HUDSON FALLS —TR3 featuring Tim Reynolds will rock the Strand Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 21.

With a career spanning more than forty years, sonic innovator Tim Reynolds is lauded as one of the most dynamic and unrivaled instrumentalists in recent history. 

Reynolds is best known for his guitar virtuosity and contributions to American jam-rock outfit Dave Matthews Band.

Among his most enduring projects is TR3, an ever-evolving sonic experiment Reynolds started in the mid-1980s and was joined by first-rate players Dan Martier and Mick Vaughn in 2007. 

The group is set to release its highly anticipated studio release, Watch It, in early 2024. Featuring 10 mostly instrumental numbers, the forthcoming collection will see the trio in its most perceptive, harmonious, and imaginative form to date. 

$30 general admission. Tickets are available at the Strand Box Office; cash or check only. Online tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets. For the ticketing link, please go to www.mystrandtheatre.org. The Strand Theatre is located at 210 Main St, Hudson Falls.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Where did the Van Gogh go? How did a painting that went missing more than a century ago end up in upstate N.Y.? Who should be allowed to keep an important piece of art by a world-famous artist after it is found?  

You may learn answers to these questions by asking them directly of the artist whose just-published book poses these and other inquiries for the curious. On Jan. 17, author and artist Jonathan Santlofer appears at Northshire Bookstore Saratoga as part of his promotional book tour. Do take heed of the answers you may glean however, because as Santlofer points out in his author’s notes at the book’s conclusion: what you have just read is a novel that mixes fact and fiction. 

Billed as a spellbinding thriller of masterpieces, masterminds and the mysterious underbelly of the art world, Santlofer re-introduces readers to Luke Perrone, hero of The Last Mona Lisa and a descendant of the man who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. Luke navigates the shadiest corners of the underground art world to track down Van Gogh’s notorious death-bed self-portrait. What he discovers is a consequential history that traces the journey of the painting back to World War II, when agents of the French Resistance protected it from destruction by the Nazis.  

With “The Lost Van Go,” Santlofer offers an open invitation of the artists’ domain in verses selected with care: “Late morning sun filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows, across my palette and over half-finished paintings leaning against the walls of my Bowery studio…” 

The journey name-checks boxes of varying layers of cool: Secreted away in a wine crate with a false bottom and flanked by bottles of Bordeaux is a copy of Celine’s “Mort a Credit” –  a novel us U.S.-ers realize as “Death On The Installment Plan” and know enough NOT to read til the end, because then – well, it’s curtains!  There are visions of a diner in Queens near Astoria Park (“half-full, but noisy, customers crammed into booths, waitresses shouting orders, Lil Nas X on the jukebox”) Louboutins (“My one and only pair,” says Alex, “they’re going to cripple me but they look good,”) and artful journeys to European destinations. 

“My brain was moving at about the same speed as my rented Opel Corsa on a three-lane highway heading out of Paris, commuter cars and trucks cutting across lanes without signaling, horns beeping and me trying to drive,” Santlofer writes. 

A visit to the canal houses of Amsterdam meanwhile are besotted and blessed with all the pleasures and perils of a modern-day zipline crossing the globe. “He told me to sit tight and do nothing until he got back to me. Then he took off, leaving me on a street with semi-naked women in windows undulating and beckoning me, like I’d been dumped into ‘Dante’s Inferno’ by way of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’…”   

There is admiration, of course, for the artistry of Van Gogh himself, which Santlofer scribes through the vision of his protagonist while perusing the artist’s work. “I moved from portrait to portrait, noting several had been painted in the same year, but all different, as if there was more than one Vincent, and I suppose there was, depending on his mood and mental state,” he says. “And for a moment I could see Vincent, thumb looped through the palette mixing colors. I could have stood there for hours.”   

Jonathan Santlofer has taught at Columbia and The New School, been exhibited in more than 200 collections worldwide and serves on the board at Yaddo. “The Lost Van Gogh,” (352 pages, $34.99, published Jan. 2, 2024 by Sourcebooks Landmark) is his seventh novel.  He will appear at Northshire Bookstore Saratoga, 424 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 17. For more information, go to: northshire.com. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The sixth class of inductees in the regional Eddies Music Hall of Fame have been announced and includes artists from the fields of classical, folk, jazz and electronic music, as well as a pioneering hip-hop songwriter and two individuals who chronicled the local music scene as journalists. 

The late Jackie Alper, the late Nick Brignola, George Guarino, David Alan Miller, the late Pauline Oliveros, Margie Rosenkranz, Billy Waring and Don Wilcock will be inducted into the Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Hall of Fame on Monday, March 25 at Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. 

The ceremony is open to the public and includes musical performances, a social hour, videos on the musical career of each inductee and acceptance speeches. 

The class brings the total number of inductees to 40 since 2019. An aluminum engraved plaque honoring each recipient is permanently hung at UPH. 

