STG Opens Ticket Sales Today for Father John Misty and More!

Seattle Theatre Group (STG)'s mission is to make diverse performing arts and education an integral part of our region's cultural identity while keeping three historic venues, The Paramount, Moore and Neptune, alive and vibrant. STG presents a range of performances from Broadway, off-Broadway, dance and jazz, to comedy, concerts of all genres, speakers and family shows - at these three iconic theatres in Seattle and venues throughout the Puget Sound region and in Portland, Oregon. STG announces the following concerts going on sale this week.

Jimmy Cliff

Many Rivers Crossed Tour

September 8, 2013 at 8:00 p.m.

The Neptune (All Ages / Bar w/ ID)

$35.00 general admission, not including fees

On Sale: Friday, June 28 at 10:00 a.m.

Ticketing Information: Available online at Tickets.com, Paramount Box Office, 24-hour kiosks at The Paramount, Moore and Neptune Theatres, or Sonic Boom Records in Ballard. For more information visit STGPresents.org.

"I got one more shot at the goal/Straight from my soul/I'm in control," sings reggae legend Jimmy Cliff on "One More," the lead track from REBIRTH, the new Universal Music Enterprises album from the Grammy-winning musician, actor, singer, songwriter, producer and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, produced by punk icon Tim Armstrong, of Rancid and Operation Ivy fame. The release, his first studio album in seven years, is the next step in their collaboration on last year's SACRED FIRE EP, an effort Rolling Stone called Cliff's "best music in decades... [his] tenor still soars." With the groundbreaking 1972 film THE HARDER THEY COME celebrating its 40th anniversary, Cliff - who starred in the movie and contributed the title cut, "You Can Get It If You Really Want," "Many Rivers to Cross" and "Sitting in Limbo" to the soundtrack - is still going strong in a career that has spanned almost 50 years and includes his native Jamaica's highest honor, the Order of Merit. In REBIRTH's autobiographical "Reggae Music," Cliff recounts going to see famed Jamaican producer Leslie Kong in 1962 to convince him to work with him, releasing Cliff's first hit, "Hurricane Hattie," when he was just 14. "Jimmy is one of my musical heroes and I've been responding to his music my entire life," said Armstrong, who had never met Cliff before, but was once recommended to him by mutual friend Joe Strummer of The Clash. Gathering Armstrong's studio band, the Engine Room (bassist/percussionist J Bonner, drum/percussionist Scott Abels, organ/percussionist Dan Boer and piano/lead guitarist Kevin Bivona), the first song they tackled was a cover of Rancid's "Ruby Soho," a ska-tinged number from the band's 1995 album ...AND OUT CAME THE WOLVES about a musician having to tell his lover he's headed for the road.

Gary Clark Jr.

Saturday, October 5, 2013 at 9:00 p.m.

Sunday, October 6, 2013 at 8:00 p.m.

The Neptune (All Ages / Bar w/ ID)

$29.50 general admission, not including fees

On Sale: Friday, June 28 at 10:00 a.m.

Ticketing Information: Available online at Tickets.com, Paramount Box Office, 24-hour kiosks at The Paramount, Moore and Neptune Theatres, or Sonic Boom Records in Ballard. For more information visit STGPresents.org.

The only thing growing faster than Gary Clark Jr.'s acclaim -- among fans, critics and iconic musicians alike -- is the scope of his talents and tastes. But nothing you have seen, heard or read can prepare you for the power and scope of his debut album, BLAK AND BLU. Not the buzz from his Run-The-House tour through the 2012 festival season which included Coachella, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Bonnaroo, Metallica's Orion Fest, and Lollapalooza, to Jay Z's Made in America Festival (the only artist invited to play both nights) and continuing through the upcoming Neil Young curated Bridge School Benefit, Austin City Limits gathering and NOLA's Voodoo Fest. Not his collaborations, in the studio and on stage, with Nas, Alicia Keys, the Roots and Eric Clapton nor the ear-bending, cross-format embrace of his tour-de-force debut BRIGHT LIGHTS EP can prepare you. Even his one-to-watch appearance at the White House command performance for the Obamas alongside Mick Jagger, B.B. King, Jeff Beck and Buddy Guy -- prompting the Music Fan-in-Chief to remark, "He's the future." The album, produced by Mike Elizondo (whose credits are fittingly eclectic, running from Dr. Dre to Fiona Apple to Mastodon to Eric Hutchinson) with Warner Bros. Records chairman Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Dave Matthews Band, My Chemical Romance) and Clark, puts his talents and ambitions through a brilliant prism of vast possibilities. BLAK AND BLU is a rocket ride rushing from the Mississippi Delta of a century ago to a point somewhere ahead of the horizon, gathering up the whole of blues, rock and soul along the way. Perhaps the most succinct summation of Clark's musical vision and what lies ahead can be taken from a recent interview where he imparts: "Music is movement. It all moves together, like lifetimes-a continuum. It's all part of the same fabric in the end."

