Hatebreed brought their Summer Slaughter Tour to Empire Live on September 10, and Terror featured prominently on the bill.
Photography by Pete Gregory.
King’s X Turns Back Time at Putnam Place
There are some concerts where you can tell what a band means to people before the band ever walks onstage.
King’s X at Putnam Place was one of those nights.
I had never seen them before. In fact, I really did not know much about them at all. But as I looked around the room, I started recognizing musicians I had photographed from local bands all over the Capital Region.
A lot of them.
Guitar players. Singers. Drummers. People I am used to seeing under stage lights were now standing in the crowd waiting for someone else to take the stage.
That told me something immediately.
This was a musicians’ band.
There was another clue.
There was never a line for the women’s room.
The men’s room? Different story.
Looking around, I would guess the audience was probably 90 to 95 percent male. And from the conversations I had, almost everyone seemed to have a long history with King’s X.
People started naming the places where they had seen them over the years.
Saratoga Winners.
Northern Lights.
The Chance.
Venues that once meant everything to the local rock scene and are no longer here.
One fan told me this was his 33rd time seeing King’s X.
Thirty-third.
I met one other person who, like me, was seeing them for the first time. He was there with a friend who had already seen them multiple times.
So apparently there were at least two King’s X virgins in the room.
Then the band came out and opened with “Groove Machine,” the song longtime fans already knew would be coming.
And from there, the crowd sang.
Not just a chorus here and there.
Nearly every song.
That was when the night started feeling like something more than a concert.
For a while, I had the strange sense that a lot of the people in that room were 19 again.
Maybe they were remembering standing in Saratoga Winners or Northern Lights years ago. Maybe they were remembering when those places still existed, when life was still wide open, when heads were filled with dreams, and perhaps some of those same people were imagining themselves on a stage someday.
There is something about music that can do that.
It does not just remind you of a song.
It reminds you of who you were when you first heard it.
And I think that was happening all over Putnam Place.
Maybe it was happening onstage too.
“Dug” Doug Pinnick had turned 76 the day before the show, but there was absolutely no reason to think about his age while watching him perform. His voice was strong, his presence was strong, and there seemed to be a perpetual smile on his face.
He looked like he was savoring every minute.
Not enduring it.
Not revisiting something that belonged to another time.
Savoring it.
And maybe, looking out at a room filled with people who had been there through so many chapters of the band’s history, he was reliving a little of it too.
Different venue.
Different year.
A lot of the same people.
Still singing.
Even the stage itself had a local connection. I later learned that the drum riser being used that night belonged to local band Kisstory.
It is a small detail, but somehow it fit perfectly.
Local musicians were in the crowd. A local band’s riser was under the drums. Fans were talking about long-gone local venues. And King’s X stood in the middle of all of it, connecting the past to the present without ever making the night feel stuck there.
For me, being new to King’s X may actually have made the whole thing easier to see.
I did not walk in carrying decades of memories of the band.
I got to watch everyone else carry theirs.
And honestly, that told me almost everything I needed to know.
You can read about a band’s history. You can look at album releases, tour dates, influences and all the other facts that make up a career.
But sometimes the better history is standing right in front of you.
It is the guy seeing them for the 33rd time.
It is the musician in the crowd who normally has people watching him.
It is someone remembering Saratoga Winners.
It is hundreds of voices knowing the words before the singer gets there.
It is a 76-year-old man onstage smiling like he still cannot quite believe he gets to do this.
The venues may disappear.
The years may stack up.
But some things stay with us.
For one night at Putnam Place, King’s X made all of those years feel very close again.
Photography by Stephanie J Bartik.
Hatebreed @ Empire Live, 9/10/2026
Hatebreed brought their Summer Slaughter Tour to Empire Live on September 10.
Photography by Pete Gregory.
RECAP: John Fogerty / Steve Winwood @ Tanglewood, 9/6/2026
By Chad from Albany.
