THE KNICKERBOCKER MUSIC CENTER

35 Railroad Avenue, Westerly, RI 02891 (Misquamicut) | (401) 315-5070

Open Today: 1am

Venue's Website

Contact
Reservation
Private Event
VIP

Venue Description

The Knickerbocker Café, a storied music club in Westerly, Rhode Island, was built in 1933, shortly after the end of Prohibition. The mission of the Knickerbocker Music Center is to preserve, cultivate and grow the “Knick’s” unique brand of blues, as well as expanding access to music of all genres, by transforming the Knick into both an exciting performance venue and an exceptional center for music education.

Today

Friday
Special Event on this day 1
23

Saturday
24

Sunday
Special Event on this day 1
25

Monday
26

Tuesday
27

Wednesday
28

Thursday

Live Music

SPECIAL EVENTS: Vintage Rhythm and Blues Ensemble

DINING: The Best Fish and Chips.

NIGHTLIFE: Live Music. National to local acts. Visit www.knickmusic.com for more info.

Hours
1am

Age
21+

Music
Live Bands

Atmosphere
Busy

Live Music

NIGHTLIFE: Live Music. National to local acts. Visit www.knickmusic.com for more info.

DRINK DEALS: Drink Specials Available.

Hours
1am

Age
21+

Music
Live Bands

Atmosphere
Busy

Live Music (8pm)

SPECIAL EVENTS: Robert Earl Keen

NIGHTLIFE: The Tap Room at The Knickerbocker is an intimate listening room with a retro speakeasy atmosphere that hosts acoustic sets. The Tap Room features a house sound system playing exclusively vinyl records on non-performance nights.

DRINK DEALS: The Tap Room offers specialty cocktails, eclectic cordials, local craft beer, and more!

Age
21+

Cover
No Cover

Music
Acoustic

Atmosphere
Busy

Live Music (8pm)

DINING: Brand new food menu for Tap Room and adjacent Knickerbocker Music Center.

DRINK DEALS: The Tap Room offers specialty cocktails, eclectic cordials, local craft beer, and more!

Age
21+

Cover
No Cover

Music
Acoustic

Closed Today

Live Music (7:30pm – 10pm)

NIGHTLIFE: Let's Dance Wednesdays. Live Bands from 7:30-10pm. Offering Free Dance Lessons starting at 7p. Doors open at 6:30pm.

Age
21+

Cover
10

Music
Live Bands

Atmosphere
Busy

Live Music (8pm)

DINING: Brand new food menu for Tap Room and adjacent Knickerbocker Music Center.

DRINK DEALS: The Tap Room offers specialty cocktails, eclectic cordials, local craft beer, and more!

