Jesca Hoop w/ Jesse Harris
Sorry, this show is completely sold out! No tickets will be released at the door.
Jesca Hoop has lived all over the map, and her rich life experience is reflected in her distinctive voice and natural gift for inventive song craft. Hoop learned to sing at an early age, harmonizing with her musical Mormon family in northern California. She began writing highly idiosyncratic songs at the age of 14 to keep her company on her long walks to school. At 16, Hoop broke away from her strict upbringing and began what she calls her ‘life as a raccoon’, off the grid & close to nature. Rambling through the high mountain deserts of the Southwest and along the coastlines of the Northwest, she worked as a wilderness survival guide and chalked up skills in farming, surveying, and carpentry. Her songwriting continued throughout, shared on porches, in deep river canyons and around campfires.
In 2004 the desire to share these songs on a broader scale set in. She settled in Los Angeles, where she honed her songwriting craft and developed a reputation as a unique and beguiling live performer of real substance. Though she now resides in Manchester, England, Hoop returned to Los Angeles to record her third album, The House That Jack Built. Jesca has quite the growing collection of fans in high places: Tom Waits described her music as being “like a four sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night”. Peter Gabriel took her to South America to sing with him, and in recent years she has been hand picked to play as support on tour for Eels, Andrew Bird, Punch Brothers and Elbow: Elbow’s Guy Garvey even had her do a stint as guest presenter on his BBC radio show in early 2012, to great reception. The follow up to 2009’s critically acclaimed Hunting My Dress, this new record displays a striking duality: light and dark, head and heart, it juxtaposes the macabre and visceral with a disarmingly candid intimacy. The resulting combination is powerfully evocative, with overarching themes of biology, nature and humanity – Hoop’s stone-turning observations are mired in the equal beauty and violence of a nature that, for her, is clearly red in tooth and claw.
Jesse Harris is an accomplished singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer. Best known for having written and played guitar on Norah Jones’ breakout hit “Don’t Know Why” (for which he won the 2003 Grammy Award for Song Of The Year), he has also had his songs recorded by numerous other artists, including Smokey Robinson, Willie Nelson, Cat Power, Solomon Burke, and Emmylou Harris. As a solo artist, Jesse has released over 10 albums, including his forthcoming release, titled Sub Rosa.
“Music is to Brazil what food is to Italy – something they just do better than a lot of other countries,” says Jesse Harris. “At times I’ve been obsessed with it, particularly the recordings of the 60s and 70s.”
Harris waxes rhapsodic about Brazil because it’s the center of his new album, Sub Rosa. Predominantly recorded and mixed in Rio de Janeiro with a cast of local luminaries, it’s Harris’ 11th record of his own material – and it shines the spotlight (and bright tropical sun) on an artist who people are more used to expect to find hiding in the shadows. What started as an invitation from friends to spend a month in Rio eventually evolved into a stellar album that deftly weaves Brazilian-influenced arrangements into Harris’ understated folk-pop. After years of trips and tours there, never spending more than a week or two at a time, Harris decamped to Rio for January of 2011, delving into the city’s rich music scene and beginning friendships and collaborations with musicians like Dadi, Maria Gadu and Vinicius Cantuaria.
For Harris, Sub Rosa is the fruition of a remarkable career, as well as the start of a new chapter where the spotlight is firmly on him. “I worked harder on this recording than on any other before,” he states. “In the past, I’ve been a bit diffident about my own albums, almost excusing them for some reason, even though deep down I felt strongly about them. Subsequently, I wasn’t 100% driven to get behind them and tour, but now all I feel like doing is my own thing.” One listen to Sub Rosa, and you’ll champion Harris’ decision. Smart, wistful, and confident, it’s immediately charming and subtly complex. With the help of Brazil’s sympathetic sunshine and a little help from his friends, there are no more shadows left to hide in.
