Singer-songwriter Adam Michael Rothberg opened the night with songs of love and hope. The exuberance of playing guitar and singing songs could be felt in every note he strummed. There was no agenda to his music, just a man singing songs he wrote. The music felt like a soundtrack to this beautiful town.
Speaking of best-concert-ever by a frequently seen performer, the Berkshires’ own Adam Michael Rothberg was drafted to warm up the crowd as a last minute replacement for a cancelled opening act. Rothberg was the perfect choice and did a great job of entertaining and focusing the crowd with his clear, accessible folk-pop songs and his dazzling, virtuosic guitar playing. Even when he was forgetting his own lyrics (as did Margo Timmins later), Rothberg was totally in the zone in his set, and undoubtedly garnered new fans who came specifically to hear the headliners.
Credit Adam Michael Rothberg for a lot of things, not the least for being the Berkshires’ answer to Paul McCartney, both in terms of writing catchy (often McCartney-esque) melodies and for playing virtually every instrument on his own albums, as he does for his latest and best, Another Spin. But the Pittsfield, Massachusetts-native, who now calls Cambridge home (and, in full disclosure, designs Berkshire Living’s sister publication, BBQ: Berkshire Business Quarterly), is also too tied in with the local music scene not to avail himself of some of the top local talent, including drummer Conor Meehan, trumpeter Jeffrey Stevens, pedal-steel guitarist Pete Adams (whose work is put especially to good use on “Hometown,” Rothberg’s Randy Newman-like look at Pittsfield, presumably), vocalist JoAnne Redding, and keyboardist Larry Chernicoff. Rothberg even snags nationally known singer-songwriter Catie Curtis to sing harmony on a few tracks on an album that’s “written, produced, recorded, and mixed” by Rothberg. Another Spin is at once a testament to Rothberg’s love affair with music and his love affair with love, and suggests that distinguishing between the two isn’t always so easy.
He's toured with Joan Baez, produced Dar Williams and performed with the best of the local folk scene, but now it's Rothberg's turn to step out of the folk shadows, and the result, ANOTHER SPIN, is lyrical poetry and multi-instrumental duty. (He plays the guitar, piano, udu, mandolin, percussion and the Turkish oud!)
Rothberg has stepped to center stage with the release of his first solo CD. Titled "All the Whispering," it’s a polished, clear-headed set of songs from a man who has managed to spread himself broadly across the map and develop depth at the same time.
In All the Whispering there's ample evidence that Rothberg could become one of his generation's best singer-songwriters.