Joe's Pub to Kick Off 2013 Tributes with Ray Charles, 9/23

In 1962, Ray Charles made history when he brought SOUL music and COUNTRY music together in the same album: MODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY & WESTERN MUSIC. Now, 50 years later, just in time for The Genius's 84th birthday, JOE'S PUB and ALBUM OF THE MONTH club expand the palette by adding jazz, cabaret, Broadway, folk music and bluegrass into Brother Ray's classic mix.

Monday, September 23, marks the first in a ongoing series of shows celebrating the great pop and jazz albums, in which classic collections of songs will be explored and re-examined by a rotating cast of singers and players from a wide range of styles: jazz, pop, Broadway, cabaret, blues.

Each show will take you through a classic album from start to finish, rendered in new interpretations by contemporary artists. These performances will be by turns affectionate and irreverent, respectful and gonzo - the idea is to compliment the classic recording, not to merely "cover" it.

For the initial show, which will is also a BIRTHDAY BASH for the great Ray Charles, we are examining one of the great multicultural works in all of music, the original Ray Charles: MODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY & WESTERN MUSIC, in which the man who virtually invented soul music set his sights on Nashville, thus creating a brilliant blend of rhythm and blues, country and western, with a lot of jazz inherent in the mix. The album was a best-seller in 1962, and yielded one of the greatest hits of Brother Ray's career, "I Can't Stop Loving You."

Future shows will include Frank Sinatra : SEPTEMBER OF MY YEARS, Bob Dylan: BLONDE ON BLONDE, Judy Garland: Carnegie Hall 1961, Nat King Cole: AFTER MIDNIGHT, The Beatles: REVOLVER, NOEL COWARD LIVE AT LAS VEGAS, Tom Waits: SMALL CHANGE. Harry Belafonte: CALYPSO! and hopefully many others.

"Album of the Month Club" which is what the tribute will be called, will be held to honor Ray Charles on Monday September 23rd, celebrating the record, Ray Charles: MODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY & WESTERN MUSIC. Participants include Matthew Saldivar (Peter and the Starcatcher), Jazz and Soul artists including Allan Harris, Natalie Douglas and Nancy Harms, Performance Artists including Nellie McKay, Poor Baby Bree, Puddles Pity Party, and Tony Babino, and finally Country and Folk artists, The Amigos and Lauren Fox.

Tickets for this event are $20 and can be purchased here.