All those review below. Where did I go to? More to the point: where am I going? I am a songwriter and I play lots of weird old fiddle tunes on the harmonica as well. I like to jam on them. Good dance music that has a trance like groove. Some of the tunes are hundreds of years old, some brand new. These are old musical structures which have deep powers. My songs are not folk songs; they are modern songs about.......love, war, conflicting emotions, the stories behind the stories we hear in the media. Maybe it all comes down to hormones. You tell me. What's really happening, Mrs. Jones? It's been a hard winter. I spend time with a lot of musicians who are trying to share a musical space where we can escape the crazy making falsehoods of the politicians and the lawyers and the the clever magicians on Wall Street who are making all the money disappear. I play solo and also with keyboardist, Mary Serreze, who is a beautiful woman of amazing and numerous abilities. I play with some of the rockers in the area, road warriors, like Mike Bliss, one of the founders of The Elders, the internationally touring Celtic Rock group, when possible with many of me old mates, like the Max Creek boys or Jeff Pevar of all the famous rock groups, blah, blah blah. Life has not calmed down for me. I still live on the edge and feel more passion than is good for me. Sometimes I want to shoot myself with a tranquilizer gun. I love my kids and I love my baby. I love my biscuits sopped in gravy. I know that we are all gonna have to work like hell to keep the lights on and the music playing. I tell myself: one day at a time. That sound so hokey, but the weather changes fast these days. Welcome to Storm Town USA.
Where have you gone, John Coster? Entertainment
Thursday, October 19
NORTHAMPTON, Mass.
I last spoke with John Coster more than two-and-a half years ago when we discussed his fine album "The World has Changed."
Then he kind of disappeared.
In a recent e-mail interview I asked Coster where he'd been. "My world and the world at large has changed -- I had a serious hand injury which almost took off my right thumb," he explained. "Fortunately, I was near Boston and was treated at one of the best hand surgery clinics in the world. It took a year to regain full functionality."
His world changed in other significant ways. "I'm in a new life back in New England, after 10 years in New York, new relationship, new musical cohorts," said the Harvard grad.
During his recovery, Coster worked on his harp playing. "It's what I could do. I started revisiting the traditional music I played so much when I was starting out," he said. "I'd always played some of those tunes on the harmonica. I used the time to get a lot better at it."
Coster first picked up the guitar in eighth grade. Soon he was making his way into Manhattan to check out the street scene and hear some of the vibrant new singer-songwriters like Bob
Dylan, as well as keepers of the flame such as Mississippi John Hurt and Doc Watson. He also spent time traveling through Nova Scotia discovering the joys of Gaelic music.
After college and a jaunt to the West Coast, Coster returned to New England where began playing in a variety of bands including two popular roots-oriented favorites from the '80s and '90s of The Medicine Band and Jacob's Reunion. He followed with some bluesy-folk solo work like that found on 2002's "The World Has Changed."
According to Coster his injury and year-long recovery allowed him time to revisit some of the influences that moved him at the outset of his career and create some new music that pulls the disparate parts together. "I think I am now able to unify the different periods of my development. My best new songs draw heavily on the oldest music traditions I have worked with and that feels right."
He and his new musical partner, fiddler Katherine First, will be trying out some of that new material at Sanctuary: Hooker-Dunham Theater in Brattleboro, Vt., this Saturday night.
"Katherine and I do a lot tunes together with the harp and fiddle in tandem; it's a cool sound, and that music is so powerful, I've always felt it was a good complement to my own songs," said Coster. "That tradition has always informed my own writing even when a full rock band has been the vehicle. Katherine came to traditional music from a classical background but she also plays in a pretty rowdy Celtic rock band so she can handle songs as well as fiddle tunes. We have a good time in the acoustic setting."
Coster sees the return to his roots as timely in a world that has changed rapidly, and not for the better. "This country in the last few years has drifted so far from its moorings, following the false flag of a supposedly conservative agenda, it seems right to sing a ballad like the 'Lakes of Ponchartrain' from the 19th century in the same set with a new song about the various deceptions which underlie the post 9/11 world. I'm glad to be back in New England where people are deeply rooted and independent thinkers."
Dave Madeloni - Brattleboro Reformer (Nov 4, 2006)
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There are bigger names than John Coster in the
singer-songwriter field, but there is no greater
talent. Coster recorded his debut album with his old
band, Jacob’s Reunion, at West Brattleboro’s Chelsea
House in 1975. Bill Gehman, who masterfully engineered
the original taping, carefully burned the LP, complete
with slight hints of vinyl surface noise, and reissued
the album on a must-have CD. At the record’s heart is
an extended reimagining of “Will the Circle Be
Unbroken” which must be heard to be believed. And the
brilliant “Solid Night” stands with the finest
recordings of the decade. Jacob’s Reunion (JR), a
treasure of a debut, though popular, should have
reached many more ears than it did.
Coster’s new act, a duo with fiddler Katherine First,
comes to Hooker-Dunham on Oct. 21. First may be best
known to southern Vermonters from her days with the
Springfield (MA) Symphony Orchestra or perhaps from
leading weekly Celtic music sessions in Northampton.
“Katherine and I have been working together for a bit
over a year,” explained Coster. “Sometimes she works
with me as part of a larger band format with full
rhythm section and electric guitar, but it’ll be fun
to play the Hooker in this configuration. The songs
don’t get lost and we can still rip out some hard
driving tunes.
“The sound of the harp and violin together is
something new,” continued Coster referring to his
harmonica playing. “We did a little in the JR days,
but now I really know how to play whole pieces of
music, jigs, and reels, etc., something I couldn’t do
then.”