Grant Dermody & Orville Johnson
Tickets: $20 advance, $24 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Grant Dermody (DER-muh-dee) is a harmonica player, singer, songwriter, and teacher from Seattle, Washington. Described as “an understated harmonica virtuoso and a vocalist of subtlety and warmth” by Don McLeese of No Depression magazine, Grant is a highly versatile musician. A lifelong student of the harmonica and acoustic blues, Grant’s latest release is the masterful Lay Down My Burden. Grant’s musical travels have seen him playing with many of America’s most beloved acoustic musicians. In 2010, he embarked on a successful international tour with guitarist Eric Bibb. Previous explorations saw him performing in a trio with Orville Johnson and John Miller, live and on their 2006 release Deceiving Blues. In addition, Dermody has performed with blues legends Leon Bib, Honeyboy Edwards, Robert Lowery, Big Joe Duskin, John Dee Holeman, and Cephas & Wiggins. Beyond the blues, Grant is passionate about old-time music. As a member of The Improbabillies, whose 1998 self-titled CD made a serious splash in the old-time world, Grant brought a unique blues sensibility and an innovative harmonica style to that genre.
An excellent accompanist, Grant uses his instrument to add just the right shade, feel or energy to a player, piece or project. He has played on several of Seattle based singer/songwriter Jim Page’s recordings, and was a guest artist on Dan Crary’s, Rennaissance of the Steel String Guitar. Dan described Grant’s playing on “Reedy’s Blues,” as “powerful and beautiful,” and referred to him as, “One of the best studio musicians I have ever worked with.” Ask other harmonica players about Grant’s style, and they all point to his big, warm, wide-open tone, his ability to bring his own voice to a wide variety of musical styles, and his subtle, un-hurried approach. Though Grant spends most of his musical time playing acoustic music, he never hesitates to plug in and lay down some Chicago Blues. In performances, recordings, and teaching engagements, Grant’s soulful sound shines through, inspiring listeners and fellow musicians.
Orville Johnson was born and raised in the southern Illinois heartland. He acquired his love of singing as a youth in the fundamentalist Pentecostal church he attended and, when he later began playing guitar and dobro, responded to the roots music that surrounded him by learning to play the blues, bluegrass, rockabilly, and country music that are all part of the mosaic that characterizes his own mongrel music.
He is a singer, instrumentalist, record producer, songwriter, session player, teacher, the top dobro player on the West Coast of America and, above all, an instinctive and sensitive musician. As his entry in the Encyclopedia of Northwest Music (Sasquatch Press 1999) states, he has become a vital figure on the NW music scene in the thirty-some years he’s lived there, appearing on over 400 CDs, movie and video soundtracks, commercials, producing 22 CDs for other artists, hosting a roots music radio show, and appearing in the 1997 film Georgia with Jennifer Jason-Leigh and Mare Winningham, on the Prairie Home Companion radio show and on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show.
Orville is also known as a patient and insightful teacher of music and has taught often at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop as well as the International Guitar Seminar, Pt. Townsend Blues Workshop, Euro-Blues Workshop, B.C. Bluegrass Workshop and others. He has several teaching videos and DVDs and CDs of his own music available.
Coty Hogue and band: Live Album Recording
Tickets: $16 advance, $20 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Coty Hogue‘s got something different in her. Maybe it’s from growing up in a Montana town several orders of magnitude below “small;” maybe it comes from immersing herself in a folk music tradition that extends back for centuries. Whatever it is, you’d be hard-pressed to put your finger on it.
But when Coty picks up her banjo and lets her voice out, there it is. You’d think she’s a pretty young gal, but her voice gives her away when she sings those fine old Appalachian songs. That voice, pitched low and steady, keeps raising chills. Then she’ll apologize for playing too many sad songs in a row and launch into a fast-picking barnburner. Accompanied by Aaron Guest (12-string guitar) and Kat Bula (fiddle), Coty’s song selection runs the gamut of American roots music- a little blues, a pinch of swing, a spoonful of classic Opry, all with an emphasis on tight vocal harmony.
Coty grew up with horses and big sky in Philipsburg, Montana- population just over 900. She left in the early half of the decade for an education in Bellingham, Washington. That sweet, subdued little city- long known for its thriving roots music community- became home. Over the next few years, Coty played all over town, traded songs with anyone she could find, and learned how to play any stringed instrument she could get her hands on.
In 2009, Coty packed up her bags and headed east to Boone, North Carolina, where she received Masters in Appalachian Studies. Along the way, she recorded an album, Going to the West, with frequent collaborator Aaron Guest; toured the West Coast; performed at the 2010 International Folk Alliance Conference, the Subdued Stringband Jamboree, and Seattle’s historic Folklife Festival; and her music will be featured in the independent film, Neon Sky.
