Playing the clever, upbeat, and moving songs of Henning Ohlenbusch, Gentle Hen is a who’s-who of the Pioneer Valley Music Scene. The incredible rhythm section is drummer Brian Marchese (The Aloha Steamtrain, The Figments, The Fawns…) and bassist Max Germer (Winterpills, Spanish for Hitchhiking, The Fawns…) and if his current schedule allows, Ken Maiuri (every other band ever). The songs come from Henning, one of the area’s most celebrated writers and performers. He’s also a producer (Mark Mulcahy, Polaris, Ray Mason, Salvation Alley String Band…). Gentle Hen is the new name for the band that from 2001 until 2014 was known as School For the Dead. Gentle Hen plays jangly, rocky, catchy, sweet songs with smart and thoughtful lyrics in the vein of The Beatles, XTC, The Kinks, R.E.M, Robyn Hitchcock, They Might Be Giants, The Shins, Real Estate, and Harry Nilsson. Their show swoops between genres and moods and careens along an edge of almost chaos mixed with super tight musicianship.