Hingham native Bow Thayer has become the music man of the mountains, the Green Mountains and the White River to be more specific. He’s been churning out original music, developing a retreat for like-minded folk in the forests of Vermont, tinkering with musical inventions, and finally getting back into some live performance near his home area. One of the region’s most unusual musical artists is back with a passel of new music and various projects underway.
Thayer will be leading an all-star band of his longtime cohorts on Friday, Oct. 24, at the Fallout Shelter in Norwood, his first appearance around his home region in about three years. (The Fallout Shelter is located at 61 Endicott St. in Norwood, and the show is scheduled for 7 p.m., with tickets starting at $36.20. Check grcpac.org for more information.)
Thayer moved from rock to more acoustic settings musically over the course of his lengthy career, but this proud Hingham High Class of 1985 graduate has always been a creative wellspring, turning out dozens of songs every year. When he found the flavors of banjo and guitar made his music shine, but the constant switching back and forth made for onerous performance hurdles, he invented the Bojotar. That hybrid instrument was considered such a breakthrough that it got acclaim from many music stars, and Eastwood Guitar put it into production in 2015.
When we caught up with Thayer by phone last week, we had to ask about the Bojotar.
“There have been huge developments in the Bojotar,” said Thayer with enthusiasm. “It never turned into a money-maker, not that we ever thought it would. But I’ve kept at it, and made a great album using it. Now, I’ve made it into a baritone, so it can achieve more of the sound of a bass as well. It is now an instrument that can cover everything from bass to banjo notes, so the range of what it can do is expanded even more in my latest version.”
Thayer’s more recent music releases have been singles, along with some striking videos, such as his surreal “Spaceman,” or the latest, “Earthling” which features video of his son and dog exploring the Vermont woods and swimming together in a wild river. Thayer’s work these days tends to be contemplative, and in a subdued, Americana folkie style, although the guitar tones in “We Is What We Are” does subtly amp up to rock ‘n’ roll energy. “Missing America” has a definite Grateful Dead-like feel, as it ponders simpler times.
“I’ve been releasing mostly singles lately,” Thayer explained. “I have enough new music for a couple of albums, but it is a matter of mixing and getting the record ready to go. I like to have someone else mix my records, someone with better ears, more technically inclined. But I like to just do the singles myself, and get them out there. I am still writing a lot of new music, and my last full album came out in 2020, so I have a lot to get out there. I would estimate I have two full albums worth of singles released digitally right now.”
Thayer also has a side project inspired by his dual role as a painter as well as musician. His website (bowthayer.com) offers some of his paintings for sale, as well as music samples and videos, and there’s a link to his Patreon page (Know Town) where his longer instrumental pieces can be heard.
“I’ve been doing these things for a few years, as kind of a departure from my usual music,” said Thayer. “They are all instrumental numbers, and I see it as more of an art project. The songs are all long instrumentals, and I liken them to ‘sound paintings.’ They are all on the streaming platforms, where you get something like an eighth-of-a-penny per spin, but I feel like if you go on a hike and have your earbuds, this is something you’d like to hear.”
Thayer lives in Gaysville, Vermont, which he points out is a hamlet, and part of the town of Stockbridge, which has a population of less than 800, according to Wikipedia. He lives close by the White River. Not long ago, he bought 40 acres about 10 miles northwest of there, in an old logging area, and he’s been turning it into a getaway destination for people who want to really get back to the land. Thayer has erected a geodesic dome on the property, which he rents out for events, and he’s been busily cutting trails through the forest to provide more fun for hikers.
“I’ve been up here in my green bubble and haven’t played in the Boston area for about three years,” Thayer pointed out. “I toured Alaska last year, but touring with a band is so expensive, and so many of the small music clubs are gone. We can do concerts and dances at the geodesic dome, so that’s one thing I’m looking at. I got this whole philosophy from (The Band’s late drummer) Levon Helm, when I played with him. He got so sick of touring, he decided to just have people come to his home in Woodstock (New York) to hear him, and it worked wonderfully.”
When he began considering a return to the Boston area for a concert, the Fallout Shelter was an obvious choice for Thayer.
“This Fallout Shelter show will be a one-off; not part of a tour,” said Thayer. “I won’t just be playing my new music, but giving the people what they want, cherry-picking from all the dozen albums I’ve had going back to the early 2000s. My band that night – not all people I play with currently, but real pros who can really adapt and add new energy – will include Jeff Berlin on drums, Jeremy Dryden on bass, Steve Ferrara on percussion, James Rohr on keyboards, and Krishna Guthrie on guitar and vocals. Krishna is Woody Guthrie’s grandson, and Arlo’s son, and we play together up here in Vermont quite often as a duo.”
As always, a Bow Thayer concert will be something unique, musically and thematically.
