Singer/Songwriter Aimee Mann Comes to the Berkshires

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - Singer/songwriter Aimee Mann is known for her clever, literate, and dryly witty lyrical takes on emotional sabotage and self-destruction, combined with her exceptional talent for beautiful melodies.

For over 20 years she has distinguished herself as one of pop music's most distinctive songwriters, and she is constantly proving she's nowhere near ready to give up that title. Aimee Mann will be in concert at MASS MoCA on Saturday, July 11, 2009, at 8 PM outside in Courtyard C or in MASS MoCA's Hunter Center in case of rain. Rolling Stone praises Mann's sound as "...intelligent, tuneful, and loaded with attitude." The galleries will be open until 7:30 PM before the event. The Aimee Mann concert is sponsored in part by Blue Q.

Aimee Mann's most recent album, @#%&* Smilers, is her seventh solo release. Loaded with exquisitely crafted songs about the inner life of people living far from the bright lights of success or fame, @#%&*  Smilers reaffirms Mann as a songwriter who's unparalleled in the craft of song creation.

Mann made her grand entrance into the music world with '80s alt-pop band Til Tuesday. Quickly gaining heavy MTV rotation, the group basked in the immense success of its 1985 rock anthem Voices Carry until 1989 when they disbanded. Mann launched her solo career in 1990, releasing three albums that dealt directly with the dissolution of Til Tuesday, including Whatever (1993) and I'm with Stupid ( 1995), which garnered overwhelmingly positive critics' reviews. Rolling Stone described Whatever as "a veritable encyclopedia of regret, bitterness, and defeat set to glorious, Beatles-worthy music."

Although Mann was receiving praise from inside the music world, her success failed to register on the sales radar, and she spent the next several years shuttling from one major label to another. With a strong fan base behind her Mann carried on, becoming a college radio darling and contributing to television's 90210 and several blockbuster movies including Jerry Maguire and Sliding Doors. In 1999 Mann was commissioned by director Paul Thomas Anderson to write the soundtrack to his wrenching epic film Magnolia. Anderson wove Mann's lush and stirring lyrics into the film using seven of her original compositions and one remake, which ultimately earned her nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy.

Tickets for Aimee Mann are $29 in advance/ $34 day of show. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams, open from 10 AM until 6 PM, every day. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413-662-2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.
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Sanford, Maine, Edges SteepleCats in Season Opener

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The SteepleCats Sunday started their 2026 season the way they ended their 2025 campaign: with a narrow loss to the Sanford Mainers.
 
Sanford, which won a best-of-three playoff series against North Adams last August, scored four runs on 14 hits to earn a 4-2 win at Joe Wolfe Field.
 
The Mainers broke a 1-1 tie with a two-run rally in the third inning, and four Sanford pitchers combined to collect 11 strikeouts as the visitors improved to 2-1 this summer.
 
North Adams, which saw its planned road opener rained out on Saturday, got to open the season in front of its home fans.
 
And those fans saw a strong performance from the North Adams pitching staff, which, despite allowing 14 hits, including five doubles, gave up just three earned runs.
 
“I like the grit,” SteepleCats coach Mike Gladu said of his team’s Game 1 performance. “I thought the pitchers performed pretty well. We had a couple of situations where we definitely should have gotten some runs in and didn’t get that hit.
 
“And there were a couple of plays with a little rust. Certainly, the ball that was hit over [Evan] Meier’s in left field, he just mistracked that one. And the extra run they scored in the eighth, the kid wasn’t going to go [from third on a fly ball], we made a throw and nobody could stop it.
 
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