JP Music: Tex Railer's Doomtown Brings Cowpunk Back to Jamaica Plain

The Midway once again hosts Tex Railer's Doomtown. And yes, it's a play on Rex Trailer's Boomtown.

For a 20-year period, from the mid-’50s to the mid-’70s, if you lived in or near Boston, and there was a TV and a kid in your house, he or she was plunked down in front of it every weekend to watch some ridin’ and ropin’ and singin’ on Rex Trailer’s “Boomtown.” Now, almost 40 years since the show rode off into the sunset, Trailer heads up a video production company in Waltham, and a combination rockabilly, surf, country, rock ’n’ roll band is sending a nod in his direction. Tex Railer’s Doomtown played their first gig three years ago at the Midway Café. They’ve returned many times, and are doing so again on Monday, playing tunes from their album “The Battle of Bunker Hillbilly.” Founding member and the trio’s singer-songwriter-guitarist …

• Photos (1)
• Videos (1)

JP Music: Vinyl and More at the JP Rocks and Rolls Fair

The second annual gathering of arts vendors features music products for both listeners and players

Jenn Hickey was noticing all sorts of annual Jamaica Plain events going on, from the Music Festival to this weekend's Open Studios. So the JP native decided to create one of her own. That goal led to last year’s JP Rocks and Rolls Record and Art Fair, which brought together a variety of arts-related vendors in one place. A longtime music lover – who happens to work at the Midway, often running the sound – Hickey hoped to have lots of used record dealers at last year’s fair. Part of the reason was because she believed that element would attract lots of people. Part was because she’s always looking to build up her own record collection. “We had 30 vendors last year,” she said. “There were people selling stuffed animals and stationery and …

• Photos (3)

JP Music

Singer/Therapist Heather Foxwell Feels at Home in JP

Born in Germany and brought up in Reno, she moved to the area to attend Berklee College of Music, where she recently finished up a degree in music therapy.

Heather Foxwell can’t recall exactly how long she’s been singing. But the 24-year-old guitarist, who moved to Jamaica Plain a year ago, was showing off her vocal prowess – along with some fine slide work – by belting out a few vocals at the Jamaica Plain Music Festival, fronting her power trio H-Fox. Born in Germany and brought up in Reno, she moved to the area to attend Berklee College of Music, where she recently finished up a degree in music therapy.   What brought you to Jamaica Plain? I had a lot of friends that lived here and I just wanted to be closer to them. I’ve moved around a lot, and this is the first place where I want to stay and make it my home. There’s a thriving community of people that care about music and about eating …

• Photos (1)

JP Music

Terrific Torrisi plays at the Milky Way on Thursday

The Austin singer-drummer-guitarist and her band the Please, Please Me pay their first visit to Boston.

You never know where you’ll find singer-songwriter, multi instrumentalist, band leader Jessie Torrisi these days. She could be at the front of the stage, slinging either an electric or an acoustic guitar, with a microphone nearby to pick up her deep, rich vocals. Or she could be behind the drum kit, a harmonica hanging in front of her, another vocal mike nearby. The former New Yorker, who now lives in Austin, makes her first trip to Boston, with her band the Please, Please Me, for a show of heartfelt pop and rock and ballads at the Milky Way on Thursday. She spoke by phone from her tour van outside of Chicago earlier this week. Did you always want to be a drummer? When I was a little kid my parents made me take piano lessons. I wanted to …

• Photos (2)
• Videos (1)

JP Music

T Max's Jamaica Plain-born Noise Turns 30

Founded in Jamaica Plain, The Noise celebrates its 30th anniversary at the Midway

His real name is Timothy Maxwell, but everyone knows him as T Max. And they know his magazine, The Noise, filled to the brim with music news, reviews and interviews, as a publication that has tied the New England music scene together for decades. Three decades, to be exact. The Noise brings its ongoing 30th anniversary celebration to its hometown – it got started in T’s Jamaica Plain home – for a night of live music at the Midway Café on Saturday. T, who is also a singer-songwriter, left JP a couple of years ago, but is looking forward to a return to his stomping grounds. He recently spoke about The Noise, how it’s changed over the years, and what it means to local musicians.   What exactly is The Noise? It’s a New England-based, music-…

• Photos (2)

JP Music

Singing, Directing, Creating

Lynn Torgove is making a very busy living in the world of music.

