Though it might be invite/contest-only, as you can see on Living Room's website, Howlin Rain are playing an acoustic show there at 7pm TONIGHT (2/6). Their tour which is now with D. Charles Speer & The Helix instead of Soliders of Fortune who cancelled, begins at Mercury Lounge on Tuesday (2/7) and hits Brooklyn Bowl on Wednesday (2/8).

As usual, since it's a Monday, the Living Room also hosts The Tony Scherr Trio with Anton Fier and Rob Jost followed by the Jim Campilongo Electric Trio with Stephan Crump and Tony Mason.

There's also an interesting show happening at Cake Shop which is right next door.

Howlin Rain's new album The Russian Wilds is out Valentine's Day, 2012. That's the cover art above.

I'm not sure what his first day back was, but after a short break, Jim Campilongo is back in his Monday night residency spot at The Living Room on the LES. Tony Scherr and Tony Mason will be there too, now through Oct 31st at least.

Jim Campilongo also plays in the band the Little Willies (so does Norah Jones). They have three dates scheduled for October, including one at the Bell House which is on sale now. All of Jim's dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Jim Campilongo back in residency @ Living Room, the Little Willies scheduled shows too"

Like every Monday, you'll be able to catch guitarist Jim Campilongo & friends playing a show at the Living Room at 10pm tonight (5/2), but tonight's show will also feature a 9pm set by Ulysses S. Grant, "a NYC-based, Classic Country & Western band." Their members are: Jim Campilongo - Guitar, Rich Hinman - Pedal Steel & Guitar, Dan Rieser - Drums, Chris Morrissey - Bass, J. Blynn - Vocals, Guitar, and Pete Harper - Vocals, Piano. Check out a video from rehearsal HERE.

The supergroup also plays a show Tuesday (5/3) at Rockwood Music Hall, and again next Monday (5/9) at Living Room before Jim's residency show. All tour dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Jim Campilongo still at the Living Room on Mondays, playing classic Country & Western in Ulysses S. Grant"

Martha Wainwright at Le Poisson Rouge (more by Chris La Putt)

[Monday] night was the first of Martha Wainwright's four Monday night shows at The Rockwood Music Hall. Although Martha said she was thinking of the scene in Crazy Heart where only four people show up, the smaller room at The Rockwood was at capacity. Martha played solo guitar but was joined by Thomas Bartlett on piano for a few songs. The program was a combination of songs written the past week, some older material and one cover, a Kate McGarrigle (Martha's mother) song. -[Now I've Heard Everything]

The above review comes from Martha Wainwright's 1/10 show at Rockwood Music Hall, the first night of an every-Monday-in-January (except for 1/3) residency at the LES venue. The residency continues tonight at Rockwood Music Hall at 9PM (1/17) and on the following two Mondays (1/24 & 1/31). As the review states above and as Wainwright stated on her site, the focus of the shows are mostly to work out new material.

I'm not sure if Thomas will be there to play with her again tonight, and I'm not sure if Martha will be one of Thomas's guests at one of his two upcoming shows at LPR, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was. Thomas's guests this past week were Sam Amidon, Glen Hansard, Beth Orton, and as hinted, St. Vincent.

If you need a double dose of Wainwright this week, you can also check for Martha on Wednesday, 1/19, at the Living Room when she joins Addie Brownlee as a special guest in celebration of Dolly Parton. Tickets are still available.

If you need somewhere to go after Martha tonight, the Living Room is also a good option with Jim Campilongo Electric Trio (with Stephan Crump & Tony Mason) on at 10pm. Maybe Martha will head there too since Jim happens to also often play in her band. Jim is also in the midst of his own (very long-running) Monday night residency on the Lower East Side.

Martha Wainwright's full tour schedule and some videos below.

Continue reading "Martha Wainwright in residency @ Rockwood, playing a Dolly Parton show @ Living Room & other dates"

photos by KILLDISCO DESIGN

"Jim Campilongo RULES!!! and him playing with Nels is the one of the greatest fun I've ever had. No shit. Damn..." - Yuka Honda

"Nels Cline just DESTROYED the Living Room!!!" - Alex & Janel

The Jim Campilongo Trio plays the Living Room in NYC almost every Monday, with guests. This week, like others before it, featured a special appearance from Nels Cline on second guitar. Tony Scherr, like he will be for the next five weeks, was also on the bill, but this set of pictures is just from the Jim/Nels set, and they continue below...

