New York City based singer Karine Hannah releases cover of the classic KISS song “I Was Made For Loving You.”
Hannah’s cover of the song turns what was once a rock anthem into a slow, acoustic love ballad. She keeps the same melody throughout but strips the song of its guitar riffs and heavy drums, letting the lyrics do the heavy lifting.
“The sensual nature within the lyrics “I was made for loving you baby, you were made for loving me” steers away from KISS’s theatrical sex energy and instead reveals a more profound passion within these familiar lyrics,” Hannah said. “The gentle instrumentals allow the listener to feel a genuine connection rather than a longing for a one-night stand.”
Even though, Hannah transforms the song its well known melody remains as catchy and memorable as ever. Her crooning voice offers a new interpretation of Paul Stanley’s original performance. Best evidenced, by Hannah’s appealing way of stretching out the vowels in words such as “me” and “you”.
By paring back the song’s rock trappings Hannah aims for sentimentality. It’s a target she nearly hits if it weren’t for the difficulty in separating the song from the transgressive energy so closely associated with KISS’s original version (and their whole careers).
As the Queens community continues its upturn from the effects of the pandemic, various Queens-based arts and culture organizations have gathered to present, Queens Rising. A celebration of arts and culture, the month multi-disciplinary arts celebration was created to highlight the borough’s culture and creative diversity.
As the most diverse place on the planet, Queens is rich with an arts and culture community that reflects that diversity and its unmatched beauty. I’m thrilled Queens Rising will kick-off in the summertime to welcome visitors to the World’s Borough, said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr.
Now more than ever, it’s important to showcase the resilience and creativity of our artists and cultural institutions — because even in the darkest days of the pandemic, culture never closed — as we work to rebuild our economy and come back stronger.
The initiative arose from an Arts Advisory Board meeting of the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, with Northwell Health signing on as a leading sponsor. Comprised of a volunteer Planning Committee representing Queens arts and cultural institutions and several working Groups that includes over seventy-five artists, arts administrators, and other creatives from throughout the borough.
As such, part of the Queens rising mission will be to unify neighborhoods by providing audiences with easy-to-find event and calendar listings featuring artistic and cultural findings. Amplify venues, performance companies, cultural centers, institutions, while connecting artists, venues and businesses to provide as many opportunities as possible.
As a community hospital that not only serves the health care needs of Queens but also draws the majority of our staff from within the diverse neighborhoods that make up our borough, LIJ Forest Hills is Queens, said Lorraine Chambers Lewis, PA, Executive Director of Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, part of Northwell Health.
We were at the epicenter of COVID and came through it with the help of our community more resilient than ever. That’s why we’re so thrilled to be part of Queens Rising NYC to celebrate the rich tapestry of arts, culinary and creative communities that make our borough so unique.
Queens rising will provide its artists with the opportunity to promote themselves through Queens rising socials and other media, connect with performance and showing opportunities, as well as provide information on grants and funding.
Artists can click here to join the Queens Rising artist database. More information on Queens Rising can be found on their official website.
Michael Gregory Jackson, the innovative guitarist namechecked as a vital influence by modern masters like Vernon Reid, Brandon Ross, Bill Frisell and Nels Cline, is releasing his first-ever solo electric guitar album, Electric Git Box (Golden Records). Available exclusively at the artist’s Bandcamp site, the digital offering boasts 11 unaccompanied solo guitar pieces showcasing the breathtaking stylistic scope and technique of this critically-acclaimed and influential guitarist’s singular work.
Electric Git Box includes both reinterpretations of Jackson originals dating back to his 1976 solo debut, Clarity, Circle, Triangle, Square, as well as a host of powerful new work. The release also includes extensive liner notes comprised of reflections on Electric Git Box from Oliver Lake, Vernon Reid, Bakida Carroll, Ed Motta, Brian Jackson and Brandon Ross, as well as a poem written for the project by author/playwright/poet Jessica Hagedorn, with additional writings from Jackson.
Jackson says of Electric Git Box, “The nature of beauty is at the core of my being and my music, alongside aggression, passion, fire, and powerful feelings of personal independence and creative freedom. This project was borne of an angst-full period for me, I was feeling inundated with tragedies, the isolation of Covid lockdowns, re-occurring police and vigilante killings of Black people, and living with the omnipresent reality of systemic racism. I was feeling angry, disconnected and erased; thus, I recorded this music with some edges, some distortion, to communicate the multifaceted well of emotions that birthed this performance.”
He goes on to explain, “My guitars, which I’ve called ‘git boxes’ since my teens, have always been my companions and a sanctuary to me, vehicles to help me through the angst of my younger life, and now. Through my guitars, I discovered discipline, self-awareness and inspiration, my git boxes opened a conduit, a dive in deep access and connection to the blues-ness in me.”