If you get the chance to see Coty Hogue, don’t miss it. It’s a rare sort of performer who will keep you transfixed through several full sets of music. She’ll burnish out-of-the-way gems and set them on fire again with her skilled interpretation. She’ll sneak in tunes of her own composing that you’ll swear you’ve heard before.
She’s got the simple elegance and understated mastery of her craft that distinguishes much more established players, and it is this- a young voice flavored with the tannins of an old soul- that quietly sets her apart.
Artist Spotlight: The Haunted Windchimes
Interview by Heather Askeland
The Haunted Windchimes sound draws from traditional folk and American roots music. The songs have a vintage quality, as if they might have been written yesterday or 75 years ago. Grounded in honeyed harmonies and spirited pickin’, it lies in a nowhere land between distinct styles: It’s not quite bluegrass or blues or country. Still, there are elements of all those in songs that paint pictures of empty train stations and nights of passing a jug of moonshine around. It’s the vocal harmonies that really set them apart, a three-headed juggernaut of Desirae Garcia (ukulele), Chela Lujan (banjo) and Inaiah Lujan (guitar). The sound is often moody and melancholy, but it is always deeply affecting. That sound is embroidered by the instrumental mastery of Mike Clark (harmonica, guitar and mandolin) and the standup bass foundation of Sean Fanning.
The Haunted Windchimes are a group of talented young musicians hailing from Pueblo, Colorado. Their original songs deftly blend blues, folk, bluegrass, country, and some unnamable ingredient that keeps audiences nationwide coming back for more. In October they appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, and this Wednesday they’ll play the Empty Sea stage. Band front man Inaiah Lujah took a quick break from the road to delve into the Windchimes’ history, musical and topographical influences, and their unique fusion of sounds both traditional and new.
If The Haunted Windchimes were a homemade aural dish, what would be the musical ingredients?
I love this question! I’ve always felt like making good music is like making a good stew or soup. Our ingredients would be rural folk and delta Blues mixed with jazz, and three-part harmonies a la the Carter family with Gypsy seasoning.
What is the story behind your band’s inception and name?
Desirae and I are the founding members of the group. We started this band in 2006 shortly after a conversation about my parents’ mysterious wind chimes that would chime without a hint of wind. I was convinced they were haunted. It was a little different musically in the beginning, but our duo had a certain spark. Desi and I were in love and still are to this day. I wrote most of the tunes then, and Desi would find these great harmonies and sing with me. We made our first album that Halloween, Ballad of the Winds, a home recording full of minor ballads and haunting melodies. The following summer we put a tour together following a route that I had hitchhiked a few years earlier, counting on the kindness of people we’d meet to house us and help with shows. We made it to Bloomington Indiana where we met some new friends and got introduced to the music of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott for the first time; this paired with a trip through the southern states began to have a heavy influence on our songwriting. Upon our return home to Pueblo, my sister Chela (returning from her own adventures out west) joined the group adding the third vocal part we have become known for. A trip to Hawaii introduced us to the magical world of the ukulele, and Desi fell in love with the baritone ukulele and taught herself how to play it. Chela later picked up the banjo and we performed and toured around as a trio for a little over a year. Sean was next to join the group after seeing our trio perform at a bar in Pueblo. I knew of Sean’s amazing talent and when he auditioned for the group it was instant chemistry. The final piece of our group came about through a mutual friend. Adam Leech (who owns a vintage clothing and record store in Colorado Springs) invited us to his annual Leechpit BBQ to perform. There we met Mike Clark’s band The Jack Trades, a blues duo that we immediately fell in love with. We joined them for a few songs and became quick friends. Mike would come to all of our shows and it became a staple to invite him up on stage to accompany us on harmonica. Eventually we invited him up for all the songs and he joined our group shortly thereafter.
All five band members hail from the steel town of Pueblo, Colorado; does Pueblo influence your sound and if so, how?
Pueblo is surrounded by all the elements for a good folk song. Train tracks, rivers and mountains and the industrial architecture are definite inspirations for songs. All of the above are common themes you’ll hear in our music.
It sounds like you’ve been involved in music since childhood. What first ignited this passion in you?
Chela and I grew up in a very musical home. My mom, a music lover, taught us young about the Beatles and Bob Dylan amongst others. My dad studied flamenco guitar in college and when we became interested in learning to play there was always a guitar around the house to fiddle with. My first love was the piano and I gravitated to it at the age of 3… it wasn’t until I was 12 that I took up the guitar. We always sang with our mom. Desi, an army brat, traveled the world with her family doing everything from ballet to show choir and more. Sean played in orchestras and jazz bands growing up and took more of a traditional approach in his early years. Mike Clark, a former pro trials rider, discovered music later in life and was gifted his first guitar at age 27. He is 33 now and sort-of a freak of nature. He’s since taught himself how to play multiple instruments including mandolin, violin, concertina and banjo.
How did you come to cover the work of blues great Leadbelly? Can you speak about your band’s relationship to his music?
I actually discovered Leadbelly thanks to the Nirvana unplugged album and their amazing version of Where Did You Sleep Last Night. I played the song for my music teacher (an old friend of our family) and he showed me the original performed by Leadbelly. It was years before I really appreciated the Leadbelly version and there came a time when Leadbelly was all I would listen to. Studying every note and line he sang and trying to match his rhythms taught me so much. It became an obsession, like Dylan and Hank Williams were for me earlier in my life. We cover his songs to pay homage really.
What do you find yourself listening to most on your Ipod these days?
We’ve been listening to a lot of Otis Redding lately, and the old Stacks and Motown recordings have definitely popped up as inspiration, especially with Mike. Desi has been on a Nina Simone and Billie Holiday kick for quite sometime… I’ve kind-of been diving into all of the solo Paul McCartney and Wings stuff and generally we mostly listen to a lot of our friends’ bands and others we’ve met traveling.
How has the band’s sound changed since its birth in 2006?
The sound has evolved, our music grows as we grow… We’ve become so comfortable playing music with one another the processes become more natural, like breathing. It’s an exciting ride.
Mary Flower
Tickets: $15 advance, $18 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Yellow Dog Records recording artist Mary Flower is renowned for a
uniquely personal vision of roots music that blends ragtime, acoustic blues,
and folk – technically dazzling yet grounded in the down-to-earth simplicity
of early 20th century American music.
With eight albums under her belt, Flower has earned rave reviews from
critics and audiences alike for her unassuming vocals, but it’s her
instrumental skill – a mastery of the difficult Piedmont blues guitar that
takes most players a lifetime to hone – for which Flower is most celebrated.
Her fingerpicking forms the basis of a heavily syncopated, ragtime-based
style wherein the thumb plucks a strong rhythmic base as the fingers etch
out the melody. Mary also excels at lap slide guitar, allowing her to infuse
songs with a supremely delicate, plaintive sound that’s hers alone while
recalling the blues giants of the past.
Flower performs and teaches internationally, and has released several
instructional DVDs, including a few for highly regarded Homespun Tapes.
Johnson, Miller & Dermody
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at the door.
Sorry, this show is completely sold out! No tickets will be released at the door.
Johnson, Miller,& Dermody have played together for over a decade and have been one of the Pacific Northwest’s best-kept secrets until now. All three have busy solo careers but have found time to gather together to play this rootsy, bluesy, soulful music that they love. Finally they sat down at David Lange’s studio and played the music found on Deceiving Blues all together in the same room, in real time, no headphones, no studio gimmicks, and no attempts to fix things later. Honest, immediate, heartfelt and real, in the tradition of the artists and music that inspired them.
They first played as a trio when all three were on staff at the Centrum Blues Workshop in Port Townsend, WA. They are known among aficionados of country blues as three of the finest teachers as well as players. With the release of this CD the rest of the world should soon find out what a select group already knows…these artists are three of the finest interpreters and creators of acoustic blues working today.
Orville Johnson was born and raised in the southern Illinois heartland. He acquired his love of singing as a youth in the fundamentalist Pentecostal church he attended and, when he later began playing guitar and dobro, responded to the roots music that surrounded him by learning to play the blues, bluegrass, rockabilly, and country music that are all part of the mosaic that characterizes his own mongrel music.
He is a singer, instrumentalist, record producer, songwriter, session player, teacher, and, above all, an instinctive and sensitive musician. As his entry in the Encyclopedia of Northwest Music (Sasquatch Press 1999) states, he has become a vital figure on the NW music scene in the twenty-some years he’s lived there, appearing on over 200 CDs, movie and video soundtracks (most recently the film “The Wooly Boys” with Peter Fonda and the PBS series “Frontier House”), commercials, producing 15 CDs for other artists, hosting a roots music radio show, and appearing in the 1997 film Georgia with Jennifer Jason-Leigh and Mare Winningham, on the Prairie Home Companion radio show and on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show.
