Toshi Regon, Catherine Cohen, The Skivvies and More This Week at Joe's Pub

As January winds to an end, the party still rages on at Joe's Pub! This week includes a literary salon from Generation Women; the anticipated return of Toshi Reagon's birthday concerts; the album release for Stephane Wrembel's The Django Experiment V; singer and comedienne Catherine Cohen; Carmel Dean's star-studded Well Behaved Women; award-winning Haitian songwriter, guitarist, and producer Wesli; an Australia themed concert from Lance Horne; a celebration of singer-songwriter and classically trained violinist Christina Courtin's latest album, featuring The Knights; icon of pop music Jill Sobule; the irreverent yet intellectual comedy of Unitard; South Asian-American vocalist, sitarist, composer and producer Ami Dang; an underwear fete featuring a bevy of beloved Broadway stars with The Skivvies; award-winning folk singer Addie Brownlee paying tribute to Dolly Parton; the unique "roots pop" stylings of Front Country; improvisational voice band known for surreal, hyper-original pop music Subtle Pride; the genius of jazz musician Gideon King & City Blog on a double bill with Kate K-S & Brett Williams; and the exhilarating 9th Annual Miss Twin Peaks Pageant from The Pink Room Burlesque.

Check out the schedule below and on their site: www.joespub.com.

GENERATION WOMEN: A FRESH START

Wednesday, January 22 at 7:00PM
$30

Generation Women is a unique, intimate literary salon that brings together women of all ages. Six women of note read an original story on a theme. Of those women, one is in her 20s, her 30s, her 40s, her 50s, her 60s, and her 70s+. Our diverse line-ups will make you laugh, cry, and think. All are welcome to join us for our kickoff show for 2020, presenting heartfelt and humorous stories on the theme "A Fresh Start." Hosted by Georgia Clark.

Toshi Reagon'S 36TH ANNUAL BIRTHDAY CONCERTS

Featuring Toshi Reagon & BIGLovely

Wednesday - Saturday, January 22 - 25 at 9:30PM

Sunday, January 26 at 7:00PM - The Sacred Music Show: The Bernice Johnson Reagon Songbook
$25

Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely return for Toshi's 36th annual birthday celebration. Reagon's annual birthday shows have become staples of the New York performance ecosystem, and these 5 performances will mark an incredible artist's journey. Toshi's amazing band includes some of New York's finest musicians: Judith Casselberry, Fred Cash, Stephanie McKay, Marcelle Davies Lashley, Adam Widoff, and Robert Burke, collectively known as BIGLovely. The event promises extra-special surprise guest appearances from her many friends and collaborators, plus gifts from Toshi to her fans.

Toshi Reagon has been described by Vibe magazine as "one helluva rock'n'roller-coaster ride" and by Pop Matters as "a treasure waiting to be found," Toshi Reagon is a one-woman celebration of all that's dynamic, progressive and uplifting in American music." Toshi is a Singer/Musician/Composer/Producer/Curator- Her music has been feature in film and television and she has collaborated with several dance companies including Urban Bush Woman, Jane Comfort, and LAVA. She is the founder of WORD*ROCK*&SWORD: A Festival Celebration of Women's Lives, an 8 day festival that takes place in NYC every September. She has curated several events in NYC including her GoodFolk series in collaboration with Joes Pub and The Schomburg Center for Black Research in Black Culture's Women in Jazz Festival. Toshi has had the pleasure of working with Lenny Kravitz, Lizz Wright, Ani DiFranco, Carl Hancock Rux, Nona Hendryx, Pete Seeger, Chocolate Genius and many other amazing artists, including her favorite collaborator, her mom, Bernice Johnson Reagon. Yaa Asantewaa writes, "Toshi knows the power of song to focus, unite and mobilize people. If you've been lucky enough to be in Toshi's presence, you know you can't walk away from her without feeling better about yourself as a human being. She aims for nothing less." Toshi has been the recipient of a NYFA award for Music Composition, The Black Lily Music and Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance. She is a National Women's History Month Honoree, and is the 2010 recipient of OutMusic's Heritage Award.

