Category: Upcoming Shows

Rob Mathes to hold online Holiday Concert Dec. 23

Because of the pandemic, it seemed impossible for Rob Mathes to hold his annual holiday this year. The concert also took a hiatus in 2019 so that Mathes could work with Sting on his musical The Last Ship. Mathes and a generous team have worked to make sure that the 26th concert will take place this December.

“The thought of yet another gap year for our annual Holiday concert in 2020 was depressing, but seemingly unavoidable,” said Mathes in a recent press release. “Then a few angels in the form of Deborah and Chuck Royce and Jane and Mike Peak arrived just in time. They agreed to put up some small honorariums for the musicians and crew so we could perform and film a concert with no audience and then stream it for free.” Everyone involved will practice social distancing to ensure safety.

The concert will be taped at the First Congressional Church of Old Greenwich in Connecticut and hosted by Reverend Patrick Collins and Minister of Music Craig Scott Symons. Accompanied by a choir of Saints & Friends, Mathes and his band will play an hour of free music available for anyone.

The band will have Shawn Pelton on Percussion, Zev Katz on Acoustic Bass, Andy Snitzer on Tenor Sax, and Vaneese Thomas and James “D-Train” Williams on vocals. The hour-long show of audience favorites will hopefully bring Christmas cheer to everyone in this pandemic. Emmy winner Bob Conover will film and Grammy winner Rory Young will record and mix the concert.

Photo by Lisa Meloni.

With great political unrest and a national health crisis, with it being very difficult, if not downright dangerous, to get in a room with family and friends this season, a love offering of music is being made possible!
Rob Mathes

The concert will air at 8PM on Wednesday, December 23 on Mathes’ YouTube channel. If you can’t make it then, the concert will be up online until New Year’s Day. It is free, but Mathes encourages audiences to donate to one of his favorite charities: Through the Eyes of Children.

The charity, which Mathes has been supporting since 2003, is a nonprofit that teaches photography to vulnerable children. It allows these children not only to learn about art and photography, but to document their own lives and share their voices.

Despite the pandemic’s difficulty, his Holiday Concert is not Mathes’ first project of this year. He produced and arranged five songs for the David Lynch Foundation’s Meditate America benefit which feature Graham Nash, Sting, Jim James, Kesha, Angelique Kidjo, Larkin Poe, and Elvis Costello. The socially-distant recorded tracks include a Gospel Choir, String and Horn sections and Rhythm Section featuring Steve Jordan on Drums, (Keith Richards, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Neville Brothers) and Larry Campbell on Guitars (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm).

Rob Mathes also directed the first live streamed show at the Kennedy Center post pandemic with Renee Fleming and Vanessa Williams. He has collaborated with producer Jake Sinclair on a Weezer record, and Sting and Italian pop star Zucchero on Sting’s 2021 song “September.” He also orchestrated and conducted the music for the upcoming movie musical In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and is currently in pre-production on a record with singer-songwriter Pete Muller.

Additionally, Mathes played a role in Robert Plant and Jimmy Page getting full copyright over “Stairway to Heaven.” Led Zepplin and its lawyers asked Mathes to join the team as a music expert because of his arrangement of the song in 2012.

Catch the concert on Wednesday, December 23 at 8 on YouTube, and keep up with Rob Mathes on his Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

December 23, 2020
Charu Suri Spreads Holiday Cheer Early-Streaming Single “A Little Joy”

Just last year, Charu Suri became the first Indian born jazz composer to premier original work at the legendary Carnegie Hall. She had hopes to take the stage again this holiday season, but COVID-19 lead her to plan ‘B’, a YouTube concert.

Charu Suri plays the piano and has since she was five.

At that point we decided that ‘the show must go on,’ and that You Tube and technology does offer us and many other voices, a solution.

On Dec. 18, Suri premiered her newest original single, “A Little Joy,” on YouTube. Since then, it has gained almost 25,000 views. Suri is one of many artists who hopped the online streaming bandwagon.

Throughout the pandemic, the music industry has had an influx of online performances. Although they have been hit hard economically, artists have proved to be ambitious with trying to make streaming work as much as they can.

At five years old, Suri started playing the piano. At nine, she was already performing. By 15 years old, she had won an International Piano Competition.

Suri has three albums behind her including, The Book of Ragas, A Jazz Trio and Sufi Sounds. Her latest accomplishment was recently becoming a Recording Academy (GRAMMYS) voting member. She also intends to release three new albums in 2021, with a mixture of holiday, jazz and new age music. Although she definitely has her work cut out for her. She also has a daughter and a husband to come home to in Weehawken, New Jersey.