Electric Git Box opens with a recent original, “Karen (Sweet Angel)”, an evocative ballad dedicated to his lady love, one which contrasts wide open chording and deep harmony with quicksilver melodies and fills. On “Sweet Rain Blues,” Jackson revs up a gut bucket blues, one that Vernon Reed characterizes as “simultaneously rural, urban, then veers off into considerations of what’s really happening when the sun is shining although it’s raining in your heart”, while on “Wish” Jackson’s blues has a distinct sarod-like tonality. On another recent original, “Hymn for My People,” Jackson recites a funerial slow, ultra-mournful tone poem – largely in single note lines, while “Perseverance” is a driving anthem, as unrelenting as its title. Both, according to the artist “are inspired by the struggle and defiant spirit of my ancestors, and artistic predecessors in all idioms, and all freedom fighters in the fight for the liberation of all oppressed peoples.”
With “Preleuoionti,” Jackson reprises the acoustic guitar showpiece from his 1976 debut disc recorded as a 23-year-old, Clarity, Circle, Triangle, Square. This version has a new depth, one that only time and his mastery of the tonality of the electric SG can add. Another reinvented classic, “Theme X (For Geri Allen),” is a tribute to the late composer and keyboard master, an associate from his early days in New Haven and New York in the 1970s, a composition first heard on Jackson’s 2019 disc, WHENUFINDITUWILLKNOW, with his Clarity Quartet. Ornette Coleman is the dedicatee on “JcakJcak (for Ornette)”, a rapid fire, sometimes dissonant rollercoaster of melody first heard on his “Spirit Single Strata” trio album with drummer Kenward Dennard and bassist Keith Witty, and his Clarity Quartet collection, “After Before.” The same two albums included “Meditation in E (For Karen),” another airy ballad that showcases Jackson’s unique harmonic sense and bluesy sheets of sound soloing.
“Michael’s powerful and melodic & rhythmic sensibilities imbues all these pieces with tactile energy,” says guitar great Vernon Reid. “Michael Gregory Jackson has always cut a singular musical path on his journey through many genres that have been his wheelhouse, through many schools of jazz, alternative rock and even Avant folk. This collection of solo electric guitar may be Michael’s most personal musical exploration yet.”
Pre-order here and visit Michael Gregory Jackson on Bandcamp.
Oteil Burbridge brought an incredible cast of friends and virtuosos together for an incredible two night run at The Capitol Theatre over March 11-12.
James Casey returned to the stage after recovering from chemotherapy Friday, March 11, and Jennifer Hartswick started off with a charming serenade on “Water in the Desert.” The band played several Grateful Dead tunes that paid homage to The Cap’s Dead roots and of course, Oteil’s Dead & Company affiliation. It’s always an absolute pleasure experiencing a show at this theatre especially with a band as talented and entertaining as this one.
The pair of shows featured Eric Krasno (guitar, Lettuce, Eric Krasno Band), Jason Crosby (keys, Assembly of Dust, Robert Randolph and the Family Band), Jennifer Hartswick (trumpet/vocals, Trey Anastasio Band), Natalie Cressman (trombone/vocals, Trey Anastasio Band), James Casey (saxophone/vocals, Trey Anastasio Band, Lettuce), Tom Guarna (NYC guitarist), and Pete Lavezzoli (drums/percussion, Melvin Seals and JGB).
Oteil and Friends – Capitol Theatre, Port Chester – March 11, 2022
Set 1: Water in the Desert, They Love Each Other, Cats Under the Stars, Gomorrahy, Deal, Too Many Times, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
Set 2: Magnificent Sanctuary Band, King Solomon’s Marbles, No More Doubt, Can You Get To That, To Lay Me Down, Blue Sky, Eyes of the World, Morning Dew,The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion, Edward the Mad Shirt Grinder
Oteil and Friends – Capitol Theatre, Port Chester – March 12, 2022
Set 1: Touch of Grey, Scarlet Begonias, Estimated Prophet, Gotta Serve Somebody, Mystery Train, Chasing, Weather Report Suite
Set 2: Hot ‘Lanta, Tough Mama, Believe It or Not, Unconditional Love, Superhighway, New Potato Caboose, Terrapin Station, Shakedown Street
Encore: Attics of My Life, Turn On Your Love Light
The Great South Bay Music Festival presented by Blue Point Brewing Co. in Long Island has announced its lineup after a two-year hiatus due to COVID. It is set to return at Shorefront Park in Patchogue Village from Thursday, July 7 through Sunday, July 10. The festival is set to feature a lot of familiar bands and highlighting some local NY bands too.