Father John Misty (Solo)
Special Guest Comedian: Kate Berlant

October 6, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.

Moore Theatre (All Ages / Bar w/ ID)

$27.50 general admission, not including applicable fees

On Sale: Friday, June 28 at 10:00 a.m.

Ticketing Information: Available online at Tickets.com, Paramount Box Office, 24-hour kiosks at The Paramount, Moore and Neptune Theatres, or Sonic Boom Records in Ballard. For more information visit STGPresents.org.

When discussing Father John Misty, Tillman paraphrases Philip Roth: 'It's all of me and none of me, if you can't see that, you won't get it'. What I call it is totally arbitrary, but I like the name. You've got to have a name. I never got to choose mine." He goes on, "'People who make records are afforded this assumption by the culture that their music is coming from an exclusively personal place, but more often than not what you hear are actually the affectations of an 'alter-ego' or a cartoon of an emotionally heightened persona," says Josh Tillman, who has been recording/releasing solo albums since 2003 and who recently left Seattle's Fleet Foxes after playing drums from 2008-2011. "That kind of emotional quotient isn't sustainable if your concern is portraying a human-being made up of more than just chest-beating pathos. I see a lot of rampant, sexless, male-fantasy everywhere in the music around me. I didn't want any alter-egos, any vagaries, fantasy, escapism, any over-wrought sentimentality. I like humor and sex and mischief. So when you think about it, it's kind of mischievous to write about yourself in a plain-spoken, kind of explicitly obvious way and call it something like 'Misty'. I mean, I may as well have called it 'Steve'". Musically, FEAR FUN consists of such disparate elements as Waylon Jennings, Harry Nilsson, Arthur Russell, "All Things Must Pass," and "Physical Graffiti," often within the same song. Tillman's voice has never been better and often sounds like Roy Orbison, "The Caruso of Rock", at his most joyous, while the music maintains a dark, mysterious and yet conversely playful, almost Dionysian quality. Lyrically, his absurdist fever dreams of pain and pleasure elicit, in equal measures, the blunt descriptive power of Bukowski or Brautigan, the hedonist-philosophy of Oscar Wilde and the dried-out wit of Loudon Wainwright III.

Shovels & Rope

October 9, 2013 at 8:00 p.m.

The Neptune (All Ages / Bar w/ ID)

$16.50 advance, $18.00 day of show for general admission, not including fees

On Sale: Friday, June 28 at 10:00 a.m.

Ticketing Information: Available online at Tickets.com, Paramount Box Office, 24-hour kiosks at The Paramount, Moore and Neptune Theatres, or Sonic Boom Records in Ballard. For more information visit STGPresents.org.

Shovels & Rope is a Charleston, South Carolina-based duo consisting of Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent. They perform as an energetic two-piece band, stirring up a righteous racket with two old guitars, a handful of harmonicas, the occasional keyboard, and a junkyard drum kit harvested from an actual garbage heap and adorned with tambourines, flowers and kitchen rags. The songs are the deadliest arrows in this bands quiver. Raw and imagined, effortless and insightful, the pair's panoramic songwriting and raucous performances drive Shovels & Rope's newest release O' BE JOYFUL. Recorded in the twosome's house, backyard and van, as well as various motel rooms across America, the 11-song set offers a compelling encapsulation of Hearst and Trent's unique approach, channeling their creative chemistry.

Since 2010, Shovels & Rope has been traveling the highways and back roads of North America, logging hundreds of shows and performing for crowds large and small. On stage, Hearst and Trent trade vocals and switch instruments in an instinctive, organic manner that's simultaneously loose and tight, driving their compositions home with a resonant mix of pensive introspection and celebratory passion. In 2011 alone, they were invited to tour with a wide array of acts including Justin Townes Earle, Jason Isbell, the Felice Brothers, Hayes Carll and Butch Walker, and have accumulated a fiercely loyal fan base along the way, building an audience the old-fashioned way. Mississippi-born, Nashville-bred Cary Ann Hearst and Coloradan by way of Texas Michael Trent had each accumulated a good deal of musical experience prior to their current partnership. By 2005, they were both residing in the unsung musical mecca of Charleston, SC, and began informally making music together. "I would show up at CA's house with a twelve pack and we'd make recordings of Ramones songs." Michael says. "The next day we'd check it out and say 'hey!.. not bad." In 2008, the pair teamed up to record an embryonic album under their individual names. They titled that project SHOVELS & ROPE, in acknowledgement of its high concentration of murder ballads in which many of the characters ended up burying their secrets with shovels or hanging from ropes.