For Suri, “A Little Joy” is meant to represent a calm to the Covid-anxiety-storm that everyone felt this year. The single will be available for download on Jan. 30, but is up and ready to celebrate the holidays on YoutTube now.

A Little Joy by Charu Suri.

December 22, 2020
New York Rock N’ Roots Presents Hope for the Holidays Fundraiser

New York Rock n’ Roots has teamed up with High Peaks Event Production and WEQX 102.7 to produce a special four-part fundraiser, Hope For the Holidays. The livestream benefit series of concerts will broadcast on YouTube and Facebook, which started on December 5, featuring Capital District artists Jocelyn & Chris, Rich Ortiz, The Wheel, Charlie Smith Blues Band, Wild Adriatic and Let’s Be Leonard.

Hope For The Holidays will benefit SaveOurStages (via NIVA) and WeAreBrewnited. The mission of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) is to preserve the ecosystem of independent live event venues and promoters throughout the United States by lobbying for government assistance. Brewnited is a brewery initiated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, whose mission is to help tipped hospitality employees whose work has been disrupted by COVID-19 through direct payments.

Both NIVA and Brewnited are very dear to NY Rock n’ Roots, High Peaks Event Production and WEQX. The venues, promoters and staff have been out of work since March 13, 2020, when all were forced to close doors to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. Rock n’ Roots then produced the Quarantine Concert Series, featuring 25 live streams that averaged 8,000 views each. Now with generous assistance from our sponsors, NY Rock N Roots is continuing to bring new live entertainment this holiday season.

All the donations collected during Hope for the Holidays livestreams will go directly to these NIVA and Brewnited. As an incentive to donate, eight amazing local restaurants and one local Inn have provided gift cards for each donation of $25 or more during the entire weekend of a concert release, not just during the stream. Donors will also be entered to win one of two restaurant gift cards designated that weekend.

If you donate $50 or more during the Hope For The Holidays series, you will automatically win an NY Rock n’ Roots t-shirt, plus a chance to win one of two overnight accommodations to the Inn At Saratoga with an accompanying gift card to dine in their exquisite restaurant.

Donations can be made via Paypal or Venmo to NYROCKROOTS.

Once a concert is released, it will remain up on the High Peaks Event Production, NY Rock n’ Roots and WEQX Facebook pages, as well as the High Peaks Event Production’s YouTube Channel. In addition to these formats, the Collaborative Studio of Proctors will also have all the concerts available on their multiple platforms via, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV apps.

Hope for the Holidays Concert Series Dates:

December 12 – Jocelyn and Chris with opening act Rich Ortiz

December 19 – The Wheel

December 26 – The Charlie Smith Blues Band

January 2 – Wild Adriatic with opening act Let’s Be Leonard

December 21, 2020
Kung Fu Aides Toys for Tots with 10th Annual Livestream

Connecticut funk-fusion band, Kung Fu, aides Toys for Tots as they gear-up for a heartfelt livestream tomorrow, December 19, 2020. Proceeds will go to Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.

Kung Fu and Toys For Tots make a heart-warming combo. The benefit has become a cherished tradition, annually held and Toad’s Place, a landmark venue in the Connecticut music scene. The venue has collected tens of thousands of dollars worth of toys for kids at their annual sold out shows.

The band improvised this year, going virtual. Tomorrow, The Warehouse, Fairfield Theatre Company’s 640-capacity, industrial and state of the art venue will host the livestream for its tenth consecutive year. The benefit continues to embody a sense of giving and selflessness around the holidays, as the band pulls out all the stops for the hometown celebration to benefit those less fortunate.

If you have ever been to Fairfield Theatre Company, or met Kung Fu, both have a heartwarming persona, making it the perfect matchup for Toys for Tots. Locals flock the venue as is, the band, deeply rooted in their community.

KVisit Kung Fu on FACEBOOK

We are sending love to Kung Fu, The Warehouse @ FTC and all of you who have continually showed your support during the holidays, especially this year. The livestream is courtesy of MKDevo, with lights by Matt Calabrese. Kung Fu will be donating 33% of the total proceeds to the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital at 1 Park St, New Haven, CT.

Saturday December 19 at 8 p.m. ET. Tickets will be $14.99. You can purchase tickets from The Warehouse’ website, or view the event on Facebook.

