Jen Donovan, owner of Le Shag hair salons in Woodstock and Kingston, met Mercury Rev guitarist and co-founder Sean Mackowiak in 2004, when she was styling hair in Uptown Kingston and he had a studio on Wall Street.
Mackowiak, known as Grasshopper, was among the musicians who spent time at the salon where Donovan worked, run by the well-known stylist Mark Ferraro. The two would migrate to Artie’s, the legendary, now-closed bar nearby.
More than two decades later, the married couple have built lives shaped by different forms of creative expression.
“They’re both an opportunity to share your creative expression,” Donovan said.
That connection will come into view again Saturday, when Mercury Rev opens for the Afghan Whigs in a sold-out show at Bearsville Theater. Mercury Rev, a longtime presence on the Hudson Valley music scene, has often played there and has released nine studio albums.
While the band is known for its dreamy, celestial sound, Donovan said it resists easy definition.
“There isn’t one word to describe them,” she said. “Every album seems to be really different.”
Asked whether there is any special meaning in watching her husband perform in a town where she also runs a business, Donovan laughed.
“Oh yeah. He’s a rock star,” she said.
“I love to show the community how good he is with his talents and be able to watch him on stage, with all of my friends there,” she said. “It’s an amazing feeling.”
When Grasshopper, his Mercury Rev co-founder Jonathan Donahue and their three bandmates take the stage this week, he said he will be returning to a venue he has long admired. Over the years, he has seen a range of performers there, including Laurie Anderson, and has also DJed at the theater.
“They have a great sound system,” he said. “It’s a great space. It’s always great to play in Woodstock, and especially Bearsville, because of all that history.”
Donovan, meanwhile, has deepened her own ties to Woodstock in recent years. She opened her second Le Shag location at Woodstock Spa on Ricks Road in 2020, just before the pandemic. Two years later, she relocated to Tinker Street, where Todd Rundgren once stopped in for a last-minute dye job before a Bearsville Theater performance.
Donovan has styled the hair of numerous celebrities. Actor Robert Downey Jr. traveled to Kingston so she could cut his hair. She also styled musician Natalie Merchant’s hair for an album cover.
She learned styling from her grandmother at a young age, studied the craft at Ulster County BOCES and got her first job at Ferraro’s salon. Grasshopper, for his part, played clarinet and ukulele early in life before gravitating toward guitar in high school.
Grasshopper and Donahue, who grew up in Hurley, launched Mercury Rev in 1989. They moved to the Hudson Valley in 1994 after attending SUNY Buffalo. Donovan opened her Kingston Le Shag in 2006.
Grasshopper and Donovan married in 2010 and have two sons, Donovan and Harrison.
So does Grasshopper get his hair cut at Le Shag?
“Yes,” he said. “Although Jen will cut my hair in the house.”
“His personal stylist,” Donovan chimed in.
Grasshopper said he still enjoys visiting Le Shag in Kingston to mingle and chat, much as he once did at Ferraro’s salon. Now, he said, those visits are also a way of supporting his wife’s work.
“It’s really nice,” Donovan said.
Likewise, Donovan said, going to Saturday night’s show with a few friends is one way she supports her husband.
“It keeps me with cool kids,” she said with a laugh.
“It’s mutual,” Grasshopper added.
John W. Barry is a reporter for The Overlook. Reach him at john@theoverlooknews.com.