A+E

I really don’t want to write about the pandemic, so I’ll just say that 2021 was a heavy time for this beat, and the only real moment of grace came when the fever broke a bit in November and I was able to slink out of hiding to catch and review my first live show in ages. What luck it was that the one I landed at was the work of fiddler, singer and songwriter Sara Milonovich and her guitar accompanist Greg Anderson, a duo whose music I was completely unfamiliar with prior to that gig. What followed was a night of folk and bluegrass rapture with the beauty of a Hudson River Valley sunset, all tethered to the earth by Milonovich’s fun stage banter about casual things like gentrification, murder ballads, and the perils of river log riding. Every so often you walk into one of these mystery shows and get treated to the business end of a great time. This was one of those shows. The duo is returning to the scene of the action at the Arcata Playhouse tonight at 8 p.m., where I guarantee that if you have even a sprout of affection for this kind of
thing, it will grow into a big and mighty memory under tonight’s stage lights ($20).