Jennifer Hartswick Band, Ron Artis II & Holly Bowling Keep JamBase 25th Anniversary Party Going

The JamBase 25th anniversary celebration weekend continued with a move for Night 3 to Soundcheck Studios in Pembroke, Massachusetts on Boston’s South Shore for a wonderful Saturday triple bill.

Kicking off the evening was Holly Bowling who gave a quick birthday shout out to JamBase and spoke about how important it was for her career that she was asked to cover “Eyes Of The World” in honor of the Grateful Dead's 50th Anniversary by and for the site. With that Holly dug into “It’s Ice,” much to the delight of the crowd.

After a gorgeous rendition the set moved to “Althea” before an absolutely stunning transition into “Fly Famous Mockingbird.” What makes Holly amazing to see live is the pure inventiveness of how she gets from point a to point b. She of course does the songs justice, but it’s the jams and teases that she conjures up with her hands that’s the real show. There are so many points in the set where your jaw may drop and you might have the biggest smile on your face because of the quick possum tease or the spacey jam that leads into the next song. You really have to be on your toes during her sets.

We then were taken through the suites of “Help on the Way” into “Slipknot!” into “Horn” and then “Cryptical Envelopment” into “The Other One” into “Slipknot!” into “Franklin’s Tower.” Each section was amazing and helped along by a gorgeous light show by the Soundcheck Studios in house lighting director Vin Pugliese. With a quick thank you again to the JamBase team, Holly closed out her set with a fairly straight away take on “Squirming Coil” and got a well deserved huge ovation once she finished.

Ron Artis II was up next and immediately spoke about meeting JamBase CEO David “DaveO” Onigman and the JamBase team seven years ago in Bend, Oregon and having an instant connection with everyone. He was also excited he was even able to make the set after some complications arose, but then the universe conspired to make it happen. Ron’s voice makes your hair stand up and his guitar work matches that to send your entire body into a high. His mix of the blues, soul and rock and roll had the crowd enraptured from the get go.

Having no bass player with him, DaveO subbed in for half the set, including playing a brand new song on the spot that Ron taught him as they went. It was titled “Shining” and per Ron only had two chords, but as Ron said “two chords can show every emotion if you use them right” and he wasn’t wrong. The song was one of the strongest of the set.

Artis II then went duo with just his drummer accompanying him for a song and tore his guitar up Hendrix style. It was a masterful display of someone feeling comfortable in the moment and showing an audience what they can do. After that impressive display he did one acoustic song by himself before bringing up his friend Brad Williams, who is helping him on tour, and made up a song on the spot. He did this with such ease it was amazing to witness. Ron then brought up his daughter for a song to close out the acoustic portion of his set. For his last song, “Searching For Answers,” there was a little mix up in who he taught what song to for the bass and first brought up Chris Chew before Chris had to swap himself out for Nate Edgar to finish the song. It was a funny moment and something only live music can bring you.

To close out the night Jennifer Hartswick and her band wasted no time in getting right to work and throwing down the gauntlet immediately. Hearing Jennifer sing an entire set is a blessing. It truly feels like it doesn’t happen enough, as she plays with so many others all of the time, but when she lets her voice loose, you cannot help but give it your full attention. Of course there was plenty of trumpet as well throughout the set, but Jennifer may have one of the best voices in music today and enough people don’t realize that.

Guitarist Nick Cassarino never seems to stop moving once he gets on the stage. He’s a wizard on the guitar and it feels like if he stops moving both he and his guitar will just implode because there is so much energy being brought into the universe from him playing. Solo after solo just kept hammering this home and even Jennifer had jaw dropping reactions to what Nick was doing from time to time during the set. It wasn’t long before Rob Marscher made his presence known on the keys, giving Nick a run for his money. The back and forth displayed from them all night was a delight for the crowd.

Over the course of the set about half of Jennifer’s latest album Something in the Water was played and those sounds sounded great live. On “Only Time Will Tell,” Jennifer took a step back from fronting the band and watched as her band moved the room with a wild jam. The pulsating jam was anchored by Nate Edgar on bass and Conor Elmes on drums, who were locked in completely, letting Nick and Rob do their solos on top of them without any worry of the jam getting lost in the ether. Jennifer was smiling from ear to ear watching her band crush this jam from one of the best songs from the album.

It wouldn’t be a JamBase celebration without some sit-ins though. First up was Dave Adams, Rob’s bandmate from Addison Groove Project, who played his saxophone so hard he had to take some deep breaths to steady himself after his great solo on “By The River.” Next up was Jennifer’s husband Chris Chew for “Never Make A Move,” on which he held down the low end perfectly. Finally Holly Bowling came back out to close out the set with the band on “Fool For You,” taking a wonderful solo, much to the whole band and the room’s delight. After a quick one-song encore, Jennifer thanked JamBase again for hosting such a great celebration and wished everyone a happy birthday. The celebration ends tonight with a sold-out performance by Umphrey’s McGee at Soundcheck Studios.