The festival is celebrating its 14 year anniversary, and because of that there will be 55 performers across three stages all supporting a wide array of genres. To kick off the festival on July 7, indie-rockers Grouplove and Manchester Orchestra will co-headline, and Long Island local’s Bayside will support.
On July 8, reggae band Rebelution will be headlining, with supports Steel Pulse and Sublime tribute band Badfish. Other supports include Bumpin Uglies and Long Island band Oogee Wawa. On July 9, which is typically “Jam Day”, performing is one of the Grateful Dead’s most proud and popular tributes: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. Returning is also rock band moe., and jazz band Galactic. Also joining the main stage is Long Island guitarist Brandon “Taz” Niederauer, who has shared the stage with Lady Gaga, Gregg Allman, and more. Also joining the stage is Weight Band and rockers Aqueous.
On the final day, July 10, The Tedeschi Trucks Band and the “Wheels of Soul” Tour will be performing, featuring the full 13pc. Tedeschi Trucks Band who are playing a two-hour set in their only metro NY appearance this summer. Also, appearing on the Main Stage will be Los Lobos and Gabe Dixon and his Band.
The Great South Bay Music Festival 2022 in Long Island will be happening July 7-July 10, and will have a mix of familiar bands and a great deal of light shone on local bands. Tickets to the festival can be found here.
The tour will make two stops in New York. The first on August 13 at the St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater in Syracuse and the second, a day later, on August 14 at Jones Beach Theater.
This will be Alice in Chains’ first tour in over three years. The band will play songs from both its newest releases, “Rainier Fog” and “Black Gives Way To Blue”, and its classic albums “Dirt” and “Facelift”.
“We’re looking forward to finally hitting the road again this summer,” said Sean Kinney, the band’s drummer. “It’s been too long and we can’t wait to get outdoors and share a night of music with our fans again.”
Breaking Benjamin will be touring with Alice in Chains for the first time when they head out this summer.
“We are so extremely excited to be hitting the road with Alice In Chains and Bush,” said, Breaking Benjamin frontman, Ben Burley. It’s such an honor to share the stage with such amazing bands that we grew up listening to and have influenced us so very much! We can’t wait to see you all out there!!”
British indie rock sensation Wet Leg played to a sold out audience at Brooklyn Steel on Thursday (March 10, 2022) with support from Lowertown. Originally scheduled for Music Hall of Williamsburg, the band was forced to change to a larger venue when the show sold out almost immediately. Their meteoric rise in popularity came through their viral hit “Chaise Lounge” released in 2021, which garnered millions of views (and sparked endless memes).
The Atlanta based alternative duo Lowertown opened the evening with an animated and hard hitting set. They whipped the crowd into a frenzy leading up to Wet Leg’s set, and despite this being Lowertown’s first time on tour, they were a highlight in an action packed evening.
With their debut album still on the way, Wet Leg played several unreleased tracks during their nonstop set, as well as crowd favorites “On No,” “Wet Dream,” “Angelica,” and their breakout hit “Chaise Longue.” Throughout the set frontwomen Rhian and Hester interacted with the crowd and each other with genuine charisma and charm. The band played straight through with no encore, ending on their viral hit, “Chaise Longue.” This sold out show of 1800 people marks their biggest North American show to date.
Venice Beach rock duo, Movie Club, will be honoring Frank Zappa’s legendary residency with a three-day residency of their own in Brooklyn. The tribute to Zappa will run from March 23rd to March 25th.
PC : Nick Cuneo
Frank Zappa’s month-long residency came about following an unsuccessful stint within the West Coast music scene. After getting in contact with Garrick Theatre in NYC, Zappa set up a month-long residency, starting March 23rd, 1967 which would eventually turn into a piece of musical history. His residency featured spontaneous performance from his band, The Mothers of Invention, as well as visits from other musicians including Jimi Hendrix.
Zappa’s residency lives on in memory due to its purely creative and bizarre nature. During performances, the band would improvise their acts and pull people from the crowd to come on stage. These one-of-a-kind nights are exactly what Movie Club aim to bring to life within their own performances at the all inclusive, queer owned venue, C’mon Everybody in Crown Heights.
PC : Nick Cuneo
The duo, consisting of guitarist Vince Cuneo and drummer Jessamyn Violet, will be performing for three nights, with musical guests ranging from rappers, to drag queens. Guitarist Vince Cuneo says that “The goal of these shows is collaboration and to make each night a one-of-a-kind experience for both the audience and the artists on stage”
Tickets, as well as more information, are available here.