Age
21+

Cover
No Cover

Music
Acoustic

Atmosphere
Busy

Special Events

22 June
Vintage Rhythm and Blues Ensemble -
Vintage Rhythm and Blues Ensemble (VRBE) featuring special guest Ryan Hartt. The band that has brought weekday dancing upstate, is bringing a big weekend opening Friday night dance down south to the Knickerbocker. First is the band, a unique musical group — a cool conglomeration of pros you know from the great bands that are hot to swing to! The ensemble is comprised of some of Rhode Island's most in-demand musicians, Tommy Ferraro, Steve Bigelow, Paul Bouley and Stan Kozlowski, performing traditional Blues, "Old-School" Rhythm and Blues, Swing, Soul, Rockabilly, Country Blues, and early, roots Rock’n’Roll. This is both their own outlet and a vehicle for welcoming a very special guest each performance who puts a stamp on the evening’s repertoire and brings vocals with a passion to match these players. This first venture south of Rhode Island’s Mason-Dixon line brings VRBE to the Knick for a fabulous Friday show that will pair Rhode Island’s great players with Connecticut's blues master, Ryan Hartt, whose motto "You Gotta Live It to Give It" emblazons his latest release: Call My Name. Make sure your this name is on your Calendar for June 22nd: VRBE featuring Ryan Hartt Show: 8p | Doors: 7p Tickets: $10 ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.)
24 June
Robert Earl Keen -
About Robert Earl Keen: "The road goes on forever ..." It's not always easy to sum up a career - let alone a life's ambition - so succinctly, but those five words from Robert Earl Keen's calling-card anthem just about do it. You can complete the lyric with the next five words - the ones routinely shouted back at Keen by thousands of fans a night ("and the party never ends!") - just to punctuate the point with a flourish, but it's the part about the journey that gets right to the heart of what makes Keen tick. Some people take up a life of playing music with the goal of someday reaching a destination of fame and fortune; but from the get-go, Keen just wanted to write and sing his own songs, and to keep writing and singing them for as long as possible. "I always thought that I wanted to play music, and I always knew that you had to get some recognition in order to continue to play music," Keen says. "But I never thought of it in terms of getting to be a big star. I thought of it in terms of having a really, really good career and writing some good songs, and getting onstage and having a really good time." Now three-decades on from the release of his debut album - with eighteen other records to his name, thousands of shows under his belt and still no end in sight to the road ahead - Keen remains as committed to and inspired by his muse as ever. And as for accruing recognition, well, he's done alright on that front, too; from his humble beginnings on the Texas folk scene, he's blazed a peer, critic, and fan-lauded trail that's earned him living-legend (not to mention pioneer) status in the Americana music world. And though the Houston native has never worn his Texas heart on his sleeve, he's long been regarded as one of the Lone Star State's finest (not to mention top-drawing) true singer-songwriters. He was still a relative unknown in 1989 when his third studio album, West Textures, was released - especially on the triple bill he shared at the time touring with legends Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark - but once fellow Texas icon Joe Ely recorded both "The Road Goes on Forever" and "Whenever Kindness Fails" on his 1993 album, Love and Danger, the secret was out on Keen's credentials as a songwriter's songwriter. By the end of the decade, Keen was a veritable household name in Texas, headlining a millennial New Year's Eve celebration in Austin that drew an estimated 200,000 people. A dozen years later, he was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame along with the late, great Van Zandt and his longtime friend from Texas A & M, Lyle Lovett. Read more: https://knickmusic.com/events/2018/6/24/robert-earl-keen Show: 8p | Doors: 7p Tickets: $50 advance / $55 door ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.) Visit Website: http://www.robertearlkeen.com
29 June
Consuelo's Revenge and Vince Thompson -
Consuelo's Revenge and Vince Thompson Show 7:45p | Doors 7p Vince Thompson and the Next Fun Thing is Connecticut's answer to Bob Wills with the best talent playing a vintage western swing sound punctuated by originals. "Thompson's "Hurricane" is a thoughtful, literate and melodic work that conjures what might happen if James Taylor raised B.W. Stevenson from the grave and they hotwired Vince Gill's tour bus for an all-night ride to Nashville." - Rick Koster New London Day Show: 7:45p | Doors: 7p Tickets: $10 ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.) Visit Website: https://www.facebook.com/ConsuelosRevengeMusic http://www.reverbnation.com/vincethompson