I believe it was Albany Times Union writer, the late, great Greg Haymes, who wrote in his review of the John Fogerty concert at SPAC back in 1998 that “John Fogerty opens with songs that most acts could only dream of closing with.” I read his, and the other concert reviews ad nauseam back then – especially shows like that one, which I attended (I actually skipped school and slept on the bridge at SPAC overnight back then to make sure I got great tickets, back when that was a thing. Man, I miss those days). Those reviews are why I’m doing what I am now with RadioRadioX and XPerience Monthly.
Now, I’m writing the review. And I’m using the influence of legends such as Greg Haymes in my words of the artists that I read then and write about now. This is the fifth or sixth time I’ve seen Fogerty, and I continue to say that he is an absolute freak of nature. At 81 years old, his voice is outstanding, and his guitar playing is ferocious. The unique drawl in his voice and guitar can only be performed by him. Don’t try. You can’t do it. Opening with his Creedence Clearwater Revival classics “Bad Moon Rising,” “Up Around the Bend,” and “Green River,” I am reminded, as a musician still, that I could only wish to be able to close with songs like that.
Fogerty has been rejuvenated in the past couple of years. His sons Shane and Tyler have been in his band since 2007, and you can tell how much he enjoys playing with them. His face lights up in unadulterated joy when he sees them behind him. But now that he finally owns the rights to his expansive catalog of songs after decades of legal battles, he is in the best place of his life. And it’s noticeable.
The rest of his setlist was classic after classic, and by the show’s end you would need an extra hand to count the hits that he has that he didn’t play. His work is in the top-tier pantheon of anybody in the history of popular music. McCartney, Lennon, Townshend, Springsteen. There are but a handful of writers that have the caliber of iconic tracks as him, and few still sound as good as he does. He is a National Treasure.
The nearly sold-out crowd packed into Tanglewood as he tore through “Born on the Bayou,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Looking Out My Back Door,” CCR’s long-form jam of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and even one of his early songs, “Fight Fire” from his pre-CCR band, The Golliwogs. Funny enough, the song that got the largest reaction was from his solo career – of course, the 1985 homage to the sport of baseball, “Centerfield.” Still donning his baseball-bat guitar, he undoubtedly hit a grand slam with that performance before taking us home with his closing songs, which are beyond anyone wishing to close with, but ones that all of us should simply be grateful to have in our American lexicon: “Fortunate Son,” which saw Fogerty sound like he did in 1969 with that signature scream that, again, only he could do, as well as “Lodi” and the iconic “Proud Mary.”
If you have a chance to see Fogerty at any of his upcoming shows, please do yourself a favor and see these guys while you still can, as they perform at such a high level. If you can’t this year, keep your eyes peeled for next year, as Fogerty looks like he will “Keep on Chooglin” with no signs of slowing down.
Steve Winwood opened the night with an hour-long set covering his solo work and his history of legendary bands that date him back to 1966 as an 18-year old child prodigy with the Spencer Davis Group, which earned him the honor of being awarded as a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
Starting the evening off with the Traffic instrumental “Glad,” he drifted into “Can’t Find My Way Back Home” from his supergroup Blind Faith alongside Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker of Cream, before the Spencer Davis classic “I’m A Man.” The band sounded excellent, and Winwood was looking and sounding great. He followed that with a pair of his solo classics from the 1980s, “Roll With It” and “Back in the High Life.” His performances reached a fever pitch with the Traffic classic “Dear Mr. Fantasy.” And before saying goodnight, we were gifted with the classics “Higher Love” and his signature “Gimme Some Lovin’,” bringing it home with his first Top 10 hit in the US.
This show is a reminder to see the greats of the industry while we still have them. As every year we lose more and more, we should be grateful that these icons of the golden era of popular music are still with us and performing at the level that they are.
John Fogerty setlist:
https://www.setlist.fm/
Steve Winwood setlist:
https://www.setlist.fm/
stop.drop.rewind Discuss It All with RRX See Them Live At Empire Underground 9/30/2026
Interview: stop.drop.rewind
By Rob Smittix
Kris Lohn – Vocals, Bass
DJ Crenson Guitar, Vocals
Andy Sutton – Drums
Photo By: Josh Hernandez
RRX: So we got Kris with a K (Vocals, Bass), even though it’s supposed to be CH, we all know that.
