UPCOMING SHOWS
AMY RIGBY
Wednesday, October 23
Natalie's Grandview
Amy Rigby releases a new album Hang In There With Me through Tapete Records on August 30, 2024. Eleven up to the minute songs written by Amy and recorded by Wreckless Eric at the couple’s home in upstate NY, Hang In There With Me is a bracing look at life inside the vortex of the last few years. Mortality, aging and youthful missteps refracted through Amy’s insightful lyricism emerge not wistful but resolute —even triumphant. Rigby's distinctive voice bluntly traverses love, loss and DIY projects gone wrong over guitars cranked or shimmering, indelible bass lines, a raft of synthesizers, keyboards, beat boxes and the occasional drummer allowed into Amy & Eric’s rustic mid-century echo chamber.
Like some people turn to the moon and stars for inspiration, Amy Rigby looks to creative heroes like Bob Dylan and Mike Leigh. She finds poetry in haircuts, live chat boxes; bartending and bookselling. Her music is the sound of everyday people getting by, just like the country artists she loved and learned to write songs from.
Hang In There With Me examines the impossibility of life and living it anyway, with abandon. To celebrate the release of her new album, Amy will be touring the US and UK in October and November 2024.
Amy Rigby has established herself one of America’s enduring underground/cult/indie artists, combining the insight and humor of country and folk songwriting with classic rock craftsmanship and punk DIY spirit. She formed pre-Americana country band Last Roundup (Rounder) and Richard Hell’s favorite girl group the Shams (Matador) in downtown NYC before launching a solo career with 90s classic album Diary Of A Mod Housewife. Amy’s honest, kinetic songwriting has earned her praise from critics (“pithy wisdom, acerbic pen and sterling American guitar classicism” MOJO) and other artists: “Think Randy Newman and Loudon Wainwright, at their best,” says Steve Earle. Her songs have been covered by Laura Cantrell and Ronnie Spector, John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants and Maria Doyle Kennedy. Her 2019 memoir Girl To City was called “an instant classic” by The Big Takeover. “You can smell the damp, see the clothes, hear the guitars!” says Goldmine. She divides her time between New York and the UK with her husband and sometime duo partner Wreckless Eric.
DAVE ALVIN & JIMMIE DALE GILMORE
Tuesday, October
Natalie's Grandview
When Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore made the album Downey To Lubbock together in 2018, they wrote the title track as a sort of mission statement. “I know someday this old highway’s gonna come to an end,” Alvin sings near the song’s conclusion. Gilmore answers: “But I know when it does you’re going to be my friend.”
Six years later, they’re serving notice that the old highway hasn’t ended yet. “We’re still standing, no matter what you might hear,” they sing on “We’re Still Here,” the final track to their new album Texicali. Due out Jun 21, 2024 on Yep Roc Records, Texicali continues to bridge the distance between the two troubadours’ respective home bases of California (Alvin) and Texas (Gilmore).
The album’s geographic theme reflects Alvin’s repeated journeys to record in Central Texas with Gilmore and the Austin-based backing band that has toured with the duo for the past few years. The 11 songs on Texicali also connect the duo’s shared fondness for a broad range of American music forms. On their own, both have been prominent artists for decades. A philosophical songwriter with a captivating, almost mystical voice, Gilmore co-founded influential Lubbock group the Flatlanders in the early 1970s. Alvin first drew attention as a firebrand guitarist and budding young songwriter with Los Angeles roots-rockers the Blasters in the early 1980s.
Gilmore is primarily known for left-of-center country music, while Alvin’s compass points largely toward old-school blues. But there’s a lot of ground to cover beyond those foundations, and both artists also are well-known for transcending genre limitations. So it’s not surprising that they’ve spiked Texicali with cosmic folk narratives, deep R&B grooves and even swinging reggae rhythms. “There’s such a strange variety through the whole thing,” Gilmore says. “And I love that.”
They’re both quick to credit the musicians who joined them in the studio as crucial to the sound and spirit of the album. On Downey To Lubbock, they recorded primarily in Los Angeles with a crew that included ringers such as the late Don Heffington on drums and Van Dyke Parks on accordion. This time, though, Alvin’s longtime rhythm section of drummer Lisa Pankratz and bassist Brad Fordham played a larger role, along with guitarist Chris Miller and keyboardist Bukka Allen. “After the time we spent touring, Jimmie and I became members of this band,” Alvin says. “The band can play just about anything, which the album shows off.”