30 June
Girls Guns & Glory -
Ken Atkins to open Rock 'n Roll/Country/Rhythm & Blues Love and Protest: two concepts that seldom go hand in hand. Until you think about it a while. That’s what singer, guitarist and songwriter Ward Hayden did as he began mapping out plans for Girls Guns & Glory’s next album, which happens to be called Love and Protest. “That title sums up this album and it sums me up very well too,” he says. “We’ve done 10 years of touring, living, learning and growing, maturing and developing a broader world view, a view outside of the small town where I grew up.” That decade began with Hayden and several like-minded musicians getting together. Their love for early rock ’n’ roll, true country, raw blues and pretty much any kind of authentic American music branded them quickly as anomalous — and electrifying. Since that time they’ve barnstormed far beyond their Boston hometown, playing honky-tonks, beer joints and more recently concert venues throughout the U.S. They’ve amassed a loyal legion of fans along the way. The media have noticed too, including Rolling Stone, which heralds them as a “modern-day Buddy Holly plus Dwight Yoakam divided by the Mavericks.” Now, in this milestone year, with Girls Guns & Glory recording for the first time on its own label, the group has channeled all it’s experienced into its most personal and, paradoxically, hardest-rocking release to date. “Love and Protest is the name of the album because its songs explore the emotion of love,” Hayden explains. “And when love is faced with opposition, it’s the protest of that emotion. It’s alpha and omega — love and protest. There’s a lot of ground to cover between those two extremes.” They begin with the album’s first single and opening track. “Rock ’n’ Roll.” With bassist Paul Dilley and drummer Josh Kiggans laying down a no-nonsense, backbeat-driven groove, lead vocalist and guitarist Hayden sings, “I’m a hunter, a collector of things. I keep holding onto bad memories.” And yet, when the chorus hits, he proclaims that he’s “ready to rock ’n’ roll.” Like much of Hayden’s work, these lyrics run deeper than they seem at first listen, with a sub current of heartbreak and obsession. “I don’t just collect physical trinkets,” Hayden notes. “This song is more about experiences and memories, the things you can’t see but they stay with you in your head and your heart. Similar spirits haunt the bitterly self-destructive “Wine Went Bad,” the loneliness of “Reno, Nevada” (“I might as well be a world away”), the exquisitely pure honky-tonk lament “Empty Bottles,” the painful introspection of “Memories Don’t Die” and “Stare at the Darkness,” and “Diamondillium,” a dystopian meditation shaded by noir guitar and incongruously inspired by an episode of Futurama — really, everything on the album, including its one cover, a resurrection of Gram Parsons’ “Hot Burrito No. 1.” “The growth and maturity of Girls Guns & Glory as a band is what led us to take on this song,” Hayden says. “Lyrically, I think it’s a song that would make Hank Williams proud. Love was, and is, there in the person telling the story, but his love interest has taken the things she’s learned from their relationship and moved on to someone else. The storyteller is left to pine over it. It’s love and protest exemplified. To complement the immediacy of Hayden’s words, Girls Guns & Glory elected to cut Love and Protest entirely in analog, with Drew Townson, an acknowledged master of that format, recruited to produce with the band. “There’s a nostalgia to working with analog,” Hayden says. “There are also limitations — no editing, making sure you don’t run out of tape. But those limitations force you to let things go, let things happen. The anxiety begets beauty and makes the band do its best every take, firing on all cylinders and working together as a cohesive unit. “It’s as stripped-down as we’ve ever been. Even going into it, I didn’t imagine it would turn out as pure as it did.” Going back to analog parallels the band’s return to its earliest days as an independent act, in control of its career. “This is the first album in eight years where we did everything ourselves,” Hayden says. “It’s the first album we’ve co-produced. We don’t worry about appeasing a label anymore. We’re creating music only for ourselves and our fans.” To illustrate, he points to one track, “Man Wasn’t Made,” an affirmation that “man wasn’t made to just lie down and die,” set to a rollicking rockabilly beat and ignited by sparks of steel guitar. “When we were working with a label, they kept telling me that protest songs don’t sell so they didn’t want to put this kind of cut on a record. Well,” he says, smiling, “now we can sneak in a couple of actual protest songs, in a not-so-sly way.” “With this record, we feel almost