The Beat - January 12, 2001
A Player Shows His Creator Side
Seth Rogovoy
Special to The Berkshire Eagle
GREAT BARRINGTON, MA

To call “All the Whispering,” Adam Rothberg’s new, debut solo CD, “long awaited,” is an understatement. For the better part of the last decade, Rothberg has dominated the regional music scene as a producer (Dar Williams, Bernice Lewis, Jamie Morton, Pete Nelson), band member (Big Waaagh Scratch Band, Dr. Isosceles), recording engineer (Derek Studios in Dalton), publicist (Iron Horse Music Hall), manager (Dar Williams), instrumentalist (Joan Baez, Cliff Eberhardt, Sugarbeat, Sloan Wainwright, Victoria Williams, Mark Olson) and performer. In other words, Rothberg, a Pittsfield native and multi-talented multi-instrumentalist, has been everything to everyone, but as the above and only partial listing shows, always in the service of others.

All this time, however, we’ve known that Rothberg has been hatching -- or hoarding? -- his own original works. We’ve caught glimpses of them here and there, at various festivals and venues, and they showed promise, but only in small bits. Eventually, we grew tired of the promises that Rothberg’s own recording would soon be completed and wondered if perhaps Rothberg was having trouble delivering the goods. Therefore it’s all the more a pleasure to be able to say that “All the Whispering” -- a wry title, could it refer to the whispering behind Rothberg’s back? -- is simply one of the greatest debut recordings I’ve ever heard.

Sure, I’m biased -- Rothberg is Berkshires through and through, a mainstay of the local music scene and a helluva nice guy. But if I didn’t feel that Rothberg’s CD was worthy of the praise I’m about to heap on it, I would have found plenty of ways to write around it and avoid the embarrassing surplus of superlatives I’m going to dish on it.

Rothberg celebrates the release of his new CD Thursday, at Club Helsinki in Great Barrington at 9 p.m. Fellow Berkshire musicians Robby Baier, Dave Lincoln, Darren Todd, Jody Lampro, Bobby Sweet and JoAnne Redding will be on hand to lend instrumental and vocal support to Rothberg, who will have copies of his new CD for sale.

Nearly four years in the actual making, “All the Whispering” is really the result of a lifetime’s worth of musical pursuit that goes back at least as far as the music Rothberg grew up hearing around the house. His parents and stepfather are all musicians, and the repertoire of Beatles, folk and classical music he grew up hearing first-hand and on record informs and infuses the 11original compositions on his album, from the Beatlesque circularity of “Coming Back” (the Gallagher brothers of Oasis only wish they could make something at once as original and Beatles-like as this) to the country-rock of “Here and Now” to the folk lullaby of “Jupiter Moon.”

Adam Michael Rothberg, as he bills himself, is an apt songwriter both musically and lyrically. His songs include vivid character sketches, such as the touching “Dear Jane,” an unlikely but utterly likeable banjo-laced pop song about a grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease. “Drivearound” is a humorous, first-person lament from the point of view of a loser always in search of a place where no one knows him, because, “I’m the guy who says the wrong thing/I’m the guy who likes the taste of his shoes.”

Rothberg’s relationship songs, those banes of contemporary singer-songwriter, never fall prey to cliche. Either through the sheer beauty of the melody and arrangement, as in “Marie,” or in the deft narrative drama of “The Break-up,” which channels the Beatles by way of Elvis Costello, Rothberg transcends the pitfalls of solipsistic confessionalism.

Several of the songs are about the subject Rothberg probably knows best: Music. “Here & Now,” which has “Greg Brown should sing this” written all over it, compares a love affair to a song, and “State of Tennessee” and “The Rest” explore the restlessness of a musician who wonders if things might get better if he takes his guitar south or west.

Rothberg’s voice combines the smooth folk-soul of James Taylor with a slight touch of ironic resentment a la Randy Newman. The production on the album by Rothberg is impeccable, but that is to be expected, given Rothberg’s track record as a producer of several acclaimed folk-rock albums.

While Rothberg handled the lion’s share of the instrumental duties on the recording, including guitar, bass, banjo, piano, organ, drums, percussion, lead and harmony vocals, an all-star team of Berkshire musicians lent a hand, including Robby Baier, Bobby Sweet, Charlie Tokarz, Dave Lincoln and Doug Plavin.

This is far from the last word on “All the Whispering.” An album so rich in nuance and lyrical and melodic delights doesn’t come along often and when it does, it needs to be savored and reflected upon over time. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait another four years for the follow-up.