Above The Basement - Boston Music and Conversation

Chuck had a solo conversation with the great New England band Twisted Pine.   

He sat with fiddle player Kathleen Parks, mandolin player Dan Bui and bassist Chris Sartori not too long ago. We missed T…

In early November we ran across an article in the Boston Globe about a collaboration between the Boston Hip Hop group STL GLD and The Boston Symphony Orchestra. The headline alone caught our interest…

It has been an insane few weeks, which is an understatement to say the least since that could apply to the entirety of 2020 if not the last four years. We don’t mean to lay our politics out there, bu…

Mission of Burma has been called, and we quote, "...one of the most important American rock bands of the last 20 years." That quote may be a bit dated, as now it may be 40 years, but either way, Clin…

We had an opportunity to sit with Abby (Abs) Kahler and Zoe Young - two of the members of the feminist folk foursome from Western, MA in the Pioneer Valley, Ruby Mack. 

We were sad to miss their bandm…

Boston native Mark Kates is the founder of Fenway Recordings and manages several bands, including MGMT, The Cribs, Mission of Burma, Doves, Swim Mountain and KUNZITE.

He had been in the biz since he w…

We took a lovely drive to western ma to sit alongside a flowing river with our new best friend Erin McKeown.  

OK, she might not be our best friend, but we certainly wish she was.  Erin is a force of …

We took a lovely drive to Western MA to sit alongside a flowing river with our new best friend Erin McKeown. 

OK, she might not be our best friend, but we certainly wish she was.  Erin is a force of n…

Every time we ask someone in the music business what is the most exciting thing happening in music in the City of Boston, we always get the same answer.  Hip-Hop. Not only has Hip Hop become the most…

Every once in a while we get to chat with a Boston legend.

Chris Smither is one of the most distinguished and authentic singer-songwriter/bluesmen over the past 50+ years. His soulful voice and excell…

Ron and I sat in the back room of 40 South Street in Jamaica Plain, buried in denim, and various other piles of vintage clothing with our masks over our faces on a beautiful day not too long ago.  Th…

Chuck drove out to Western Massachusetts to sit on Lisa’s front porch surrounded by chickens, a vocal rooster, two small children having an amazing time doing whatever small children feel like doing,…

Paul Hansen is The Grownup Noise – a Boston band formed in 2005 with bassist Adam Sankowski – that has had an impressive list of members too long to mention.

The Grownup Noise website says their name …

Boston Hip Hop artist Cliff Notez is another guest we had been trying to get on ATB for a long time.    He’s a busy busy guy – writing, composing, teaching at Berklee College of Music and Emerson Col…

For our first in-person but appropriately distanced conversation since COVID hit, we were fortunate to sit with fellow Bostonian, author, documentary filmmaker and National Arts reporter for the Wash…

This is our second conversation with a former guest that we thought was important to have due to recent events.

We spoke with Ashleigh Gordon - violist, activist and Artistic Director of Castle of Our…

The COVID pandemic hit all of us quickly and our plans for the spring, summer and perhaps beyond, were scuttled.  We know of many musicians who were planning to tour a new album and unfortunately the…