Joe's Pub Features CMA Songwriter Series, et al. This March

Joe's Pub will feature the following events throughout March 2011: 

CMA SONGWRITER SERIES feat. Ashton Shepherd, Chris Wallin, Deric Ruttan & host Bob DiPiero
Thursday, March 24 at 6:30 & 9:00 PM; $30

Joe's Pub and the Country Music Association are proud to announce the continuation of the successful CMA (Country Music Association) Songwriter Series with some of Nashville's finest songwriters. Bob DiPiero will return as host. CMA Songwriters Series is proudly sponsored by American Airlines, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GAC.

ASHTON SHEPHERD

Ashton Shepherd was born August 16, 1986 in Coffeeville, Alabama. She began singing at an early age, and started writing songs at age five. By age eight, she had entered her first talent competition, where she sang Patsy Cline songs, and soon afterward, she began performing at various local venues as well. Her parents helped her finance a self-titled CD, which she released independently at age fifteen. In June 2006, she entered and won a talent contest in Gilbertown, Alabama. The prize was being the opening act for Lorrie Morgan in concert. Shepherd won the opening slot, and while performing as Morgan's opener, she was spotted by a representative of MCA Nashville Records, who then signed her to the label in April 2007.

Her debut single, "Takin' Off This Pain", was released in September 2007, the same month in which she made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry. The song, which peaked at #20 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, was the first single from her debut album Sounds So Good, which was produced by Buddy Cannon and released on March 4, 2008. She also appeared on CMT's Unplugged at Studio 330 Television program and subsequent interview March 5, 2008. The album's second single, its title track, was released in May 2008 and peaked at #21.

Shepherd third single, "Look It Up", was reviewed by The 9513, who gave a "thumbs up" rating citing the song has clever lyrics, and Shepherd's intense twang elevates the invective even further. The song was released to country radio on January 3, 2011 as the lead-off single to her second album for MCA Nashville. It debuted at number 55 on the country charts for chart week ending January 15, 2010.

CHRIS WALLIN

With his unique gift for finding the extraordinary in ordinary life, Chris Wallin has established himself as one of Music Row's most sought-after songwriters.

For the past several years, Wallin has topped the charts with classics-in-the-making for the industry's biggest stars: "Love Me If You Can" by Toby Keith, "Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney, "I'm Tryin'" for Trace Adkins, "Something To Be Proud Of" and "Speed" by Montgomery Gentry.

His poignant lyrical portrayals of everyday people as they deal with living and loving have also been embraced by artists such as Brad Paisley, Diamond Rio, Lorrie Morgan, Keith Anderson, Sammy Kershaw, Confederate Railroad and Neal McCoy, among many others.

Raised in the small town of White Pine, Tennessee, Wallin was influenced by the likes of Jim Croce, James Taylor and Merle Haggard, as well as his own musical family - especially his mother, a singer herself. She recorded and performed in Nashville for a time, and the experience made an indelible impression on the seven-year-old Chris.

He began writing songs at age 12 and, perhaps inevitably, moved to Music City several years later, making the dues-paying rounds of writers nights and songwriting contests. He caught a break when his songs caught the ear of a small publishing company (co-owned by eventual Taylor Swift collaborator Liz Rose), helping to launch him on a professional career that has led to award-winning collaborations with fellow hit-makers like Jim Collins, Craig Wiseman, Tim Nichols and Jeffrey Steele.

Wallin has worked hard to achieve his place on the "A List" of Nashville songwriters, and doesn't take his status for granted: His own publishing company's name, 29 Cent Hamburgers, is a reminder of his early days as a struggling writer. "Back then I used to buy 50 or so McDonald's 29 cent hamburgers a week and freeze them solid. I could eat all week on $15 ... They weren't bad, except the last few get a little crusty from freezer burn."

In December 2009, Wallin took a huge career leap by signing worldwide co-publishing and catalogue acquisition deals with ole, one of the world's fastest growing independent publishers with offices in Nashville, Los Angeles and Toronto.

