Newgrass / Americana bands play double bill at the me and thee

By Linda Werbner

On Friday, February 5, 2016 the me & thee serves up a heaping helping of Americana and bluegrass cheer as it welcomes back the much buzzed about dynamic young string band Cricket Tell The Weather. With timeless-sounding songwriting and formidable musical chops, this band has turned heads and won accolades at every festival they’ve played with their fresh and non-traditional take on bluegrass, old-time, and folk standards from the American songbook. Cape Cod-by-way-of-East Texas’ Monica Rizzio & Old Kings Highway will be the first delightful course in this feast of roots, folk, country and bluegrass. The show starts at 8 p.m. The me & thee coffeehouse at the Unitarian Universalist Church is located at 28 Mugford Street in the historic ‘Old Town’ section of Marblehead.

At first listen, Cricket Tell The Weather is an acoustic string band that plays traditional bluegrass, old-time and folk but listen closer and it’s pretty clear that this Brooklyn-based group doesn’t fit neatly into any box with its contemporary take on this uniquely American music. Cricket is the four-year-old brainchild of fiddler and songwriter Andrea Asprelli, the child of an Italian-American and an Indonesian immigrant. Asprelli, who was immersed in European classical music, made an abrupt detour when she befriended and played with English musicians during her year abroad at England’s University of Kent who were immersed in American folk and roots music. As she told the Boston Globe in an interview last year, “I thought that maybe I would play more English or Irish folk music, but they were totally about American folk music, which I didn’t really know about. I gave them street cred. They didn’t know it well enough to know I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Fast forward to 2012 when Asprelli met guitarist Jason Borisoff in Syracuse, New York, with whom she wrote “Remington,” a tune which won the songwriting award in 2011at the Podunk Bluegrass Festival in Podunk, Connecticut. Banjoist Doug Goldstein joined the band after Asprelli met him in an impromptu hallway jam at the annual Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in Framingham. After Borisoff left the band, guitarist Jeff Picker joined and Sam Weber on bass rounds out the group.

The New York Music Daily raved recently about Asprelli’s down-to-earth, honest vocals and Jeff Picker’s and Goldstein’s chill-inducing solos. When they are not featured at large national festivals such as Falcon Ridge, Del Fest, and Joe Val, the musicians give back to the community through bluegrass workshops to students of all ages under their “American Roots Revival” workshop series. With a steady touring schedule mostly here in the Northeast and a solid debut album under their belt, the band hopes to cross the pond soon and spread their freshgrass sound to the rest of the world.

Monica Rizzio brings her country-roots-Americana-flavored music to the mix at the me&thee. She has long been known as the front woman of Tripping Lily, a New England-based Americana-pop string band. After a decade with this revered band, Rizzio has changed her direction, southwest to be exact, drawing on her East Texas roots for a sound that is more country and bluegrass-flavored. Rizzio, who grew up on a ranch in East Texas, with its flat and rolling terrain and endless piney woods, now hangs her hat in Cape Cod, with its windswept dunes hugging the Atlantic, where this chameleon-like singer-songwriter dazzles audiences with everything from folk to jazz to Americana. When she is not playing with Old King’s Highway or writing songs like the winning alt-country-flavored love song ‘Luckier Than You’ Rizzio is also an owner of a roots-based music school in Dennisport. Rizzio will perform tracks from her newly-recorded debut Walkashore Cowgirl. Very telling of Rizzio’s talent is this quote by the legendary Tom Rush, “I made the tactical error of inviting Monica Rizzio to share the stage with me at Symphony Hall and she went and stole the audience right out from under me! Monica is a talent to be reckoned with—she plays, writes, sings,puts it all together in a great performance AND captures it all in the studio. If some of these songs don’t give you goosebumps you should go straight to the ER.”

Tickets for the performance by Cricket Tell The Weather and Monica Rizzio & Old Kings Highway are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Student tickets are $10. Tickets are available online at www.meandthee.org and can be purchased in person at the Spirit of ’76 Bookstore or the Arnould Gallery in Marblehead. The Landing Restaurant at 81 Front Street, Marblehead offers a 10% discount on dinner if you show your ticket or receipt. Enjoy a meal before the show! As at all me & thee coffeehouse events, refreshments are available, including homemade pastries, coffee, and teas. The me & thee has a handicapped-accessible entrance and an accessible bathroom, is a smoke-free environment, and is easily reached by MBTA bus.

The me & thee is one of the oldest continually running acoustic coffeehouses in New England, and probably the country. It has been and will always be a volunteer, non-profit organization sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead. For information and directions, call 781-631-8987 or check the website atwww.meandthee.org.

Next concert: February 12, 2016 – Melissa Ferrick, eloquent, soulful songwriting, heartbreaking harmonies and hypnotic guitar lines from a seasoned acoustic favorite.

CALENDAR/PSA: Friday, February 5 Cricket Tell The Weather and Monica Rizzio & Old Kings Highway at the me & thee. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. The coffeehouse is located at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 28 Mugford Street, Marblehead and starts at 8 p.m. Call 781-631-8987 or go to www.meandthee.orgfor information and directions.