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Nellie McKay releasing a '60s cover album, touring, playing six NYC shows (dates & new song stream)

Nellie McKay

Singer/songwriter and actress Nellie McKay is releasing the followup to 2010’s Home Sweet Mobile Home this year with My Weekly Reader on March 24. It’s a ’60s covers album that has her taking on songs by The Beatles, The Kinks, Crosby Stills & Nash, Small Faces, Frank Zappa, Herman’s Hermits, Steve Miller Band, Richard & Mimi Farina, Moby Grape, Country Joe McDonald, Gerry & the Pacemakers, The Cyrcle and Alan Price. Keeping with the ’60s theme, she recorded it with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. Her cover of Moby Grape‘s “Murder In My Heart for the Judge” came out a little while back and can be streamed below, and we’ve now got the premiere of her cover of another California psych/folk rock artist, Country Joe McDonald. She does “Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine,” as you can hear while you watch the very appropriate visual accompaniment (by The Joshua Light Show), below. Tracklist below too.

Nellie’s also going on a tour, which includes five shows at NYC’s 54 Below, the cabaret supper club in the basement of Studio 54. She plays the club on April 13, 15, 16, 17 and 18. The venue’s event description reads: “Led by a trail of incense, Nellie revisits some of the melodies from the 1960s in her new show. Celebrating the release of her new album, My Weekly Reader, she will travel to a land of strange and wonderful musical delights with the grooved assistance of her magical band, The Cosmic X-Rays (Alexi David/bass, Cary Park/guitar, Kenneth Salters/drums)… A splendid time is guaranteed for all!” Tickets for all five shows are on sale now.

On the day of the album’s release (3/24), Nellie will play a free in-store at Barnes & Noble in TriBeCa at 6 PM. If you purchase the album at B&N, you get priority seating, and she’ll be signing CDs afterwards.

All dates are listed below…

Nellie McKay – “Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine” (Country Joe McDonald cover)

Nellie McKay – “Murder In My Heart for the Judge” (Moby Grape cover)

Tracklist:
1. Sunny Afternoon (The Kinks)
2. Quicksilver Girl (Steve Miller Band)
3. Poor People / Justice – medley (Alan Price)
4. Murder in My Heart for the Judge (Moby Grape)
5. Bold Marauder (Richard & Mimi Farina)
6. Itchycoo Park (Small Faces)
7. Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter (Herman’s Hermits)
8. Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine (Country Joe McDonald)
9. If I Fell (The Beatles)
10. Red Rubber Ball (The Cyrcle, co-written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley)
11. Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
12. Hungry Freaks, Daddy (Frank Zappa)
13. Wooden Ships (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

Nellie McKay — 2015 Tour Dates
03/14/15 – 03/21/15 Fort Lauderdale, Caribbean Sea! A Prairie Home Companion Caribbean Cruise
03/24/15 New York, NY Barnes & Noble – Tribeca
04/03/15 Boulder, CO E-Town*
04/04/15 Schenectady, NY The Van Dyck*
04/05/15 Hudson, NY Club Helsinki*
04/09/15 Vienna, VA Jammin Java*
04/10/15 New Hope, PA The Rrazz Room*
04/12/15 Delaware Water Gap, PA Deerhead Inn*
04/13/15 New York, NY 54 Below *
04/15/15 New York, NY 54 Below *
04/16/15 New York, NY 54 Below *
04/17/15 New York, NY 54 Below *
04/18/15 New York, NY 54 Below *
04/19/15 Richmond, VA The Tin Pan
04/21/15 Goshen, IN Sauder Hall at Goshen College (with Turtle Island Quartet)
04/22/15 Lafayette, Indiana Friends of Bob – Duncan Hall
04/24/15 Indianapolis, IN The Cabaret at The Columbia Club
04/25/15 Chicago, IL Old Town
04/26/15 Minneapolis Dakota
04/27/15 Iowa City, IA TBD
05/01/15 Denver, CO Swallow Hill
05/08/15 Seattle, WA The Triple Door
05/09/15 Eugene, OR Shedd Institute
05/13/15 Napa, CA City Winery – Napa
05/15/15 San Francisco, CA The Independent
05/16/15 Los Angeles, CA Largo*
05/18/15 Phoenix, AZ MIM Music Theatre
05/21/15 Austin, TX The Paramount Theater
06/25/15 Natick, MA The Center for Arts in Natick
07/11/15 Portsmouth, NH The Music Hall

* – full band