Wow there’s a lot of music going on in western Mass, and we can’t get enough so we’ll tell you about another festival happening this weekend in Florence

Etchings is the project of the area’s own ECCE Ensemble, who were also eager to get their ears on new work by composers of all walks. And we’ll talk with Cassandra Holden of Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity, and festival and ensemble founder John Aylward about the things you’ll hear over  the next 3 days,  and the winding road the festival took to land in Western Mass. 

We’ll also dig into one of nature’s most portable snacks, smack dab in the middle of the four counties. Blue Heaven Blueberries has been growing their bounty over 3 generations and a little over 60 years, and we’ll meet Donna and Joe Pease who’ve currently tend the acres of bushes in Middlefield

Plus word nerd Emily Brewster, Senior Editor at Merriam-Webster takes a pause from her drudge to explore the fun of collective nouns and the ways we have cataloged them through the centuries. 

85 years ago Serge Koussevitzky started a tradition at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s home away from home on the Lenox-Stockbridge line, that has become a herald of the Summer for music lovers everywhere. 

Tanglewood on Parade happens today, and though it began as the  “Allied Relief Fund Benefit,” it’s now a fundraiser for all of the learning that is done at the BSO’s summer home, bringing activities for folx of all ages, and performances by every ensemble on the campus all day long

So today, we head to the Berkshires to get a snapshot of the festivities that always end with canon fire from the 1812 Overture and fireworks. We’ll speak with Maestros Thomas Wilkins and Na’Zir McFadden about their respective tenures with the institution and the work they’ll be leading in tonight's concert, hear performances from concertmaster Nathan Cole, and principal flutist Lorna McGhee, plus hear what happens beyond the music for the community with senior director for patron experience Amy Aldrich, and hear from each one about the incredible location and comradery that Tanglewood builds. 

We're focusing on the amazing 01002 today.

(That is the zip code for the People’s Republic of Amherst)

Amherst has a lot going on.

We’ll take a walk in Wildwood Cemetery where former Amherst resident, artist Matt Mitchell, has a brand new sculpture about to be unveiled. Along with cemetery director Rebebba Fricke and groundskeeper Silas Ball we talk with all three about bringing sculptures to surround the sepulchers, and how this place of contemplation was meant to be of conservation as well. 

Not far from that resting place at Amherst Cinema, their silver screen is filled with the sounds of music, and important pieces of music history on celluloid. We’ll talk with George Myers, the curator of the movie series Sound and Vision, which brings musical stories of all types into the spotlight, about the cinema’s Kurosawa film series and how his other film venture, Vision Video, is doing bringing film in physical media form back to the Valley. 

And from a kitchen table in Amherst we head to the stars with Mr. Universe. Amherst astronomer Salman Hameed, of Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College, gives us the scoop on what’s happening with Betelgeuse. Here's a hint, it's gonna be explosive. 

We’re learning history through our bodies, and arts and culture everywhere. 

The twelfth annual Pocumtuck Homelands Festival happens this weekend in Great Falls, honoring the many peoples who have stewarded and called these lands home for millennia with dance, song, vendors who are masters of their craft and more. We’ll chat with Kitty Hendrick Miller of the Mashpee-Wampanoag peoples, about the place events like this have in educating the public, and her ties to Public Media

And at Jacob’s Pillow Festival, an innovative blend of afro- and afro-latin social dance has just premiered. Urban Love Suite is a look at movement through the styles of the diaspora from the earliest stolen peoples to the partnered dances of today, and we’ll speak with the artistic force behind the work Sekou McMiller, as well as dramaturg  (and associate curator AND scholar in residence to the festival itself) Melanie George, about the core of the work and the process of bringing it to the Ted Shawn Stage.

And the Tina Turner Wine Thunderdome checks unique wines and mission of one label. Stolpman Vineyards with Mary and Ben Daire at Dare Bottleshop and Provisions in Lenox. Plus we'll learn about an event they're curating at Tanglewood as well: Tasting Notes on August 16th. 

We’ve got a bunch of current issues we’re tackling, some on stage, some in the houses of law. 

Two professors at Bard Microcollege in Holyoke are producing a theatrical work that dovetails with their teachings tidily. BELLY is a work that condenses a decade of research on Black motherhood, and reproductive autonomy into an experience of music, dance, and spoken word, while stretching those findings through the  the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the friendships and families of today. 

We speak with writer/producer Haile Eshe Cole and assistant producer Nicole Young Martin about the choreopoem itself and the ties to their academic lives in Holyoke, including a dissertation pivot. We also explore the lack of space for newer theater works, and the importance of recognizing cultural importance amidst universal experience. 

And our weekly conversation with Congressman Jim McGovern interrupts his congressional break to talk about the famine and ongoing issues in Gaza, questions about the Epstein files, the ever looming storm of impact the budget cuts will have to Energy initiatives and snap and more. 

Oh, and what he’s planning to do with the rest of that downtime. Seeing as he’s on vacation and all, sorta. 

We’re reminding you that Africa is not a single country, so stop treating it like that. In fact there’s an opportunity coming up for you to learn more about and interact with the culture of several of the nations that make up the continent in Springfield. 

The African Community Festival happens August 9 celebrating people of the African diaspora and their many cultures. We’ll speak with organizers Naefia Padi, Emmanuel Owusu, and Doreen Dawes about the music, food, festivities, and community action that will happen at the event. 

We’ll also head to Westfield where their local farmers market has become a volunteer fueled labor of community. Market Manager Lisa Zlody, and volunteers Sarah Adams, and Priest Sandy Albim show us the many flavors of the current market in it’s current location, the impact of HIP and SNAP, and the coalition of folx coming together to make sure their neighbors are getting healthy produce. 

And with word nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam Webster, we swallow an orchard's worth of other fruits that English didn’t have terms for to specifically look at how apples came to be associated with laryngeal protuberances. 

Which is to say we look at the term Adams apple. 

This weekend, visual art isn’t the only type of art that you can see in the halls and galleries at Mass MoCA, as a 40 year musical collective known for expanding the definition of ensemble, vocal, and solo music commandeers the museum to push those boundaries in sound further. 

Today on the Fabulous 413, we head to North Adams, to get a sneak peek at Bang on a Can’s Loud Weekend, where the fellows who’ve been participating in their summer workshop, and fellow collaborators from around the globe gather to delve into the notes of “New Music” and perform them throughout the space, permeating the museum with performances. 

We’ll hear from Bang on a Can co-founders David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Michael Gordon about this year’s lineup, the nuances of composing music together,  and sit in on a rehearsal of a work that's an example of that collaboration  that will close out the festival: Shelter

And we’ll meet Jason Treuting who joins the line-up with his ensemble So Percussion, and hear about how the beat can be a breakthrough to new innovations in instrumental music. Plus we'll hear a live solo performance from him in an excerpt of his work Amid The Noise 

Over the course of this show, we’ve made many mentions of how important local agriculture is, and how crucial local involvement with that agriculture is. One of the best ways we as consumers can make that happen is through the implementation of CSAs: Community Supported Agriculture and the Farm Share model. 

So today we visit a farm in Great Barrington that was one of the first to start what you generally see as the CSA model today. Indian Line Farm was agricultural land through most of the 20th century, but in the 80’s it switched from Dairy to Produce and started towards what can be found on its grounds today. We head to its current grounds to speak farmer Elizabeth Keen, as well as Dan Carr of Berkshire Agricultural Ventures about the farm’s history, present, and future.  

Our local astronomer, Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed of Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College shows us space’s influence on more terrestrial organisms including a moth that uses the milky way to navigate its migration in Australia. 

Also, we reflect on the legacy and impact of the late Tom Lehrer. 

As we mentioned on today's show, Monte spent his first year as the Morning host seat at WRSI - The River creating a new parody song each week, for reasons entirely his own. 

This is the song we alluded to in the July 28th show, which features then Mayor of Northampton Claire Higgins, Johnny Memphis, Dar Williams, and other notable figures from the area singing about how warm the Christmas season was. In hindsight, it's an early take on climate change, but let's not lend too much gravitas to a fun, tidily-crafted novelty song, shall we? 

Enjoy!

The Fab 413 Team. 

Electronic Music has come a long long way since the first synthesizers and theremins of the early 20th Century, and today we’ll get into the wide array of sounds this style of music includes at a festival being thrown this weekend at The Shea Theater. 

Extension Cords II happens this Saturday bringing an eclectic mix of 6 musicians, each with their own flavor of sound to the stage. We’ll speak with headliner Daedalus, aka Alfred Darlington, who in addition to working with the likes of Saul Williams and MF Doom, is currently a professor Berklee College of Music teaching the next generation of Beatmakers, and discover how he developed his aesthetic, and how visuals and analog elements can be key parts to his compositions. 

We’ll also hear another artist from the lineup for Live Music Friday as we’re joined by Barbie. AI. Plus we’ll learn about the origins of the event with organizer and visual designer for the Whole shebang: Chris Hinkle

And the Wine Thunderdome takes on a tint and heads north to the Leverett Village Co-Op to sip roses with our Franklin County Wine Friend Ken Washburn, while listening to a ton of cool bird calls that would have made really great samples.