Nadeem Salaam
“In my most graceful drunken stupor, I walked into Manhattan Inn on the part of Greenpoint that thinks it’s not Williamsburg. Nothing could have prepared me for Green and Glass. Vocalist Lucia Stavros was yielding a harp like Thor, the trumpets were blazing, and my head was spinning. What hit me without a single concern next was their mountainous grooves, Green and Glass was a mysterious vessel for my heart. Band members Sam Decker, Dave Flaherty, Andrew McGovern, Lucia Stavros, and Ryan Dugre, often feature other local guest musicians like JJ Byars of Hungry Hands on Sax. On their latest EP, the only part I fought against was that it was short for an EP, could you imagine the terrain they have to explore on a full length? But of course this is only my own selfishness; the instrumentation is compelling enough to play on repeat. (I harken some training and time spent learning the literature of music mixed with real life experience, the blend can be magic if mixed just right,) but perhaps what amazes most is their trickster elements,”Dire Deer” opens with a sweet arpeggiated acoustic guitar and harp combo, but foolishly, you are swept away by this, before long the drums drop in like I did into that bar; drunk on life (and other things) and at the same time with a casual cool in my step—the bass line follows that very deep swagger—the entire rhythm section are somewhere else on an energy that drives deep. The trumpets set in like a slow melancholic breeze, playing off the bitter-sweet undertone of the charged poetic lyrics, Stavros’s beautiful voice guides and leads the freefall of piano and trumpet accents to spell purity. This is something of a preview for sure, one that only Green and Glass can provide, in their feathery bitter-sweet orchestral sound.”
Purchase: https://greenandglass.bandcamp.com/album/green-and-glass-ep