Credit: R. A. Hermans
It had been a long journey for Jerron Paxton and Dennis Lichtman by the time they arrived in Pine Plains on Saturday, Dec. 7, to perform at the Stissing Center. The duo, fresh from a performance near Buffalo the night before, braved a snowstorm to reach the venue. They opened the evening with “Alabamy Bound,” and quipped that it seldom snows in Alabama.
The pair performed two sets of music, seamlessly alternating instruments and demonstrating a deep understanding and passion for vintage tunes composed 80 to 130 years ago. Over the course of the evening, Paxton sang and played banjo, guitar, harmonica, fiddle and piano — instruments the 35-year-old has mastered since his early teens. Lichtman, a multi-instrumentalist, showcased his talents on mandolin, clarinet, fiddle and guitar.
The concert drew just over 100 attendees, a turnout that delighted Liz Raum, Stissing Center’s director of programming.. “This was a great concert for us,” Raum said, noting the audience included attendees from as far away as Albany. The performers praised the venue’s excellent acoustics, enhanced by its antique tin ceiling and wooden walls and floors.
Both Paxton and Lichtman are ambassadors for music from days gone by. Their setlist included “Time Changes Everything,” popularized by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, and three ragtime pieces composed over a century ago: Paul Eno’s “A Ragtime Episode,” James Scott’s “Ragtime Oriole” and Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.” They also performed “Queens County Blues,” which Paxton described as the only song written before 1950 that mentions Queens, where both he and Lightman live. While remaining faithful to the original versions of most of the songs, the duo delighted the audience with their own arrangements of jazz standards “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Tiger Rag.”
Credit: R. A. Hermans
Some attendees may have been surprised that the concert spotlighted music from Paxton and Lichtman’s self-titled 2021 album rather than Paxton’s solo work, which has taken center stage on his latest recording, “Things Done Changed.” Released in October on the Smithsonian Folkways label, the album features original compositions in the early blues and jazz style, earning glowing reviews and a feature interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air” on Dec. 2. The success of “Things Done Changed” has kept Paxton’s schedule packed with performances through next October, including a month-long European tour in May.
A Los Angeles native, Paxton grew up immersed in music, particularly drawn to artists favored by the older members of his community. He attended Verbum Dei High School, founded in 1962 to serve students from the Watts neighborhood, and because of partial blindness, he also had a work-study project with the Braille Institute of America.“Because of the schools I attended in Los Angeles, I got a special scholarship to Marist,” he told the Herald. “I sometimes wish I had spent more than two years there, but music called me deeply, and I felt I was taking a place [at Marist College] that someone else could better use.”
Paxton was drawn to the music scene in New York City and there he found kindred spirits with which to further explore American music from the first half of the 20th century. He met Lichtman at Mona’s, a jazz club in Queens where, since 2007, Lichtman has headed up the house band and leads a Tuesday night jam session.
The duo’s virtuosity and evident love for a bygone musical era earned them a standing ovation from the Pine Plains audience, many of whom also supported the artists by purchasing CDs and albums at the merchandise table.
It’s been said that touring musicians drive for a living but have the pleasure of making music once they arrive at their destination. After the show at the Stissing Center, Paxton, with Lightman behind the wheel, headed back to Queens for another Tuesday night at Mona’s — continuing to share the music they love.
