Ron and I sat in the back room of 40 South Street in Jamaica Plain, buried in denim, and various other piles of vintage clothing with our masks over our faces on a beautiful day not too long ago. The proprietor Hilken Mancini had to leave every so often to take care of the front of the store, but we got in a great conversation. 40 South Street is a vintage clothing store owned by musician, punk rocker, entrepreneur, aerobic instructor and all-around amazing person Hilken Mancini. We first saw Hi...
Oct 01, 2020•37 min•Ep. 159
Chuck drove out to Western Massachusetts to sit on Lisa’s front porch surrounded by chickens, a vocal rooster, two small children having an amazing time doing whatever small children feel like doing, bees and the occasional mouse to talk music, songwriting and Life in the Time of COVID. Lisa’s latest album How We Want To Live is a beautiful record that reflects her many life changes over the past few years. Her songs are a musical ‘thank you’ to her grandmother who introduced her to the guitar a...
Aug 27, 2020•48 min•Ep. 158
Paul Hansen is The Grownup Noise – a Boston band formed in 2005 with bassist Adam Sankowski – that has had an impressive list of members too long to mention. The Grownup Noise website says their name represents something to rebel against, like fear, complacency, the closing of your heart, the stress of bills etc. We can imagine the current state of affairs with COVID, the election and the financial and social hardships we are all experiencing, we would all like to rebel. Paul is doing his own re...
Aug 06, 2020•57 min•Ep. 157
With a name like Mistress Carrie, we might be forgiven if we were a bit cautious asking her on ATB for a chat. But we knew what we were getting into. Boston native Mistress Carrie is a badass. She was until recently a DJ for 22 years and the Assistant Program Director of Boston rock station WAAF.
Jul 23, 2020•46 min•Ep. 156
Boston Hip Hop artist Cliff Notez is another guest we had been trying to get on ATB for a long time. He’s a busy busy guy – writing, composing, teaching at Berklee College of Music and Emerson College, filming, sculpting, painting and according to WBUR in Boston, generally being one of the Boston arts community’s busiest multihyphenates. Which is an awesome word and we're not sure what it means, but we think we want to also be multihyphenates. Cliff also founded the media production company Hips...
Jul 16, 2020•50 min•Ep. 155
For our first in-person but appropriately distanced conversation since COVID hit, we were fortunate to sit with fellow Bostonian, author, documentary filmmaker and National Arts reporter for the Washington Post, Geoff Edgers. We first came to know Geoff at a book signing of his recent book Walk This Way - Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song that Changed American Music Forever. Since then we kept seeing Geoff around town – at David Byrne's American Utopia show in Boston, in Quincy - the Quincy Jones...
Jul 02, 2020•41 min•Ep. 154
We first met Corey SantOne DePina at a Mighty Mighty Bosstones concert not too long ago with some of his students at Zumix, and we could tell right then that he was the real rock star of the evening. Zumix is an award-winning music and creative technology program designed to equip youth with the tools necessary to reach their full potential, while creating a safe space for youth to explore who they are and who they want to be. In addition to working at Zumix, Corey also started the Fogo Project ...
Jun 25, 2020•45 min•Ep. 153
This is our second conversation with a former guest that we thought was important to have due to recent events. We spoke with Ashleigh Gordon - violist, activist and Artistic Director of Castle of Our Skins, a Boston-based concert and educational series devoted to celebrating Black Artistry through music. We talked to Ashleigh about how she’s doing with life in the time of COVID as well as her thoughts on the recent protests stemming from the murder of George Floyd.
Jun 16, 2020•21 min
The COVID pandemic hit all of us quickly and our plans for the spring, summer and perhaps beyond, were scuttled. We know of many musicians who were planning to tour a new album and unfortunately they had to postpone, or in the case of Ry Cavanaugh of the amazing band Session Americana, cancel altogether. Hopefully we can change his mind about the tour, but at the very least we get to hear this beautiful album of songs that Ry gathered written by his late father George – also known as Bobby Pedd....
Jun 11, 2020•46 min•Ep. 152
We wanted to catch up with a few of our previous guests to see how they are doing in this quarantine from which, thankfully, we are slowly emerging. I’ll have a few different guests on to talk about the current state of affairs in our city, including the protests and state of our country. So here is a conversation with Boston Emissions’ Anngelle Wood, where we catch up on the radio industry, what the new normal will look like for live music and how she hit the ground running once everything went...
