Red Molly

Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 8PM at Emelin Theatre

Red Molly combines the forces of three songwriters with unique character and style, creating a show that is larger than the sum of its parts. Known for their 3-part harmony, their songs and arrangements lay bare a love of vocal blend. The band weaves together threads of American music—from country & blues to folk & bluegrass. Their innovative instrumentation is suited for roots-rock and heartful ballads alike, and the alchemy of their personalities onstage draws even back row listeners into a sense of intimacy. Red Molly is simply a joy to experience.

Singing spine-tingling high notes, Abbie Gardner is a dobro player and improviser from a musical family. A consummate performer, her songs and performance have the punch of rhythm and blues. Playing guitar and tambourine, Laurie MacAllister draws inspiration from classic folk and singer-songwriters. Her voice stretches octaves, warm and romantic one moment, playful and subversive the next. Molly Venter has a smoky voice that is unforgettable, and a moody approach to song-smithing. Quirky and fashion-forward, she moves in step to the music while playing guitar and tambourine.

Formed in 2004, Red Molly has inspired countless female trios and has since reinvented themselves as a high-octane five-piece band in 2017. They remain a dominant force on the Americana/Folk scene due in part to their laughter and spontaneity onstage. Upright bassist Craig Akin and percussionist and electric guitarist Eben Pariser fill out the sound, giving the show a broad range of musical options—from complex and hard-hitting to sparse and delicate.

Accolades:

“A blend of serious harmonizing chops and slick pop savvy” – Time Out NY

“[Red Molly has] cut a niche as sunnyside Americana … immaculate vocal harmonies.” –The Guardian

“From Day One, Red Molly conjured musical magic. A decade later, they’ve honed their songwriting, their covers, their playing and, above all, their harmonies into something joyful and sublime.”– John Platt, WFUV FM, Sunday Breakfast

“Femme Phenom! No root from the grand tree of music is left untouched – classic country heartbreak, undeniable swing, authentic folk, gospel rock with an edge, and Americana stomp. With smart production, a strong thread runs throughout the album and every note sung is upheld on cosmic harmony. Red Molly is unstoppable. Highly recommended.”– Mary Sue Twohy, SiriusXM Satellite Radio

Tower of Power

50th Anniversary Tour

Palace Theater, October 11, 2018 at 8:00pm

For five decades, TOWER OF POWER has delivered the best in Rhythm and Blues music. Their first record, East Bay Grease, helped to define the East Bay sound, and did well enough to warrant a recording contract with Warner Brothers. Bump City, their 1972 debut for the label, was a hit on both the Billboard 200 and the chart’s R&B Albums chart, and netted them the hits “You’re Still A Young Man” and “Down To The Nightclub.” The decade of the 1970's were a boom period for the group, who hit with radio classics like “So Very Hard To Go” and “What Is Hip?”

The band has continued to tour and record over the years with their latest project, Hipper Than Hip, being a live flash back to their 1974 tour. Group co-founder, Emilio Castillo says their love of the stage is the same today as it was back in 1968. “I still love it as much as ever. Again, it never gets old. You get to an age where we’re at and things can start to run down, but it seems like for us that things are really kicking into high gear.” And, that’s the way TOWER OF POWER likes it!

Oleta Adams Live

Landmark on Main Street • 8 PM

Since the runaway success of her 1990 debut album Circle of One (which went Platinum), and the impassioned hit single “Get Here” (the Brenda Russell composition that became an unofficial anthem of the 1991 Gulf War) Oleta Adams has inspired a growing legion of fans in the U.S. and Europe with journeys of the heart via songs that draw deeply from her roots in gospel, while crossing effortlessly into the realms of soul, R&B, urban, and popular music. Her success, nurtured by worldwide tours with Tears for Fears, Phil Collins, Michael Bolton, and Luther Vandross, has been solidified by four Grammy nominations and a seemingly bottomless well of creative energy.

Oleta Adams Live

South Orange Performing Arts Center • 05.11.18 • 8 PM

Since the runaway success of her 1990 debut album Circle of One (which went Platinum), and the impassioned hit single “Get Here” (the Brenda Russell composition that became an unofficial anthem of the 1991 Gulf War) Oleta Adams has inspired a growing legion of fans in the U.S. and Europe with journeys of the heart via songs that draw deeply from her roots in gospel, while crossing effortlessly into the realms of soul, R&B, urban, and popular music. Her success, nurtured by worldwide tours with Tears for Fears, Phil Collins, Michael Bolton, and Luther Vandross, has been solidified by four Grammy nominations and a seemingly bottomless well of creative energy.

Oleta Adams Live at SOPAC 8 PM

Since the runaway success of her 1990 debut album Circle of One (which went Platinum), and the impassioned hit single “Get Here” (the Brenda Russell composition that became an unofficial anthem of the 1991 Gulf War) Oleta Adams has inspired a growing legion of fans in the U.S. and Europe with journeys of the heart via songs that draw deeply from her roots in gospel, while crossing effortlessly into the realms of soul, R&B, urban, and popular music. Her success, nurtured by worldwide tours with Tears for Fears, Phil Collins, Michael Bolton, and Luther Vandross, has been solidified by four Grammy nominations and a seemingly bottomless well of creative energy.