like a brand new band,” he continues. “We take things in a different direction. A lot of that is because a shift has occurred on our tours. We’re getting out of the bars and playing more in theaters and listening rooms. Instead of just trying to keep people on the dance floor for three hours, we’re crafting songs for people who really like to listen. That’s allowed us to dig deeper lyrically, to make more mature music with a higher level of musicianship. We’re making the music we want to make. We’re not limiting it to any genre in particular. We’re willing to do whatever feels right.” “You could say,” Hayden concludes, “we’re a bigger part of the music itself than we’ve ever been.” Nothing could be better news for those who have loved Girls Guns & Glory. Nothing can give more hope to all still waiting for their faith in real, honest-to-God American music to be restored. Show: 9p | Doors: 8p Tickets: $15 ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.)
06 July
Johnny & the East Coast Rockers -
Swingin' Rhythm and Blues Where people are swinging in Rhode Island and Connecticut, Johnny and the East Coast Rockers are playing. A premiere Rhythm and Blues dance band in the Northeast for over 28 years, Johnny MacLeod and his band perform original tunes and favorite covers from the 40's, 50's, and 60's in an eclectic mix, that combines elements of traditional blues, swing, jazz, R&B, and roots rock. Show: 8:30p | Doors: 7:30p Tickets: $10 ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.)
20 July
Sugar Ray and the Bluetones -
Award-winning Blues. About Sugar Ray and the Bluetones History written by Mudcat Ward, bass: In 1977, Sugar Ray Norcia and Neil Gouvin were working southern Rhode Island in their band, Sugar Ray & the Blues Stompers. Up in Boston, Ronnie Earl, still using his given surname Horvath, was beginning to try stage monikers such as Little Ronnie. After a while, the winds of change were swirling. Ronnie and bassist, Mudcat Ward were searching for musical colleagues that wanted to play bluer, lower down, earthier and produce the highest quality blues. Ronnie chose to book a series of dates out of town, under the name "The Dueces." Neil Gouvin, well-known blues drummer in southern New England, was contacted to make the dates and demonstrated that he could provide the sought-after groove. After reviewing the situation from his own vantage point, Gouvin made the suggestion that altered blues history: get his vocalist/harp player Sugar Ray into this picture. Although the band enjoyed the four-piece sound, they wanted a larger band and the addition of a piano player. A number of months later, Ronnie and Mudcat attended a show at Paul's Mall in Boston where Muddy Waters and his band were performing. The opening act, a band from New Hampshire, featured a damned good blues piano player. He turned out to be Little Anthony Geraci. Ronnie and Mudcat visited him in Newton, MA where he was in the middle of writing a sonata. The blues musicians offered Anthony the position and he signed on. The band christened itself Sugar Ray & the Bluetones. They have had multiple personnel changes over the last 40 years but remain true to their blues roots- returning to The Knick and touring throughout the New England area. Show: 8:30p | Doors: 7:30p Tickets: $15 ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.) Visit Website: www.sugarrayandthebluetones.com
21 July
Deer Tick -
#RoadtoNewport In association with Newport Folk Presents® Opener: Ravi Shavi Deer Tick Vol. 1 & Deer Tick Vol. 2: The best art often challenges widely held preconceptions about performance and beauty. We’re moved when we find the sublime in the gross, entranced when crassness collides with grace. It makes poetic sense that one of this practice’s finest current purveyors is named after a blood-sucking survivor. Deer Tick: undercutting expectations since 2004. “I think a lot of my favorite artists have always done stuff like that,” Deer Tick front man John McCauley says from his home in Nashville, reflecting on his band’s love of unexpected mashups: tender lyrics layered over pissed off guitars; classical music flourishes delivered nearly naked and high. Deer Tick’s perfected it all, mostly as an outlier, revered by a legion of fans, respected by peers, but not part of any one scene. With their highly anticipated new project(s), two new albums released simultaneously titled Deer Tick Vol. 1 and Deer Tick Vol. 2, the crew from Rhode Island prove that their punk-roots rock has only gotten better with age. Ambitious and smart, the twin albums complement one another but also stand independently. Vol. 1 is classic Deer Tick: folk-rooted acoustic guitars and soft piano cushion out-front vocals. Vol. 2 commits wholly to the band’s longtime garage-rock flirtations for a triumphant foray into punk. McCauley sees the two records as a natural progression. “I