STEPHANE WREMBEL: THE DJANGO EXPERIMENT V ALBUM RELEASE

Thursday, January 23 at 7:00PM
$35

Stephane Wrembel is releasing his new album The Django Experiment V on January 23, 2020 which marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of Reinhardt. The Django Experiment Volume V is a continuation of a special series of recordings. The concept is a tribute to the great guitar master, Django Reinhardt; mixing compositions and influences from other landscapes of the musical world, aiming to create an inner journey for the listener. Wrembel feels this is his strongest "experiment" thus far.

Wrembel's world class band includes long-time collaborators Thor Jensen (guitar), Ari Folman Cohen (bass), Nick Anderson (drums).

For this release concert, the band will also have Nick Driscoll on saxophone/clarinet and Daisy Castro on violin as special guests.

CATHERINE COHEN

Friday, January 24 at 7:00PM
$25

Catherine Cohen's live show is about living, laughing, loving, and losing your debit card five times in one year. Through original songs and stand-up, Catherine explores life as an immortal millennial who is addicted to attention. Winner of the Best Newcomer Award at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Guardian called the show "can't-take-your-eyes-off-of-it entertaining," and The Telegraph heralded that "Cohen is a star in the making."

Carmel Dean: WELL BEHAVED WOMEN

Saturday, January 25 at 4:30PM & 7:00PM
$25

What would Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harriet Tubman, Frida Kahlo, and Malala Yousafzai sound like if you heard them sing? Find out in "Well Behaved Women," a new collection of songs by Carmel Dean (composer of the award-winning musical Renascence). These women - and more - will be brought to life by some of Broadway's leading ladies, and through these powerful, and often hilarious songs, will celebrate the ways in which their bad-ass behavior helped them make history.

Set to perform are Tony winner LaChanze (The Color Purple), Tony nominees Liz Callaway (Baby) and Barbara Walsh (Falsettos, Company), Broadway alum Bonnie Milligan (Head Over Heels), Katie Thompson, Natascia Diaz, Kuhoo Verma, and Melissa Rose Hirsch.

WESLI

With Special Guest Paul Beaubrun

Sunday, January 26 at 9:30PM
$15

Wesli's musical journey has gone from stringing up an oil can with nylon fishing string to winning a Juno for World Music Album of the Year. Born Wesley Louissaint in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, he has grown into his role as a prolific songwriter, guitarist, and producer. Uniting a large cross-section of Montreal talent, his music links Haitian voudou and rara with roots, Afrobeat and hip-hop - guest spots on his albums include the likes of Tiken Jah Fakoly, Alpha Blondy, Radio, Radio and he has toured with Emeline Michel.

Since being crowned the Revelation Radio-Canada for 2009-2010, Wesli has gone onto win the Babel Med Music Prize (2010), SOCAN's Hagood Hardy Award (2016), and a prize from l'Académie Charles Cros (2019) in addition to the Juno for Rapadou Kréyol (2019), and now Québec's ADISQ award. His touring calendar has taken him across North America, Haiti, Colombia, Brazil, Africa, and Europe, with participation in WOMEX, Mundial Montreal, and the Atlantic Music Expo in Cape Verde.

2018's Rapadou Kréyol will be followed by a new, electronically-infused album, Tradisyon; it will be released internationally by Cumbancha in 2020.

MONDAYS IN THE PUB FOR AUSTRALIA

Monday, January 27 at 7:00PM
$20

Australia needs your help. With the largest single fire in recorded history raging over 80% of Australian coastlines, half a billion animals perished and 15 million acres of land destroyed, the artists of Mondays in the Club with Lance, a party around a piano each week at Club Cumming, return to Joe's Pub, joining forces with our Australian family to raise support for the NSW volunteer fire service (RFS) who have been battling the fires and rescuing wildlife for months without pay or relief.

