Sonically adventurous band, Billy Wylder, at the me&thee

The me&thee coffeehouse welcomes the Billy Wylder band with Alisa Amador opening on November 15 at 8 pm. WBUR’s Artery recently described Billy Wylder as ‘more sonically adventurous than other bands of its ilk, anchored as it is in groove and texture.’ Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the me&thee is located at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead at 28 Mugford Street.

Cambridge-based Billy Wylder band is extraordinary, weaving together American folk and rock with sensibilities from the Sahara Desert. It’s like Ali Farka Toure, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon and the Talking Heads all got together and had a baby. The band’s mainstays are Avi Solloway on vocals, guitar, and harmonica, Rob Flax on vocals, violin, and synthesizers, Krista Speroni on vocals and bass, and Zamar Odongo on vocals and drums. Many Boston area music fans may recall Avi Solloway as a member of Avi and Celia and Hey, Mama.

Billy Wylder has been places, gathering experience -- from the front lines at Standing Rock to the archaic streets of Jerusalem, from the Sahel Desert to Carnegie Hall, from Coachella to the New Orleans Jazz Fest and Lincoln Center. From 2013 to 2016, Avi Salloway toured the globe with Bombino, the Tuareg guitar hero from Niger, Africa. While on the journey and since returning, Salloway wrote the material on the band’s new album, Strike the Match. On the album, Salloway grapples with some of the most pressing questions of our time – the need for humans to reorient our relationship with nature, how we can move beyond capitalism and nationalism to develop a global society. The band is named after Salloway’s grandmother, Wilma Billie Hotaling, a prolific artist and writer. “My grandma Billie led by example, showing me what creativity looks like and how critical art can be as a form of love and resistance,” Salloway says.

Boston-based singer/songwriter Alisa Amador’s music is a synthesis of the many styles she’s voraciously absorbed: rock, jazz, funk and alternative folk, all wrapped in the spirit of the Latin music she grew up with. Her parents are members of the Latin band Sol y Canto and she toured all over the country with them as a kid. With a sound that NPR calls “a pitch-perfect rendition of my wildest dreams, her soulful singing, poetically incisive lyrics, and syncopated rhythms are likely to make you cry, laugh, and dance all in one set.”

Tickets for Billy Wylder and Alisa Amador are $20 in advance and $23 at the door. Student tickets are $10. Tickets are available online at www.meandthee.org and can be purchased in person at the Spirit of ’76 Bookstore or the Arnould Gallery in Marblehead. As at all me & thee events, refreshments are available, including homemade pastries, coffee, and teas. The me & thee has a handicapped-accessible entrance and an accessible bathroom, is a smoke-free environment, and is easily reached by MBTA bus.

The me & thee is one of the oldest continually running acoustic listening rooms in New England, and probably the country. It has been and will always be a volunteer, non-profit organization sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead. For information and directions, call 781-631-8987 or check the website at www.meandthee.org