The infamous Phoebe Bridgers has announced her Reunion Tour for 2022, making a stop at the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival at Prospect Park Bandshell. Known for her folk-adjacent and edgy music, her aesthetics, and her female strength, Bridgers is one of the most exciting new talents to have emerged within recent years.
Photo by Mike Miller
Bridgers has bad a busy2021, with 4 GRAMMY nominations, multiple late night TV performances including a smashing debut on Saturday Night Live. Additionally, she had a sold out Fall tour, two songs for charity (“That Funny Feeling” and “Day After Tomorrow”) and collaborations with Taylor Swift, The Killers, Paul McCartney, Metallica and more.
Most recently, Bridgers revealed plans for her own monthly radio show titled Saddest Factory Radio on Sirius XMU. Currently, she is getting ready to go back on the road taking her newest album, Punisher, to her fans across the United States and Canada, as well as to the UK and Europe.
Additionally, the Phoebe Bridgers North American run of the Reunion Tour includes a slew of dates April to August – and makes stops in Atlanta, Washington D.C., Brooklyn, Seattle.
photo by David Michael Reichmann
Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan Registration is open now here and closes Tuesday, March 8 at 12 pm EST. Similarly, verified Fan Presale begins Thursday, March 10th at 12 pm. $1 of every headline show ticket sold will be donated to The Mariposa Fund, fiscally sponsored by The West Fund.
Tour dates:
4/13: Arizona Federal Theatre – Phoenix, AZ
4/15: Coachella – Indio, CA
4/22: Coachella – Indio, CA
5/13: The Amp at Craig Ranch – Las Vegas, NV
5/14: Kilby Block Party – Salt Lake City, UT
5/17: Red Rocks Amphitheatre – Morrison, CO
5/19: The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory – Dallas, TX
5/20: Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park – Austin, TX
5/21: The Lawn at White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX
5/22: Hangout Fest – Gulf Shores, AL
5/24: The Cuban Club – Tampa, FL
5/25: St Augustine Amphitheatre – St Augustine, FL
5/27: Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park – Atlanta, GA
5/28: Forecastle Festival – Louisville, KY
5/31: Starlight Theatre – Kansas City, MO
6/1: The Waiting Room Outdoors – Omaha, NE
6/3: BMO Harris Pavilion – Milwaukee, WI
6/4: Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island – Chicago, IL
6/7: RBC Echo Beach – Toronto, ON
6/8: MTelus – Montreal, QC
6/9: Thompson’s Point – Portland, ME
6/11: The Anthem – Washington, DC
6/12: The Anthem – Washington, DC
6/13: Stone Pony Summer Stage – Asbury Park, NJ
6/14: BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival at Prospect Park Bandshell – Brooklyn, NY
6/15: BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival at Prospect Park Bandshell – Brooklyn, NY
6/20: Fairview Park – Dublin, Ireland
6/22: Barrowland – Glasgow, UK
6/24-25: Glastonbury – Somerset, UK
6/26: O2 Academy – Birmingham, UK
6/30: Roskilde Festival – Roskilde, Denmark
7/2: Rock Werchter Festival – Werchter, Belgium
7/3: Down The Rabbit Hole Festival – Ewijk, Netherlands
7/5: Carroponte – Milan, Italy
7/7: Bilbao BBK Festival – Bilbao, Spain
7/8: Mad Cool Festival – Madrid, Spain
7/9: NOS Alive Festival – Lisbon, Portugal
7/14: Colours of Ostrava – Ostrava, Czech Republic
A variety of performances from artists such as Adi Myerson Trio, Michael Mayo, Dana Lyn, Charlie Burnham, and Marika Hughes, Alea, Val-Ince aka Val Jeanty, and Raquel Acevedo Klein and Friends.
The Uncharted concert series started back in 2014 and has given the opportunity for many New York-based musicians to develop their original material, create new collaborations and perform in an intimate concert setting while giving an inside look into their projects.
“Even during the darkest days of the pandemic, GHMS never wavered in its support for local performers. By continuing with our in-person concert performances and on-site residencies, we are thrilled to be moving forward with our commitment to artists and to audiences to showcase and support some of the greatest musicians that New York City has to offer.”
Rachel Black -Uncharted co-founder
The artists being showcased in the 2022 Uncharted lineup will be joined by various multi-genre artists who have contribute to the past eight years of the Uncharted series like jazz pianists Aaron Diehl and Dan Tepfer; guitarist Binky Griptite of The Dap-Kings; the founding member of Grammy-award winning Flor de Toloache and many more found on https://www.greenwichhouse.org/music-school/concerts/uncharted/
Uncharted Residency and Concert Series 2022 Show Dates:
