Boston-based Americana rocker Sarah Borges headlines the next Newport Live summer series concert at the Norman Bird Sanctuary this Friday August 4. Thanks to Newport Live, we’ve got a pair of tickets to the show – just e-mail Ken Abrams at mrabrams11@gmail.com by 9PM on Thursday August 3 for your chance to win.
MORE ABOUT THE SHOW: Newport Live and Norman Bird Sanctuary will present the Sarah Borges Band at the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown on Friday, August 4th at 7 PM. General Admission tickets are $35 and available through EventBrite and via Newport Live or Norman Bird Sanctuary websites.
Celebrate summer with Newport Live and enjoy live music under the stars at The Norman Bird Sanctuary. Get your tickets early. The first two shows this summer have sold out.
In case of inclement weather, meet us in the barn!
Her music has been described as “walking that fine line between punk and country.” Borges’ wide variety of influences are often noted. They range from Dolly Parton, Mahalia Jackson, X, Sid Vicious, Merle Haggard, to bubblegum pop. On the strength of a performance at the South by Southwest Festival Her first record, 2005’s Silver City earned praise for showcasing “an unusual knack for mixing alternative rock with country”. Allmusic describes her third album, The Stars Are Out as “material grounded in Americana even as it morphs from folk to rock and even soul”. Borges and the Broken Singles received a nomination for Best Emerging Artist at the Americana Music Association festival in Nashville.
Borges has built a loyal following by connecting with her audience through her charismatic, down-to-earth spirit – whether they were longtime fans from back when she broke through with her terrific “Silver City” debut in 2004, or newcomers just joining the party.
Fast forward to 2020, when the life-altering global pandemic hit populations hard. The aptly named brand new album, “Together Alone,” with friends Eric Ambel and Keith Voegele (Bottle Rockets) comes in. In a true-life twist on the old saying, “when life gives you lemons …”, a homebound Borges did the one thing she knew how to do better than almost anything else. She picked up her guitar and started writing songs such as “Wasting My Time.”
During the pandemic, unable to tour, Borges worked as an airport courier. The temporary gig translated into a boisterous new track, namely the lighthearted rave-up, “She’s A Trucker,” based on the multi-Boston Music Award winner’s four-wheeling across state lines, occasionally carrying strange cargo.
Speaking of hands, Sarah received a huge one in the person of her longtime mentor Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, the venerable producer and guitarist who’s played with everyone from Joan Jett & The Blackhearts to Steve Earle and The Dukes. More recently, Ambel’s been Sarah’s bandmate and co-conspirator in addition to his usual job running his Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig studio in Brooklyn, NY. “Sarah and I had just come back from an incredible musical experience on the ‘Outlaw Country Cruise,’ in February [2020],” recalls Ambel. To get a sense of just how good a time was had, check out the rollicking new tribute to the cruise, “You Got Me On The Boat,” co-written with Sarah’s boyfriend, Bottle Rockets bassist Keith Voegele, who contributes bass and vocals across several of the album’s tracks.
With the pandemic scuttling any chance of working live at CTS, the two were forced to brainstorm what Ambel amusingly refers to as the “MacGyver Method” of recording songs. Ambel says, “I had to think of not only great players, but great players that could do a very good job recording themselves at home.” Among those ready, willing, and able was Voegele, residing in Springfield, Illinois. Another was Keith Christopher, Ambel’s longtime Yayhoos band mate currently playing bass with Lynyrd Skynyrd, and living in upstate New York. A talented trio of drummers scattered from New York to Nashville also sent in dispatches.
Roughed-up romps like “Lucky Day” have the bracing, flesh-and-blood feel of like-minded musicians in sync. “Sarah’s a fearless writer and performer,” says Ambel, “and she’s a very good musician.” “On ‘13th Floor,’ I was thinking about risk,” says Borges, “I’m still trying to sort out what six years alcohol-free means to me, and I still draw on some of those feelings from ‘drunk-town’ for songs. And ‘Something To Do’ – recorded almost entirely during lockdown – harkens back to those days when calling a random number on a bar wall might have seemed like a good idea.” “Together Alone,” written across, and about, dividing distances on the road, is a bittersweet lament of loss, memory, and separation rendered in waltz time.
