AUG. 11 - 14 : Justin Town for an Evening
My name is Earle: Nashville singer-songwriter and emerging artist Justin Townes Earle plays a below-the-radar one-nighter tonight at the Claddagh Lounge in Highlands.
To hear Michael Patrick tell it, he didn’t even know that Justin Townes Earle was the son of Nashville-establishment naysayer and country contrarian Steve Earle when he first heard the singer-songwriter’s music on a bonus CD enclosed in a magazine. Had no idea.
A good thing, too, because without all the pre-programmed expectations, without the inevitable father-son comparisons, Patrick was able to appreciate young Earle’s fresh-air take on trad country music for what it was: gorgeous and knowing tales from a life lived worldly if not wise beyond one’s years, stripped to its essentials and topped with a hat that’s more Tom Waits than Toby Keith. A sound that, if anything, is actually more classically country than the often supercharged rockouts of his father, with a folk foundation that owes much to his other namesake, the late Townes Van Zandt.
“I was hooked,” says the Morganville resident, a musician, songsmith and self-described suburban hillbilly in his own right. “I heard one song (”Hard Livin”) and I had to find out more.”
Patrick did more than simply Google the lanky Bloodshot Records artist (although a YouTube safari yielded this interesting footage of JTE covering a song by The Replacements). He established a line of communication that’s played out to the point where Earle has agreed to do his first-ever Jersey Shore gig tonight; a gig lined up by rookie promoter Patrick, and hosted at a venue that generally cruises below the regional media’s radar.
Tucked off the highway down on the Bay Avenue business stretch of Highlands, the Claddagh is a well-established place of cold brews, comfy food and a carefully kept schedule of local tunes from the likes of Dreamer, Drifter and the Jonzes. A place that, pleasing as it is, just doesn’t enjoy the cachet of the storied Asbury clubs or Red Bank’s double-wided Downtown.
Patrick got himself acquainted with the Claddagh — site of a weekly Tuesday night bluegrass open jam — through his bass player, eventually holding his own fortieth birthday bash at the place. For the Monday night special, an event that’s book-ended by Earle appearances in New York and Philly, Patrick found the Bayshore pub a natural fit.
“When it comes to the area venues, few of them are willing to take chances on something like this,” says Patrick, whose band will be opening for Earle on the 7pm program. “(Claddagh bosses) Benny and Ara are willing to try different things.”
The window of opportunity may be a short one, but it might not be a bad idea to drop what you’re doing and catch Earle — playing here just a few miles down the road from a Naval ammunitions depot that’s also named Earle — at a time when you could say You Knew Him When. On September 18, the younger Earle is slated to be one of a group of nominees vying for honors as Emerging Artist of the Year (dad Steve is also a nominee as Artist of the Year) in the Americana Music Awards hosted at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
Despite the gig’s generally low profile during a week in which Bob Dylan himself hits the local stage, Patrick characterizes advance ticket sales as “decent,” and observes that he’s “seen YouTube videos of Justin playing his ass off for just seven people, when he has to.”
“This is a labor of love for me,” the promoter sums up. “I think he’s gonna be surprised…we rented chairs!”
In addition to the Michael Patrick Band, Justin Townes Earle will be joined on tonight’s bill by Juke Joint Jonny and the Usual Suspects. Tickets are priced at $20, and can be reserved right here.
Now, on to some other super-uber-exciting stuff in the coming days…
MONDAY
Before achieving fame as “Lewis Carroll,” author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Charles L. Dodgson was a scholar, mathematician and, as it turns out, a pioneer cameraman in Victorian England. In Kim Merrill’s play Exposure Time, Dodgson vies with a competitive and ambitious woman named Julia Cameron for the status of Britain’s top photographer — using young Alice Liddell (yeah, that Alice) as their subject and their pawn. It’s the latest in New Jersey Repertory Company’s series of script-in-hand readings at their Long Branch playhouse; many of which have gone on become fully-fleshed mainstaged productions. A real treat for theater fans, and a rare chance to see the creative process in action. Showtime is 7pm; there’s a suggested donation at the door, and reservations are required.
Bach’s tops: Ex-Skid Row frontguy and Jersey-fresh talent Sebastian Bach appears on a 1980s hair-metal three-way at PNC Bank Arts Center.
TUESDAY
There’s the perennial Pope of Jersey music, Bruce Springsteen. Then there’s his faithful first runner-up, Mr. Jon Bon Jovi (God, that’s gotta be so galling after all these years). And second runner-up? The guy who assumes the throne if the other two are taken out in a freak arena-football accident? We’d lobby on behalf of Fred Schneider, but some strong cases could be made for Southside Johnny, Glen Burtnik, Dave Wyndorf, Little Steven, Pat DiNizio — and Sebastian Bach, who played the contender for a while there during his tenure as frontman for Skid Row in the late 1980s.
Riding the buzz from his new CD drop Angel Down — and the premiere of the CMT Network show Gone Country 2: Sebastian Bach this Friday — the singer/actor (he was the, uh, third guy to star in the title roles of Jekyll and Hyde on Broadway) performs a set at the PNC Bank Arts Center, third on the bill behind Poison and Dokken. Tix ‘n tax and service charges right here.
Get sick, get well, hang around the inkwell: steering the Escalade off Highway 61, Bob Dylan makes for Asbury Park’s Convention Hall, where he’ll star in a sold-out concert that brings the gruff, contrary and ever-unpredictable icon to the scene of some of Springsteen’s most crowdpleasing moves.
WEDNESDAY
If you’ve been frozen out of the big sold-out Dylan show in Asbury Park this evening, you probably already know what you’re missing: acoustical problems, a famously contrary headliner who’s spent most of his recent shows hunkered down behind a keyboard, and incessant chatter about a Springsteen cameo. But if you still find yourself hanging around outside Convention Hall this evening, walk the few extra steps over to Tim McLoone’s Supper Club — the upstairs at the Jetsons-style saucer that once housed the boardwalk HoJo’s — and take in a special set by veteran Shore troubador Pat Guadagno and his occasional band Tired Horses. This is the same crew that performs each spring at Two River Theater in the annual Bobfest, and they’re here tonight at the swanky new panoramic cabaret to reprise some favorites from their encyclopedic database of Dylan interpretations (Pat’s got a voice and a style all his own, and the show is far from a Legends in Concert burlesque). It’s a genuine salute to Dylan during his visit to the Shore, served up with obvious respect and affection. Check out Pat’s insanely busy schedule here, then look in here for our recent Guadagno profile.
Purple Hayes: Saxist Bradford Hayes leads his combo outdoors to Riverside Gardens for another in the summer series of Comcast Jazz in the Park offerings.
THURSDAY
With his sharp suits and cool-school, urban-sophisticate saxophone stylings, the Newark-based writer/educator/bandleader Bradford Hayes seems more of a swank supperclub kind of performer; not the sort of figure you’d really lump in with the Hawaiian-shirted guys who regularly play the local park circuit in the summer season. In actual fact, Bradford and his friends have kept a pretty busy schedule of gigs under the sun and stars this year, so theirs will be a fitting set to see the sun safely down for the night, during this week’s entry in Comcast’s Jazz in the Park series at Riverside Gardens. The free sounds kick off at 7pm with a set by Poncho D; the Jazz Lobsters close out the season series on August 21.
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August 11, 2008
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[...] joined Patrick at the Claddagh last August, and had such a good time he agreed to return for an encore tomorrow night, with mandolin and banjo [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 2:25 am