KL: It’s like a gang thing, dude. We actually have beef with the CH Chris’s, I can’t believe you talked about them around me.
RRX: (Laughs) We got DJ (Guitar, Vocals), are you an actual DJ?
DC: No, but I have had that problem before. I’ve done a few wedding band and corporate… like one night band gigs where, I’ve been the male vocalist and I’ve had people in the band who just see DJ and assume that I am a DJ and not a person whose name is Daryl Joseph.
RRX: Hey, we’ll count it. And we’ve got Andy (Drums), who most likely wrote his name on the shoes of his action figures, I would imagine.
AS: Yes, I did.
RRX: I knew it. So how’s tour life?
KL: We are at home for a little bit here and we’re getting excited to be out again on the road. We’ve had some really nice runs this year though.
DC: Yeah, we got a lot of momentum that I think we’re gonna ride into the East Coast states that we’re starting in a couple weeks. Like for you in Albany. I think the show that we’re running right now is really hot. We are still really excited about it and I hope that people are equally excited about it. So far we’ve had a really nice response.
RRX: Absolutely, I mean… your music is fun and I how could you not have fun? I pretty much got the assumption from checking you guys out, that you’re all quite characters in one way or another.
KL: You may have noticed that already a little bit, but yes.
DC: All we can be is ourselves and I’ve never looked more foolish than I do the times when I try to be anything else.
RRX: So at a 2026 stop.drop.rewind show, I know we’re to expect facial expressions, of course, but what else are we to expect?
KL: We’re playing a bunch of stuff off of our most recent record. Every band probably says this… I’ve been telling people, not hyperbolically, that I think this is our best. So even if there’s other shows that people may have enjoyed more or something like that, on our end we’re able to execute it most consistently at a high level and also get the most effects that we wanna get from the audience and from ourselves out of any show we’ve ever ran. We’re constantly tweaking how we want the show to work and what we want people’s responses to be and basically we wanna hit all that stuff. I know you guys feel good about it. I feel good about it too.
DC: I think people can obviously expect an exciting show. That’s sort of where Kris was going because we’re still very excited about it and I think that comes through on stage. You mentioned facial expressions, that’s part of it for sure. There’s gonna be some improvisation. It’s gonna seem sometimes like everything is about to fall apart. It doesn’t. We know exactly where everything’s supposed to go, you can trust us. If you wanna dance, if you wanna jump around, we got you. You wanna sit in the back with your arms folded and feel your feelings, we got you. You wanna just watch a guy do stuff to a bass that you haven’t seen done to a bass in person in quite a while, got you there too.
We are playing some stuff that when we wrote it, we were not sure how much we would ever play it live and now we’re doing it every day. We’re proud of doing that. Some songs off the most recent record… and I’ve spoken about this online, videos and things but, like the song “Luminescent,” that had a nice kind of viral moment for us. I thought it was just like my pet project because I usually get one for every record where it’s just… I write pretty much everything on it and then it’s like a weird song and nobody really cares about it. But I achieved something songwriting wise that I think is really really cool. We worked on that song for well over a year and I still thought nobody’s ever gonna listen to it but that I would be proud of it when I die or something. And then it was one of our most popular songs off that record, which was a very nice surprise. Except then we had to learn how to actually play it live, like in a good way, not in the studio.
RRX: The Beatles weren’t even able to recreate what they did live, almost ever.
KL: Right. Yeah, we’re basically better than The Beatles, you can run that as the teaser for this segment. stop.drop.rewind coming to Albany Empire Underground, better than The Beatles.
RRX: That is definitely gonna be the headline, yes.
KL: One of the things that I like about what we do is, trying to arrange… because we still write for a larger ensemble whether it’s 4 to 2 guitars, bass, drums, or I’ll play keys, or a bunch of vocals, and we even had some stacks and things on the last record as well. Getting it to sound good as a power trio is a challenge that we enjoy. And still making it sound good and not empty. Some of that Beatles’ stuff is so layered that I don’t know how you would ever do that (live), but we’re trying to walk the line between the stuff that sounds good in the studio and then making different decisions to make it sound good live.