Watch Kung Fu Toys For Tots Past Events:

Kung Fu feat. Jon Herington & Bernard Purdie: “The Fez >Green Earrings”

December 18, 2020
GrassRoots Festival Launches Save Your Roots Campaign and Live-Stream

The GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance launches its Save Your Roots campaign and live-stream benefit at the State Theater in Ithaca, NY on December 19, at 7 PM EST. The campaign hopes to raise $100,000 to prepare for the 2021 festival season.

Like almost all festivals around the world this year the GrassRoots Festivals were forced to cancel their annual festivals due to COVID-19. The GrassRoots Festival started back in 1991 and sought to inspire positive change in communities through the communal celebration of world music, art and dance. It all started as a sold out, one night, benefit to raise money for the fight against AIDS at the historic State Theatre in Ithaca, NY. It has since evolved into three, separate annual four-day -vents in Trumansburg, NY, Shakori Hills, NC and Miami, FL.

The GrassRoots Festival is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. They, unlike some larger festivals, don’t have large pools of corporate sponsors. One of the reasons GrassRoots strays away from large corporate sponsors, is they want to keep their festival an authentic experience for participants and free from the boundaries of corporate influence. Though, the festival’s livelihood is in danger due to the lack of income in the 2020 year due to COVID-19. Their solution to trying to help the festival survive and thrive is by launching the Save Our Roots campaign.

The campaign has a goal of raising $100,000 that will culminate with a special live streamed event from the State Theatre in Ithaca, NY on December 19, 2020 at 7 PM EST.

Each donation or ticket purchased through the campaign will help ensure that the GrassRoots Festival Organization stays afloat. Currently the campaign is 61% funded with $61,421 and 17 days remaining to donate. So far, 375 people have donated to the cause.

People who donate $50 will receive a custom GrassRoots Festival T-shirt. One hundred dollar donations will receive their name on a GrassRoots Festival commemorative tree. Those who donate $1,000 will receive ten, four-day passes to any grassroots festival of their choice. People who donate $2,000 will receive ten, four-day passes to any grassroots festival of their choice plus two all access dream team lanyards. People can also donate a custom amount. Donations can be made here.

The live-stream benefit is being hosted by Yes Darling (Ryan Montbleau & Hayley Jane) and features live performances by the GrassRoots All-Stars, Jeb & Tara of Donna the Buffalo, Driftwood, Richie & Rosie and appearances from Jim Lauderdale, Preston & Keith Frank, Keith Secola, Dirk Powell, Cortadito, Fabi World Music & more. The live-stream has a suggested donation of $10. Tickets can be bought here.

For more information of on the GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance and its Save Your Roots campaign and live-stream benefit visit their website.

December 15, 2020
Flushing Town Hall Plans Showcase of Kunqu Opera

Flushing Town Hall announces their showcasing of Kunqu Opera on December 12, 2020 at 8PM EST. The event will take place via live-stream on Zoom or YouTube.

Photo provided by press release from Flushing Town Hall.

The Kunqu Opera showcase is titled Kunqu in America: Memories of Chung-ho Chang Frankel. The showcase at Flushing Town Hall will illustrate how Kunqu opera, the oldest extant version of Chinese theater, took root in the United States by featuring memories of Ms. Chung-ho Chang, one of the most influential Kunqu practitioners throughout the country. The program will be presented bilingually, both in English and Mandarin, and will be told through videos, pictures, and interviews.

Ms. Chung-ho Chang is known for being one of the “last female literary talents from China’s Republic Era” particularly after the passing of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek. She was born in Shanghai to a big and prestigious family in 1913 and became a well-known poet, calligrapher, and Kunqu opera singer. She was active in the arts and cultural scene along with her three sisters during the first part of the 20th century. She then moved to the United States in 1949 with her husband, Hans Frankel, a sinologist who later taught at Yale University and who she met while studying at Peking University.

She is known for having planted the seed of the Kunqu opera while also nurturing the art community while she lived in California and Connecticut. She did this by holding Kunqu gatherings in her home, bringing students, actors, musicians, and scholars together to practice Kunqu singing and movements. For decades, she traveled from university to university to promote and demonstrate the art form. In 2001, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) proclaimed Kunqu a masterpiece of “the oral and intangible heritage of humanity”. Today, there is a thriving Kunqu opera community throughout the United States in which Ms. Chung-ho Chang is greatly involved in.

The Flushing Town Hall virtual event will feature anecdotes of Ms. Chang collected exclusively by the Kunqu Society from interviews with Ms. Chang’s family members, students, and friends, will showcase several elaborate costumes and musical instruments that were handmade by her and will collectively showcase Kunqu Opera.