There was a moment, after Lynn Torgove already earned a B.A. in theater and a B.S. in occupational therapy, that the Jamaica Plain resident had an epiphany. Driving down the road, Torgove, who remembers singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to her grandmother when she was 5, and singing “Hava Nagila” at her nursery school graduation, decided to apply to graduate school for music. Thinking back on it now, sitting in her Sumner Hill living room, she says she didn’t know if she would be able to make a living at music, but there was nothing she wanted to do more.   What’s a typical week for you these days? There is no typical week; every week is different because I teach at Longy School of Music, and I’m on the faculty of the School of Jewish …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (2)

JP Music

Jamaica Plain's Mike Irwin: This Player Can Produce

Guitarist and producer Mike Irwin has many ways of helping others find their sound.

Mike Irwin has been playing music since he was 7, starting with piano lessons when he was growing up in Lenox, later switching to trumpet, and at the ripe age of 12, taking up guitar. These days the Jamaica Plain resident plays guitar, piano, bass, pedal steel, and drums. With plenty of knowhow under his belt, from lots of lessons and from working in rock bands over the years, he maintains a day job of teaching guitar and bass. He also runs his own recording facility in the Bournewood neighborhood, Now I Have a Machine Gun Studios.   Where does the name of your studio come from? It’s from “Die Hard.” There’s a scene where Bruce Willis kills a terrorist and takes his machine gun, then writes in lipstick on his chest, “Now I have a machine …

• Photos (1)

JP Music

Former Jamaica Plain Resident Bethel Steele Performs at the Midway

The singer-songwriter returns to JP for a rare local performance.

Though she recently moved out of Jamaica Plain for new digs in Dorchester, singer-songwriter Bethel Steele returns to her old stomping grounds tonight to perform both new and old material at the Midway Café. Though she was introduced to playing music through the brass family – starting with trombone then moving to tuba and finally euphonium, she picked up a guitar when she was 14. The switch to a stringed instrument also got her to start writing songs, and she has two recordings to her credit: the 8-song EP “Beautiful Woman” and the full length album “Come Home.”   Is Bethel Steele your real name? It is my real name, but I tell everyone it was a joke. My grandfather wanted to call me Bethlehem Steele, after the steel company; he thought it…

• Photos (1)
• Videos (1)

JP Music

Jamaica Plain Resident Was Born to Play Horn

James Sommerville started out on piano but went for the ringed brass. He is, among many other things, principal horn at the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Jamaica Plain resident James Sommerville lives a rather busy musical life. Locally he’s principal horn with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and teaches individual horn lessons through New England Conservatory. In his native Canada, he’s conductor and musical director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. He also appears as guest soloist around the world and works with the chamber ensemble the Andalucian Dogs.   Is it called the French horn or just the horn? We usually just call it the horn. It’s just one of those odd nomenclature things. No one really knows where it came from, but it was only in England that they called it the French horn.   Has the horn always been your instrument? I started out on piano when I was 7 or 8 years old, then…

• Photos (2)
• Videos (1)

JP Music

Christy Zarlengo: Children Learn Music Like They Learn Language

The Children's Music Center of Jamaica Plain gives kids the feeling of music before they play it

When Christy Zarlengo was growing up in Denver, she would regularly dance around the house to the sound of records, kind of becoming one with the music. She never thought then that she would someday be running a school promoting that exact kind of activity for kids. But after a successful career as a performer, Zarlengo opened the Children’s Music Center of Jamaica Plain where, on a recent Friday morning, a spirited group of preschoolers appeared to be a blur of action, running around on the carpeted floor, getting into the rhythm of some prerecorded music.   How did you get this place started? I moved here to go to Berklee College. I’m a singer and a pianist, but I needed to put food on my table while I was struggling to become a …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (2)