The 2024 slate was chosen by an advisory council made up of professionals in the local music field. 

Tickets for the March 25 event are on sale now through the Box Office at Proctors in-person, via phone at 518-346-6204 Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., or online by visiting atuph.org. 

About the inductees: 

Jackie Alper sang with the Almanac Singers – which included Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger – and later helped found the influential mid-20th century group The Weavers, introducing a 16-year-old Ronnie Gilbert to Pete Seeger, Lee Hayes and Freddie Hellerman. Alper also turned her husband Joe Alper’s 30,000 music photographs into one of the folk revival’s most meticulously documented archives. Together, they played a key role in supporting Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs in its early years, often housing musicians, including Bob Dylan, at their Schenectady home. She passed away in 2007.  

Troy native Nick Brignola, a baritone sax player and a band leader, shared the stage with jazz greats including Woody Herman and Chet Baker, and recorded 20 albums of his own. Brignola taught jazz theory and history at several local colleges and helped start a jazz education program at the College of Saint Rose. He passed away in 2002. 

George Guarino created Albany’s music television show, “Real George’s Backroom” (1981-91) and Buzz magazine (1985-95). He was a featured DJ at Albany’s infamous 288 Lark (1981-87) and QE2 (1987-90) clubs and was also a DJ at WRPI. 

David Alan Miller has been music director and conductor of the Albany Symphony Orchestra since 1992 During his tenure, the ASO has released more than 30 albums; in 1994, Miller founded Dogs of Desire, an 18-member ensemble that has commissioned over 150 new works from emerging American composers. 

Pauline Oliveros was an American composer, accordionist and central figure in the development of post-World War II experimental and electronic music. A Houston native who relocated to upstate New York in 1981, Oliveros developed a ground-breaking music theory called “Sonic Meditations” and founded the term Deep Listening, a practice of profound sonic awareness which came from her childhood fascination with sounds. Known for her works in composition, improvisation and electro-acoustics, she was Distinguished Professor of Music at RPI in Troy where she founded the Center for Deep Listening. She passed away in 2016. A documentary film project by Daniel Weintraub – “Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros” – was previewed this year and includes the likes of avant-garde pioneer Laurie Anderson to Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore. A trailer may be viewed at: vimeo.com/783733294. 

Margie Rosenkranz has been the executive artistic director of the Eighth Step Coffee House since 1987. Founded in 1967 in the basement of the historic First Presbyterian Church in Albany, the organization is renowned nationally for its presentation of top contemporary singer-songwriters, as well as social justice work. 

An unsung hero of hip-hop, Harlem native William “Billy Bill” Waring began his musical career with longtime friends Kurtis Walker (aka Kurtis Blow) and producer Danny Harris. Waring got his first taste of hip-hop music at DJ Kool Herc parties and from 1980-84 he penned the classic songs “Hard Times,” “Basketball,” “You Gotta Believe” and “Games People Play,” and co-wrote much of the Fat Boys’ first album.  

Don Wilcock, founder and president of the Northeast Blues Society, founded “Kite,” the area’s first arts weekly, in 1970. As a journalist, his columns have appeared in numerous area publications. Wilcock is contributing editor of The Blues Music Magazine, and he also co-produced the annual Fleet Blues Festival, a three-stage event featuring the world’s hottest blues stars.

More information about the Eddies Music Hall of Fame is available at theeddiesawards.com. The Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Awards and Hall of Fame, as well as UPH, are part of Proctors Collaborative. 

MALTA — Local author and ADK 46er, Ken Marcinowski, invites readers to embark on a journey through the Adirondack Mountains with his latest book, “May The Mountain Speak To You.”  

Filled with snapshots accompanied by heartfelt poetry and insightful quotations to inspire readers to connect with nature and embrace the wonders of the outdoors.

“May The Mountain Speak To You” (The Troy Book Makers) is currently available on various platforms including Northshire Books in Saratoga Springs.

HUDSON FALLS — Vixen will perform at The Strand Theatre. 

Vixen – in its initial lineup, was formed in Minneapolis in the 1980s and featured six number one videos on MTV and four songs in Billboard’s Top 100. The all-female rock band opened for Ozzy Osbourne, KISS and Scorpions, among others. 

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Opening acts are Lucid Street and musician Margo Macero. Tickets are: $50 balcony, $65 lower level (not including front row).

On Thursday, Jan. 18, the Strand Theatre welcomes indie band Areli and Company for a 7:30 p.m. show. Areli & Company features Areli Mendoza-Pannone, a versatile singer-songwriter and classical soprano from Albany, plus performers from the School of Music at SUNY Schenectady.

The Strand Theatre is located at 210 Main St, Hudson Falls.

For more information, go to www.mystrandtheatre.org. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Foreigner and Styx are planning a North American tour that includes a stop at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on July 30. 

The tour runs June 11 – Aug. 28, and includes special guest John Waite.  

Tickets at LiveNation.com.