Following the program, there will also be a live Q&A featuring guests who appeared in the stories. People interested in attending must RSVP in advance to receive a link to watch the event on Zoom or YouTube. To RSVP or to learn more about the program, visit The Flushing Town Hall’s website.

December 11, 2020
Rufus Wainwright Presents Live-Stream 2021 Tour

Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright has announced a virtual live-stream tour for the 2021 winter season. Dubbed ‘Rufus-Retro-Wainwright-Spective!’, the tour will take music fans through all of Wainwright’s nine studio albums. Each album will be seen in chronological order, with the much praised debut album Release the Stars kicking off the tour on January 8.

Accompanying Wainwright will be guitarist Brian Green and keyboardist/pianist Jacob Mann, helping to revamp older songs that have not been played onstage in years. Also featured will be cover song that fans had a chance to vote on, along with special guests serving as the concert’s micro-audience.

Recently nominated for the GRAMMY® Award nominee for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, Wainwright expressed his excitement in a press release for the upcoming tour:

“I did not expect to have so much fun redoing my first 4 albums with Brian and Jacob on guitar and piano in October and November. So many songs I had not performed live in decades as I always thought they needed a large band but they actually hold up quite well in this very intimate living room setting. I wasn’t sure how fans would react and whether anyone would buy tickets. Well, my fans have and I am incredibly grateful for their support and for the opportunity to go all the way on this road to my last album. I am so excited that Unfollow the Rules was just nominated for a Grammy and I would love to to actually end this retrospective as a Grammy winner. But even without I feel I have won a lot through this experience.”

Tickets are on sale now for $20.00 in advance and $25.00 day of show. Bundles are available and come with the opportunity for fans to participate in intimate Q&A’s with Wainwright and other surprises. Go here to purchase tickets.

Dates for RUFUS-RETRO-WAINWRIGHT-SPECTIVE 2021!

Jan. 8 – Release the Stars (Side 1)

Jan. 15 – Release the Stars (Side 2) + Fireside Chat

Jan. 22 – All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu (Side 1)

Jan. 29 – All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu (Side 2) + Fireside Chat

Feb. 5 – Out of the Game (Side 1)

Feb. 12 – Out of the Game (Side 2) + Fireside Chat

Feb. 19 – Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets

Feb. 26 – Rufus at the Movies (Soundtrack Songs) + Fireside Chat

March 4 – Unfollow the Rules (Side 1)

March 12 – Unfollow the Rules (Side 2) + Fireside Chat

Wainwright along with friends and family of the acclaimed musical clans of Waingwrights, McGarrigles and Roches will also be presenting their beloved annual family Christmas show ‘A No So Silent Night – Virtually Together’. Streaming live on veeps.com December 30, the show will take place 12 p.m. PST from Los Angeles, 3 p.m. EST from New York and 8 p.m. GMT from Montreal simultaneously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW63hvA0NJE

December 10, 2020
Matisyahu to stream Festival of Light Hanukkah shows from The Capitol Theatre

This coming week marks the start of Hanukkah, and once again Matisyahu will bring his famed ‘Festival of Light’ shows to fans, through FANS, on December 10, 11 and 17. The performances will take place at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester and will be streamed on FANS.

Matisyahu’s Festival of Light shows are an annual celebration and some of the most notable performances of his career. Each end-of-year celebration spreads the traditions and light of Hanukkah, sharing the holiday in a relevant way to both Jews and non-Jews alike, and an universal experience that transcends themes of peace and prosperity.

The streamed event is billed with each night featuring classic, show-stopping hits, and the powerhouse ballads and powerful energy that Matisyahu is known for. Meet Matisyahu beneath the glittering dreidel-disco ball and send out good vibes to the world during this Festival of Light.

The stream is available for purchase for one or all three nights. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

Joining Matisyahu will be Aaron Dugan on guitar, Jason Fraticelli on bass, Rob Marscher on keys, and Tim Keiper on drums.

Read more about Matisyahu

What makes this music so engaging and unmatched, is that Matisyahu; a vocalist with no other instrument at his disposal, is an integral creative part in the improvisation. Dugan and Yuki work well beyond the constraints of the “solo” constantly working to modulate the improvisation, while Brook’s pocket is so deep and harmonically smart, that regardless of how far the melodic elements of a jam may get pushed, it’s impossible not to feel rooted to the core of any tune performed.

Matisyahu allows his band to breathe within each tune, finding his place with a wordless melody that serves to enhance the harmonic elements of an improvisation, developing the rhythmic ideas with his beat boxing, or crowning a jam with a full-on lyrical call-to-the-heavens and the great unknown. It’s that cathartic moment as a jam summits and the audience lets out its release that tells the performers we are all in it together.

December 8, 2020
Goosemas to Livestream from Rockefeller Center on Dec. 11

Connecticut-based Goose have announced plans for their seventh annual Goosemas holiday celebration, this time with a live stream concert from Rockefeller Center in New York City. On Friday December 11 at 7pm ET, Goose will offer an exclusive Twitch stream on the new Relix Channel, with proceeds benefiting Save Our Stages and Conscious Alliance.

A first of its kind livestream, Goose will perform more than seven stories high in the Manhattan skyline. Goosemas is an annual year end celebration, having grown from small clubs to the Wall Street Theater in Norwalk, CT over the past six years. Peter Anspatch recalls his first show with the band:

Goosemas 4 was my first gig playing with Goose so the annual show has a big place in my heart. I’m bummed we can’t be with our family and friends in person for this one, but the location is going to make it that much more exciting to stream. I’m beyond stoked we were able to pull that together in such a chaotic year. Big shout out to our whole team for always crushing it, Peter Shapiro, and thanks to Rockefeller Center for hosting what will be a very special night.

As with annual tradition, Goosemas will also include a charitable aspect during 2020’s most important giving month. Proceeds from the benefit will go to two separate organizations; NIVA’s Save our Stages — a national charity that provides support to independent live event venues and promoters throughout the United States in these trying times; and Conscious Alliance — a nonprofit that connects a network of creatives to collect large-scale donations in order to combat hunger in historically underserved communities.

photo by Scott Harris

Donations from Goosemas at Rockefeller Center will help keep Conscious Alliance on the road this winter delivering 200,000 meals to kids and families in need. Every $1 donation = 2 meals to someone going without food this holiday season.

Goose has amazing momentum right now and we are so excited to be working with them on this incredibly special performance at Rockefeller Center– one of the most iconic locations in the world. There isn’t a more epic way to ring in the holidays than with a rock show in the sky.
Peter Shapiro, Publisher of Relix Magazine and Twitch Relix Channel.

Donations are now being accepted at GOOSEMAS.com. Those who make donations through the Goosemas website will receive early access to the Goosemas Merch Store on Wednesday, December 9th at 10 am ET, and opening to the general public at 1pm ET. For more information, visit GOOSEMAS.com.

December 8, 2020
Darlene Love To Live Stream “Love For the Holidays” on Dec. 5

Darlene Love is set to live stream a holiday concert on Saturday, December 5. The Christmas icon’s holiday set starts at 8 p.m. ET, including her hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).”

Tickets are available for $35, and once purchased the performance is available to access until Christmas Day. A portion of the proceeds supports the Empire State Plaza Perfoming Arts Center.

Love is a Grammy Award Winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, recognized as “one of the greatest singers of all-time” by Rolling Stone Magazine. Through the years, Darlene has continued to captivate audiences worldwide with her warm, gracious stage presence and sensational performances. Dozens of hits including “He’s a Rebel,” “(Today I Met) The Boy I’m Gonna Marry,” “Marshmallow World” and her signature song, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” are featured (along with many others) in this one-night-only holiday performance.

From 1986 to 2014, Love performed “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on almost every single pre-Christmas episode of David Letterman’s talk shows, Late Night and eventually The Late Show. The sole exception was in 2007, due to the writer’s strike.

After Letterman’s 2015 retirement from late night, Love moved her annual performance to The View and has continued the tradition there. On The View she’s often sung the song as a duet: partners have included Patti Labelle, Fantasia, Bryan Adams and Jason Derulo. Other artists to cover the song are U2, Joey Ramone, Cher, and fellow Christmas royalty Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey.

Love’s discography also extends beyond Christmas. With her 1960s girl group The Blossoms, she sang The Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel.” The group was touring and unable to make it to the studio, so producer Phil Spector had The Blossoms perform it under The Crystals’ name. Love’s other high-charting songs include “He’s Sure the Boy I Love,” also credited to The Crystals, and “Wait ‘Til My Bobby Gets Home.” In 2013, Love appeared in 20 Feet From Stardom, an Oscar-winning documentary about the lives and careers of backup singers. Along with her co-stars and crew, Love took home the 2015 Grammy for Best Music Film.

In 2011, Love was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She performed “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” with Bruce Springsteen, and Bette Midler, who also appeared in 20 Feet From Stardom, honored her with a speech. Love has also acted, playing the wife of Danny Glover’s character in all four Lethal Weapon films.

For more information on Darlene Love and her live stream of “Love for the Holidays,” see The Egg’s website.

December 5, 2020