Orville is also known as a patient and insightful teacher of music and has taught often at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop as well as the International Guitar Seminar, Pt. Townsend Blues Workshop, Sound Acoustic Music Camp, Greater Yellowstone Music Camp, B.C. Bluegrass Workshop and others. He has several instructional DVDs and CDs of his own music available including Blueprint for the Blues, Slide & Joy, Freehand, and others.
John Miller has enjoyed a varied career as a professional guitarist, composer and teacher since he started 35 years ago. John recorded five solo albums while still in his twenties, focusing first of all on country blues in his releases on Blue Goose records, First Degree Blues, How About Me, and Let’s Go Riding, and transitioning to jazz standards for Safe Sweet Home and Biding My Time, a collection of George Gershwin songs, both released on Rounder Records.
John has a reputation as an excellent teacher, having founded two music camps and produced 6 instructional DVDs on country blues guitar for Stefan Grossman’s Vestapol Videos, focusing on the music of Mississippi John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotten, Robert Wilkins, Furry Lewis and Bo Carter.
In recent years, John has recorded collaborative CDs with the acoustic jazz trio, Catwalk, the French cabaret ensemble, Rouge, and in duos with vocalist Rebecca Kilgore, mandolinist John Reischman and violinist Ruthie Dornfeld. John recently released his first solo recording in twenty-five years, Hey There, which is a collection of jazz standards.
Grant Dermody (pronounced DER muh dee) is a harmonica player and singer known for his rich tone, tasteful solos, and solid rhythmic playing. Grant moves through a variety of musical styles while maintaining his own distinctive sound.
A sought after accompanist, Grant has appeared on several Jim Page recordings, plays on Dan Crary’s new album, Renaissance of the Steel String Guitar; and has also recorded with Robin Dale Ford, Scott Law, MichaelGrey (of Pearl Django) and Michael Gettel. Grant has performed with Cephas & Wiggins, Big Joe Duskin, JohnDee Holeman, Robert Lowrey, and Honeyboy Edwards. He was a featured artist with Orchestra Seattle playing the harmonica part in Huntley Beyer’s Symphony, Romantic Lines. He is a member of the blues influenced old-time band, The Improbabillies, whose self-titled CD on the Yodel-A-Hee label is a fine example of Grant’s innovative playing and recently released his first solo CD, Crossing That River.
Grant teaches harmonica at the annual Port Townsend Country Blues Festival and at The Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins , West Virginia.
David Jacobs-Strain: Live Concert Recording
Tickets: $12 advance, $16 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Please join us as we help David Jacobs-Strain record a live album for an upcoming release!
Slide guitarist and singer-songwriter David Jacobs-Strain grew up in Oregon, far from Mississippi, but found his first musical home in the Delta blues. “I’ve always been drawn to the dark stuff,” David says. This young roots musician channels age-old wisdom and heartache with such energy and passion that you can’t help but feel good, even about feeling bad.
You also wonder how one man with one acoustic guitar (at a time) can rival the sonic density of a jam band. “I really like getting a big acoustic guitar sound—not loud but with a lot of depth and space. It’s all about having the flexibility to convey all different kinds of emotion,” he says.
There are various references in his music—bluesmen Skip James and Charlie Patton, Afro-pop star Salif Keita, Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, rock icon John Lennon—but his work as a whole falls neatly in the gaps between multiple genres. Dirty Linen says that “he doesn’t just rock out: he’s learned the art of crossing musical boundaries from the masters.” Ask David what you should call his style. He grins. “Gangster-grass?” he suggests. “One-man arena rock?” A prankster peeks out from under long, dark lashes before disappearing behind the lanky singer’s polite manner.
His latest release, Liar’s Day, was produced by Kenny Passarelli (Otis Taylor, Stephen Stills), who’s also featured on bass. He’s joined by Joe Vitale on drums. “I wanted a big, aggressive drum sound—a Neil Young or Tom Petty sound—that still allowed space for the Traugott acoustic and National steel guitars. I got it with Joe and Kenny, Joe Walsh’s rhythm section in the 70s.” Together the three lay down solid grooves that massage away the sorrow of lost love.
