Cinematic feel flows through Ware River Club's new CD

Songs on 'Cathedral' capture changing spirit of growing band

By Steve Morse, Globe Staff  |  May 7, 2004

Midway between Worcester and Springfield is the town of Ware -- population around 6,000. It is home to a funky bar called the Ware River Social Club, which sparked the name of a band talented enough to put the town on the national map.

Matt Hebert, frontman and songwriter supreme for the Ware River Club, recalls one bar patron yelling at a show, "You're our Springsteen, and you've got to save our town!"

The group, now based out of Northampton, has an impressive new album, "Cathedral." Hebert is a gifted writer with a mellow, lightly raspy voice that sounds like a Bay State John Prine, but he's learned how to take care of it. "I actually pay attention to my voice now," Hebert says. "Back when I started, I would smoke a pack of cigarettes and gargle whiskey before going onstage. I don't do that anymore."

Hebert and his Ware River Club mates reflect on some hard but conscious living on "Cathedral," the group's third album. The band has a Tuesday residency at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge this month -- and they launched it in contemplative style this week, offering songs of fragile relationships tempered by hope and resilience.

"We were conflicted about how to make this album," says Hebert, sitting backstage at the Lizard with bandmates Matt Cullen (guitar, keyboards), Bob Hennessy (guitars), Don McAulay (drums), and Scott Helland (bass). "We thought of making an early-era Replacements-style record with some guitar that would be slamming, but then we recorded a song called `Broken Light,' and that was a different style.

Then we decided we liked the ethereal style of mellower tracks like that, so that's the direction we took." The album reveals Hebert's cinematic feel for lyrics, especially in "Midnight" and "Cathedral" (a metaphor for a couple's relationship). The songs are probing, angular, and strikingly unusual. It's a mature rock album and has just been released by SpiritHouse Records out of Easthampton.

The Ware River Club includes a Who's Who of Central Mass. musicians, including Cullen (who's also played in Boston with Amy Fairchild) and Helland, who was in cult band Deep Wound with alt-rock icons J Mascis and Lou Barlow. Catching them in the intimate Lizard is the right setting for the bittersweet, pop-parlor music of their new CD.

Read Yellow on the verge: After a couple of successful tours of England, Read Yellow is ready to bring it back home tonight with a CD release show at the I.C.C. Church in Allston (557 Cambridge St.). It's fitting the group should choose an alternative site because that's how it started three years ago.

The group formed at UMass-Amherst and would play church basements and sites such as the Westfield VFW Hall. The hard-charging, punk-laced noise-rock band -- whose influences range from Sonic Youth to Mission of Burma, Nirvana, and experimental jazz bands -- has much higher goals than just booking alternative venues, but this show gives the group a chance to play to an all-ages audience. Also, says Read Yellow drummer Paul Koelle, "We get to have more say in how the show is set up."

Read Yellow released an EP last year but just came out this week with its first full-length release, "Radios Burn Faster," on Boston-based Fenway Recordings. The album is a monster shot of adrenaline, with buzz-saw guitar bursts from Evan Kenney and Jesse Vuona complementing the get-out-of-my-way rhythm section of Koelle and bassist Michelle Kay Freivald. It was produced by legendary local producer Paul Kolderie, who let the band experiment -- within reason. "We've a backward autoharp track on [the song] 'The Association' and siren noises on 'The Art,' " Koelle says. "But Paul cautioned to not overdo it. He'd say, 'Let it fit where it accents the song.' And he was right."

Bits and pieces:

Winners of the preliminary rounds of the WBCN Rock and Roll Rumble at the Middle East Upstairs so far include the Dents, Jabe, and Seemless. The judging (the panel included me) was very close on Sunday, with Illuminada finishing only six points behind the Dents. The female-fronted Illuminada had an impressive range, from an ethereal, Beth Gibbons-like sound to Gwen Stefani-style power pop. . . . Wynonna and Loretta Lynn play the Meadowbrook Musical Arts Center in Gilford, N.H., July 30. Tickets $33-$68, on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. . . . Suzanne Vega, Patty Larkin, and John Gorka are at Provincetown's Town Hall May 30 to benefit station WOMR. Tickets $33-$100, on sale now . . .

Tonight: Sparkola at the Lizard Lounge, Monster Mike Welch Band at the Sea Note in Hull. . . .

Tomorrow: Buffalo Tom at the Paradise Lounge; Addison Groove Project at the Paradise Rock Club; Blondie at Avalon; and "The 45 Clash Pt. 2" at the Western Front. It's a reggae DJ battle in which only 45-rpm reggae singles can be played. Competitors include Larry, Jah Rich the Birdwatcher, MadSkim, and Tony King. . . .

Sunday: April Hall with Peter Bell at the Barking Crab, and veteran songstress Janis Ian at Club Passim (she's also there Tuesday). . . .

Monday: Trans Am at the Middle East Downstairs, Toussaint at Brother Jimmy's BBQ.