RRX: From everything I’ve heard, it sounds really crisp. I also really dig the fact that one song really doesn’t sound like another, which a lot of bands have issues with that, you know? It’s just their signature sound but you guys seem to be able to tweak it and pretty much everything has its own kind of liveliness.
DC: I appreciate that. We do try to have something that anyone can latch onto. Something that no matter what your musical background or your taste is, we’ll grab your ear while retaining sort of a sense of what our band identity is. A song of ours should catch your ear regardless of your musical background but you should also instantly be able to tell it’s us and that’s at least my goal for our songwriting.
RRX: I respect that, absolutely. How long have you guys been doing this thing?
KL: DJ and I have been playing music together since 2000. We’ve been doing, stop.drop.rewind since late 2008. So, this is our 18th year doing stop.drop.rewind. And then, we linked up with Andy. He’s been with us since 2015. We’ve been the core lineup. We’ve had a couple of guitar players on and off since 2015 but we kind of committed to being in the power trio and just the three of us now. Andy can tell you more about his background before that, obviously.
RRX: Yes, please go ahead.
AS: Yeah, so my background… I’ve essentially been playing drums since I was 12 years old and I’m 36 now, 24 years, which is a long time. I went to school for music, didn’t finish because I owe them money. I went on and just started my career and I’ve been playing full time now for about 15 years, I think. I’ve been playing a lot in the blues scene in Chicago and I really wanted to do an original project. Something that I could really have a lot of input into since I felt like I had seen a lot of what the blues artists had done that really was helping them and what was not. I wanted to kind of bring that to make those decisions as well. Because all blues is usually original music anyway. Blues is an interesting intersection of original music and jobbing music at this point. Especially in Chicago. I had originally played one night with them back in 2011, when I first got out of school.They were still looking for somebody in 2015, so it just ended up working out.
KL: We’re nice, by the way. We did have another drummer in there, who then decided to pursue his own projects. We’re still very good friends with him, by the way.
DC: We were not drummerless for 5 years.
KL: It makes it sound like no one wanted to work with us for 5 years but then we got Andy again.
DC: He did set us free from the drummer desert.
AS: Don’t worry, it wasn’t 5 years, it was 4 years.
KL: Oh sorry, 4 years, not 5 years.
RRX: Andy said he went to school for music. Did you all go to school for music?
KL: In varying capacities, but yes we did.
RRX: Being in a band myself and having a bunch of members, most of us did not (go to school for music), but the several that have… one thing I noticed that was different between them and us was mainly that we called it practice and they called it rehearsal.
(All Laugh)
DC: I do do that, mostly it is just to lend some gravity to what I’m doing. So, if I were at a day job and they were like, can you stay? Me saying no, I have rehearsal has a bit of gravity to it. But me being like I can’t, I have band practice makes me sound like… can my girlfriends come?
RRX: (Laughs) Yeah, hit the nail on the head.
KL: It’s like Partner versus girlfriend or boyfriend.
AS: I also do that with the word show. I don’t always like the word show, but it’s like saying it’s a gig or an event, you know? Show vs concert is like… when your Mom’s like, oh, are you playing any concert soon?
KL: It’s funny how language works like that. Not dunking on anybody else’s way they do stuff, I prepare an itinerary for rehearsal, for band practice. We don’t drink beers and/or partake in other things that may not be legal in our state but might be legal in your state, for instance, then just hang out in the garage and play the songs from top to bottom. A lot of other groups that I’ve experienced, they drink some beers and hang out, which is exceedingly fun. I’m gonna put like a huge asterisk, but that’s not rehearsal.
RRX: I don’t think I’ve ever been to a rehearsal then.
KL: Again, before anybody comes at me on the internet, that is extremely fun. I also like to do that with my buddies.
DC: Yeah, I do band practice and rehearsals for different things.
