Rex Fowler was 24 years old when he walked into the Stone Phoenix Coffeehouse in Boston on an open mic night in 1971 and met the man he would spend nearly five decades making music with. From that chance meeting came Aztec Two-Step, named after a line in Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind — a choice that tells you something about the kind of writers they intended to be. They recorded for Elektra and RCA, earned a profile in a 1999 PBS documentary called “No Hit Wonder,” won a New York Music Award, and opened for Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, and Jackson Browne. NPR’s John Platt put the reason for their durability plainly: “The secret of Aztec Two-Step’s longevity isn’t just the harmony between Rex and Neal, it’s also the quality of the songs.” On Saturday, September 26, Rex Fowler brings the latest chapter to Caffe Lena as part of the venue’s Folk Heritage Series.
About the Show
Following the 2018 retirement of co-founder Neal Shulman after 47 years of recording and touring, Fowler regrouped as Aztec Two-Step 2.0, now anchored by his partnership with his wife Dodie Pettit. Pettit is no newcomer to the band’s orbit: she appeared as a session vocalist on the 1980 album The Times of Our Lives, and she brings to this stage a 15-year Broadway career that included original cast membership in The Phantom of the Opera, CATS, and Titanic. The full lineup adds Steven “Muddy” Roues on upright bass and harmonica and Peter Hohmeister, a symphony musician, on drums and percussion. The set draws from what the band describes as “vintage and recent Aztec Two-Step fan favorites as well as forgotten gems,” alongside selections from the group’s Simon & Garfunkel Songbook, which the band has become celebrated for. Ron Olesko of WEXT-FM/Folk Music Notebook offered a direct assessment: “The old songs done in Rex’s new lineup has brought new life to the music. This truly is a band that people need to experience!”
Venue & Logistics
Caffe Lena, at 47 Phila Street in Saratoga Springs, holds 110 seats in a listening room that is about as right a fit for this material as the capital region offers. The distance between performer and audience is never far enough to lose the thread. Doors at 7:30 p.m., show from 8 to 10 p.m. For those who can’t make the drive to Saratoga, Caffe Lena TV offers a $5 livestream.
Tickets
General admission is $41.21, with member pricing at $37.96 and a child/student rate of $20.61; all prices include fees. Buy tickets