Coster’s latest CD, The World Has Changed, is a gem.
While it was being made, his fellow singer and
ex-Brattleborian Susannah Keith e-mailed to say that
Coster was recording his masterpiece. The disc
features a longer jammed-up reworking of his excellent
“Old Stones, Broken Bones” that early fans will crave.
The new “Rodeo” squeezes a grand cinematic scale into
a few minutes and, musically, crosses Canadian great
Ian Tyson with late-60s Bob Dylan. It is folk-rock at
its best.
Coster and First at Hooker-Dunham is a distinguished
booking and earns this writer’s highest
recommendation.
Allan Lewis - Vermont Guardian (Oct 16, 2006)
Other Press:
"For years John Coster has toiled just below the radar of radio friendly folk rock. Possessing an expressive voice, excellent guitar and harmonica skills and a talent for word and tune smithing that even Dylan might envy, it is a wonder that he is not a household name. All this may change, with his newest solo CD The World Has Changed which features eleven finely honed songs. Backed by a stellar group of musicians including Jeff Pevar, former Dylan drum man Richard Crooks, fretless bassist Dave Livolsi and the harmony vocals of Coster's ex-partner Susannah Keith, the album opens with the funky "Midnight Blues." Along the way are some beautiful ballads like "Everywhere I Go," and "Some Grand Design," as well as the slinky new-grass style ragtime of the title track and a final Coster/Keith duet on "Saratoga." Two older tunes are given nice new millennium reworkings; "Prophets and Dreams," and a "live in the studio," Grateful Dead style treatment of his classic "Old Stones, Broken Bones." The CD finishes with Coster's rich acoustic guitar and a world weary tale of a long forgotten "Revolutionary." "
Lahri Bond - Dirty Linen
"Five Stars. John Coster’s songs are passionate songs written by a passionate artist. The World Has Changed is no almost CD. It’s all there. An inventively captivating release by a compelling artist."
N/A - Roots Music Report
"The world may have changed but certain things remain the same. Good music, for instance requires good songs, skillful players and a singer who believes in what he or she’s singing. Coster and his cohorts succeed on all accounts."
MI - Sing Out Magazine
"Coster is a major league talent. He is a songwriter of uncommon sensitivity and eloquence. His graceful style spans lyrical pop and rock dimensions and with the right breaks, Coster could become a national figure."
Steve Morse - Boston Globe
"I usually don't respond so quickly to a CD as I did with this one. It was familiar. John's music reminded me of many of the greats including Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Little Feat, J J Cale and so on, yet it was most definitely his own. John's stories of life on the road and his adventures could easily be made into a novel or a movie. He is a veteran performer with as many incarnations as an alley cat. The World Has Changed is remarkably smooth in its production and delivery. It is timeless as well. It is full of nostalgia yet it constantly reminds us of where we are today. "
Craig Sears has spoken so highly and often of you that I feel like I know you. If we're ever doing a show in your area, I hope you'll join us for Ontario.
HI !! Hey & Hi hermano JOHN THANKS TO ADD I LIKE YOUR TRACKS ON YOUR PAGE IT’S A GOOD SOUND
I’m a journalist of “BUSCADERO” the very best italian rock magazine, and other, desultorily I wrote on “FB Folk Bullettin” (folk magazine).
this is list to my last reviews: BUSCADERO July/Ago 2008: Floggin Molly: review live concert at Musicdrome - Milano 20,05.’08 Railroad Earth “Amen Corner” cd Michael Doucet “From You Noe On” cd Tony DeMarco “The Sligo Indians” cd Ned Ludd “Lavoro & Dignità” cd Riccardo Tesi “Presente Remoto” cd BUSCADERO June 2008: Davide Van de-Sfroos: review live concert at DatchForum, Assago-Milano 19,04.’08 Yonder Mountain String Band “Mountain Tracks: vol.5” 2cd Flavio Oreglio & LUF “Giù (non è stato facile cadere così in basso)” cd BUSCADERO May 2008: Waybacks: “Loaded” cd Clarence Gatemouth Brown “Live from Austin-City Limits” dvd Flaco Jimenez: “Ya Volvi De La Guerra” cd BUSCADERO April 2008: Eric Sardinas: “Eric Sardinas & Big Motor” cd Lhi Jarris “Cèrcle Libre” cd BUSCADERO March 2008: Flogging Molly: “Float” cd Savoy Family Band “Turn Loose But Don’t Let Go” cd Punch Brothers [Chris Thile] “Punch” cd BUSCADERO February 2008 Johnny Cash: “Music in Review” dvd Various Artists: “Caliente Y Picante” (with C. Santana, R.Blades, C.Cruz, T. Puente) dvd LUF “So Nahit’n Val Camonega” cd BUSCADERO January 2008 Lost Bayou Ramblers: “Live A La Blue Moon” cd Hot Buttered Rum: “Live in The Northeast” cd MARC FORD - review live concert at Music-Drome, Milano 11,26,2007
hasta bien amigos I whish you my best (sincerely) compliments for your work
I send you my best and brotherly rockin’ roots regards. ROOTS & RESPECT
John, let me be the first to comment that you're one of the finest singer/songwriters I've heard in my life. (Well, except for me, of course...) I'm so thrilled to hear you still performing and following the quest. I believe to my soul that there's an audience for everyone and everything, we just have to find them. You've obviously kept your integrity and your humor. Keep on doing what we all must do. The World needs folks like us. - Joe (WildCat Records, NYC)
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