think it’s something that was bound to happen, just because I’ve always had one foot in each door,” he says. “Every album we’ve put out has had its manic moments in one way or another. I felt good enough about everything that I was writing to think that we could truly separate our two big interests: quiet and loud.” It’s been four years since Deer Tick’s last release Negativity, and devotees have grown restless. It wasn’t that the band—made up of McCauley, guitarist Ian O’Neil, drummer Dennis Ryan, and bassist Christopher Ryan—was withholding information. They just weren’t sure they had anything more to share. “It wasn’t anything that we actually talked about,” McCauley says. “We never said, ‘Hey, we should take a break,’ or ‘Maybe this isn’t working anymore.’ We just took some time off. We’d just done our 10-year anniversary shows, and I had a kid like two weeks later.” He pauses before adding with a hint of a laugh, “We just kind of got comfortable away from each other.” McCauley, O’Neil, and the two Ryans popped up solo and on others’ projects. Personal lives also underwent massive changes, especially for McCauley, who married Vanessa Carlton and became a dad. The couple’s little girl is now two years old. For the first time ever, Deer Tick—an all-consuming band known for constant touring and steady artistic output—took a backseat. When the band came back together for their beloved after-party shows at the Newport Folk Festival, the reunion reminded them what they missed about creating with one another. “Playing that week with the guys made me really want to do it—it made everyone want to do it,” McCauley says. “So we started making some plans to go in the studio.” The result, recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, is a bold double punch that reminds us not only why Deer Tick has been so missed, but why they’ve become important artists. The songwriting on both volumes is masterful. McCauley wrote most of the tunes alone, but O’Neil and Dennis Ryan also make killer contributions. Self-aware and never self-important, McCauley excels at provocative lyrics that are sometimes confessional, sometimes accusatory. His compositions capture those internal contradictions that define us, like rock-and-roll “songs of myself” delighting in the multitudes and putting them on display. Vol. 1 opener “Sea of Clouds” is a dreamy mediation on letting go, featuring stripped down instrumentation that swells into a mini-symphony, all anchored by angelic harmonies and McCauley’s familiar melodic snarl. It’s not the only time McCauley mulls over what it takes to move on. Heart-tugging “Only Love” mixes sadness and hope for a snapshot of impending loss. “I thought, ‘Nobody writes a song about that kind of weird, ominous feeling you get in the final 24 to 48 hours of a relationship,’” McCauley says. “I wanted to capture that mood in a song.” Sauntering “Card House” is a flamenco-soaked threat with grotesque imagery, while lounge-ready “Cocktail” is a wry, piano-fueled stroll through fond boozy memories. “I guess it’s kind of a song about my strange relationship with alcohol—I’m still learning how to deal with it,” McCauley says. “I’m not a teetotaler. I’ve tried that. It’s not for me. I’m not into the support group thing. I enjoy life with a drink. Trying to keep my life in balance can be hard, but it’s something I’m capable of doing now.” Tricky relationships with drugs and alcohol are addressed in different ways on both volumes. Hushed Vol. 1 closer “Rejection” pulses with vulnerability. “I wrote it about trying to help somebody in some way,” McCauley says. “What was going through my mind but I didn’t say in the lyrics is just reaching your hand out to somebody who’s going through substance abuse problems.” Vol. 2’s “Jumpstarting”—a favorite track of McCauley’s—offers the same kind of lifeline: he shouts startlingly sweet promises over crunchy guitars. “Look How Clean I Am” immediately follows. Written and sung by O’Neil, the song doesn’t poke fun at sobriety but offers a droll takedown of how some use it as a means or marketing vehicle to further celebrity. It's one of many genuinely funny moments on the project. Jumping “S.M.F.,” (aka Shitty Music Festival) written and delivered by McCauley, takes hilarious shots at a summer institution. “I thought I’d write that one for any band who’s ever had a bad time at a music festival. It’s one of my attempts at humor on the record, but then it just kind of comes off as anger,” McCauley says with a laugh. McCauley wrote gorgeous instrumental “Pulse” thinking about the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. He lets his piano do the talking. “It’s a Whale” is punk perfection, all screams and growling guitars. “That’s probably the most political I’ll ever get in a song,” McCauley says. “I tried to put myself in the really dark headspace of maybe a men’s rights activist or something like that while trying to poke fun at it.” His chants of “Atta boy! Atta girl!” are the ideal blend of smirk-inducing and scary. McCauley says he believes “Sea of Clouds” and “It’s a Whale” probably best capture the “extremities” of both records. He’s right, of course: it’s Vol. 1’s quiet vs. Vol. 2’s loud—Deer Tick’s dual personalities, finally channeled onto two distinct and equally brilliant records. “These albums represent a new phase of my life that I haven’t entirely figured out yet,” McCauley says. “I don’t really know what’s going to happen, but that’s part of the excitement for me.” Show: 9p | Doors: 8p Tickets: $30 advance / $35 door ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.) Visit Website: https://deertickmusic.com
11 August
Roger Ceresi's All Starz -
Roger rocks the planet with the "All Starz". With Roger's powerful vocals leading the way and his ability to motivate and incite crowd participation, the "All Starz" will deliver high energy jump blues, rhythm & blues and a bit of rock & roll WITH GRIT, SOUL, AND PASSION THAT WILL ROCK YOUR SOUL AND MAKE YOU MOVE YOUR FEET & Dance All Night long!! Backed by a stage full of incredible musicians, each a star in his own right, Roger leads this horn-driven band with all of his soul. Roger is an engaging performer who draws from all his life experiences to create a powerful, high-energy performance filled with passion, excitement and pure unadulterated fun! Audiences are immediately swept up by his energy and enthusiasm. But, like any other great performer, he knows that without a great group backing him up, it wouldn't be the same. To that end, Roger says "this is the best group of guys I've ever performed with, hands down no doubt! I love this band. I have found my home and I'm loving it!" http://youtu.be/eLfVnofgSVs “Come On Let's Boogie” Live @ Waterfire Providence http://youtu.be/vzms1SpW2Ik “walkin on a tight rope” Live! at an Infamous Blues club in Hull mass The C-NOTE http://youtu.be/91jK38LMKl8 “Midnight Cannonball” http://youtu.be/5sx4vWEj8_g "Woke Up This Morning" Show: 8:30p | Doors: 7:30p Tickets: $12 ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.)
17 August
Mandolin Orange -
Mandolin Orange Presented by Westerly Sound Chrissy Stewart to open Mandolin Orange's music is “laced with bluegrass, country and folk...often wistful and contemplative without being somber, and always firmly grounded in the South" (WNYC). The Chapel Hill, NC duo has built a noteworthy catalog of recordings and performances since their founding in 2009. Their live shows are filled with vibrant chemistry, effortless instrumentation, and breezy, fluid harmonies that continue to win over local and far away fans. Recent performances include Telluride Bluegrass, Newport Folk Festival, Bonnaroo and Pickathon, with support performances at Red Rocks Amphitheater and the Ryman Auditorium. Hailed by No Depression as “one of the most talented acts making music today,” Mandolin Orange’s most recent album Blindfaller debuted #3 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Album Chart, was featured on NPR’s Heavy Rotation and made Rolling Stone’s “40 Best Country Albums of 2016.” "The musical tapestry of Blindfaller is delicately woven with lush threads of acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin and pedal steel, all ever-present without ever overplaying. However, it's the vocal interplay of Frantz and Marlin that is the band's most distinctive calling card" (Rolling Stone). Lean in to Mandolin Orange’s album, “Blindfaller,” and it’s bound to happen. You’ll suddenly pick up on the power and devastation lurking in its quietude, the doom hiding beneath its unvarnished beauty. You’ll hear the way it magnifies the intimacy at the heart of the North Carolina duo’s music, as if they created their own musical language as they recorded it. Released September 2016 on Yep Roc Records, “Blindfaller” builds on the acclaim of Mandolin Orange’s breakthrough debut on the label, 2013’s “This Side of Jordan,” and its follow-up, last year’s “Such Jubilee.” Since then they’ve steadily picked up speed and fans they’ve earned from long stretches on the road, including appearances at Newport Folk Festival, Austin City Limits Fest and Telluride Bluegrass. It’s been an auspicious journey for a pair who casually met at a bluegrass jam session in 2009. “When we finished ‘Such Jubilee,’ I started writing these songs with a different goal in mind. I thought about how I would write songs for somebody else to record,” Marlin explains. “I ended up with a bunch of songs like that, but we chose ones that I still felt personally connected to.” Holed up at the Rubber Room studio in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with a full band this time around, they laid down the tracks in a week between touring. They’ve always been keen