Tickets are about $35 for Matisyahu's October 11 concert at Pearl Street in Northampton. Globally, his song “One Day” was one of the most popular songs of the past decade. You can hear his song "King Without a Crown" at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChV5BZ8SmS0

The Lonesome Brothers will perform public concerts near Brattleboro, in Northampton, and in other towns around the Valley. They have played at the Valley's best live music venue, the Iron Horse Music Hall.

On September 3, they will perform a public concert in Guilford, Vermont, near Brattleboro.

A video of the Lonesome Brothers performing live is at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFys8S71QRc

The Northampton concert is on December 31 at the World War II Club. Between now and then, the band will play several other concerts around the Valley. Details are at:

In its heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Fishbone was among the best bands of all-time. The group will play a free concert near Brattleboro on March 25 at 3 p.m. The concert will be outdoors at Mount Snow. Details are at:

www.mountsnow.com/events/calendar/bud-light-reggaefest

Fishbone's more recent recordings aren't as good as their albums “Truth and Soul” and “The Reality of My Surroundings.” The members of Fishbone live in Los Angeles.

You can hear an excellent Fishbone reggae song at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ZUIcYT7zs

Simba will perform a public concert in Brattleboro, on December 21 at 7 p.m. At a recent Simba concert, at least 100 people danced for hours. The band plays reggae and funk, among other kinds of music.

Mark Hummel and his band will play blues at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton on November 22 at 7 p.m. Jerry Portnoy was a member of blues legend Muddy Waters' band for eight years. Portnoy said of Hummel, “Mark's terrific.” The San Francisco Chronicle daily newspaper praised Hummel's singing and harmonica playing.

Hummel and his band played last month in Seattle, Washington and San Jose, California. The Iron Horse is the Valley's best live music venue. Tickets for the Northampton concert are about $20, depending on how you get them. Details are at www.iheg.com.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band will play at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke on Saturday, September 10 at 7 p.m. The venue has a dance floor. You can hear the band's music at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSUAk126cUc&list=PL0jJSYejQWTPvz5vz_emGy...

In the next few months, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band will perform in New York City, Chicago, and Hawaii.

Tickets for the Holyoke concert are $25 in advance. They are available at www.signaturesoundspresents.com.

photo by www.vancouverwinejazz.com

The Sierra Leone All-Stars performed an excellent concert near Greenfield on June 25. It was at the Shea Theater in Turner's Falls, Massachusetts. The dance floor was full. The band has recorded several excellent albums. Most of the songs on the albums are Afro-Pop or “high life” style. Some are reggae.

Lead singer Ruben Koroma asked, "Our country, Sierra Leone, is rich in minerals. Why are our people in poverty?"

The Indigo Girls performed an excellent concert in Northampton on May 27. The Academy of Music was sold out. The audience sang along to many of the songs, sometimes so loudly that the band's Amy Ray and Emily Saliers stopped singing and listened, smiling.

Tickets for the May 27 Indigo Girls concert in Northampton are sold out but tickets are still available for the band's concerts on May 24 in Burlington, Vermont and May 29 in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Tickets are also available for Indigo Girls concerts in June in Lowell, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; and New York City. The New York concert is free.

Habib Koite and Vusi Mahlasela and their band performed an excellent concert at the Academy of Music in Northampton April 10. Koite lives in the west African nation of Mali, where he is from. Mahlasela lives in South Africa, where he is from. The venue appeared to be almost sold out. The applause was loud and long after every song. Many people danced in the aisles.