Jun 09, 2020•17 min
On one fine day back in early March, The ATB team drove out to Greenfield, MA to Great Spirits Tattoo to not only talk with musician and artist Ben Reigal, but also to get Chuck another tattoo! Chuck got a tattoo of a compass on the inside of my left arm. I think we can all agree that a compass is something that we as a country, as a society and as human beings need in our lives. We have all been struggling with life in the time of COVID, with many of us losing a friend or family member to this ...
Jun 04, 2020•39 min•Ep. 151
Our first visit to the Boston Music Awards a few years ago was an eye opener and introduced us to many new and established Boston Artists we had not yet seen or heard. That was in the earlier days of this podcast. At one point, a lone musician with a guitar took the stage and began playing. Gianna Botticelli (aka Ghost GRL) stopped us in our tracks. With her haunting, ambient guitar and ethereal voice, the entire room paid attention. It took us a few years to finally get her on ATB, but we did i...
Mar 12, 2020•57 min•Ep. 150
If you did not know, the City of Boston has a Poet Laureate. The job maintains that the appointed poet must be a significant fixture in Boston's cultural and artistic arena. The Poet Laureate may learn, teach, and embody the great literary traditions of Boston. If embodying the great literary traditions of Boston means you are a rock star 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and 2015 National Poetry Slam Champion who is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and s...
Feb 28, 2020•43 min•Ep. 149
You’ve hopefully heard us talk about a new project we have in partnership with the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame – a podcast called Hallways. If you haven’t been to the FARHOF, you should check it out. You can visit FolkAmericanaRootsHallofFame.org for information, but basically The Hall is housed in the Wang Theatre in Boston and it celebrates the history of Folk, Americana and Roots music through displays, memorabilia, artifacts, multi-media, lectures and concerts. As much as any city in t...
Feb 20, 2020•19 min
If you have ever been to the Verb Hotel, or perhaps seen the recent documentary WBCN – An American Revolution, or hopefully visited the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame at the Wang Theater in Boston, you have seen artifacts gathered by Mr. David Bieber. David hails from Cleveland but has lived in Boston since he moved here to attend BU as a journalism major in 1968 – right at the beginning if the reign of WBCN. From there he went on to work for WBCN, as well as WFNX, and The Boston Phoenix amon...
Feb 13, 2020•45 min•Ep. 148
We met with Bestor to talk about JFK - The Last Speech – the very last public speech John F. Kennedy gave before he was assassinated three weeks later. We were fortunate to have a special guest Roger Hirschberg join us who was actually present at Amherst College when JFK gave the speech. It made for a great discussion. For more episodes, please visit www.abovethebasement.com
Feb 08, 2020•13 min
About a year ago we had the great opportunity to speak with Baseball Writer’s hall of famer and longtime musician Mr. Peter Gammons at his annual event celebrating the Peter Gammons College Scholarship. This scholarship, which allows Boston and Chicago area high school students a cash scholarship to the college of their choice has sent 150 Boston and Chicago area students to college by awarding them over $600,000 in scholarships. But this wonderful foundation is only one piece of the puzzle – ju...
Feb 03, 2020•8 min•Ep. 147
Boston documentary filmmaker Bestor Cram founded and also serves as creative director for the Boston-based documentary film and museum production company called Northern Light Productions. He has had films screened at Sundance Film Festival, The Boston Film Festival, The Austin Film Festival, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, The Woods Hole Film festival and many others. Titles include the film How Far Home about the dedication of th Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C., Birth ...
Jan 17, 2020•43 min•Ep. 146
We sat with Sybil Gallagher and her husband Chadwick Stokes from the band DISPATCH – aka The Biggest Band No One Has Ever Heard Of. This despite the huge following and many, many loyal fans they continued to have even after a long hiatus that began in 2004. Just before that hiatus - that is now over, Chadwick Stokes started another band out of Boston called State Radio which allowed him to continue his personal musical journey as wel l as satisfy his itch to be more vocal on social issues. To th...
Dec 19, 2019•47 min•Ep. 145
WBCN legend Charles Laquidara and also the infamous Dwayne Ingalls Glasscock joined us for a conversation at the recently opened Woods Hill Pier 4 in Boston. This just a week before Charles as well as Red Sox Hall of Fame pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee take the stage at The Wilbur Theater in Boston on Tuesday, December 10. So many of us listened to WBCN on our morning commute joining Charles on his program The Big Mattress. Charles was part of a family of DJ’s and personalities at BCN that created ...
