BLUES LOVERS STEP UP TO SUPPORT MUSICIANS IMPACTED BY THE LOUISIANA FLOODS

The Music Maker Relief Foundation has created the Baton Rouge Musicians Fund (BRMF). The fund was created in partnership with the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation and will directly support musicians impacted by the Louisiana Flood.

Beginning August 12, 2016, heavy rains fell over the state of Louisiana. The record-breaking flooding, caused by the nearly seven trillion gallons of rain that fell, has damaged more than 60,000 homes.

One of the damaged homes belongs to 91 year-old blues pianist Henry Gray, a native of Kenner, Louisiana. Gray, who still tours both solo and with his band, Henry Gray and the Cats, has traveled the world playing the blues with the Rolling Stones, Howlin' Wolf and countless others. Despite his success on the global stage, Gray still lives in a humble home, and like 54 percent of home owners in the flood zone, has no flood insurance.

(Photo credit Jordan Hefler/Baton Rouge Blues Festival, click for high res)

As news of the historic flooding hit, Music Maker Relief Foundation Founder and President Timothy Duffy was quick to respond. “Music Maker has been helping roots musicians in crisis for more than 20 years, so when we heard that legends like Henry were impacted by the flooding, we immediately reached out to send aid," Duffy said.

When Clarke Gernon, Jr., president of the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation, heard Music Maker was helping Gray, he offered to partner with Duffy to help the many other Louisiana musicians in need. “Guitars. Keyboards. Amps. These among other instruments are the tools of the trade when you are a working musician in the Baton Rouge Blues community. When these items are gone, not to mention one's house and possessions, it really limits your ability to pay your bills. We hope this relief fund can help bridge the gap and get these suffering musicians back to playing the blues and not just feeling them,” Gernon said.

Duffy agreed and offered to mobilize Music Maker resources to set up the Baton Rouge Musicians Fund and assist these performers. "In a disaster like this, we first need to help stabilize an artist’s health and housing situation," says Duffy. "Then we can focus on getting instruments back in their hands and giving them access to stages so they can rebuild their livelihoods.”

Contemporary artists around the world recognize the significance of roots musicians from the South. Grammy-winning artist Taj Mahal is lending his support to the Baton Rouge Musicians Fund and hopes others will join him. "These musicians are the foundation of all popular music in the world. When disaster turns on them, it is not time to turn our backs. Let's show them the respect!," Mahal said.

Tax-deductible donations can be made to the Baton Rouge Musicians Fund through Music Maker at musicmaker.org.

Music Maker Relief Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit, preserves and promotes the musical traditions of the American South. Since 1994 they have partnered with traditional artists over 55 years old who survive on a yearly income of less than $18,000, sustaining their day-to-day needs while building their careers. Through Music Maker, our rich heritage of music will not be lost with the passing of time. Music Maker has been featured on PBS NewsHour, NPR Weekend Edition and CBS Evening News. More information at http://www.musicmaker.org/

Founded in 2002, the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation is a non-profit organization striving to promote, preserve and celebrate the Baton Rouge blues culture and bring the best of Louisiana swamp blues music to the world. Today the Foundation sponsors a Blues Education program, a Blues Music History Project, an annual Blue Carpet Blues Gala, and the annual Baton Rouge Blues Festival. More information at http://www.batonrougebluesfestival.org/brbf/

“ROOTS MUSIC HUB” (NY TIMES) JALOPY TO CELEBRATE 10TH ANNIVERSARY WITH SEPTEMBER 15-18 EXTRAVAGANZA CONCERTS WITH CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROP HUBBY JENKINS, BLIND BOY PAXTON, MANY MORE

35+ TOTAL ACTS, FILM SCREENING, ART OPENING, WORKSHOPS, PARTY, FAMILY CONCERT ON TAP AT JALOPY THEATER AND JALOPY TAVERN

Jalopy Theater – the music venue, instrument shop, music teaching space, and art gallery – will host a celebration September 15-18 to mark its 10th anniversary with its next door neighbor bar and grille Jalopy Tavern, featuring a weekend of music, an art opening, workshops, a party, a concert for families, and a film screening. Highlights among the artists performing include Hubby Jenkins of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Brooklyn’s premiere bluesman Blind Boy Paxton, Smithsonian Folkways band Downhill Strugglers, and country crooner Jack Grace.

Since 2006, it’s become a national folk music institution and nurtured a community that includes the next generation of NYC folk musicians. Gothamist has called it one of the “best small music venues in NYC.”

