Hiya, newsletter folks. This one is going out a little sooner than it normally would because there's an extenuating circumstance.
We'll get to that, but first a quick reminder that there's a super-sweet acoustic show coming up on the 28th, a co-headline with Mark Mandeville & Raianne Richards and Luminous Crush, a pair of exceptionally talented and accomplished duos with net-positive attitudes.
We recommend not letting this one go under the radar.
The reason this edition is going out early is because it's looking like the Draa Hobbs CD Release Show on Sunday, October 19 at 7:00 PM is going to hit capacity before we even send out press releases and do calendar placements.
At this writing, the room is more than half gone.
If you've been waiting to get tickets, you might want to reconsider that strategy.
What's the deal? Well, Draa is a popular jazz guitar dude... and on top of that he's bringing some astonishing sides with him: tenor sax virtuoso Michael Zsoldos; Berklee College of Music’s Rich Greenblatt on vibes; Hartford bassist Steve Bulmer; extraordinary drummer Tim Gilmore; plus Sarah Clay on flute for select numbers.And tickets are only $15 in advance.
Phil Henry ended up calling in sick for his co-headline with Erin Ash Sullivan last weekend.
As it happened, there was an unusually high percentage of singer-songwriters coming to the show, so we sent out a last-minute email asking if any of them might like to step up. Five did!We were treated to two songs each from Jack Henry of Decatur Creek, The Milkhouse Heaters, Dan and Faith, Jesse Peters, and George Nostrand... they were all terrific, and so was Erin. The audience was delighted.
A developing thing: We may have all or part of the Mekons back in the room next June.
Like Draa is on track to do, they sold the place out by word of mouth without us having to do any real promotion. Stay tuned.
Wikipedia: "The Mekons are a British post-punk band formed in 1976 as an art collective. They are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands. The band's style has evolved over time to incorporate aspects of country music, folk music, alternative rock... They are well known for their exuberant live performances."Note they're not safety-pins-through-the-nose fashion punks, they're first-wave punk rockers with steaming dollops of hard folk and trad. Here, they did a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR about a month ago, see for yourself:
Our 6 TB drive arrived, like an hour ago. Gotta go get that realtime mirror going!
