With it now being basically the only spot in town featuring touring indie bands (someone please step up and open another place or two, thanks!), Kingston venue Tubby’s has, since the post-quarantine reopening, been overwhelmed with all of the cool acts coming at it to compete for open dates. Thankfully, the Tub is a mecca of discerning taste, and the bands it features tend to be a cut above. Case in point: the tasty bill of Meg Baird and Chris Forsyth on October 28.
San Francisco folksinger Meg Baird has folk music in her blood: Her great-great uncle was Isaac Garfield “I.G.” Greer, a historian and Appalachian folk singer born in 1881 who was included on one of the earliest albums issued by the Library of Congress’s Archive of Folk Culture. She’s recorded with harpist Mary Lattimore; helped form Heron Oblivion as a drummer and vocalist; and played in Philadelphia bands Espers and Watery Love.
Philadelphia’s Chris Forsyth is one of today’s foremost guitar innovators. His newest studio album, Evolution Here We Come, features contributions from Douglas McCombs (Tortoise), Marshall Allen (Sun Ra Arkestra), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Linda Pitmon (Baseball Project), Tom Malach (Garcia Peoples), Stuart Bogie (Antibalas), and Ryan Jewell (Ryley Walker).
For her current tour, Baird created her own unique version of a band with Forsyth, Ryan Jewell, Douglas McCombs, and Charlie Saufley, who will back her and Forsyth for sets of their own songs ahead of a jam by all of the players.
Meg Baird and Chris Forsyth will perform at Tubby’s in Kingston on October 28 at 7pm. Tickets are $15.
This article appears in October 2022.
