This is a changing time. For the next few weeks at least, our state and national health organizations are urging us all to stay home, to keep ourselves and our friends and family well. But we can think of the people around us, and we can talk with them.
This time is challenging for many reasons. Concerns for health and safety are most important. Doctors and nurses are working overtime, and neighbors are reaching out to students who need places to go, people who serve community meals, parents who need help with childcare. And for many of us, what we can do is to stay home.
And we can share ideas. So here is a playlist for the next few weeks. Some of these are Berkshire musicians, and some are musicians who have performed here recently, or would have come to perform here in the next few weeks, or who may still come if times change.
This time will be hard on many creative people, artists and entrepreneurs and small businesses. These are in mostly alphabetical order, and I will keep adding music here as we go on. Who are you listening to?
Adam Ezra Group
I can’t help but live for the light
that stumbles out of me.
Dar Williams
Louise Bichan
Brooklyn Raga Massive
He told me how it felt to listen to a raga written for sunset after a long day of work.
“You feel it connecting. The sun is setting, the day is winding down and you have made it through, and that is heroic.”
Samirah Evans
Rhiannon Giddens
You can take my body
you can take my bones
you can take my blood
but not my soul.
Tracy Grammer
I see the the mountain — the mountain comes to me.
Wanda Houston

Bernice Lewis
She performs across the country to National acclaim, but folk singer-songwriter Bernice Lewis lives here. At other times you may hear her at FreshGrass or at the Dream Away Lodge, often performing with her daughter, Mariah. (I don’t het have a video, but you can hear her at that link.)
She is known for open-minded humor and the wide serenity of canyon country. And I’ve known her music for years. She sang on my first night in the Berkshires, cheering a dazed group of brand new first-year students about to head into the woods before their first days of college.
Raga Maqam
As part of the Raga Maqam series, Brooklyn Raga Massive says, Amir ElSaffar and Arun Ramamurthy and their fellow musicians will explore and uncover intersections between these ancient, profound musical languages.
Amir ElSaffar – trumpet/santur/vocals
Arun Ramamurthy – violin
Firas Zreik – kanun
Abhik Mukherjee – sitar
Naseem Alatrash – cello
Jay Gandhi – bansuri
Shiva Ghoshal – tabla