Valley Advocate

If you’re getting ready to start at a college this year — especially if it’s a four-year school that requires you to live in...

Roots Reggae Returns   Everton Blender was one of the most prominent reggae musicians and producers in Jamaica in the ’90s, and his smooth tenor, up-tempo arrangements, and...

Scratching the Surface   Greenfield artist and educator Karen Gaudette was trained as a printmaker, but she has always loved to draw. Scratchboard, it turns out,...

Seth in the City   Billy Flynn sings his smarmy way through Chicago with the promise of razzle dazzle. “Give ’em an act with lots of...

Food and Family, A Stone’s Throw Away   Community is everything at the Stone Soul Festival in Springfield, a celebration that began in 1989 as a Mason...

Pork it Over   Don’t sit around and do nothing on Labor Day weekend — give your stomach (and heart, and arteries) some love to labor over....

Save the Last Dance Downtown Northampton’s biggest — and possibly last — public performing arts space is a real beauty: a 4,000 square foot, high-ceilinged...

 Amherst Chamber of Commerce Art Gallery: Portrait and landscape drawings by Gregory Chilenski. A painter for two decades, Chilenski has also been a therapist...

Thursday 9/1   Borys Bakum: Acoustic set. 6 p.m. No cover. Patrick’s Chicopee, 154 Main St., Chicopee. (413) 331-2666.  Brewmaster’s Jazz: Thursdays, 6 p.m. Superb jazz played...

A guide to summer cocktails from the garden It’s hard to imagine a better way to top off an afternoon in the garden than by...