Dec 05, 2019•49 min•Ep. 144
Chuck Clough 0:00 Hello, this is Chuck from Above the Basement Boston music and conversation. Hey, we have missed you all so much and hope to get back on a regular schedule. We are still working out some new projects and we will tell you about those very soon. But one thing we can tell you about something we are honored and excited to announce we have been nominated for a Boston Music Award for the 2019 Podcast of the Year and since I have personally never won a thing in my life, never mind a co...
Oct 16, 2019•41 min•Ep. 143
We sat with Lori McKenna before her recent show celebrating the 15th anniversary of her album Return To Bittertown at Cary Memorial Hall in Lexington, MA. The Stoughton, Mass. native is a multi grammy-winning singer songwriter and the first woman ever to win the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year two years running as well as Academy of Country Music’s first female Songwriter of the Year. In addition to her own songs, she has written for Faith Hill, Keith Urban, Little Big Town and Tim ...
Sep 19, 2019•38 min•Ep. 142
When we think of the blended art forms of music and photography, there is a something iconic that can come out of a still picture of the great artists of the past. Catching a glimpse of Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock or Leonard Bernstein conducting at the Philharmonic, it’s as if you can see the music coming out of the page - the thoughts coming from the artist as they glance to the side, backstage. We can let our imagination come up with scenarios, like picturing a scene or portrait while we listen ...
Aug 22, 2019•34 min•Ep. 141
We met up with Jake Shimabukuro before his concert in front of a sold out crowd at Cary Memorial Hall in Lexington, Massachusetts. Jake became an international sensation in 2006 when a YouTube video of him playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps in Central Park - without his knowledge - became one of the very first viral videos on that site with millions of views. Jake plays the ukulele (which we also discovered can be pronounced "ookelele") - and has performed at numerous festivals including the S...
Jul 25, 2019•43 min•Ep. 157
Here is the long awaited live acoustic set that the wonderful Circus Trees performed for us after their episode back in June of 2019. They played three songs for us - two from their amazing album Sakura and a new one that we hope will be on their next album. Please enjoy, share, and then purchase their music at circustrees.bandcamp.com. You can listen to their great episode at www.abovethebasement.com. Recorded on June 10, 2019 at Woods Hill Table, in Concord Massachusetts. Song List: Song 1: Th...
Jul 16, 2019•18 min
We saw Circus Trees at The Sinclair in Cambridge when we were there to celebrate The Record Co. and their upcoming new space in Boston. Three young women came on the stage in front of a full house. And once they began playing, everyone paid attention. They blew us away. Finola, 15, Giuliana, 17 and Edmee, also known as Egg, 13, are sisters from Marlborough, MA. And they play sad music. We love sad music. And by the time they finished their set we had already gone over to Robert McCarthy - their ...
Jun 19, 2019•50 min•Ep. 139
Here is a short live interview that we did on 91.5 WMFO radio with Anngelle Wood from Boston Emissions for On The Town with Mikey D - a show that was started 30 years ago. Sadly, Mike passed in 2003 but the show continues in Mikey’s D’s name, broadcasting On the Town every Wednesday night, from 9PM to Midnight EST on Tufts University’s WMFO, 91.5 FM. You can also hear it streaming at www.wmfo.org Being on the other side of an interview reminds me of the movie The Jerk with Steve Martin when Navi...
Jun 17, 2019•22 min
Ronnie 1:19 Above the basement awesome music and conversation. We are listening to Melinda Doolittle singing I'm a woman in 2007 with a voice that transcends not only genres but generations. It is fitting that Melinda has come back as a special guest performer for the third time with our friends at the Boston Children's chorus. We sat with Miss do a little just before the BCC his final performance of the season at the iconic Wang theatre. The theme for this concert was lift every voice with grat...
May 30, 2019•18 min•Ep. 138
We are always fascinated to talk about the state of Boston music and Boston music history with people in the business. Terrestrial radio is a huge part of that – WBCN, WFNX, WZLX - if you grew up in Boston those stations were a seminal way to discover new bands that inspired so many musicians. We met Anngelle Wood at a State of Live Music event that she hosted at iZotope offices in Cambridge when we were trying to learn a bit more about – well – the current state of live music. Whatever your tho...
May 24, 2019•50 min•Ep. 137
We sat with Zumix founder Madeleine Steczynski. ZUMIX is an East Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to building the Boston community through music and creative technology. What began as an idea around a kitchen table has blossomed into a wonderful place for kids to create and learn. As you will hear from Madeleine, they are taught valuable skills to instill confidence, collaboration and creativity in music that will follow them their entire life. Their core belief is that music is the...
May 16, 2019•49 min•Ep. 136
