Hear Here: Around The Town

Douglas Loren of Broad Street Music
Photo by Liz Bowles

As a branch of the Hear Here series, I'll be showcasing the local scenes and shows through the "Around The Town" feature that will pop up from time to time.  As something interesting comes up around town, you'll hear about it here.  And as an official statement, come August I'll be relocating from New Bern to Raleigh so these "Around The Town"'s will become much more frequent.  For starters though, there's a great show going on in New Bern on Saturday, April 16 that's being put on by one of New Bern's driving forces in the music scene, Douglas Loren.

Douglas owned The Music Box, New Bern's independent record store that blossomed into the venue known as Broad Street Music.  For years Douglas brought and continues to bring quality live music to a town where not many other individuals can say the same, responsible for bringing acts like Lost in the Trees,  Stephaniesid, The Never, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, Paleface,  Hamell on Trial, All Get Out, and much more to New Bern.  He helped herald the Bernaroo Music Festival which he took part in running for two years until the 2010 festival where myself and fellow Broad Street Music team member Terry McElhennon ran the festival.  Speaking of which, "The Bottom String Presents..." series is coming to a close in New Bern and the series is looking to go out with a bang as a big summer concert is in the works for the Civic Theater.  Enough about the future though, the fact of the matter is that Douglas Loren is once again bringing the town some excellent live music and the thrill of supporting vinyl records.


On Saturday, April 16, Douglas will be selling many great modern and vintage records, cd's, dvd's instruments, and art pieces at Trent River Coffee Company from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm as a part of the Unofficial National Record Store Day Celebration.  Some great records will be for purchase, but the even better part is the sweet deal we've got worked out for the show going on at Trent River Coffee Company on Saturday night.


From the same family as Holy Ghost Tent Revival and Ameranouche, Cinder Conk is a Maine-based duo that plays Balkan music drawn from the Black Sea.  Cinder Conk mixes accordions frenzied accordion riffs with violin and classic bardic lyricism that transcends anything you've heard before.  The phrase "I can't believe you guys speak English" is one of the first things you can see on their Facebook profile, and upon my first listen I had the same thoughts.  The awesome news though is that this show is regularly priced at $10, but if you mention that you heard about the show through Hear Here then you'll get in half off.  So come check out Cinder Conk, support awesome live music, and buy some records earlier in the day.


Cinder Conk @ Trent River Coffee Company on Saturday, April 16th
8:00 pm
$10 ($5 if you mention Hear Here or The Bottom String at the door)
Unofficial Record Store Day Celebration from 11 am to 5 pm