Munson's Concerts in the Court kicks off with eclectic upstate New York folk rock band

Munson’s director of performing arts Bob Mortis strives to highlight the multidisciplinary artistry of the institution.

“Munson is a multifaceted organization that offers performances, a museum experience and a school of art,” Mortis said. “So we kind of do all three things at the same time.”

That marriage of live performance and visual art will come to life with the return of Munson’s Concerts in the Court series, where national and international touring bands fill the Edward Wales Root Sculpture Court with music. Brief gallery tours will be offered during the concerts' intermissions, allowing guests to experience multiple aspects of Munson.

The first act in the series is Hudson Valley-based psychedelic roots-rock band the Slambovian Circus of Dreams. Catch their genre-melding tunes at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $28 for the general public, $23 for Munson members and $10 for students with ID.

Citizens of Slambovia

Slambovian Circus of Dreams lead singer and songwriter Joziah Longo has been playing in bands since he was 12, and learned to paint and sculpt as an art school student in Philadelphia. He sees the performing and visual arts as inextricably linked.

“The visual arts and music are dancing partners,” Longo said. “They're very important to go together.”

The band has played in museums before, and look forward to doing so in Utica.

“We’re like an art school band,” Longo said. “When you see us, that’s what we are. We belong in museums.”

The band’s influences include Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and Salvador Dali. Mortis has been hoping to book the Slambovian Circus of Dreams for the Concert in the Court series for years.

“They have a really different take on a live performance,” Mortis said. “They're a little bit psychedelic, a little bit roots rock, a lot of original music. It transcends what you expect from folk and rock but with a little bit of surrealism into it as well. They're an unconventional group with a terrific fan base.”

Longo’s wife and longtime musical collaborator Tink Lloyd plays a pile of instruments including the accordion, the cello and the flute. Lloyd said her husband’s singing voice is like a mixture of John Lennon, Bob Dylan and David Bowie.

“His voice has a very universal, familiar quality,” Lloyd said. “It's very interesting. People just get sucked in because we sound completely familiar, but it's really kind of a new angle on things. So it's very familiar, but sounds very new.”

The Slambovian Circus of Dreams will be digging deep into their catalog for the Concert in the Court, and playing a number of selections from their 2022 album “A Very Unusual Head.”

The selection will include the tune “Solve It All Dālí,” an homage to renowned surrealist painter Salvador Dali whom Longo has admired since his art school days. The band is inspired by surrealism, and incorporates elements of it into their music and their performances.

The Slambovian Circus of Dreams is an evolution of the ‘90s band the Ancestors, which consisted of Longo, Lloyd and Slambovian guitarist Sharkey McEwen, among others. Longo and Lloyd said that when the Ancestors started knocking on the door of mainstream success in the late ‘90s, they were inclined to escape to upstate New York and change their name to something outlandish and obscure, preferring to maintain an independent streak.

The band is officially based in Cold Spring, New York, but Longo said that they reside in the hills of Slambovia.

“Slambovia is a very real place to us,” Longo said. “I think a lot of artists go to a place in their mind that they create, that’s a few steps beyond reality, and that’s what Slambovia is, but it becomes more and more real.”

Coming alive

Mortis, Longo and Lloyd agree that live music is a singular experience for all involved.

“I've been doing this for years, and I love having an audience experience a live performance,” Mortis said. “There's something really unique and special about that. You may see an artist perform many times on stage, you might see concerts in the same venue, but every experience is different. It depends on the energy the crowd brings in and the energy performers bring in. But it's always a good time, and that's what we strive to create here – these types of experiences that can't be repeated.”

Munson’s Concert in the Court series will continue next year. The sculpture court will host up-and-coming Irish trio Socks in the Frying Pan on March 9 and the Grammy-winning, New Orleans-based jazz outfit the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on May 18.

Longo said that he hopes his band’s genre-bending, immersive performances help inspire and liberate people.

“When we’re in a room together and we listen to music, we can transcend all the boundaries and the ‘isms’ of our lives – all the political differences, all the things that separate people,” Longo said. “There’s a common language and a space we can all go to together where we realize what we have in common with each other instead of seeing the differences. When we’re in that state, I think it's the most heightened, enlightened state that mankind can get into, instead of the argumentative state that we're usually stuck in on the ground.”

Lloyd echoed Longo’s interpretation of music as a common language.

“It just makes us all connect in a certain way, so that’s cool,” she said. “That's what we're there to do. We really love playing with people, because that connection between us and the audience, it helps us and it helps them. I think we all need each other, and when we get together, we're better for it.”

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Munson Concerts in the Court return with Slambovian Circus of Dreams