NEW YORK — Blending Punjabi, cumbia, and reggae elements together, Sikh activist and artist Sonny Singh releases his new album, “Sage Warrior,” on Sept. 6. 

The music video clip of “Jaano Jot,” song nine on the 12-song album, was captured inside the community kitchen of a gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship, and an institution created over 500 years ago as a direct challenge to caste hierarchies insidious in South Asian society. The clip may be found on YouTube.

The refrain of Jaano Jot, a Sikh devotional poem penned by Guru Nanak in the early 16th century, translates to: Know the light within all, ask not of caste / there are no hierarchies in the world beyond.

Valarie Kaur describes the advent of langar in her forthcoming book Sage Warrior:

“Eating together with people of all castes and creeds meant rejecting with your body and breath adherence to hierarchy. High caste people ate from the hands of low-¬ caste “untouchables,” and vice versa. They were training their bodies into a new way of being, undoing millennia of conditioning. They became new in the act: equal, and equally beloved…Langar was more than a rebellion: It was a practice for an alternative world of solidarity, dignity, and humility.”

Singh is a member of pioneering global band Red Baraat since 2008. Sage Warrior is his second solo album, and will be released alongside a book by the same name by activist and writer Valarie Kaur. They will tour nationally together September-October 2024.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —Anchored by a large stage and featuring rotating artwork, a new exhibition opening Sept. 10 at the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College will provide an open platform for talks, panels, concerts, voter registration, debates, town meetings, class meetings, club events, and gatherings of all sorts. 

Titled “Establish, Insure, Provide, Promote: Election 2024,” a series of moveable display boards will serve as interactive educational hubs for contemporary issues, topics, maps, news, and updates. The exhibit runs Sept. 10 – Dec. 15. 

Upcoming exhibitions at the Tang Museum include: “The Forms of Things Unknown” (opening Oct. 19) featuring a re-envisioning of an early 20th-century Gilboa Forest diorama; “A Field of Bloom and Hum” (March 1, 2025)  presenting work by queer artists that assert their lives and stories in the world, and “Up to Us: Black Dimensions in Art, 1975–Tomorrow” (May 31, 2025) featuring Black Dimensions in Art, Inc. promoting of the art of the African diaspora through exhibitions, workshops, and other programs in the Capital Region and beyond.

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, located at 815 N. Broadway, is open Tuesday–Sunday, noon–5 pm, with extended hours until 9 pm on Thursdays. For more information and current exhibitions, go to: https://tang.skidmore.edu. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Australian guitarist Daniel Champagne will perform Sept. 26 at Caffe Lena as part of an east coast swing through North America. 

Heralded by reviewers as “the finest guitar player of this generation,” and “a leading light in acoustic music,” Champagne grew up on the Far South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, picking up his instrument of choice as a 5-year-old following in the footsteps of a musical father. 

Champagne has independently released 7 studio albums, toured the globe, and shared stages with the likes of Tommy Emmanuel, INXS, John Butler, Lucinda Williams, Ani DiFranco, Judy Collins and Rodrigo y Gabriela. 

For more information and tickets, go to: caffelena.org. 

HUDSON FALLS — Blues guitar legend Walter Trout performs at the Strand Theatre Saturday, Aug. 24. Show time is 8 p.m. 

Trout has shared the stage as a sideman with Jesse Ed Davis, Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Lowell Fulson, Joe Tex, and John Mayall as a member of the Bluesbreakers –  following a three-year tenure in Canned Heat.

The bluesman’s latest album, Broken, chronicles the bitter schisms of modern life but refuses to succumb to them. 

Tickets: $35/floor level, $30/balcony. Tickets are available at the Strand Box Office; cash or check only or online at Brown Paper Tickets. For more information and the ticketing link, please go to www.mystrandtheatre.org. The Strand Theatre is located at 210 Main St, Hudson Falls, NY. www.mystrandtheatre.org. Doors open into the lobby, coffee shop and box office at 6:30pm.

SARATOGA SPRINGS— Universal Preservation Hall, located on Washington Street in Saratoga Springs, has announced its fall schedule of performances. 

Kicking off the pre-fall season is Gary Gulman and his “Misfit” comedy tour 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13. Over 25 years in comedy, Gulman has established himself as an eminent performer and peerless writer. Today, he is one of the most popular touring comics, selling out theatres around the country including the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City. 

  Chris Janson, a proud member of the Grand Ole Opry and multi-platinum songwriter and artist, will be in the Great Hall 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26. In touch with the lighter side of life with self-penned No. 1s “Fix A Drink,” “Good Vibes” and the four-times Platinum “Buy Me A Boat,” and the CMA Song of the Year nominee and ACM Video of the Year “Drunk Girl.” 

Abigail and Shaun Bengson, beloved songwriters and performers best known for their theatrical masterpiece “Hundred Days” and their viral sensation “The Keep Going Song” (over 4 million streams), bring you The Keep Going Concert. The Bengsons will bring their powerful and soul-stirring concert to Saratoga Springs 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8. 

International multi-platinum-selling acclaimed singer LeAnn Rimes will visit Saratoga Springs 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10. Rimes has sold more than 48 million units globally and won numerous awards. 

Capital Region bluegrass favorites The Gibson Brothers perform their Christmas show 7:30 p.m. and a Taylor Swift Holiday Dance Party” featuring Swiftie-themed mocktails, friendship bracelet-making and selfie stations will take place 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6. 

Tickets are available 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.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —The Arthur Zankel Music Center at Skidmore College will welcome legendary guitarist Marc Ribot for a live accompaniment to Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 silent film “The Kid” at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28. Ribot’s delicate and, at times, haunting solo guitar score contemporizes Chaplin’s work as a relevant story about our era’s economic and social conditions. Ribot will also perform a short solo set before the film. 

