You could almost set a timer —every 20 years or so, the Northampton-area music scene attracts national attention. Bands get signed, stories get written, hype builds. Then, like a lighthouse beam, the spotlight rotates away to the next town or sound. A couple of decades go by, and the whole process repeats: starting in the late 1960s with western Massachusetts acts like Arlo Guthrie, Clean Living, and Fat; continuing into the late ’80s and early ’90s with Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, and the Scud Mountain Boys; and moving all the way up to a crop of current groups that includes And the Kids, LuxDeluxe, and California X.

Yet as any music fan in the region knows, the local scene doesn’t rely on outside illumination to thrive. For more than 45 years, the sound of music in western Massachusetts—in Northampton, but also throughout the Pioneer Valley and the Berkshires—has been abundant and varied. Rock ’n’ roll, blues, punk, and various indie rock sounds have all taken root, along with heavy metal, jazz, and plenty of folk. Bands have come and gone; venues have opened, closed, and burned down; and the scene has flourished through it all.

“I just always marvel at the richness of it, considering how small the area is,” says David Sokol, who was music editor at the Valley Advocate from 1977 to 1993.

Dave Sokol, photo by Izzy Berdan

Billboard magazine expressed a similar sentiment in a slightly condescending frontpage story in 1992 that described the area as “a picturesque, place-that-time-forgot farming community.” Yet despite a population less than a quarter of the 3.4 million people in greater Seattle—the aspirational baseline for music scenes since the city birthed the ’90s grunge explosion that gave us Nirvana and Pearl Jam—the four counties of western Massachusetts have for years had the essential ingredients of any successful music scene: a creative class of musicians; places for them to play; audiences who will go see them; and supportive local media, including radio station WRSI-FM and the Valley Advocate, that will play their records on the air and write about them.

Western Massachusetts is also an affordable place to live, with a youthful atmosphere that flows from the local colleges, most notably Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and the University of Massachusetts. It’s also near the intersection of two interstate highways, which is helpful when it’s time to go on tour. Those attributes have made this area attractive to a continual flow of music-minded people, far more than there’s room to mention. Some of them got famous; more of them, then and now, play music simply because they love it and it’s fun.

“Northampton is an incredible place to emerge as an artist and to find that group of people who support what you do,” says folksinger Dar Williams, who moved to Northampton in 1992 and began building her career. So far it’s yielded 10 solo studio albums, including this year’s Emerald. Though she relocated to New York in 2000, she adds, “I would say it’s the reason I’m still doing what I’m doing.”

Ray Mason, photo by Izzy Berdan

The beginnings of the western Massachusetts scene date to the mid-1960s, when musicians like Holyoke native Ray Mason would play the local YMCA and slip an occasional original song into sets of covers of The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and The Rascals. The covers-are-king attitude started to fade when bands like the Rockin’ Ramrods from Boston and The Wildweeds from Connecticut came through playing their own songs, almost as if they were demonstrating that such a thing was possible for regular guys from New England.

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Mark Guglielmo’s resume is as layered as his collages. A former rapper and hip-hop producer, known as Vesuveo, the audio-turned-visual artist and Northampton resident has a new series, Cuba in Transition: Narrative and Perspective, at the A.P.E. Ltd. Gallery.

Guglielmo first visited Cuba two years ago with a group of friends he met salsa dancing in Northampton. “I had such a profound experience down there, that I had to do something as an artist to share with the world what I was feeling,” says Guglielmo. He has since returned to Cuba twice, and is now ready to share his experiences through the form of photo-collages and interviews.

Guglielmo took the photographs and conducted the interviews in the series during seven weeks spent in the Pearl of the Antilles exploring Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa, Havana, Viñales, Cienfuegos, and Trinidad. “For me, Cubans are the real draw,” says Guglielmo of his experiences staying at casa particulars, or Cuban families’ homes, while visiting. “You have lots of real conversations with people in Cuba, real connecting. There is little to no barrier for strong human connection if you have the courage and Spanish to bridge the gap.”

Che, 54″ X 41″

To date, Guglielmo has completed 16 collages in this series, with plans to make more before his upcoming shows in Cuba this February. The materials for these collages, Guglielmo says, mainly came from simply walking the streets in Cuba. “I’m not interested in normal tourist activities. I go horseback riding in the Cuban outback. I search for the perfect mojito. I swim in underground caves. I watch the world go by from the back seat of a bici-taxi. I drink rum with strangers. I get great $1 haircuts.”

Escuela-Primaria, 69″ X 142″

Guglielmo used neither a computer or Photoshop in creating these collages. “I’m on the computer too much as it is. I do not want to be on it when I’m making art,” says Guglielmo of his need to disconnect. “I also really like the tactile, old-fashioned approach of putting my fingers on the work. There’s no barrier between me and the pieces. They’re really an extension of me, not something filtered through a computer. My process is very simple; a child could do it: just scissors, tape and 4×6″ photos.”

Guglielmo’s seeking simplicity is not as evident in his pieces of art, which are a complex mosaic of experience. Instead, he says his desire to come home and create his art in the Pioneer Valley after 15 years spent in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York reflects this interest.  “Ten years ago I moved up here, and I’ve never been happier,” he says. “This area has everything I want: nature, affordability, culture, music, diversity.”

Mark Guglielmo’s series Cuba In Transition: Narrative and Perspective is at the A.P.E. Ltd. Gallery June 1-25, with an opening reception on Friday June 9 from 5-9 p.m.

Mark Guglielmo–artist
Northampton, Massachusetts
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Top image Cuba_El-Coche-Verde_68″ x 94″, photos courtesy of Mark Gugliemo

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