on the notion that drawn-out recording sessions don’t necessarily yield better results. A good song, and just one good take, will always shine through any studio sorcery. The passage of time, and the regret that often accompanies it, courses through these songs. “When did all the good times turn to hard lines on my face/ And lead me so far from my place right by your side?” Marlin ruminates on “My Blinded Heart.” In fact, there’s heartache by the numbers on “Blindfaller.” If you didn’t know better, you’d swear “Picking Up Pieces” is a tearjerker George Jones or Willie Nelson sang back in the early 1970s. It’s a Mandolin Orange original, of course, and also a poignant reminder of the economy and grace with which Marlin imbues his songs – say what’s important and scrap the rest. But there’s also room for detours. Straight out of a honky tonk, “Hard Travelin’” lets the band shift into overdrive. A freewheeling ode to life on the road, it had been kicking around for a while but never fit on previous releases. As for the album title, it’s meant to evoke a sense of wonder, of contemplation. A “faller” is someone who fells trees, and in this case that person is blind to his/her own actions and those of the world. The spectral cover photo, by Scott McCormick, is open to interpretation, too: Either those trees are engulfed in flames or sunlight is pouring through them. It’s up to you. “We wanted different vibes and different intuitions on these tracks,” Marlin says, “and I feel like we really captured that.” Show: 9p | Doors: 8p | All Ages Tickets: $25 advance / $30 door ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.)
22 August
Water Seed -
Billboard Top 40 Recording Artist, Water Seed is a progressive innovative band that dares to bring musicianship, dexterity and creativity to Funk, Soul, R&B, Fusion, and Future Funk. Spearheading the progressive R&B movement, Water Seed is reminiscent of the funkier side of the R&B genre. Mixing the sounds of James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Prince and Earth Wind and Fire, Water Seed captures a modern sound that bridges the musical gap a la Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson and Childish Gambino. Their ever-growing resume includes multiple performances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, two performances at the New Orleans Essence Festival, the Richmond Jazz Festival, the Flood City Music Festival, a three month residency in Russia, the Dogwood Music Festival, headliner at the Apollo Theater (sold out show), the Civic Theater in New Orleans, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, the BAM Cafe in Brooklyn, Nyc, Martyr’s in Chicago,The Mint in Los Angeles, The Legendary Bitter End in New York, and countless other venues and festivals throughout the world. https://youtu.be/wKb3kg4oq7M https://www.waterseedmusic.com Show: 8:30p | Doors: 7:30p | All Ages Tickets: $10 ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.)
28 September
Bright Midnight (A Tribute to the Doors) -
The Bright Midnight is a musical tribute to the Doors. They say "Musical" because that's what it is. No leather pants, no wigs, just The Doors music as it's supposed to be. They play 2 monster sets filled with classics that capture the essence of what The Doors were all about. While each member is involved in his own separate musical project in the local music scene, together their sound is huge! Members include Vocalist,Nick Johns, Guitarist, Max Kelly, Drummer, Ben LaRose, Keys, Mike Chicoria, and Bass, Brad Bensko. They have been thrilling and mesmerizing audiences at every new venue they play. If you love the Doors you're going to want to catch The Bright Midnight! Is Everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin.... Show: 9p | Doors: 8p Tickets: $10 ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.)
28 December
Steve Smith and the Nakeds -
A Christmas show! 45 Years of Rockin’ Rhythm & Blues Steve Smith and the Nakeds, is a 10 piece Rhythm and Blues Band . The Band consists of Steve Smith on vocals, a four piece Rhythm Section, a five piece Horn Section. The instrumentation is as follows, Bass guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Keyboards, Drums, Trumpet, Trombone, Alto sax, Tenor sax, Baritone sax. Steve Smith and the Nakeds: One of the northeast's premier Rhythm and Blues Bands. Natives of the Providence, RI area, the band has traveled the U. S. and Canada and is celebrating it's 45th year of performing. Their credits include performing on their own, traveling as the backing band for Clarence Clemons, playing back up to such performers as Gary U.S. Bonds, Nils Lofgren, The Temptations and John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. Show: 8:30p | Doors: 7:30p Tickets: $10 ($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges.) Visit Website: http://www.thenakeds.com