Brooklyn Magazine says, “It’s a rare and somewhat unique combination, one that fosters a back and forth between fans, amateurs, and local virtuosos. Teaching music helps break down the fourth wall–the divide between performer and audience–and recreates the sense of community that spurred the folk movement.”

Over the course of a decade, Jalopy has hosted performances by such acts as Marc Ribot, Sam Shepard, Peter Stampfel (Hold Modal Rounders), Charles Bradley, Spirit Family Reunion, Hurray For The Riff Raff, and Spider John Koerner.

Tickets: $15 per night. $40 for all nights, kids concert $5 for kids over 2, $10 adults, $25 for family of 4.

HERE ARE ALL TENTH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER:

PRE-PARTY AT JALOPY TAVERN:

Jalopy Tavern - Thursday - 8pm - Jack Grace - experimental country art rock that has been compared to everything from Frank Zappa to early Johnny Cash.

Jalopy Tavern - Thursday – 8:45pm - Karen Poliski - Local NYC songwriter with songs that are funny, sentimental, and sometimes downright dirty.

Jalopy Tavern - Thursday – 9:30pm - Lord Youth - Local indie-rock band with a brooding sound honed in Berlin.

Jalopy Tavern - Thursday – 10:15pm - Aaron Frazer - Songwriter and soul singer who masters old spirituals and original songs with a voice that drips with emotion and power.

Jalopy Tavern - Thursday - 11pm - Pocket Tonics - fronted by the up and coming Ali Dineen whose voice delivers extreme strength to jazz standards and spirituals alike.

ART SHOW: A DECADE OF CAPTURING THE JALOPY STAGE

Photographs, Paintings, Film Screenings, Sketches and Wood Burnings Inspired by the Artists at Jalopy
Opening Reception: Friday, September 16, 5 pm - 7:30 pm
Exhibit runs Thursday, September 15th - Sunday, October 14

As art inspires art, the musicians at the Jalopy Theatre have inspired a number of artists, leading them to create their own interpretations of what they see on the stage. This exhibit will feature the photographs of Jack Hirschorn, the paintings of Robin Hoffman, the sketches of Emily New and Ray Ray Mitrano. Jaxtaposed~Creations will feature wood burnings and jewelry inspired by various musicians. "Brooklyn Folk Festival Live," a short film shot at the 2016 Brooklyn Film Festival by Samuel Curtis and Spencer Showalter, will premier at this exhibit.

Beginning in 2008, Jack Hirschorn has photographed hundreds of shows at the Jalopy Theatre. His photographs bring the shows alive again, illustrating moments of collaboration between musicians, connection with the audience, perfecting their art.
Robin Hoffman was a fixture at the Jalopy Theatre and School of Music from 2009-2012. A former professional ballet dancer, fresh out of art school and a new parent to boot, she found an artistic anchor in the exciting music community rapidly building at Jalopy. She took ukulele lessons, attended multiple shows every week; listened and looked and drew and drew. Robin could eventually draw rapidly with very little light. She also had the privilege of witnessing and documenting the development and maturing of a wide range of bands and musicians.

She has shown at Jalopy four times previously and been interviewed by Lucid Culture and reviewed by New York Music Daily. Her approach relies upon musicality and movement analysis from her dance background and her formal illustration training at the School of Visual Arts.
Samuel Curtis and Spencer Showalter spend thousands of hours filming the music, musicians, fans and organizers of various festivals across the country. The pair will debut their short film made at the 2016 Brooklyn Folk Festival.

JALOPY TENTH ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL PERFORMERS:

Jalopy Theater - Friday - 8pm - The Calamity Janes - Fantastic old time band powered by NYC's best female roots power team.

Jalopy Theater - Friday – 8:45pm - The Jalopy Chorus - Jalopy's own vocal group led by the acclaimed Eva Salina.

Jalopy Theater - Friday – 9:30pm - Eva Salina & Peter Stan - Great accordionist Peter Stan and local Balkan music hero Eva Salina performing the songs of Serbian Roma legend Šaban Bajramović

Jalopy Theater - Friday – 10:15pm - Mamie Minch & Tamar Korn - Sultry voiced blues master and guitar wizard Mamie Minch is unsurpassed when matched with NYC's sprite-like jazz hero Tamar Korn.

Jalopy Theater – Friday – 11pm - Brain Cloud - A western swing band, the Brain Cloud celebrate the art of genre-smashing, to create a sound that fuses jazz, blues, bluegrass, Appalachian fiddle tunes, cowboys songs, and country music.

