Kicking it old school at Highway 99 Blues Club and loving it. Thanks to fellow pianist-songwriter Victor Janusz for putting me on the gig; Spencer Hoveskeland on guitar, Keith Lowe on bass, Steve Banks on drums, and Medearis "MD" Dixon on sax; and our rocking audience!
We had a fabulous night playing on Cafe Nordo's "Lost Falls" stage! Good times in the lodge and under the waterfall - and the perfect opportunity to debut my new Agent Cooper song. Just one more thing, Diane...
Rob and I had a lovely time playing cocktail music for the "O" Gala to benefit Open Space on Vashon Island. Special guest Kevin Kent, auctioneer Laura Michalek and hosts Janet McAlpin and David Godsey made it a great night. Long live Open Space, and here's to the coming renovations.
Thanks to Jane Kaplan of Rendezvous for producing this great event, hopefully the first in a series. This one benefited Emerge America and the only bummer was the dozens of folks they had to turn away at the door! My great pleasure to perform alongside Gretta Harley, Lisa Koch, Nancy Guppy and El Sanchez, with political speakers Ruthie Stender, Pamela Eakes and Ijeoma Olou.
UMO Ensemble does amazing work, and it was great fun for we Love Markets to play their "resistance cabaret" to benefit UMO School of Physical Arts. Between the hoop performers and White Ladies, our bass sub Chris Jones in a slip that was more of a long nightie, and the premiere of new UMO characters the Garbage Buffoons, it was quite a Sunday evening in this island restaurant.
There's nothing like "Burlesco Notturno" at Open Space! The Love Markets and I loved sharing the stage March 25 with The Atomic Bombshells burlesque troupe, NYC's hilarious Mr. Gorgeous, and our hosts Madame X and her Lawyer. The perfect way to celebrate the green fuse that drives the flower of spring!
Bigger and brighter: March Is Cabaret Month Festival 2017! I loved pairing my solo singer-songwriter set with the amazing Sirens of Swing on opening night, grooving to the sounds of the Lou'siana Gators in a sold-out sass-fest featuring myself and Miz LaWanda DuPree on the 18th, and hosting a bunch of other great shows. Long live MICM Seattle!
After my four-month stint at Village many moons ago, I get to play Molly again - this time in Showtunes Theatre Company's super cool concert production! With eight women hive-minding the role of Molly and many gifted hilarious dudes playing all the other roles (male and female) in her epic story, this one showed the Benaroya crowds what a creative form the concert production can be. Kudos to director Billie Wildrick, musical director Nathan Young and our brilliant Irish-country band, my seven sister Mollies and cast, and the great folks at Showtunes.
My favorite installment of Sandbox Radio yet. It was my pleasure to music direct this episode at Town Hall - performing "I'm The Revolution" with Sandbox Radio Orchestra, harmonizing on The Roches' "Hammond Song" with Megan Chenovick and Leslie Law as a tribute to the late great Maggie Roche, and composing incidental music for new short plays by the likes of Scot Auguston and Elizabeth Heffron. Thanks, Sandbox!
The Love Markets and I kicked off 2017 with a new episode of "ArtZone with Nancy Guppy" on January 27, airing on Seattle Channel through Feb. 9. We loved performing "Beauty Factory" and "Heaven Song" (both from our 2016 album Beauty Factory) live in the TV studio and hanging with Nancy. Also featured: a cool piece from director Chris Barnes on the story of The Love Markets! Watch it all here: VIDEOS: THE LOVE MARKETS ON ART ZONE 2017
Thanks to all who helped me kick off December with a couple Ballard weekend traditions in a row. December 3 was a wild holiday ride at Egan's, New Orleans-style, with me and Miz LaWanda DuPree trading off at the wheel and the Lou'siana Gators supplying the horsepower... and on December 10 The Love Markets and I played into the wee hours at the 10th Annual Tom Waits Tribute Night, along with our favorite copacetic Waits-loving bands and artists. The tradition lives on!
What a way to kick off the season of giving: This year's incredible "Taste of GSBA" Gala at the Westin Hotel raised $856,000 for LGBT student scholarships with the GSBA Scholarship Fund! It was our great privilege to play for a room packed with such beautiful, brave, brilliant and generous folks. Not to mention getting to accompany an aerial act by Terry Crane and Erica Rubinstein, who choreographed an awesome piece to "Heaven Song". Thanks GSBA - The Love Markets love you!
Thanks to Seattle Theatre Group for programming such cool events and hiring me to host them! I had a blast judging costume contests at the Neptune's anniversary party screening of "Rocky Horror" and the Halloween party screening of "Nosferatu" at the palatial Paramount. So lucky to have these historic venues in our city AND curators that make the most of them!
What a night as we released our very second album, Beauty Factory, at ACT's gorgeous Falls Theatre on August 13! Big thanks to ACT, our partners at ACTLab, our opening band Two Horses Too Many, our dynamite photographer Laurie Clark, our donors and supporters, and our incredible fabulous audience... you helped us release BEAUTY FACTORY in style.
The Love Markets joined Casey MacGill, Kevin Joyce, Martha Enson and a host of fabulous actors and dancers to create a speakeasy par excellence at the "Bootlegger's Ball", the 2016 Harrison Foundation gala presented by Rice Fergus Miller. A roaring good time...
I was thrilled to be commissioned to write a song in honor of Open Space for Arts and Community, the incredible multi-arts performance space run by the amazing Janet McAlpin and David Godsey, and perform it at their "Big O" Gala June 5. What a night of delectable food, luxurious auction items, fabulous aerial acts, beautiful music, art, heart, soul, and a smash success raising over 50K. We love you, Big O!
What kind of politician hires The Love Markets to play his campaign launch party (and his wedding)? Dan Shih, that's who! It was our pleasure to kick off this great candidate's campaign as he makes his run to represent Seattle's 43rd district in Washington State's House of Representatives. Go Dan!
The Love Markets and I never know who (or what) we'll get to see onstage with us at Burlesco Notturno. This spring's "POP" exploded all previous expectations with burlesque from Waxie Moon, The One The Only Inga, The Luminous Pariah and Ruby Mimosa, incredible acrobatics from Terry Crane and Erica Rubinstein, gorgeous aerial from Marina Mezzogiorno-Brown, and the ever-breathtaking Madame X on stilts in an eight-foot gown made completely of bubble wrap that the audience got to pop! Big thanks to Open Space and the amazing audiences of Vashon!
Thanks to everyone who supported 2016's March Is Cabaret Month Festival at Egan's! It was my privilege to host many shows, see more, and perform three nights solo and/or with the inimitable LaWanda DuPree and a great band comprised of John Engerman, David Marriott Jr., Todd Gowers and Ed Littlefield. See you next year!
Looking forward to kicking off December with the Ninth Annual Tom Waits Night at Conor Byrne! Join us Fri Dec 4th as a posse of the Northwest's weirdest and most wondrous musicians convene to play all Tom, all night. Music starts at 8:30; Love Markets on around 11:30. See you there!