Dedication and talent - not to mention a wry sense of humor - have taken him to the heights of the music world and primed him for international acclaim, but his advice on how to achieve such success is typically straightforward and down-to-earth: "Find out what you do the best and do that till you drop." So Chris Wallin will continue to set the truth of real life to words and music because that's what he does best!

DERIC RUTTAN

Deric Ruttan was raised just outside Bracebridge, Ontario, on land where his great-grandfather made moonshine in the 1930's. Taking his cues from musical heroes like Steve Earle, he moved to Nashville and spent seven years 'in the trenches' in the country music capitol of the world, struggling to make a name for himself. Eventually he signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and soon after inked a recording contract with Disney's Lyric Street Records. When the album was released in Canada, the CD yielded 5 Top Ten singles, (including the hits, "When You Come Around", "Shine", and "Take The Wheel"), and earned him a "Best Album" nomination at the 2004 Canadian Country Music Awards. "Male Vocalist" and "Rising Star" nominations followed, as did the Grand Ol' Opry appearances, and a high-profile national tour. In 2004 he was named "Best New Solo Country Artist" at the Canadian Radio Music Awards. Stateside though, Ruttan's artist success was about to be eclipsed by his success as a songwriter.

In 2003, just as his first single "When You Come Around" was released, he celebrated his first #1 as a songwriter when friend and collaborator Dierks Bentley took the Ruttan/Bentley/Brett Beavers co-write "What Was I Thinkin'" to the top of the charts in the US. The song helped set Bentley on the path to country stardom. (To date, Bentley has recorded six Ruttan co-writes, including the 2005 chart-topper "Lot Of Leavin' Left To Do".) In 2004 Ruttan's "My Way", recorded by Aaron Pritchett, was the most-played Canadian country song of that year. Capitol Nashville's Eric Church had an American Billboard hit with his and Ruttan's "Guys Like Me" in 2007, and cuts on other acts followed (over two dozen to-date), on artists like Gary Allan, Paul Brandt, Doc Walker, Jason Blaine, and The Higgins. In September of 2007, Ruttan was awarded his first Canadian Country Music Award (CCMA) for Songwriter Of The Year (along with co-writers Aaron Pritchett and Mitch Merrett), for "Hold My Beer", recorded by Pritchett. With his songwriting cache increasing, Ruttan struggled to balance his artist and songwriting careers.

"It wasn't just that writing songs for other artists was taking time away from me writing my next record", says Ruttan. "It was that suddenly I was known as a guy who'd written radio hits for other acts - the bar had been raised for me, creatively, because of that. I felt the next record I made needed to be really, really good."

It proved worth the wait. The aptly titled First Time In A Long Time yielded four hit radio singles at Canadian country radio, the title track, the raucous "Lovin' You Is Killin' Me", the Eagles-esque "California Plates" (co-written with members of Manitoba country band Doc Walker), and "Good Time", a duet with Ruttan's friend and collaborator Dierks Bentley. (The video for "Good Time" reached #1 on CMT Canada's video countdown). At the Canadian Country Music Awards that September, Ruttan earned a total of four nominations - "Male Artist", "Songwriter", "Record Producer", and "Best Album," and closed the show performing alongside The Guess Who/Bachman Turner Overdrive guitar legend Randy Bachman. By the following year, "First Time In A Long Time" had garnered so much radio airplay that it earned Ruttan and co-writer Jimmy Rankin a SOCAN Country Music Award at the 2009 SOCAN Awards in Toronto.

Over the course of touring the First Time In A Long Time album in 2008 and 2009, Ruttan and his band developed a reputation for putting on high-energy shows. How his songs translate to a live audience is important to Ruttan. "I've played more in the last year-and-a-half than I played in the three previous years combined. When writing and recording the new album, I tried to keep in mind the energy of our live show. To a degree that influenced song selection."

The energy and the intimacy of Ruttan's live performances come through on every track on Sunshine. As Ruttan wrote or co-wrote every song on the album, it's also a very personal body of work. "As a singer/songwriter, my albums usually end up being windows into where I am in my life when I write and record them. It's never an intentional thing - but that's what ends up happening."

