Scott Tady: Fee fie foe fum, Beaver Station hosts an Englishman; meanwhile Midland gets jazzy

I recommend seeing this: London-born singer-songwriter Joel Lindsey kicking off the fifth annual Cabin Fever Music Series on Jan. 28 at Beaver Station Cultural & Event Center.

Maybe you've been fortunate to see Lindsey strum intricately, sing soulfully and play loop pedals with his feet as a solo artist at hip Pittsburgh venues.

But for his first Beaver County show in more than a decade, he's rocking out with a four-piece band that includes long-time bassist and harmony singer James Kurasch, drummer Gary Matassa, and violin-mandolin ace Bob Banerjee.

Expect a mix of classic rock from three of his biggest influences (Paul McCartney, Paul Simon and Paul Rodgers), along with maybe Tom Petty, Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen covers, plus original songs that earned Lindsey airtime on KDKA-TV's "Pittsburgh Today Live."

Lindsey wrote many of his originals during a transitional time of moving from England to Pennsylvania. He initially lived in Beaver County after meeting his wife, Amy, a Brighton Township native.

For his first Beaver County gig since the days of the Celestial Monkey coffeeshop in Bridgewater, Lindsey will share some stories and quips, delivered in a British accent, so all the better.

Reservations for his Beaver Station show cost $34, which includes complimentary premium beer and wine from 7 to 10 p.m. Music starts at 8 p.m. Individual concert reservations or a discounted series subscription to all four shows is available, at RSVP.BeaverStation.org.

"The Cabin Fever Music Series at Beaver Station was designed to get people out of the house to hear exceptional live music while enjoying adult beverages and the company of other music lovers," Leanne Rogowski, venue manager at the station, said. "The series, now in its fifth season brings a different musical talent, typically new to Beaver County, providing outstanding entertainment close to home.

"The venue is intimate and allows guests to sit theater-style very close to the performers," Rogowski said. "There is typically lots of guest and musician interaction. New this year, musicians will be on a raised stage to allow for an even better viewing experience."

Jazz in The Box

Grammy Award-winning jazz guitarist Marty Ashby and his musical group the MCG Jazz All-Stars will celebrate Pittsburgh's rich jazz history in a Jan. 27 show at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center in Midland.

More specifically, this “Jazz In The Box: Pittsburgh Jazz Legacy” show takes place in the intimate BlackBox Theater at Lincoln Park, with cloth-covered tables and a bar pouring adult beverages.

Showtime is 7 p.m., with a multimedia presentation a big part of the concert, Featuring insightful narration from Ashby, a projection screen will show historic photos from the collections of renowned Pittsburgh photographer Teenie Harris.

"This one-night-only program spotlights world-renowned musicians, composers and arrangers from the Pittsburgh region who have changed the face of jazz," an announcement for the show said.

Selections will include “Take the A Train” by Billy Strayhorn, “Sugar” by Stanley Turrentine, a medley of Henry Mancini tunes, “My Latin Brother” by George Benson, “Misty” by Erroll Garner and other pieces written or made famous by Ray Brown, Ahmad Jamal, Art Blakey, Mary Lou Williams and more.

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Seating is available for $20 and $25. For tickets, visit lincolnparkarts.org or call 724-576-4644.

Ashby, a musical educator and guitarist, has produced or performed on over 75 recordings including five Grammy Award winners by artists like Nancy Wilson (the jazz singer.) In 1987, Ashby developed MCG Jazz, a program of the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, a center for arts and learning on Pittsburgh's North Side.

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Fermata tries something new

Live music is a big reason for the popularity of Fermata Brewing in Ambridge.

But now the Merchant Street craft brewpub will try something theatrical, hosting a Feb. 1 enhanced staged reading of a comical, Valentine’s-themed play by Ambridge's Iron Horse Community Theatre.

Park yourself at Fermata at 6:30 p.m. that evening and sip a fresh-crafted beverage while watching actors perform "Serial Dater," a play by local actress and playwright Danielle Lang, about a woman named Jessie who recalls dates she had with three different men with disastrous, but humorous results. There's no cover charge.

Fermata's upcoming fun also includes an 8 p.m. Feb. 4 live album recording by Ellwood City-based indie-rockers Wine & Spirit.

"We are inviting everyone to be part of our audience as we look to live record our set for a possible digital album release later this year," Wine & Spirit lead singer Paul Joseph said. "We look to strip down some of our best original songs from all three of our records including some rarities to please some of the Wine & Spirit fanatics. Plus, some of our favorite covers that we love performing as musicians. Our goal is to set an 'MTV Unplugged' atmosphere with the audience sitting right next to us. After playing at the venue a couple times, we felt Fermata sets a great vibe for this."

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On March 4 Fermata unveils a beer collaboration with Mezzanine Motorsports, for which a Porsche will be parked in Fermata's taproom. Kind of fitting, since Fermata is located at 918 Merchant in a building that began as Tepe Chevrolet in 1922, and was later the Stettler Motors dealership selling Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and Cadillacs.

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'Otto' boosts business

People keep talking about those delicious-looking eclairs from Stangl's Bakery featured in the new Tom Hanks movie "A Man Called Otto."

The Ambridge bakery's owner, Lorianne Stangl Burgess, said 17,000 people have interacted with the Stangl’s Facebook account since the movie's nationwide premiere last weekend.

Stangl's is at 572 Merchant St.

Remembering Crosby

January has been cruel to classic-rock fans, with the deaths of Jeff Beck, and then this past Thursday David Crosby.

Whether performing solo or with the famed Crosby, Stills & Nash (and sometimes) Young, the thick-mustached, outspoken Crosby always played for full venues in western Pennsylvania.

Sewickley concert promoter Rich Engler estimates he booked Crosby 30-plus times, in various lineups and including former venues like the Pittsburgh Civic Arena, I.C. Light Amphitheatre and the Syria Mosque, plus places like Johnstown, Erie, Hershey, Charleston, W.Va., Huntington, W.Va. and the Wheeling Island Casino in a show with Graham Nash.

"He always did great, but was best as a unit, that's for sure," Engler said.

Crosby's hippie-with-an-edge attitude stood out backstage at Crosby, Stills & Nash shows.

"When he did say something, it was often very controversial," Engler recalled, "but usually he was the most quiet of them all."

Engler's most vivid Crosby memory was at a CSN&Y show at the Civic Arena, where the band started on stage together for a 40-minute set, before each individual member took a turn in the spotlight as the others left the stage.

When it became time for Crosby to go back out on stage, he refused, Engler said.

"He was just sitting in the dressing room near the catering area. Graham (Nash) came up to me and said 'David doesn't want to come out; he's slumped back there.' So I said, 'Well, go do something.'"

Engler said he later learned Nash purposely dumped a tray of ice over Crosby's head, which evidently did the trick, as Crosby went on stage and played his solo set then joined the full band for a crowd-pleasing finale.

Besides his obvious singing-songwriting-strumming talents, Crosby's popularity in Pittsburgh, especially with CSN&Y, could be traced to his work ethic, as someone who toured often, Engler said.

"And they had a whole array of guitars. Like a major truck-full," Engler said. "They always had a Who's Who of bassists and drummers with them, too, like Waddy Wachtel and Russ Kunkel."

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and easy to reach at stady@timesonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Tady: Fee fie foe fum, Beaver Station hosts an Englishman