Come celebrate everything Aussie, from Peter Allen to Vegemite, Priscilla to Uluru, with International Artists, ex-pats, and New York friends coming together on Australia Day with a common cause and that extra bit of surprise you've come to expect from Mondays.

The party will continue afterwards into the night- head over directly with Lance from the Pub to Club Cumming for their weekly rollicking party around a piano, Mondays in the Club with Lance!

CHRISTINA COURTIN AND THE KNIGHTS

Monday, January 27 at 9:30PM
$75-$500

Join Christina Courtin and The Knights to celebrate the release of Christina's newest record Situation Station. As Christina weaves together her dual worlds, the singer-songwriter and classically trained violinist guides listeners through somber plains and heartbreak, all the while surrounding them with warmth, joy, and hope. With its stark vocals and rich arrangements, Situation Station seeks to stir the same depth of emotion in others that Courtin has imbued in each of her album's songs. The evening features a live performance of Situation Station by Christina Courtin herself, and The Knights, a versatile Brooklyn-based chamber orchestra. Proceeds benefit the mission and programs of The Knights, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

JILL SOBULE

Tuesday, January 28 at 9:30PM
$20

"Nostalgia can be wonderful and amazing. It's OK to look back. But then you gotta get the fuck out of there." So says singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, explaining the theme of her new album, Nostalgia Kills.

On 2018's Nostalgia Kills, the woman hailed by The New York Times for making "grown-up music for an adolescent age" turns her warm wit and poet's eye on herself more than ever before, revisiting moments from throughout her life that made her into the person she is today. It's an especially poignant look back at childhood - "exorcising some junior high school demons," as she puts it.

Looking back is a new experience for Jill Sobule. Ever since she first caught mainstream attention with her 1995 song "I Kissed a Girl" - the first song about same-sex romance ever to crack the Billboard Top 20 (and no relation to the later Katy Perry tune) - she's always pushed forward, exploring new sounds and subject matter with each passing album and refusing to be pigeonholed by her early hits (which also include the '90s alt-rock anthem "Supermodel," featured in an iconic scene in the film Clueless).

Along the way, Jill has shared stages with the likes of Billy Bragg, Cyndi Lauper and Warren Zevon, written music for TV and theater, and been a pioneer in the art of crowdfunding, raising so much money for her 2009 album California Years that a then-unknown startup called Kickstarter came to her for advice. She's also been active in numerous social and political causes, performing at prisons as part of Wayne Kramer's Jail Guitar Doors project, playing dates with Lady Parts Justice's "Vagical Mystery Tour," and curating Monster Protest Jams Vol. 1, featuring protest songs by Tom Morello, Billy Bragg, Boots Riley, Amanda Palmer, Jackson Browne and many other great artists - including Jill's own "When They Say We Want Our America Back, What the F#@k Do They Mean?", which traces the history of anti-immigrant sentiment in America.

UNITARD: BADASSY!

Wednesday, January 29 at 7:00PM
$20

Mike Albo, Nora Burns, and David Ilku are back with their wildly twisted take on everything annoying, amusing and artisanal. It's a comic cocktail for your psyche.

AMI DANG

Wednesday, January 29 at 9:30PM
$15

Amrita "Ami" Kaur Dang is a South Asian-American vocalist, sitarist, composer and producer from Baltimore. Her sound ranges from North Indian classical fused with noise/ambient electronics to beat-driven psych and experimental dancepop. The work references her hybrid identity as a first-generation South Asian-American, Sikh upbringing, musical education, as well as the chaos and spirituality of the landscapes of both Baltimore and urban India.