The music isn’t only about love, though. Long before being green became a corporate cliché, David grew up in a community in Eugene that was centered on cultural change and the health of the environment. He sees a distinct connection between the communal base of his upbringing and the democracy of folk music. “I’m really into hand-made culture—and real people making real music. The voice. One guitar. Even at its simplest, folk music like the blues has always been a vehicle for expressing your own situation, whether as an individual or a community. There’s such power in that.”
In his mid-20′s, David is already a veteran of the national club and festival circuit. In 2008 he was chosen by Boz Scaggs to be the opener for his tour. David has also shared the stage with T-Bone Burnett, Bob Weir, Los Lobos, Lucinda Williams, Taj Mahal, Etta James, Dave Mason, and the Blind Boys of Alabama. His festival credits include the Strawberry Music Festival, MerleFest, the Lugano Blues to Bop Festival in Switzerland, the Newport Folk Festival, the Telluride Blues Fest, the Vancouver Folk Festival, and the Montreal Jazz Festival. He’s also served as faculty at guitar workshops, most notably at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch. In 2009 he worked on a new album of mostly original songs produced by Nashville-based Ray Kennedy (Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Ray Davies).
Toy Box Trio CD Release Party w/ God’s Favorite Beefcake, Bakelite 78
Showtimes: 7.00 PM w/ God’s Favorite Beefcake, 9.00 PM w/ Bakelite 78.
Tickets:$13 advance, $15 at the door for either show (tickets sold separately)
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
The Toy-Box Trio presents “…charmingly quirky music that shifts from whimsical to creepy, from lullabies to marches. It is the soundtrack to a forgotten circus, a broken childhood memory, a magic music box full of dust and wonder.” (Sarah Shay, Jew-ish.com).
Founded in 2007 by classical composer Harlan Glotzer, the Toy-Box Trio is devoted to helping audiences experience through-composed music in an entirely different way. The pairing of concertina, toy piano, and tuba is reminiscent of the classical piano trio—a staple in chamber repertoire—but able to extend into the 21st century by creating a sonic landscape evocative of dusty old music boxes and haunted carnivals. Jordan Block of Sepiachord describes the trio’s sound as “…markedly intimate retro-future circus music, transforming baroque sounds into a stranger version of ‘The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’.” Toy-Box Trio is committed to approaching time-worn ideas and concepts from unexpected, non-traditional, and rarely-used angles. The trio fills the space between carnivals, circuses, and classical chamber ensembles, creating a light and fanciful sonic atmosphere.
The Toy-Box Trio is at home in venues ranging from concert halls to cabaret clubs to street corners, and performs for a diverse audience including families, steampunks, and symphony-goers. Previous performances include the Seattle International Cabaret Festival, Steamcon, and the University District Street Fair, as well as various stages and art galleries throughout the Puget Sound region. Aside from stage performances, the Toy-Box Trio has been featured on KEXP’s “Sonarchy Radio” and has made a live television appearance on the Seattle Channel’s “Art Zone with Nancy Guppy”. Sepiachord has commissioned two separate pieces from Toy-Box Trio for the CD compilations The Sepiachord Companion and The Sepiachord Passport. Music from the trio’s self-titled EP creates the backdrop for Philadelphia’s Olde City Sideshow and provides the soundtrack for various films including My Lucy Charm and Back Ally.
For the 7.00 show, the Toy Box Trio is joined by God’s Favorite Beefcake, the illegitimate musical offspring of singer/songwriter Shmootzi the Clod (a.k.a. Drew Keriakedes) and bassist Meshuguna Joe (a.k.a. Joseph Albanese), formerly of Seattle’s Circus Contraption performance troupe. Joined by a rag-tag ensemble of skilled musicians —on guitar, musical saw, banjo, fiddle, harmonica, and spoons — the two eccentrics serve up a rich stew of Americana and old-time music, seasoned with a dash of tango and a dollop of old-school country. The band’s maniacal live shows combine sideshow theatrics with toe-tapping original tunes. Did someone say sword-swallowing? God’s Favorite Beefcake is living proof that old circus habits die hard.
In the 9.00 show, The Toy Box Trio welcomes Bakelite 78.
