We don't usually clump up the newsletters — or the shows — like this. Apologies if it's too much. (It kinda is, at least for us.)
We write again so soon to let you know that the Grammer / Henry / Berkhout show is sold out. But don't despair, two more excellent ones are coming up quickly after.
We've had Grammy nominees in the room before but may not have ever had a Grammy winner.
You'd think we'd remember.
Bidi Dworkin is bringing one in her band – and we're not talking just one measly Grammy, but two:
Peter Eldridge, who for years has been at the forefront of both the singer-songwriter and jazz realms as a vocalist, pianist, composer, and arranger. He's collaborating with Bidi on her new album, and this show will feature many of those new songs in imminent advance of laying them down in the recording studio.
This might be one for the history books.
Bidi draws from a deep well of influences – the jazz-folk lineage of her childhood, the Middle Eastern melodies of her ancestry, the fluidity of Vedic meditative traditions… a fusion enriched by intuitive language and a dreamy interior landscape. She honed her chops the old-fashioned way: Gigging in New York City, Montreal, New England.
This will be a 3:00 matinee on Saturday, April 18. The band includes Peter on piano, along with Jamie MacDonald on bass, Matt Steckler on horns, Claire Arenius on drums, plus a special surprise guest.
Tickets are
, or at the door as available (cash or check, no cards). Advance tickets guarantee entry. Advance ticket sales will automatically close once 40 tickets are sold, or at midnight the day before the show if it hasn’t sold out.
Then on Sunday, April 26, a band whose new album is already recorded and out, plus one of Austin's favorite adopted sons.
Los Lorcas will be celebrating the release of their full-length Wild Island, blurring the boundaries between spoken word and song, weaving poetry with Andalusian ballads, blues, rock, folk, reggae, Americana, and jazz in pursuit of the cante jondo (“deep song”). These guys have troubadoured the globe.As if that wasn't enough, Austin's celebrated resident Irishman Pat Byrne shares the bill, melding two musical cultures known for introspective lyricism and raw, from-the-heart emotion with a voice that ranges from seductive whisper to full-bodied rock ‘n’ roll growl. He's had breakout performances at the 30A Festival, SXSW, Kerrville Folk Festival, and the Americana Festival.And you get to see both of these acts up close and personal in our weird little room. On one bill. Amazing.This is another 3:00 matinee. Tickets are $20 in advance through stage33live.com, or at the door as available (cash or check, no cards). Advance tickets guarantee entry. Only 40 tickets will be sold. Advance sales will close at midnight the day before the show, or when 40 tickets are sold.
Wish us luck as we write yet another grant proposal to a state arts foundation that hasn't awarded us anything since 2022. Yeehaw! We keep trying.
Occasionally we're able to get a little grant from here or there — it always comes as a surprise even though we asked, and it always means the world to us no matter how modest the amount. It helps keep us going, and we can squeeze a penny until it cries Nickel.
To be fair, our snark about that big arts foundation isn't really warranted anymore. The preponderance of their funding used to tend to go to things up northwest, in Burlington / Montpelier territory, where they're headquartered and where all the money in Vermont already is. But we've seen them taking steps to make sure their help is more fairly distributed throughout the state. Kudos.
It's also still true, though, that large, entrenched, comparatively well-financed organizations still get most of the cake. However, we understand that: If we were doling out funds, we'd want those dollars to go where they'd touch the most people. "Merit-based" means different things at different times to different people.
Meanwhile, we're a blip in the hinterlands. We're happy being a blip. But we also think we're doing good and important and kinda under-recognized work. Probably we don't make enough hay about the reach of
: 31,534 views in the last 365 days on 2,500-and-counting clips. It ain't viral, but it is more than 85 people a day — not too shabby for a room with a capacity of 40. We'd have to do almost 800 sold-out shows to reach than many people in person. Our lifetime view count is 163,391... the equivalent of more than 4,000 sold-out shows.Being in the room is where the magic is, but it's OK with us if our strongest mission-fulfillment legs are mostly pixels.