“I think a big problem right now is human disconnection from nature,” Thayer said. “If my music has a common theme it is that; the root of our problems spiritually and beyond is that we forget we are all part of this same planet. We have to be more focused on our environment, and that is something we all have in common.”
Chicago bluesman Toronzo Cannon has developed quite a little foothold in Plymouth, and after 100-minute show on Oct. 11 before a near-capacity crowd of about 200 fans at the Spire Center it was easy to see why. Cannon’s bold and dynamic guitar style is paired with original songs that bring modern life into the blues, with an appealing shade of self-deprecating humor. Pressed to categorize his music as blues, rock, funk, or soul, the only reasonable answer would be yes … as in, all of that. But the way he had the audience in the palm of his hand was due as much to the way he made the 15-song set seem like an extended storytelling session. A lot of the things he sings about have happened to him, he asserted, and some others have been more products of his vivid imagination, or his way of looking at life and love as infinitely amusing.
As many fans already know, Cannon developed his musical skills while also driving a bus for the Chicago Transit Authority for 27 years fulltime (and 29 overall). But by this point, signed to the nation’s premier blues label, Alligator Records, and with a handful of galvanizing albums and hundreds of concerts under his belt, Cannon is an experienced showman and warm and engaging host for the evening. Or in other words, how many frontmen could perform their contemporary take on “Insurance” as an infectious midtempo shuffle, and insert a funny-but-semi-serious reminder to older fans to get colonoscopies? Or consider Cannon’s guise as the ultimate romantic cynic in his “I Hate Love,” with its stiletto guitar lines, which he put into perspective with an introduction of “I may have to stop doing this tune – I just got married four months ago.” There were places in this show where I thought of the late Memphis rhythm and blues star, Rufus Thomas, (whose best known hit was probably “Walkin’ The Dog,”) for Cannon’s similar ability to mix sizzling music with smart social commentary and inclusive humor.
Truly, the comedy was as much a release valve from the personal problems depicted in the songs as the music was, and the attendees were happily on board as Cannon let us all balance poignant moments with chuckling at human frailty in general.
“That’s just something I picked up from seeing all the people I saw playing, like Buddy Guy,” said Cannon afterwards. “Some guitar players might get up there, do their thing, and never say an extra word. I can’t be like that, and I saw how people like Buddy could reach out to the audience and form that bond with them, ’cause we’re all in this together.”
Cannon’s set included four of the songs from his latest album, last year’s “Shut Up and Play.” Like a couple other tunes that touch upon current events, that title cut mentions and decries certain problems, but doesn’t castigate anyone or any side, while simply preaching that having people come together is the best way to find solutions. The rockin’ “Get Together or Get Apart” that opened the show was more focused on personal relationships, but set the tone for Cannon’s fiery guitar lines. He plays with a gorgeously bright and direct tone, reminiscent of both his role model Guy and the late Chicago six-string giant, Son Seals, and his vocals are similarly unvarnished and to the point. As he noted at one point, his lyrics don’t aim for expressing his themes through metaphors, but more likely throw a haymaker at the subject. “Got Me By The Short Hairs” was a full-bore rocker that proved that point, and had the power and sweep of the sort of blues Led Zeppelin did. But that led into the midtempo, talking blues “Midlife Crisis,” which contained some of the most hilarious lines, such as when the singer’s much-younger date’s actions in a club remind him how close she is to his daughter’s age.
The torrid blues-rocker “Something to Do Man” was another neat tongue-in-cheek story-song, about how a lover told the singer he was just “something to do” for her, thus deflating his fragile male ego. The repeated bass figure that drove “Can’t Fix the World” made that song a funk-soul delight, and also helped showcase Cannon’s superb quartet. Lyrically, again, that tune lists many things plaguing modern society, and depicts the singer’s frustration at not being able to do more to help, but sidesteps political content for a purely human reaction. “Walk It Off” followed a similar type of theme, with a stop-and-start verse structure, resolving into blistering guitar wails that evoked that frustration.
Cannon took a side trip to sultry soul with “Fine Seasoned Woman,” his ode, as he noted, to “women over 45,” and it provoked a big crowd response. But another tune that had its origins in his bus-driving days was even more risqué, as “Keeping It Hard When It’s Cold” took his candid-but-humorous approach almost into Millie Jackson territory, yet with more six-string pyrotechnics. For his take on the old classic “Johnny Conqueroo,” Cannon brought the thunder and took it into Jimi Hendrix’ realm, with a short but mind-bending segment of wah-wah/phase-shifter/sustain/feedback. That ended the regular set, but a lengthy standing ovation brought the quartet back for a joyful charge through the brisk shuffle “Earnestine,” and it was obvious Plymouth music fans will want to have Cannon back soon.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Hingham’s Bow Thayer to play show at Fallout Shelter in Norwood
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