Nico Rivers and Dan Masterson are two musicians who are playing at this year’s annual “All You Need is Love” Beatles extravaganza at the me&thee coffeehouse in Marblehead, MA.  I met up with Nico at last fall’s NERFA (North East Regional Folk Alliance) conference and we got to talking about music which led to some of our favorite music which, of course, led to the Beatles.  Nico mentioned that he had always wanted to perform the entire second side of Abbey Road.  He will be joined by Dan Masterson on keyboards.  Dan give us his thoughts on the Beatles below as well.

Nico Rivers and Blackgrass will be playing at the me&thee on May 19, 2018.  Other musicians on the bill are Jeremy Todd, T Max, Bird Mancini, and Quentin Callewaert.

To learn more about Nico Rivers, visit his website.

To learn more about Dan Masterson, visit his website.

From Nico Rivers

The Beatles have been with me through my entire life. As a child I remember learning on to play vinyls on my mom’s old record player and she had almost every Beatles record. I used to play their version of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” over and over and that song is under 2 minutes long, so I’m pretty sure my family was constantly annoyed. They were definitely one of my first musical loves as a child. When I revisited their songs as a teenager, I fell in love with their creativity in the later years (Magical Mystery Tour, Sgt. Pepper’s, The White Album). Then, in my early 20’s I was lucky enough to work in a studio in Los Angeles that owned one of the original Redd consoles that they had used at Abbey Road. I never got to really use it, but I did get to test some channels! The legend was enough for me.

As I’ve grown as a producer, I’ve gained an even deeper respect for their music. Not only are the songs beautifully written, but they are arranged and produced in such wonderful ways. I frequently reference ideas, sounds, motifs and more from them while making records today. I couldn’t help it if I wanted to. On my first tour in Germany I learned about their trip to Reeperbahn in Hamburg where they got their chops together as a band and got to snag this photo with George Harrison’s “statue”.

I could gush about the Beatles for ages. From Ringo’s unique drum fills to the “rule-breaking” recording techniques they used on tracks like “Revolution” and A Day in the Life – there is just so much there to love. They changed the face of rock & roll and have inspired so much of the music I love. The biggest inspiration they have given me has been to use my imagination and creativity while producing/writing/performing. I’m extremely excited to be able to bring the B-side of Abbey Road (one of my favorite pieces of music) to Me & Thee on May 19th, 2018 for the All You Need is Love Beatles Night.

From Dan Masterson

One of my earliest experiences with The Beatles was through The Yellow Submarine. I saw it in theaters. I saw it in IMAX 3D. I saw the Beatles laser show at the Museum of Science. We had a DVD that my youngest brother (and everyone else in the house) watched several times a day on repeat for weeks…he knew every word. As I grew older and started writing songs, reading biographies of artists like Billy Joel, the Beatles were inescapable again. Billy Joel credits them with turning him towards rock and pop. The Tin Pan Alley-esque song structures they use are a huge influence on my writing, not simply because they did it but because their writing was so effective. I don’t know what my songs and recordings might sound like if not for the Beatles…