Oleta will be adding to her musical legacy with the release of a new secular album, Let’s Stay Here, on April 21st of this year.  Although Oleta has had the opportunity to work with many fantastic producers over her career, she decided to produce this album herself in addition to writing eight of the ten songs.  Let’s Stay Here is a creative and evocative project with a soulful jazz influence and songs that project many tantalizing thoughts.  The songs weave through many a journey including a seductive love affair, vacation bliss, an abusive relationship, forgiveness, as well as a cover of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” which was featured on a recent Buick commercial television ad campaign.

A long-time resident of Kansas City, Kansas, where she has found sanctuary from the turmoil of the entertainment industry, Oleta Adams also remains anchored by her upbringing in the Pacific Northwest. The youngest of three girls and two boys, Oleta spent her formative years in Seattle before traveling over the mountains at age six to Yakima, Washington, an idyllic town of 60,000. She first demonstrated her budding vocal gifts in the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church where her father served as minister.

By the time Oleta was eleven, she was directing and accompanying four choirs, having already established herself as a piano prodigy. She credits her further musical development in junior high school to Lee Farrell, “the brilliant Julliard-trained teacher and voice coach who changed my life.” School provided another outlet for Oleta Adams: the theatrical stage. In her senior year she broke barriers and traditions as the star of Hello Dolly! admitting that “early on I realized the pleasures of being a big fish in a small pond.”

Turning down the chance to pursue an operatic career as a lyric soprano, along with a scholarship to Pacific Lutheran University, Oleta instead spent a summer in Europe before heading to Los Angeles in the early 1970s. One demo tape and $5,000 later, she discovered that the disco movement had deafened music executives. Oleta’s gospel-flavored voice was not “in.” With the help of Coach Lee Farrell she wound up in Kansas City, where she launched her career playing piano bars, hotel lounges and showrooms.

Oleta quickly became a local institution, with her own billboard and a regular gig at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Celebrities from every musical genre caught her act, including Eartha Kitt, Cab Calloway, Air Supply, Gino Vanelli, Yes and Billy Joel. Finally serendipity came in the form of the British band Tears for Fears, whose frontmen Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith asked her to appear on their 1989 “The Seeds of Love’ album, video and European tour. Proving that good things come to those who wait, upon her return to the U.S. Oleta signed a record deal for her first solo album in 1991.

With seven CDs, including secular, gospel, a Christmas album, and soon the eighth, Let’s Stay Here, worldwide acclaim and over two-and a-half million albums sold, Oleta’s musical odyssey continues – spiritually and creatively. For this consummate artist- composer-producer-musician, many goals remain on the horizon.

Marcia Ball and The Subdudes are sure to astound and delight longtime zydeco music fans and give newcomers plenty of reasons to join this feel-good Mardi Gras Celebration. Marcia Ball mixes Gulf Coast Blues, New Orleans R&B, swampy Louisiana ballads, and jumping, Tex-­‐Mex flavored zydeco into a one­‐of­‐a­‐kind musical gumbo, a sound she has perfected over the course of her legendary career. The Subdudes draw most of their inspiration from the sounds of their native New Orleans, blending Blues, Gospel, Funk, and R&B with their own harmony vocals.

A Mardi Gras Celebration

Marcia Ball’s songs paint vibrant musical pictures richly detailed with characters, flavors and scenes straight out of Louisiana, Texas and the Gulf Coast. The Texas-­‐born, Louisiana-­‐raised musical storyteller has become a zydeco icon for her ability to ignite a full-­scale roadhouse Rhythm & Blues party every time she strolls onto the stage. Her groove-­laden New Orleans boogie, deeply soulful ballads and rollicking Gulf Coast Blues have made her a one­‐of­‐a­‐kind favorite with music fans all over the world. In 2010, she was inducted into the Gulf Coast Hall Of Fame and in 2012 into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. She’s received a total of six Living Blues Awards and nine Blues Music Awards and has a whopping 42 nominations. She’s received five Grammy Award nominations, including five of her six previous Alligator albums. Always a songwriter of renown, Marcia Ball delved deeper into songwriting than she ever had in her career with her Grammy Award‐nominated 2010 Alligator release, Roadside Attractions, creating one of her best and most personal albums.

Over the course of 25 years and ten albums, the Subdudes have quietly become one of America’s national music treasures. Led by singer and guitarist Tommy Malone and accordionist, John Magnie, The Subdudes New Orleans sound is noted by the band’s substitution of a tambourine player, Steve Amedée, for a drummer. Tim Cook rounds out the band on bass.

The New Orleans-formed group is a living encapsulation of American music, a vibrant cauldron of sounds that stirs together meaty grooves and Jazzy dynamics, soulful R&B swagger, easy vocal harmonies, cheeky Rock ‘n’ Roll attitude and Folky social consciousness — not to mention some of the sharpest musicianship and ensemble playing you’ll ever hear from any five musicians.