BOB DIPIERO

For the past 20 years, Bob DiPiero has helped define the best that is Music Row. A legendarily funny and compelling performer, he is one of a handful setting the bar for present-day songwriter/entertainers.

As a raconteur, he may have no equal among his peers, and as a musical ambassador and bridge-builder, he has helped make Nashville a port of call for legendary performers from all genres, writing with Neil Diamond, Carole King, Johnny Van Zant and Delbert McClinton, among many others.

He is one of Nashville's most consistent and prolific writers of hits, and he remains at the top of his profession more than two decades after hitting #1 on the charts for the first time in 1983. His long string of hits includes the Oak Ridge Boys' "American Made," Montgomery Gentry's "If You Ever Stop Loving Me," Vince Gill's "Worlds Apart," Shenandoah's "The Church On Cumberland Road," Ricochet's "Daddy's Money," George Strait "Blue Clear Sky," Brooks & Dunn's "You Can't Take the Honky Tonk Out Of the Girl," and Martina McBride's "There You Are."

DiPiero has received three dozen BMI Country and Million-Air honors; CMA's Triple Play Award in 1995 and 1996, "Song of the Year" for "Worlds Apart" at the Country Radio Music Awards in 1997, and Songwriter of the Year awards in 1998 at the Nashville Music Awards and in 2000 from Sony/ATV Nashville.

LIFE IN A BLENDER: CD RELEASE w/ special guests THE DEBUTANTE HOUR

Friday, March 25 at 7:00 PM; $15

Life In A Blender come equipped with a violin, cello, horns, and a touch of absurdism, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their much-loved stage show. The New Yorker says: "The band's new album, The Heart is a Small Balloon, is rife with Ralph's signature wit, but it is also a richly reflective affair that exudes a poignancy and maturity one might not expect." The NY Daily News says: "The band's orchestrated music is a covert beauty, cleverly disturbing lyrics and askew music....an event worth cheering." Jersey Beat calls the band's latest: "A terrifically dark and despairing work of beautifully bleak20and burnt-out oddball art." http://lifeinablender.net/

The Debutante Hour keeps its musical roots in American country, blues and vaudeville while letting their lyrics run the gamut from absurd to sublime. Susan Hwang and Maria Sonevytsky switch fluidly between accordion/keys and hobo drum kit while Mia Pixley holds it down on the cello as the unconventional girl group harmonizes, Andrews-Sisters-style, about planning, worldviews and works of literature, with the occasional swerve into a Carpathian mountain stomp.

Their debut album, "The Birth and Death of Meaning," was released last year to rave reviews. They were featured as one of Deli Magazine's artists of the month in 2010, and they're coming out with a brand new EP of covers, titled "Follow Me" (which includes a collaboration with rapper TK Wonder) to be released in March 2011. Both recordings are produced by Franz Nicolay.

ISENGART AND THE DIPLOMATS: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ELVIS

Friday, March 25 at 9:30 PM; $20
"The Importance of Being Elvis pays tribute to the King by crossing traditional sexual boundaries as he had done in his day, but with an Isengart twist." - The Examiner
"The slick, sharp-cheeked German singer Isengart goes for a strange balance between sexual exhibitionism and continental archness - he's like a hustler striking Marlene Dietrich poses in an Amsterdam window." - Time Out New York
"Melding burlesque raunch with old-world supper-club glamour." - New York Magazine

Isengart returns to Joe's Pub with his acclaimed Polyester-meets-Weimar tribute to the King of Rock ‘n Roll. You'll never hear Elvis the same way again.
Conceived and written by Isengart

Staged by Julie Atlas Muz

Musical Direction by David A. Berger
The Diplomats are:

David A. Berger (Drums); Daniel Mintseris (Piano, Keyboard); Richard Hinman (Steel Pedal Guitar); Michael O'Brien (Upright & Electric Bass), Elizabeth Dotson-Westphalen (Trombone); Russell Moore (Trumpet)