RRX: But you get down to business and you’re business minded, you’re focused, is what I’m getting.
KL: Correct.
RRX: Excellent. We very much look forward to having you come through Albany, as you know, is the center of the universe. Empire Underground is a fantastic venue. Anything else that you wanna say to the people?
KL: stop.drop.rewind is available anywhere you find music, including socials and all your streaming services. Of course the best way to support any band in 2026 is purchasing things directly from the artists, so you can always go to our website stopdroprewind.com and pick up our records, either there or bandcamp.
DC: You can now get our whole catalogue with the click of a button,
KL: And of course, we’d love to see you at the show, we’ll have t-shirts, CDs, hats, stickers and all that stuff to support the band directly there. But anywhere you listen is amazing for us and if you take the time to do that, we really, really appreciate it
Stop.Drop.Rewind
Wed • Sep 30, 2026 • 6:30 PM
Empire Underground, Albany, NY
RECAP: Jon Spencer / Goons! @ No Fun, 9/6/2026
by OP Callaghan.
Goon: A violent criminal, gangster, or enforcer paid to threaten, intimidate, or hurt people.
GOONS! A local rock-n-roll surf nightmare of mischief and mayhem. One of the most fun shows that I’ve seen!
Sunday night at No Fun in Troy, featured locals GOONS! with the incredible Jon Spencer. Celebrating the release of their new album “Never Go Back,” the band ripped through a 12-song set of three-chord slapstick rock-n-roll. Proudly embracing their influences, GOONS! powerful performance, with plenty of hijinks, fake bombs, “F***-you’s,” and boos, was a hot, sweaty, non-stop party.
Kicking off with “Crime Spree” and inviting the packed No Fun crowd to “Go f*** yourselves”, the band unleashed a fury of surf rock controlled chaos that never slowed down. Band members, known as GOON 1, GOON 2, GOON 3, GOON 4, and GOON 5, launched into “Parchment Farm,” “Junkie For Your Love,” and “Stick Em Up,” and whipped the crowd into a carnival-like frenzy. The band’s chemistry is palpable as they danced, pranced, and pranked the overjoyed crowd on an otherwise quiet Sunday in downtown Troy. GOONS! closed their set with a cover of “Money” and made it rain with counterfeit $100 bills.
Headliner Jon Spencer, backed by the rhythm section from Woodstock NY’s “The Bobby Lees,” turned up the heat even more, pulling heavy from their most recent release, “Songs Of Personal Loss and Protest.” This 3-piece powerhouse churned out a gritty, distorted, swampy set of over-the-top blues rock. The take-no-prisoners approach whipped up the already rabid crowd, with songs like “Fanfare,” “Vermin Attack,” and “Knock Em Out,” this ultra-tight combo was a rollercoaster of sonic bliss.
Theater Review – Harbinger Theatre’s The Counter: A Time for Us to Listen
by Joanna Palladino.
How well do we really know the people we see every day?
The person who makes our coffee. The neighbor we wave to. The coworker we talk to every morning. We can know someone’s routine, their stories and even their jokes and still know almost nothing about what is actually happening in their life.
Harbinger Theatre’s production of Meghan Kennedy’s The Counter, directed by Patrick White, and staged at Albany Barn, takes that deceptively simple idea and turns it into a tender and increasingly complicated exploration of friendship, grief, loneliness and human connection.
Paul (George Filieau), a retired firefighter, regularly visits a small upstate New York diner where Katie (Lisa Bryk) works behind the counter. They have the comfortable familiarity that develops between people who see each other day after day. Then Paul suggests they become real friends—and that real friendship requires exchanging secrets.
At roughly 75 minutes without an intermission, Harbinger’s production of The Counter is an absolute gem! It’s an intimate play—three actors, one primary location and conversations that gradually reveal much more than either Paul or Katie initially intended. There is nowhere for the actors to hide, and fortunately, this cast doesn’t need to.