Texicali also found Alvin and Gilmore increasingly focusing on original songs. Among them are “Trying To Be Free,” which Gilmore wrote more than 50 years ago; “Southwest Chief,” a collaboration between Alvin and the late Bill Morrissey; and “Death of the Last Stripper,” which Alvin wrote with Terry Allen and his wife Jo Harvey Allen.
Just as important, however, are the choices they made for non-original material. The covers on Texicali include “Roll Around” by Gilmore’s longtime friend Butch Hancock; “Broke Down
Engine” and “Betty And Dupree” from blues greats Blind Willie McTell and Brownie McGhee, respectively; and Stonewall Jackson’s “That’s Why I’m Walking,” which marries Gilmore’s country croon to a New Orleans R&B arrangement. Gilmore says he loves New Orleans music, “but it’s not the music I play.” Dave slyly counters: “It is now!”
SONGWRITER'S CIRCLE feat. RYAN HUMBERT (OF THE SHOOTOUTS), JD EICHER AND ERIC GNEZDA
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Natalie's Grandview
These three powerhouse songwriters will be sharing the Natalie's Grandview stage:
Ryan Humbert is the lead singer of The Shootouts, a chart-topping Americana sensation seen on the Grand Ole Opry.
JD Eicher has shared the stage with Dave Matthews, Rod Stewart, Coldplay and more -- and is seen on your TV in commercials for Speedway!
Eric Gnezda is the longtime host of the PBS show "Songs at the Center" and has performed at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville over 40 times.
This promises to be a wonderful evening of story and song!
BILL KIRCHEN'S HONKY-TONK HOLIDAY PARTY
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Natalie's Grandview
Bill and his Texas band, the Two Turtle Doves, roll into Natalie’s Wed Dec 18 for our annual holiday fandango. Featured is a sleigh-full of rarely heard holiday numbers from the Blues, Rock ‘n’ Roll and Honky Tonk bags: “Daddy’s Drinkin’ Up Our Christmas!” “Truckin’ Trees for Christmas,” “Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin,” and more. But be ye not afraid, along with these holiday songs of questionable taste, you can count on a truckload of dieselbilly classics, rockers, and country weepers to take the edge off the holiday fuss. So mark your calendars and check ’em twice – Santa Claus is back in town! Let joy be unrefined!
Grammy nominated guitarist, singer and songwriter and multi Wammie winner Bill Kirchen is one of the fortunate few who can step onto any stage, play those trademark licks that drove his Commander Cody classic Hot Rod Lincoln into the Top Ten, and elicit instant recognition for a career that has spanned over 50 years and includes guitar work with Nick Lowe, Emmylou Harris, Doug Sahm, Elvis Costello and many more. Named “A Titan of the Telecaster” by Guitar Player Magazine, he celebrates an American musical tradition where rock ‘n’ roll draws upon its origins in country music, blues and bluegrass, Western swing from Texas and California honky-tonk.
CHUCK PROPHET
& HIS CUMBIA SHOES
Wednesday, February 5
Natalie's Grandview
When a stage four lymphoma diagnosis forced him off the road and into the hospital, Chuck Prophet didn’t know if he’d live long enough to see the end of the year, let alone get back on tour.
“I was going through a tunnel,” he recalls. “It was dark. But I had music: music to play, music to listen to, music to get me out of my head. Music was my savior.”
That much is plain to hear on Wake The Dead, Prophet’s extraordinary new album. Recorded with band of brothers ¿Qiensave?, the collection explores the world of Cumbia music, which consumed and comforted Prophet during his illness and subsequent recovery. The songs are intoxicatingly rhythmic, all but demanding you move your body, with arrangements that blur the lines between tradition and innovation. There are flashes of rock and roll, punk, surf, and soul, all filtered through the streets of San Francisco and wrapped up in the rich legacy of a genre that traces its roots back to the jungles of South America.
Captured live in the studio, Wake The Dead resumes Prophet’s streak of more than a dozen critically acclaimed solo albums stretching all the way back to 1990, when the California native first shifted focus from pioneering neo-psych band Green on Red to working under his own name. Since then, Prophet—who’s now in full remission—has earned raves everywhere from Rolling Stone to NPR, landed songs in a slew of films and television shows, and seen his work covered by Bruce Springsteen, Solomon Burke, and Heart, among others.