The Great Unknown and Bevin Caulfield at the Italian Market Festival

Took a stroll down Ninth Street for a sandwich, a canolli, and some people watching and found myself at the Connie's Ric Rac stage close to Pat's and Geno's (and near the great Rim Cafe). Caught the second half of a quality set by the Great Unknown, a rocking local acoustic outfit based in West Philly. They are fronted by the enthusiastic Todd Henton, who has a great voice and real skills on the mouth organ but the annoyingly affected style of playing with a trouser leg pulled up like he's about to ride a bicycle. The band is tight and rootsy, and they always seem like they are having fun, which is pretty infectious. A good outdoorsy band. Their next Philly show is June 27th at the Gorgas Park Festival in Manayunk.

The Great Unknown were followed by an act I hadn't heard before but will be sure to check out again: Bevin Caulfield and her band. Bevin is a beautiful singer, with a sexy and emotive voice and a good backing band. The drummer kept almost a hip hop beat that suited the songs. Bevin played a solid acoustic guitar and another pretty girl, perhaps her sister judging by looks, added some well considered backing vocals. I see from her myspace page (which has a link for a good cover of the admittedly over-covered l.cohen song "hallelujah") that she has a show May 22nd at the Tin Angel. I have a gig that night or I'd be there. There are also some other area shows on her calendar.


Bevin Caulfield live

Philly Acoustic Reviews

I’ve been going to shows, buying albums, and playing on the fringes of the Philadelphia folk/ acoustic/ singer-songwriter music scene for about a decade. (I use these categories loosely: many of the acts use electric instruments [they all use amplifiers or PAs], most are not folk in any strict sense of the word, and many have more than one singer or songwriter. My love is for soulful, fairly low-key, original music.) I’m continually impressed by the number of extremely talented musicians and songwriters there are out there. This site is intended to be a humble attempt to promote, discuss, and review select artists, shows, and albums, and to comment on topics of interest to the Philadelphia acoustic music scene. I go to about one folk-y type show a month, and buy a few albums by local artists each year, so the number of posts will likely be limited. Probably I’ll do a bunch at first then it’ll peter out. So it is.

Off the top of my head, here are a few of the quality local acts I’ve seen, with links to their myspace sites (i know: facebook is where it’s at but not yet for music):

Adrien Reju (www.myspace.com/adrienreju)
Birdie Busch (www.myspace.com/birdiebusch)
Bruce Langfeld [1967-2007] (www.myspace.com/brucelangfeld)
Carsie Blanton (www.myspace.com/carsieblanton)
Chris Kasper (www.myspace.com/chriskasper)
Christine Havrilla (www.myspace.com/christinehavrilla)
Cowmuddy (www.myspace.com/cowmuddy)
the Great Unknown (www.myspace.com/thegreatunknownband)
Hoots & Hellmouth (www.myspace.com/hootshellmouth)
Illinois (www.myspace.com/illinois)
Joshua Park (www.myspace.com/joshuaparkmusic)
Karen Gross (www.myspace.com/karengross)
Kate Gaffney (www.myspace.com/kategaffney)
Langhorne Slim (www.myspace.com/langhorneslim)
the Lowlands (www.myspace.com/thelowlandsband)
Papertrees (www.myspace.com/papertreesmusic)
Peasant (www.myspace.com/peasant)
the Philadelphia Bluegrass Band (www.myspace.com/thephiladelphiabluegrassband)
Rachel Andes (www.myspace.com/rachelandes)
Sara Judge (www.myspace.com/sarajudge)
Sexcop (www.myspace.com/sexcop)
Sisters 3 (www.myspace.com/sisters3)
the Writing Birds (www.myspace.com/thewritingbirds)