Chaplin’s first full-length feature, “The Kid,” remains an expressive masterwork of silent cinema. In it, Chaplin stars as his lovable Tramp character, this time raising an orphan (a remarkable young Jackie Coogan) he has rescued from the streets. 

Ribot’s score was commissioned by the New York Guitar Festival and premiered in 2010 at Merkin Hall. 

Ribot has released over 20 albums under his own name over a 30-year career, exploring everything from the pioneering jazz of Albert Ayler to the Cuban music of Arsenio Rodríguez. Rolling Stone points out that “Guitarist Marc Ribot helped Tom Waits refine a new, weird Americana on 1985’s ‘Rain Dogs,’ and since then, he’s become the go-to guitar guy for all kinds of roots-music adventurers: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp.” He has also recorded with Solomon Burke, John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards, Marianne Faithful, Norah Jones, The Black Keys, and many others. Ribot works regularly with Grammy Award-winning producer T Bone Burnett and New York composer John Zorn.

Tickets are available to the general public for $20 and at $5 for the Skidmore College community (students, faculty, staff, and alumni). Purchase online at https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/zankel/7074/event/1379633, or call the box office at 518-580-5321 between 1 and 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Singer-songwriter Kate McDonnell and her Right Hand Men (Jimi Woodul, Sam Zucchini, Matt Griffin) perform Friday, Sept. 20 at Caffe Lena. Show time is 8 p.m. 

McDonnell has performed at the Newport Folk Festival and Kennedy Center and  on the Mountain Stage radio program and WXPN’s “World Café.” Her songwriting has been singled out for praise by The Village Voice and the Boston Globe. 

Her new album, “Trapeze,” is McDonnell’s sixth CD, features 14 original songs and is released Sept. 5. Rooted in contemporary American life, she explores topics ranging from hope and life’s purpose surrendering to love and desire in crazy times, to condemning gun violence. 

Her previous album – “Ballad Of A Bad Girl,” was issued in 2021, featured musical luminaries Jerry Marotta and Tony Levin and soared to #5 in the Folk DJ radio charts upon its release. 

For more information, go to: caffelena.org.  

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A good-sized crowd attended this week’s free concert in Congress Park featuring Alex Torres and His Latin Orchestra.   

The free, family-friendly concert series, held at 7 p.m. Tuesdays, continues on Aug. 20 with Garland Nelson and Soul Session, and concludes Aug. 27 with Mostly Modern Festival – an international music festival dedicated to contemporary classical music.

ALBANY — Peter Frampton, who most famously rose to stardom with the release of his live album, “Frampton Comes Alive!” nearly a half-century ago, will be appearing in Albany as part of his Positively Thankful Tour. 

Despite the announcement of his farewell tour over four years ago due to a diagnosis of the degenerative disease inclusion-body myositis, the musician has continued to play venues across the country.

The tour kicks off in South Carolina Sept. 8 and will stage at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan on Sept. 12 and the Palace Theatre in Albany on Sept. 13. 

For more information, tickets, go to: www.palacealbany.org. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Borrowing a page from the SPAC On Stage script, the Arthur Zankel Music Center on the campus of Skidmore College will host three shows in a new concert series that seats the audience onstage with the artist. 

The intimate three-show series, titled SURROUND, will utilize the setting sun as backdrop and showcase performances at 4 p.m. Sundays.   

The shows feature Brandee Younger w/ Eric Wheeler (Sept. 15), EMEL (Oct. 6), and Tenzin Choegyal (Nov. 3). 

Choegyal’s showcase will mark his first concert in Saratoga Springs since staging a pair of stirring performances at the Tang Museum and at the Zankel Center last October. His newest album, “Whispering Sky,” will be released this week. Look for a review of the release in an upcoming edition of Saratoga TODAY.    

Schedule 

Sunday, Sept. 15: Brandee Younger w/ Eric Wheeler (bass) –– Brandee Younger is revolutionizing harp for the digital era. Over the past 15 years, she has worked relentlessly to stretch boundaries and limitations for harpists.  In 2022, she made history by becoming the first Black woman to be nominated for a Grammy® Award for Best Instrumental Composition. That same year, she was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award and later, the winner of the 2024 NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Jazz Album for her latest album Brand New Life.  

Sunday, Oct. 6: EMEL solo performance –– Tunisian-American, NYC-based art pop musician Emel Mathlouthi, aka EMEL, rose to fame in 2012 with her protest song “Kelmti Horra” (My Word Is Free), earning her the title “the voice of the Arab Spring.” In 2016, she performed Kelmti Horra at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, marking a climax in her journey with this powerful song. Her latest album, MRA, derives its name from the Arabic word for “woman” and was entirely produced with women artists from around the world, embodying sisterhood and the musical fight against patriarchy in a male-dominated industry.  

Sunday, Nov. 3: Tenzin Choegyal solo performance –– Tibetan artist, composer, and activist Tenzin Choegyal channels the wisdom and traditions of his nomadic ancestors through his extraordinary vocal performances and mastery of the lingbu and dranyen. Forced into exile, he now resides in Australia, where he continues to blend traditional Tibetan music with contemporary influences, maintaining an unbroken lineage while exploring new musical horizons. The music is deeply connected to Tenzin’s nomadic roots and Buddhist practice, offering listeners an immersive experience that transcends geographical boundaries. 

Tickets are limited –– $20 general public; $5 Skidmore community (students, faculty, staff, alumni, and retirees). Buy online at https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/zankel/7074 or call the box office at 518-580-8381.