The Paper Kites

October 22, 2013 at 9:00 p.m.

Tractor Tavern (21 & Over only)

$12.00 advance, $15.00 day of show for general admission not including fees

On Sale: Friday, June 28 at 10:00 a.m.

Ticketing Information: Available online at TicketWeb.com, in person at the Tractor Tavern box office (M-F 12pm-4pm), or at Sonic Boom Records. More info can be found online at STGPresents.org.

The Paper Kites new 5 track EP YOUNG NORTH was co-produced by ARIA Award winning Producer Wayne Connolly (The Vines, Josh Pyke, Silverchair) and the band at Melbourne's Sing-Sing Studio and was mixed at Sydney's Albert's Studio. The new material has a more energetic and dynamic feel to it than their previous work while still maintaining the emotional intensity heard in the tracks from their debut EP WOODLAND. The band set up and recorded much of YOUNG NORTH live in the studio rather than relying on extensive overdubs which were used only to add atmosphere and texture. The earthy sounding instruments meld together to create a perfect backdrop for the band's layered and strikingly beautiful vocal arrangements. The Paper Kites success to this point has been a combination of the traditional route of hard work on the road, combined with the power of online "word of mouth". The band have developed a very solid live audience by making sure each and every show holds nothing back in terms of honesty and emotion, They have toured extensively throughout Australia having sold out two national headline tours of their own while also winning over audiences as the support for the likes of Boy & Bear and Josh Pyke, Online the band have proven to be somewhat of a phenomena. Fans from all over the world have embraced them via social media and their DYI style videos for the songs Featherstone and Bloom have had over 3 million combined views on Youtube thus far. The first video shot for YOUNG NORTH for the track "A maker Of My Time" has already had nearly 30,000 views on Youtube in just over a week. The one shot video was co-directed by the band and Jefferton James (Boy & Bear, Avalanche City) and was filmed in remote bushland on the border of NSW and Victoria. It's a striking piece of work, so simple yet so emotionally affecting and joyous that it's hard to watch without breaking into a smile.

Jessie Ware

Friday, November 15, 2013 at 9:00 p.m.

The Neptune (All Ages / Bar w/ ID)

$25.00 for general admission not including fees

On Sale: Friday, June 28 at 10:00 a.m.

Ticketing Information: Available online at Tickets.com, Paramount Box Office, 24-hour kiosks at The Paramount, Moore and Neptune Theatres, or Sonic Boom Records in Ballard. For more information visit STGPresents.org.

Jessie Ware is a proper pop star. With her soulful, melancholy vocal, effortlessly elegant songwriting skills and, of course, that striking slicked-back hair, she marks a new era for pop. Her outstanding debut album DEVOTION combines the ultra-modern feel of downtempo R&B and British electronic music.

South London born Jessie started singing at school, inspired by the romance of her mother's Frank Sinatra and "Ella Fitzgerald Sings Cole Porter" tapes, appearing in musicals and picking up some classical training along the way. Jessie cut her teeth as a vocalist when she wrote the track "Nervous" with SBTRKT. She then hooked up with Sampha, who had also sung on "Nervous," to write "Valentine," one of last year's sweetest tracks, all breathy vocals and beautiful simplicity. Armed with those two songs and riding a growing wave of hype, she was snapped up by brand new British label PMR. With her name on everyone's lips, the time seemed right for an album. But, despite another big guest spot on Joker's "The Vision" and standout vocals on a number of tracks on SBTRKT's debut album, Jessie wanted to make sure she was truly ready to go it alone,

"I wanted to combine electronic with a more classic songwriting," she explains. "I didn't want it to feel too 'of now', so that's why I went back to beats and grooves of things I loved before, like Prince and Chaka Khan and Grace Jones. I wanted to make downer R&B, and songs that are beautiful and bittersweet, like Sade. It was just about mixing it up in the right way."

Her debut album DEVOTION contains that effortless poise within 11 laid-back, soulful pop songs that run the spectrum of sweet and dark. "I feel like I've been allowed to push it with the melodrama," she smiles. "Like [early single] 'Running' was me thinking of Whitney Houston's 'Queen Of The Night' and romantic film scenes from the 80s, where the guy sees the girl at the prom..." The title track, she says, is the first song she wrote with Dave Okumu from the Invisible, who would become a key part of the making of the album. "That's why I wanted the album to be called that, because it's where it started. That's when I felt like a singer, and could express myself in the way that I wanted, with the music I wanted."

STG is the 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization that operates the historic Paramount, Moore and Neptune Theatres in Seattle, Washington.

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