Jalopy Theater – Friday – 11:45pm - Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues - Brooklyn-based collective of jug-band, country blues & old-time musicians dedicated to performing Jug Band Music both old & new.

Jalopy Tavern – Friday - 8:00pm - Dubl Handi - Dubl Handi uses percussion, guitar, drums, and banjo to play songs from appalachian region of the Northeast States.

Jalopy Tavern – Friday - 9:00pm - Jackson Lynch - old-time fiddle and blues guitar brilliance from one of the best young players.

Jalopy Tavern – Friday - 10:00pm - The Four o'clock Flowers - musical duo featuring the idyllic voice of Samoa Wilson with the technical guitar expertise of Ernie Vega.

Jalopy Tavern – Friday – 11pm - King Isto's Tropical String Band - songs from the middle of the Pacific led by guitar genius Isto.

Jalopy Tavern – Friday – 12am - Dr. Hop - blues, soul and R&B with Brooklyn's best bar band.

Jalopy Theater – Saturday – 7:30pm - M. Shanghai - A Brooklyn based folk collective with an adventurous take on Americana.

Jalopy Theater – Saturday – 8:15pm - Whistling Wolves - The best whistling-guitar- harmonica-ukulele-jug-bass-jawharp-accordion-banjo- fiddle-harmony singing band you've never heard.

Jalopy Theater – Saturday – 9:00pm - Jan Bell & the Maybelles - Based at the heart of the thriving grassroots folk music community in DUMBO and Red Hook, Jan Bell & the Maybelles breathe new life into old and worn folk tales.

Jalopy Theater – Saturday – 9:45pm - Pat Conte, Joe Bellulovich and Frankie Basile - Three of the most knowledgable and skilled players in American blues and roots music alive today.

Jalopy Theater – Saturday – 10:30pm - Feral Foster - local songwriter and singer who's hosted and curated the successful Roots n Ruckus weekly revue for over a decade.

Jalopy Theater – Saturday – 11:15pm - Alex Battles & The Whisky Rebellion - rollicking bar brawl numbers from the witty and passionate Mr. Battles.

Jalopy Tavern – Saturday – 8:00pm - Rashad Brown - originals, blues and gospel classics from local street performer.

Jalopy Tavern – Saturday – 9:00pm - The Horse-Eyed Men - Brilliant original tunes that sound like Country & Western from another planet.

Jalopy Tavern – Saturday – 10:00pm - Joanna Sternberg - heartbreaking songs with gorgeous melodies from one of the best up and coming songwriters in NYC.

Jalopy Tavern – Saturday – 11:00pm - Willy Gantrim - originals and blues that range from the achingly beautiful to the rowdiest juke joint anthems.

Jalopy Tavern – Saturday – 12:00am - Skalopy - Jalopy's house ska band performing classics from the Carribean.

Jalopy Tavern – Saturday – 1:00am – Papa Vega's Dream Shadows Orchestra - Ernie Vega's mega group to feature a dozen plus local musicians.

FAMILY CONCERT:

Astrograss will perform for families on Sunday at 11 am. Tickets are $5 for kids, $10 for adults and $25 for family of 4. ASTROGRASS gets kids and their parents dancing and singing together, with a unique blend of bluegrass, old time, and folk music. Astrograss concerts feature sing-a-longs, dance contests, and high-energy fiddle hoedowns. Their original songs cover topics like spelling, whether Pluto is a planet, bedtime and the many neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Astrograss features traditional bluegrass instrumentation, consisting of Jordan Shapiro on guitar, Sarah Alden on fiddle, Dennis Lichtman on mandolin, Jonah Bruno on banjo and Tim Kiah on bass. In response to the local Brooklyn parents' search of live musical entertainment for the whole family, Astrograss began playing its family shows in 2004. Astrograss family shows are for parents who want to be as enlivened as they want their children to be. Astrograss specializes in combining rocking bluegrass music with clever, witty educations songs that will make the parents laugh and the children dance. Educational and cultural topics are woven into this family show, leaving you with more knowledge about bluegrass music, and perhaps making you a better speller.

JALOPY TENTH ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL PERFORMERS, CONTINUED:

Jalopy Theater – Sunday – 7:00pm - Audra Rox - Local to Red Hook, this crooning 1950s Swing band reenacts the sweet sounds of Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra.