Continue reading "the Jim Campilongo Trio w/ Nels Cline @ Living Room (pics) "

Tony Scherr

The Golden Palominos, a multifarious project led by drummer Anton Fier, got together for their first shows in 23 years in May. The group, fronted again by singers Syd Straw and Robert Kidney, will be performing on September 10th at City Winery. Tickets are on sale.

Also in the group's lineup are guitarists Jim Campilongo and Tony Scherr, who will be opening the show with their own trios. Meanwhile you can catch Tony at three Mondays this month at Living Room, and Jim at two of them. They're both there every Monday in September too

All Jim & Tony Living Room dates, and videos from the Palominos reunion show at (Le) Poisson Rouge on May 7th are below...

Continue reading "more Golden Palominos, Jim Campilongo, Tony Scherr shows"

"Recorded in Berkeley (Fantasy Studios) and San Francisco (Cafe Du Nord), this is a heapin' helpin' of The Singers: a studio and a 'live' disc. The studio disc sees us moving into some decidedly different terrain. I actually use my voice (wordlessly) on some tracks, Devin plays bass guitar... All hell has broken loose! There are special guests, even! The studio disc features David Witham and Yuka Honda on keyboards. The 'live' disc features Satomi Matsuzaki, Greg Saunier, and John Dieterich (AKA three fourths of Deerhoof) on percussion (on a blazing and/or totally indulgent version of Weather Report's "Boogie Woogie Waltz"). Produced by David Breskin and recorded and mixed by Ron Saint Germain, this is either the most friendly Singers recording to date or the most antisocial, depending on who you are and what you expect. The package features beautiful photographs of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN by Simon Norfolk throughout (as well as some 'live' shots from the Cafe Du Nord gig by Peak), so all in all you know this is another Cryptogramophone production of visionary packaging excellence. And you might like the music, too.

You can pre-order the CD online now at Indiejazz.com or check out the special BUNDLE offer (w/ CD, shirt & tote bag) here!" [Nels Cline] [

The Nels Cline Singers are on tour in support of the above-described double album, and they play two shows at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC tonight (7/6). From there they head to Philly and DC before Nels returns to NYC or a five-night stand at the Village Vanguard with Jenny Scheinman. On July 19th Nels will be speaking "about music, guitars and life" at The Stone. Also, not listed on Nels' tour dates, but I noticed he'll be sitting in with Jim Campilongo at the Living Room one day this month too.

Deerhoof, who you can see above contributed to the new live album, will be in NYC on Sunday, 7/11, as part of a collaboration with Xiu Xiu. All Nels' official dates below...

Continue reading "the Nels Cline Singers are on tour, Nels also appears soon @ Village Vanguard, the Stone, Living Room & more (dates)"

Chicha Libre

Jim Campilongo

today in NYC
* Whiplash @ UCB
* Chicha Libre @ Barbes
* Jim Campilongo @ Living Room
* Sam Amidon @ Rockwood Music Hall
* Rev. Vince Anderson @ Union Pool
* Johnny Butler, Peter Evans Sextet @ Zebulon
* Les Paul Guitar Trio w/ José Feliciano @ Iridium
* Emilyn Brodsky, Noah Britton, PAPS, Sing with Voices @ Silent Barn
* Julian Lynch, Pop. 1280, Big Troubles, Queening, Henry Hynes @ Bruar Falls
* Babies, German Measles, Nude Beach, Neato Fleets, Sandworms @ Death By Audio

Jim Campilongo plays the Living Room every Monday night.

Chicha Libre plays Barbes every Monday night.

Reverend Vince Anderson is at Union Pool every Monday night.

Les Paul used to play Iridium Jazz Club every Monday night. Now his slot is filled by the Les Paul Guitar Trio and tribute shows in his honor.

Whiplash is at UCB every Monday night. Tonight's free show has Jim Norton (The Tonight Show), Amy Schumer (Last Comic Standing), Anthony Jeselnick (Late Night w/Jimmy Fallon), Dave Hill (The Dave Hill Explosion), Tom McCaffrey, & Jesse Popp.

Check out Dave Hill's End of 2009 Interview.

Pianos usually has comedy every Monday too ("This is It"), but they are currently closed for renovation.

Vivian Girls/Woods side-project the Babies play three shows in three days. The first is tonight with German Measles, Nude Beach, Neato Fleets and Sandworms at Death By Audio.

The Death By Audio show is a Nude Beach LP release party.

