Music in the Berkshires: Week of May 8

Live music is flourishing like the spring flowers here in The Berkshires this week, with nearly 50 unique opportunities to get out of the house and hear spectacular performances. And with Mother’s Day on Sunday, there are many ways to celebrate the Mothers in your lives, ranging from jazz brunches to classical performances and more.

Rather than reading our run-down of performances, you can jump right to our Calendar to see all events. For those new to our website, note that you can search for a specific artist, filter the performances based on Genre, Venue, or Location, and view events in both a calendar and map view in addition to the default list view. Use the subscribe button below to receive this weekly rundown of upcoming performances in your inbox.

This week offers several great choices for classical music lovers. And if classical is your main focus, we encourage you to filter our calendar to zoom in on just those performances that interest you: Just Classical.

As we near the end of the school year, it’s recital season at Williams College, an opportunity to see some of tomorrow’s star performers today. You can catch the Flute Studio Recital on Monday or the Chamber Music Recital or Trumpet/Horn/Low Brass Studio Recital on Tuesday. 

Tanglewood Learning Institute is offering TLI Chamber Concert: Barber, Carter, Schifrin, Coleman, Harbison, and D’Rivera on Saturday afternoon at 3 PM. The First Congregational Church of Great Barrington is hosting ​​James Bagwell conducts Bach and Vivaldi on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 pm. 

For jazz lovers, you’ll find three great opportunities to see jazz on Wednesday evening. The Mary Ann Palermo Trio will be performing at The Lion’s Den in Stockbridge. Sweet Tooth and Fingers (Ed Moran & Benny Kohn Duo) will be performing at portaVia in Dalton, and the Jazz Jam with Luke Franco will be playing at Dewey Hall in Sheffield.

You can see all upcoming Jazz performances by filtering on Genre on our Events page, or by clicking here: Just Jazz.

The Jazz picks back up on Mother’s Day Sunday, beginning with Jazz Brunch with Michael Junkins from noon to 3:00 pm at Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield. Later in the day, Michael Junkins & Friends will be playing again at 5:00 pm at the Lion’s Den, in Stockbridge, and Karen Tchougourian will be at Gateways Inn in Lenox.

This Thursday night in the Berkshires offers eight opportunities to see live music. Latin music lovers might want to prioritize Latin Nights featuring Natalia Bernal and Jason Ennis at The Ostrich Room at Apple Tree Inn in Lenox. Race Brook Lodge continues its Down Country Social Club with visionary guitarist and songwriter Brad Barr. And Kath Bloom will perform at The Lion’s Den Thursday – you can learn more about her here. 

The Wilson Springs Hotel, a Richmond, Virginia-based band, is making a tour through New England and will play at Egremont Barn. They blend country, folk, and bluegrass; and you can read about the band and listen to their music here.

Over at Dream Away Lodge in Becket, Thursday night music continues with Julia Haltigan w/ Tony Jarvis, Yusuke Yamamoto, and Smoota. We chatted with the new owners of Dream Away while visiting on Friday night, and they said this is one night you won’t want to miss. You can learn more about New York City-based Julia Hatigan here.

Friday Night

Friday night offers a dizzying 12 performances to choose from. Music in the Berkshires received a strong recommendation to see The Rejuvenators featuring Wanda Houston over at Egremont Barn. Wanda is always wonderful, but the pairing with The Rejuvenators makes this a special night.

You can catch the first of three performances of Misty Blues; Tell Me Who You Are, a Tribute to Odetta at Studio 9 in North Adams. There are also Saturday matinees and evening performances if this does not fit your Friday plans.

Connecticut duo Kat and Brad will be at the Ostrich Room at The Apple Tree Inn, drawing from the 50s and 60s pop to American Songbook standards. 

The Jon Pousette-Dart Trio will be headlining up at The Stationery Factory in Dalton. Jon Pousette-Dart is best known as an American classic and folk rock songwriter, musician, and performing artist.

For something different, go see Adiós Ghost with System Exclusive at The Foundry in West Stockbridge. Adiós Ghost draws from a broad range of influences, focusing psych, early aughts dance/electronic, R&B and funk through a “heavy disco” lens. You can listen to them here.

Gray/Smith + Josephine Foster will be at Dream Away Lodge in Becket. You can listen to Gray/Smith here on Bandcamp.

Saturday

Saturday features another dozen great shows. Afro-Cuban music superstar Pedrito Martinez (pictured above) will be performing at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington at 8:00 pm. You can learn more about Pedrito and listen to his music here.

The Foundry in West Stockbridge has a show that blues lovers won’t want to miss. Charlie Apicella: Blues Alive is a two-hour program that frames Gertrude Pritchett—a.k.a. Ma Rainey—as a trail-blazing American composer, band leader, entrepreneur, and social trendsetter.

EavesDrop with Opener Katie Herbst will be playing at Egremont Barn. EavesDrop is a Western MA-based Americana/Folk/Pop band. You can learn more about them and listen to them here.

We will be heading up to Dream Away on Saturday to hear Milton starting at 8:00 pm. We fell for Milton after hearing him early this spring at the Ostrich Room. Milton has been making the rounds in the Berkshires this spring and early summer, and we could not be happier. You can learn more about Milton here, or listen to his hit In The City here. This song garnered a spot on the Music in the Berkshires Spotify playlist.

Other Saturday night performances include Brother Sal Blues Band in the Ostrich Room at the Apple Tree Inn in Lenox, and also in Lenox, you can find the Amy Ryan Band at Firefly Gastropub. And Hotshot Hillbillies, blending country, rock, and blues, will be performing at Knox Trail Inn in East Otis. We just added shows from Knox Trail Inn to our calendar.

Sunday

We already covered Sunday’s jazz and classical performances earlier in our run-down. Still, other shows you might want to consider on Mother’s Day include Helen Hummel at Dottie’s Coffee Lounge in Pittsfield on Sunday at 10:00 am. (NOTE: This event has two conflicting times listed on Dottie’s website. We believe Helen is playing at 10:00 am, not at 2:30 pm.) Vermont-based singer/songwriter Helen Hummel explores the styles of Folk, Americana, and Indie. You can check her out here.

And last but certainly not least, Sam Brown plays at Dream Away Lodge on Sunday at 8:00 pm. We saw Sam a few weeks back at the Lion’s Den and enjoyed her music and chatting with her between sets. You can learn more about her and listen to her here.

We hope you’ll get out this week and enjoy live music in The Berkshires!