Jalopy Theater – Sunday – 7:45pm - Matt Munisteri - A freewheeling, virtuosic guitarist, who spans across the jazz and American roots music spectrum.

Jalopy Theater – Sunday – 8:30pm - Hubby Jenkins - Carolina Chocolate Drop & Brooklyn native, commands the banjo and guitar with precise skill and energy.

Jalopy Theater – Sunday – 9:15pm - The Down Hill Strugglers - An old time string band that carries the music of the old rural America forward with verve and creativity.

Jalopy Theater – Sunday – 10:00pm - Jessy Carolina - a songwriter and jazz singer whose voice has a hypnotic power that captivates audiences everywhere.

Jalopy Theater – Sunday – 10:45pm - Blind Boy Paxton - An exuberant storyteller & multi-instrumentalist, Paxton straddles blues, jazz & early American String music with a quick tongue and captivating wit.

Jalopy Tavern – Sunday – 7:00pm - Richard Bennett- New Orleans, jazz, blues and original music by a couple of Brooklyn-based rabble-rousers.

Jalopy Tavern – Sunday – 9:00pm - East River String Band - A New York duo playing a vast spectrum of traditional American Blues, Country and Pop music ranging from the late 19th to the early 20th Century.

Jalopy Tavern – Sunday – 10:00pm - Five Mile String Band - old time string band with a whimsical sound.

Kingsley Flood 2016 artwork

Credit: Michael D. Spencer

Credit: Michael D. Spencer

NEWPORT FOLK FEST ALUMS KINGSLEY FLOOD TACKLES RACE, CLASS, & IDENTITY ON NEW LP 'ANOTHER OTHER,' DUE OUT OCTOBER 14

 

 

 

BULLET SHARES FIRST TRACK “THE BRIDGE” AS EAST COAST TOUR PLANNED FOR FALL

 

Rollicking, literate, five-piece rock and roll band Kingsley Flood offers up a brilliant and thought-provoking musical exploration of identity, race, and class on their new album, Another Other, due out October 14.

 

Another Other explores a confusing reality faced by frontman Naseem Khuri; on one hand, he comes from privilege having grown up in a nice Massachusetts suburb. On the other, as a Palestinian-American, he is an ‘other’ with a funny name and a first generation American experience. Shifting effortlessly between the political and the personal, Another Other examines privilege, responsibility, activism, and our capacity for change with deft musicianship and subtle scene-setting.

 

Produced by Paul Kolderie (Radiohead, Pixies, Portugal. The Man), the record marks the band's finest work to date, blending their “signature high energy” (Rolling Stone) with songwriting “soaked with raw emotion” (Stereogum). Another Other, much like their performances, is urgent, sweaty, vivid rock & roll with everything-on-the-line.

 

Listen to the brand new track “The Bridge,” which Bullet Media calls "ripping."

 

For much of his childhood growing up in suburban Boston, Naseem Khuri didn't even realize he was Palestinian; he always thought of himself as a regular American kid. It was only later that he learned that his mother and father had both been born in Palestine and fled to Lebanon as children; only later that he started to notice walls going up and suspicious glances being cast his way at bars and in airports; only later that he found people considered him—a Massachusetts native—"Middle Eastern," with all the implicit bias and baggage those two words entail; only later that he realized he'd never truly be seen as a "regular" American, despite this country being the only home he'd ever known.

 

"What makes you belong somewhere in the first place?" Khuri muses. "I had this complexity growing up because I could look white, but I also knew I wasn't totally white. Another Other came out of a night at a bar when some news about a terrorist bombing came on TV, and the people I was with put it together that my heritage is from that part of the world. A wall was put up in the blink of an eye. I wasn't doing anything differently, but suddenly I was cast as 'an other.’ I grew up thinking I had the power to define my own identity, and suddenly I didn't.”

 

2013 full-length, 'Battles,' which earned them a main stage spot at the iconic Newport Folk Festival (which was podcast by NPR Music) and widespread critical acclaim, including love everywhere from Rolling Stone and Esquire to Paste and American Songwriter. The band subsequently hit the road for national touring, sharing bills with Grace Potter, Lucius, Langhorne Slim, Railroad Earth, Angus and Julia Stone, Brett Dennen, and more along the way.

 

Fall album release tour dates listed below; additional dates to be added.

 

October 21 – New Haven, CT – Café Nine

October 28 – Gloucester, MA – Rhumb Line

October 29 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge

November 18 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair

November 19 – Washington, DC – Rock N Roll Hotel