The dozen songs are all over the place, from the roots-rock hijinks of “I’d Like to Tell You More” to the urgent folk-pop of “Your Only One” to the edgy new-New Wave glimmer of “Trial on TV.” I’ve already started jokingly calling this record “Andy Cummings Radio” simply for its diversity.

But “Backyard Superhero” is not scattered. Cummings creates not so much an arc, but waves that rise and fall around his knack for knocking out songs that sound like he is channeling them from a bygone era of big microphones and bigger sentiment. “I Wish,” which begins the record, is just such a song, with a breezy melody and colorful wordplay (“I wish I were an ocean so I could wash away some of the things I say.”)

The original “Be My Delight” and covers of “After You’ve Gone” and “Hello! Ma Baby” (the latter radically overhauled from the way you may remember it as performed by a singing frog in the Looney Tunes cartoon) are the other old-timey tunes peppered among the album’s dozen tracks in a way that sets up a smooth flow for Cummings to explore other song styles

He nails a rustic country vibe covering Amy Allison’s haunting “Thank God for the Wine” and pays homage to the late Scott Ricciuti, one of the region’s songwriting greats, with a tender rendition of Huck’s “Postcard,” the “wish you were here” refrain coming off as especially poignant.  

Cummings’ songwriting is sometimes overlooked in his live shows, since they incorporate a lot of interpretations of others' work. "Backyard Superhero" rectifies that situation, especially with “You’ll Understand,” a defiant, quietly turbulent acoustic song that shows how this troubadour is a hell of a writer too. 

Time for more mountain music

So let’s review the drill. When in full swing, the Coppertop Lounge presents live music from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and from 4 to 6 p.m. Sundays. You ski, you ride, you kick back and hear artists from around the area who specialize in rock, blues, acoustic, and country music. No cover, no hassle.

Sean Fullerton

Now, “full swing” doesn’t begin until January. But this month is busy nonetheless. Acoustic-blues troubadour Big Jon Short plays in the Coppertop from 5 to 7 p.m. today, Dec. 14. Sean Fullerton, who digs blues, Beatles and finger-style guitar picking, is playing from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, then turning things over to the Pats-49ers action.

Derek Drowne returns to the Coppertop on Friday, Dec. 21, to play from 3 to 5 p.m., serenading the “shortest” day of the year (day with most dark?).

As you’ve probably heard, Wachusett Mountain ski area turns 50 this year, and there will be an anniversary bash Saturday, Dec. 22, with Andy Cummings playing from 2 to 5 p.m. Cummings became a Coppertop favorite last season and wowed a slope-side crowd this fall at the MusicFest performing a repertoire that spanned Sinatra to the Who.  

Andy Cummings at MusicFest

Then on New Year’s Eve, another mountain favorite Glenn Stewart brings his rocking brand of country to the lounge for a show that starts at 9 p.m. and ends around 2013.

Glenn Stewart

We’ll have more updates here on these artists plus others, so add “routinely check this blog” to your regimen of ski/ride and listen.

A "Big" opening

Big Jon Short (Ted Theodore photo)

The trails are open, and the tunes are flowing. Besides being Central Mass’s go-to place for skiing and riding, Wachusett Mountain also offers up as good a music schedule as any traditional nightclub you’ll find in the area.

The Coppertop Lounge music series kicks off in high style Friday, Dec. 14, with the return of Big Jon Short. Short is a reservoir of blues knowledge; he goes to Mississippi every year to perform and immerse himself in traditional blues culture, and he teaches students in public schools all around the state about America’s roots music.

But when he plays, there’s nothing academic to it. Instead it’s joyous. Or mournful. Or mesmerizing. I’ve seen Short belt out tunes from a hill next to Worcester’s Park Ave, near the steps of a county courthouse, and while parading around a crowded bar room. In each case he simply made the old blues feel young and vital again.