Mr. Isengart hails from Europe and has been a very active presence on New York City's cabaret scene for more than 15 years. Known for his modern fusion of vintage continental cabaret songs and contemporary popular music, he has been called the "Darling of Café Sabarsky" and the "Weimar Elvis". In addition to his work as a performer, he has created and directed countless cabaret shows at a range of established venues including MoMA, the Neue Galerie, BAM, Feinstein's at the Regency, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. He is the founder and creative director of Foreign Affairs, an international cabaret pop-up production that premiered as a speakeasy in Soho in 2008 and has since then been making waves across Manhattan. www.isengart.com

IMANI UZURI'S MOSAIC: A SACRED MUSIC EXTRAVAGANZA

Saturday, March 26 at 7:00 PM; $15

Mosaic: A Special Imani Uzuri Sacred Music Extravaganza

Imani Uzuri presents Mosaic: a music series which is redefining and expanding what we call Sacred music. MOSAIC features a multicultural mélange of contemporary women, artists and projects, who deliver a spiritually expansive range of healing music from Ragas to Rock!

ANDY SUZUKI & THE METHOD

Saturday, March 26 at 9:30 PM; $15

"Suzuki says he has a hard time categorizing himself as an artist, but that his music falls 'somewhere in between Joni Mitchell, Jason Mraz, and John Legend.' And I can't say I disagree: his soulful voice, playful arrangements, and introspective lyrics combine the best traits of those three performers with his own charismatic charm and earnest delivery." - E.J. Wolborsky, Limewire Official Music Blog, Uncovered Artist Spotlight

Andy Suzuki & The Method are a band on the rise. What started as a half-Japanese/half-Jewish teenager with a smooth hint of R&B in his voice singing along to John Mayer, has evolved into a musical force that is taking the east coast by storm. The band's combination of electric violin, djembe, and piano pushes the boundaries of acoustic pop - mixing elements of blues, jam-band-style soloing, and piano-rock - all the while reminding audiences that singer-songwriters can be so much more than just starry-eyed crooners. http://www.andysuzukimusic.com

MATT SUCICH

Saturday, March 26 at 11:30 PM; $10

Matt Sucich's sincere melodies and intimate lyrics will silence any crowd, with a nod to vintage reverb & classic country merely scratching the surface.

On stage, his personality shines through subtle arrangements and sparse production, while at home, recording into a few beat up microphones and a second-hand guitar, Matt draws from the familiar perspective of all things love.

After years of honing his craft, Matt released his first independent effort with the Settle Down EP in January 2009. Recorded with the help of close friends James Vanderberg (also provides album artwork) & Jessica Guerrette, playfully dubbed The Vanderettes, the "Settle Down ep" consisted of a small batch of songs Matt finally felt comfortable to share, including one of his first, and most personal songs "New York In The Fall." Since then, the flood gates have opened and the songs keep coming.

Shortly after unofficially releasing the "Ep," fed up with the time & financial constraints of the recording studio, Matt sat at home recording demos on his crummy equipment and decided to make some available online. These songs, include demos of the haunting "Last Thing On My Mind," the boardwalk tinged "Coney Island Fairlane" (solo/piano) & the country ballad "12:19," performed with The Vanderettes, went under the collective title "Shoddy Equipment Demo - Volume 1." www.EsMatteo.com

SAY WE FLEW: THE Andrew Gerle SONGBOOK RELEASE CONCERT

Sunday, March 27 at 7:00 PM; $20
"Andrew Gerle is my kind of songwriter." - Sheldon Harnick
"One of the most talented of our new generation of musical theater composers, Andrew Gerle is the real deal." - Stephen Flaherty

Four-time Richard Rodgers and Jonathan Larson Award-winning composer Andrew Gerle presents an evening of songs from his shows MEET JOHN DOE, THE TUTOR, GLORYANA, plus stand-alone cabaret numbers from his recently-released songbook. Starring Karen Ziemba, Richard Maltby, Jr., Mark Linn-Baker, Cassie Wooley, Julian Fleisher, Steven Booth, Christa Justus, Kate Fisher, Jimmy Ray Bennett, Pamela Bob and many more. Songbook giveaway and signing after the show! www.AndrewGerle.com

 

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