• Singer/songwriter GRAEME KENNEDY is back in town, and he's got ambitious plans for his MCKEENSTREET MUSIC, a full-service label that handles everything from recording to booking for its bands. First up for 2010 is the debut full-length from BRENDA, which is as yet untitled, but should hit the streets in May. Following that will be monthly releases from the likes of DETHRO, "a mental patient currently living in Los Angeles," Maine's the LAST SIP and HORSE THIEF, and then a release from Kennedy himself, in September.
• The release show March 20 for MARION GRACE's debut Lying Down Looking Up is shaping up to be a humdinger. The PORT CITY MUSIC HALL stage will be filled to the brim with Marion Grace playing their disc in full, backed by ADAM FREDERICK conducting a 15-member USM CHOIR, along with an orchestra of sorts comprising more than 25 local musicians from the likes of ROYAL HAMMER, THIS WAY, SPENCER AND THE SCHOOL SPIRIT MAFIA, GYPSY TAILWIND, GRUPO ESPERANZA, FREDERICK, TREEYO, and A MURDER OF CROWS. Plus, MADGIRL, the gal who runs Mad Girl World, will be debuting her new men's fashion line with a runway show that precedes the music, before opening sets from SLY-CHI and the ADAM EZRA GROUP. The "Sibilance" staff is impressed. You only get one debut-CD release show. Might as well kick out the jams.
• The KOLOSKO-DIMOW DUO will release their new CD, border crossings, with a show at Trinity Episcopal Church, in Portland, March 27. The collaboration between classical guitarist NATHAN KOLOSKO and flautist CARL DIMOW is a mesh of classical, world, and jazz influences and consists of folkloric music from the Pacific coast of Mexico, a Klezmer suite evolved from Dimow's many years of performing and touring with the CASCO BAY TUMMLERS klezmer band, and Afro sambas by guitarist BADEN POWELL, whom the duo featured on their first CD, nos•tal•gia.