George Filieau as Paul gives us a man who feels immediately familiar. Filieau has a wonderful ability to make Paul’s humor and routines feel natural rather than performed. He can be funny, stubborn and endearing, but as the play progresses, Filieau gradually lets us see the vulnerability underneath.
Lisa Bryk as Katie has the equally difficult job of showing us the difference between being friendly to someone and actually letting that person know you. Bryk handles that transition beautifully. Katie listens as much as she speaks, which is particularly important in a play where listening eventually becomes an action in itself.
Joyce Reynolds as Peg, the town doctor, enters later in the play and immediately changes the energy in the room. Reynolds makes the most of her time onstage, bringing warmth, humor and another dimension to this small-town world. Like so much in The Counter, there is more beneath the surface than we initially understand, and Reynolds lets that emerge naturally without telegraphing where the play is headed.
Director Patrick White wisely doesn’t over-direct this quiet play. He allows conversations to breathe and trusts his actors. That restraint is important because The Counter isn’t driven by action in the traditional theatrical sense.
The action is someone deciding whether to say something.
Someone hearing it. Someone figuring out what to do with the information they now know.
White was also responsible for the set design and created the ordinary diner environment necessary for the story while tackling the challenges of a production staged at the Albany Barn. Kudos to the rest of the production and creative team:
Regina Baker as stage manager; Jennie Sinnott and Meghan Ryan-Adair for set construction and decoration; Michael O’Keeffe as board operator; Stephen Wilson as lighting designer; Marjorie Geiger as house manager; and Kayla DeMicco as PR coordinator.
One of my favorite elements of this production was Shaya Rayes’ sound design.
Rayes makes the smart decision not to overwhelm this intimate play with unnecessary sound. Instead, one of the simplest noises associated with a diner becomes one of the production’s most effective devices—the bell over the door.
The bell is used to mark the scene changes.
It’s a wonderfully economical choice. We recognize the sound and understand exactly where it belongs, but Rayes repurposes it as theatrical punctuation. A scene ends. The bell rings. Time moves forward. We return to the counter.
As the pattern repeats, that tiny sound becomes part of the rhythm of the play. There is something especially appropriate about using the sound of a door in a story about the difficulty of letting people into our lives.
Rayes also creates a terrific musical introduction with a preshow playlist rooted heavily in blues, early rock and instrumentals. Her entire playlist is:
- Sleep Walk— Santo & Johnny
- Blues We Like — B.B. King
- Deep Freeze — Joe Houston
- Slow Blues — Mick Taylor
- Big Baby Blues — Ritchie Valens
- Remembering You — Roy Rogers (Blues)
- Blues on a Borrowed Guitar — Snowy White
- The Return of Duke’s Mood — Duke Robillard
- Movin’ and Groovin — Duane Eddy
- Red River Rock — Johnny & The Hurricanes
- Albert’s Shuffle — Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper
It’s an interesting musical landscape for this particular play. The blues is particularly well suited to these characters—music capable of expressing loneliness, loss and longing without surrendering entirely to any of these emotions.
Even some of the titles seem to have been written for this play: Remembering You. Slow Blues. Sleep Walk. Blues on a Borrowed Guitar.
There is repetition in blues music—a familiar structure revisited again and again, with small changes carrying the emotion. There is repetition in The Counter, too.
Paul comes to the diner. Katie serves him. They talk. Another day comes. They do it again.
But each conversation is slightly different because now they know something they didn’t know before.
What makes Rayes’ design particularly effective is that once the play begins, all that preshow music disappears. There isn’t a soundtrack continually telling the audience what to feel. There are voices. Pauses. The bell marking the scene changes.
And silence.
Until there isn’t.
The only music heard during the play is Henry Mancini’s Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet, which accompanies a wonderful moment in which Paul dances with Peg.
It’s a fascinating selection with a history that adds another layer to the production. The melody was composed by Nino Rota for Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film Romeo and Juliet. Henry Mancini created his own instrumental arrangement, which became a huge crossover hit in 1969, spending two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and knocking the Beatles’ “Get Back” from the top spot.
The melody took on another life when lyrics were added and it became widely known as “A Time for Us.”