Short’s solo show at the Coppertop comes on the heels of releasing his latest record “34 Special,” a collection of original and traditional songs performed on National Resophonic guitar. Short recorded the tunes in a shack that’s behind Vincent’s bar in Worcester, sort of recreating the field recordings from the South that have served as his own texts for learning the different styles of country blues.

By focusing on songs that he wrote or was performing around the time he first met his wife, Short imbues his new record with heart and soul, even when the hard times are knocking on his door. “Skin & Bones” and “Skinny Jean Mama” are originals that seamlessly fit alongside Short’s fresh arrangement of “Crossroads” and lesser-known country blues staple “Long Hair Doney.” He somehow pushes his own sound back in time while pulling the old music forward, all of it settling into a comfortable meeting spot that honors the tradition without getting shackled by it.

Short plays from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Coppertop (you know there's no cover, right?)  for the start of another round of impeccable “small stage” bookings. I'll give you a deeper look into the schedule tomorrow. Now, go hit the snow.

Little Texas brings the rocking country to MusicFest

Little Texas

A rock ’n’ roll influence is pretty common in today’s popular country music _ even Kenny Chesney, in one of his latest hits, says he feels like a rock star.

 Little Texas was one of the bands that opened that barn door, so to speak. Formed in Nashville in the late ’80s, Little Texas generated heavy rotation on country radio with such hits as “You and Forever and Me,” “What Might Have Been,” “My Love” and_ of course_ “God Blessed Texas.”

“It was a natural thing for us,” bassist Duane Propes says of Little Texas’ patented “rocking country” sound. “Arena lions like Journey, Kansas, and Queen influenced us more than country did.”

But the band members were determined to make their way in Nashville and that meant charting a country course, which Propes now says he’s glad happened since Little Texas found itself at the start of something fresh rather than at the tail end of Southern rock’s heyday.

Little Texas is set to headline the 15^th annual Wachusett Mountain MusicFest happening Sept. 9. The main stage  also features Orleans and E Street Shuffle’s tribute to Bruce Springsteen, while the local-spotlight stage features James Keyes and Andy Cummings. Music starts at noon at the Princeton slopes.

Little Texas toured the country for a couple of years before signing a contract with Warner Bros. records and releasing its debut album in 1991. Over the ensuing six years, the band released four more records, including a greatest hits package, and became one of country’s hottest touring acts. The band broke apart in 1998, with members taking off into other projects and in some cases just settling back with family.

In 2006, Little Texas reunited and carries on minus the manic pressure to produce like it used to, Propes says.

             

Little Texas today consists of original members guitarist and singer Porter Howell, drummer Del Gray, guitarist Dwayne O’Brien, and Propes. (Even though original singer Tim Rushlow did not take part in the reunion, Howell has proven himself a compelling singer in his own right)

“We’re having as much fun as we ever did,” Propes says. “We’re not doing 200 shows a year. We keep it to weekends, and I think that keeps it dynamic. It doesn’t become a job. And we all have 11-year-old kids at home and want to be there with them.”

Little Texas also just released its first batch of new songs since reforming. “Deep in the Heart, Vol. 1” and can be sampled and purchased online at www.littletexasonline.com.

Even though what Little Texas started doing more than 20 years ago is pretty prevalent in today’s country scene, Propes sees some differences.

Fort starters, there are a lot of star singers, but not many star bands. Propes figures the record companies realized it’s easier to deal with one Chesney or one Shelton versus a gang like Little Texas, which the bassist admits could be difficult to round up or to get everyone agreeing on one thing.

Propes is also a little suspect of county songwriting.

“We wrote 98 percent of what we sang, and that lent it a legitimacy. We wrote about what we lived,” Propes says.

Propes like quoting a bit of Vince Gill, who said, “If I want a hit today, all I have to do is write a song about a truck.”

Checking out “Deep in the Heart, Vol 1,” we couldn’t find a truck song. Instead there’s that blend of rowdy  (“Hot in Texas”) and tender (“Take This Walk With Me”) that worked so well in the first place.