Picking up her first sitar when she was twelve years old, Dang has studied North Indian classical music (voice and sitar) in both New Delhi and Maryland, and she also holds a degree in music technology & composition from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Following in the footsteps of artists like Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass, she seeks to advance the sound of contemporary experimental, pop, and electronic music with the sounds of South Asia--through vocals and sitar, ragas, and sampling. And vice versa, she aims to bring a broader sound palette to the legacy of South Asian music. These goals are a lifelong mission. To that end, she has collaborated with Animal Collective, Celebration, and Pearl & the Oysters--to name a few.

Her debut album Hukam came out in 2011 on Ehse Records to critical acclaim. She delved further into the sounds of experimental-indiepop on Uni Sun, her sophomore album that was released on Friends Records in 2016. Along with cellist Alexa Richardson, Ami is ½ of Raw Silk, who released their self-titled debut album in June 2018. Most notably, she has a big fan in Grimes, who hand-picked Dang to accompany her on her 2013 tour of Asia as both an opening act and a backing vocalist. Dang appears on Grimes' video for "REALiTi," which was shot throughout the tour. Her music defies genre, and she has shared bills with many pop, rock, world, folk, hip hop, and experimental acts, including Future Islands, Chairlift, A Hawk and A Hacksaw, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Beach House, Wye Oak, Lil B, Bonnie Prince Billy, and Dan Deacon.

Her next album Parted Plains, featuring strictly sitar and electronics, will be released in 2019 on Leaving Records.

THE SKIVVIES

Thursday, January 30 at 9:30PM
$30

The Skivvies are Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley, award-winning NYC actor/musicians doing stripped down versions of eclectic covers and comedic, genre-hopping mashups. Not only are the arrangements stripped down - cello, ukulele, glockenspiel, melodica - but the Skivvies literally strip down to their underwear to perform. It's undie-rock at its finest. Featured in People Magazine's Hottest Bodies Issue as the Most Playful performers, The Wall Street Journal calls them "highly original...smart...ingenious." Molina (Rock of Ages, Sweeney Todd, Candide) and Cearley (Pageant, A Midsummer Night's Dream, All Shook Up) started The Skivvies on YouTube becoming sensations with their covers of artists like Robyn, Carole King, and Rihanna. Their live show, featuring Tony winning special guests, is wildly fun, packed with big voices and crazy harmonies. But no pants.

Guests on January 30 include Brennyn Lark, Claybourne Elder, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Logan Hart, Kuhoo Verma, Max von Essen, and Natalie Walker!

I BEG YOUR PARTON: ADDIE SINGS DOLLY

Friday, January 31 at 7:00PM
$20

Joe's Pub hosts Addie Brownlee and her beloved tribute to Dolly Parton, The Eighth Annual I Beg Your Parton: Addie Sings Dolly. Coming the month Parton celebrates her 74th birthday, the show focuses on the ground-breaking songs Parton has performed throughout her career.

"The wigs and plastic surgery and the 'it takes a lot of money to look this cheap' persona is no doubt a part of Dolly," says Brownlee, "but I developed this show both to celebrate everything we love about here and specifically to showcase her writing. I think it works because I look and sound nothing like Dolly!"

New Folk Award Winner, Addie Brownlee has toured internationally with Martha Wainwright. Her songs have been featured in film and commercials.

FRONT COUNTRY

Friday, January 31 at 9:30PM
$15

In today's crowded musical landscape, it's hard enough to develop a unique and recognizable sound that can set you apart. That done, you face an even greater challenge: What IS this music? Although Front Country has a foundation in traditional music, they are creating their own path and sound with grace, poise, confidence and extreme skill. They call it "roots pop" and it's easy to agree with them. In fact you can't deny the infusion of these two sounds.

As you dig in, you might also hear moments that feel like the classic rock of Fleetwood Mac or the Police, as well as the modern country sounds of the Dixie Chicks or Chris Stapleton. This new record features skills - both vocally and instrumentally - of a band seasoned well beyond their years. Front Country is anchored by the pure power and touch of Melody Walker's lead vocal. She brings an attack that has a hint of effortless irreverence while revealing brutal honesty and vulnerability in both singing and songwriting. As exciting a band on stage as they are in the studio, Front Country stands strong and tall in today's American roots music scene.

