Colwell at Upstairs at Pianos

Colwell are cousins and longtime best friends Clayton Colwell and Jeb Colwell. The two have been a songwriting team since their early teens, and started performing as teenagers in coffee houses in Tucson, Arizona. Colwell tonight began a residency of four Thursday nights at Upstairs at Pianos, concluding on April 11, and admission is free.

Perhaps because the cousins no longer have a band (the two left the Albany-based Hector on Stilts in 2008), Colwell recalled the days when folk musicians first discovered commercial radio in the 1960s. Accompanied by their two guitars and a rhythm track, the cousins traded vocals and harmonized on original tunes that sounded a bit like the Association, the Cyrkle, even the Beach Boys – with a drum program. It helps if you have a sense of humor, which I seem to lack, because their lyrics contain wit and comic sensibility on songs like “Chicks for a Change.” Let us see if they gain a following over these next few Thursdays.