And A Time for Us is an unexpectedly perfect phrase for The Counter.
This is, after all, a play about time. Time spent sitting across from another person. Time lost to grief. Time spent keeping things to ourselves. And the finite amount of time we have to really know one another.
Because Rayes has withheld music throughout the rest of the play, Mancini’s sweeping romanticism immediately changes the atmosphere. Paul and Peg dance, and for a brief moment a play built almost entirely upon conversation allows music and movement to do the talking.
That restraint is what makes Rayes’ sound design work so well. The preshow playlist establishes the emotional world. The bell gives the play its rhythm. Mancini allows one fleeting human connection to become almost cinematic. And the silence gives everything else room to breathe.
The Counter asks what happens when the everyday relationships in our lives stop being superficial. What responsibility comes with truly knowing someone?
Harbinger Theatre doesn’t try to answer those questions for us.
Instead, it gives us three people, a diner counter, some coffee, a collection of secrets—and the occasional sound of a bell.
Someone speaks.
Someone listens.
The bell rings.
And time moves forward.
Perhaps that is what A Time for Us means here. We get only so much time with one another.
The Counter reminds us to use some of it to listen.
Performance Info:
Albany Barn
56 2nd Street
Albany, NY 12210
9/17-9/26
$15
Tickets may be purchased by clicking here
Photos from Andrew Elder of Best Frame Forward
Lost Bayou Ramblers / Cecilia @ Music Haven, 8/23/2026
The 2026 Music Haven concert series wrapped up on August 23 with the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Cecilia.
Photography by Timothy Reidy.
3 Questions with Matty Finn
By Rob Skane.
Matty Finn is a working musician. I mean it, check his schedule – he’s gigging nonstop. He plays and sings from the heart, and that’s rare these days. You can find him at mattyfinn.com
RRX: What was the moment that made you pick up a guitar and never put it down?
MF: There was a local (Albany) acoustic duo which was kind of a rarity in those days (early ‘90s), other than on “MTV Unplugged.” “VH1 Storytellers” was still in the making at the time and debuted in 1996, which was the same year I first began my full show public performances. The incredible sound of that duo’s booming acoustic guitars, both having masterful counterpoint ability and polyphonic technique with both their guitars and their voices, hit me like a locomotive. That alone was a huge part of me developing my personal technique.
RRX: If you could go back and tell your younger self one thing about playing guitar, what would you say?
MF: Never put the guitar down for more than a day or two. For me, now that I’m free of stressful jobs, people, and situations … I not only want, but I have an extreme need to play every day. It’s an incredible feeling. A release of dopamine, cortisol, melatonin, and serotonin, which are all natural hormones. When these are in correct alignment, the feeling/groove in which I’m achieving is untouchable. Makes me feel as though I’m just plainly on top of the world when entering into that zone.
RRX: When you’re not onstage or recording, what kind of stuff do you play when no one’s listening?
MF: I play anything and everything constantly, although I seem to consistently land on classic/ contemporary rock/folk and a bit of blues and country from the ‘40s on into the ‘90s. Always adding new old songs to my “deepish” repertoire. It’s what keeps me a good distance apart from others as far as my shows go. Yes, I play the common and the classics when warranted or requested. My wheelhouse, though, is the somewhat forgotten lesser hits that crowds all remember and love. We can all play “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which was a top 10 hit, but I’m going to give you something like “Lights” (#68) or perhaps “Anytime” (#83) …
It’s been said that I’m multidimensional, with a very soulful voice, whether performing soft background/crooner type music or rock & roll/upbeat shows, depending on the venue’s needs.
In summation, I refuse to toot my own horn. I’d much rather people take in a show or three of mine and come to their own conclusion.
And the music never stopped …
Jahfest 36 (8/22/2026)
A fine show in southern Albany County, featuring Dr. Jah and the Love Prophets, Omnious Seapods, Psycho Mutton Chops, Alec Lewis Group, and Shannon Tehya.
Photography by Timothy Reidy.
More from Timothy Reidy here …