SUBTLE PRIDE

Saturday, February 1 at 7:00PM
$15

Subtle Pride is an improvisational voice band known for creating surreal concert performances of hyper-original pop music. An "amalgam of Talking Heads and an SNL skit (Dazed)," Subtle Pride's "confusing and infectious" (Flaunt Magazine) live shows break down the complex tropes of pop culture, using Absurdity to reveal Celebrity as a unique and intentional creative art form.

Representing a confluence of several disparate mediums, the four-person celebrity of Subtle Pride is comprised of Misha Brooks (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Zach Donovan (Waif Magazine), Brigette Lundy-Paine (Bombshell, Netflix's Atypical), and Mina Walker (Daisy the Great).

GIDEON KING & CITY BLOG / KATE K-S & BRETT WILLIAMS

Saturday, February 1 at 9:30PM
$20

In 2015, Gideon King & City Blog (GKCB) released a full-length CD, City Blog. The music was met with wide critical acclaim, with the Huffington Post calling King a "musical genius." Having worked for years in establishing a reputation as a rising force in the New York Jazz scene, King has worked with. John Scofield and members of Steely Dan and many other musical giants.

GKCB released a follow up to Upscale Madhouse in October 2018. The full length album features John Scofield, Marc Broussard, Grace Weber, Nate Smith, Conrad Sewell, Donny McCaslin, Brendan Fletcher, Sonny Step, James Genus, Elliott Skinner, Luques Curtis, Carolyn Leonhart, Kevin Hays, Donald Edwards, Matt Powell, Willard Dyson, Vivian Sessoms, Roslyn McClure, Mike Rodriguez, Adrian Harpham, Nathan Peck, Kate Kay Es, Bryan Reeder, Seamus Blake, Itai Kriss Music, Alex Sipiagin, Bruce Flowers, Liam Budge, Mike Stephenson and David Kahne.

2019, King has released three singles. The first single, "Lady of a Thousand Sorries" has over 350,000 steams on Spotify. The second, "Audience of One" features Elliot Skinner, formally of the band Third Story. King's latest release, "Burning Through" is accompanied by a hauntingly beautiful music video that has over 20,000 views in its first few weeks.

Performing often at Blue Note and City Winery, and having recently curated a showcase of vocalists for Sofar Sounds, King and the band show no signs of slowing down.

THE Pink Room BURLESQUE'S 9TH ANNUAL MISS TWIN PEAKS PAGEANT

Saturday, February 1 at 11:30PM
$15

The Miss Twin Peaks title is the most coveted honor in this little town where a yellow light still means slow down, not speed up AND it is the most coveted honor in all of David Lynch Burlesque right here in New York City! It is all the things everyone has come to love of The Pink Room Burlesque: Schäffer the Darklord rapping his original song "A David Lynch Movie," our audience participation challenge, Chug-a-lug Donna, and burlesque performances by many of the characters from Twin Peaks - both the original and The Return on Showtime! You never know who may show up onstage or in the audience. Costumes always encouraged!

The Pink Room Burlesque is a tribute to and satire of the works of David Lynch. Since the anniversary of Laura Palmer's death in February of 2011, Francine and The Pink Room cast have covered everything from "Twin Peaks," Fire Walk With Me, Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Inland Empire, and the music of David Lynch (not to mention the ever popular X-Files Burlesque). The Pink Room headlined "A Tribute To Twin Peaks," the official Showtime event for "The Return" and appeared in the Showtime produced documentary "Twin Peaks: The Phenomenon." Francine and The Pink Room were also feature on ABC's Nightline and are now considered "David Lynch-approved."

TICKETS:

ONLINE joespub.com / PHONE 212-967-7555
IN PERSON The Public Theater Box Office, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC

NOTE There is a $12 food / two (2) drink minimum per person per show, unless otherwise noted.

To post a comment, you must register and login.