The show at Silent Barn tonight is both free and an features a set by a band called ACLU Benefit.

Follow @BVticketsONsale for even more notice of show tickets going on sale.

My Brightest Diamond has a show coming up at Bowery Ballroom which is on sale.

Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beth Orton have shows coming up at The Bell House.

Aziz Ansari has live shows, a CD, and a DVD in his future.

ALL has live shows in their future, but not this month anymore.

Handsome Furs have just one show scheduled at the moment, and it's here in the NYC-area.

Ed Banger is throwing a big party at Terminal 5 in February.

A Storm of Light played the show with Coalesce and Coliseum at Europa on 12/30. Pictures HERE. A video below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

"Sarah Siskind (1978 - ) is a singer and songwriter based in Nashville and grounded in folk and Appalachian roots. Her music has been classified as: rock, folk, americana, and alternative. Alison Krauss has championed Sarah and values her songs so highly that she's recorded two of them, both of which became singles and videos that received widespread airplay. Bluegrass/Folk legend Tim O'Brien calls her a rare talent...

...In 2002, Sarah released "Covered." Despite its title, it featured mostly original songs that dealt with love, family and relationships... Sarah invited Bill Frisell, a modern-day giant of jazz guitar, to anchor the studio band.....

...Indie-rock act Bon Iver was so taken with Sarah's song "Lovin's For Fools" that the group closed most of their 2008 tour sets with the song each night, and invited her to join them on their December 2008 European tour. In addition, Ireland's legendary artist, Paul Brady, invited her to join him on-stage for a collaboration in New York City that same year, and had her contribute backing vocals on his new album." [Wikipedia]

Sarah and Bon Iver have also toured together, and Sarah just finished opening for Bill Frisell on a tour that brought the pair to Minneapolis, MN on April 11th. Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) just happened to be in the neighborhood (I guess?), and he joined Sarah and Bill on stage for the above-mentioned favorite song. Watch that video, and others like it, below.

Tonight (Monday, April 27), Sarah is in NYC to play a free show at the Living Room...

7PM - Sarah Siskind
8PM - Jo Williamson
9PM - Caroline Jones
10PM - The Makepeace Brothers
11PM - Jim Campilongo

All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Sarah Siskind, who plays w/ Bon Iver & Bill Frisell (videos), is in NYC - free show tonight & other tour dates"

"I think that I saw the baddest Telecaster player on the planet last night, his name is Jim Campilongo." [puremusic.com]

Jim Campilongo w/ Martha Wainwright @ Highline Ballroom (more by Chris La Putt)

While we're on the subject of guitarists with Monday night residencies in NYC,

CAMPILONGO ELECTRIC TRIO
LIVING ROOM MONDAY NIGHTS - NEW YORK CITY RESIDENCY

EVERY MONDAY- SPECIAL GUESTS - SPECIAL GROUPS - SPECIAL HAPPENINGS - 11PM to 1:30 AM
AUGUST 18 - w/ Stephan Crump and Tony Mason
AUGUST 25 - w/ Stephan Crump and Tony Mason
SEPTEMBER 1 - w/ Stephan Crump and Tony Mason
SEPTEMBER 8 - w/ Brad Jones? and Tony Mason
SEPTEMBER 15 - w/ Brad Jones? and Tony Mason
SEPTEMBER 22 - w/ Stephan Crump and Tony Mason
SEPTEMBER 29 - w/ Stephan Crump and Tony Mason

Living Room is located at 154 Ludlow St in NYC.

words & photos by Chris La Putt

Martha Wainwright

Thomas Bartlett (Doveman) on keys & Kate Mcgarrigle (Martha's mom)

Rufus Wainwright (Martha's brother)

Last night's show at the Highline Ballroom (July 23, 2008) had the flair of drag queen drama as Justin Bond, of Kiki and Herb fame (she's Kiki), performed a number of jazzy songs written by transvestite singers she's met along the way. Bond cooed in to the mic as he was backed by Doveman's Thomas Bartlett on piano/keyboard and a rather shiny and scantily clad guitarist.

Continuing on with the theme of sorrow and despair, Martha sang "I Wish I Were" with the simplicity and anguish of a broken heart. Slowly strumming her guitar and alone onstage with a powerful voice, she knew she had the crowd wrapped around her fingers. "I Wish I Were" is the first single of her new album that was just released a month ago. It was Doveman's last night performing with the band that also includes Living Room regular/guitarist extraordinaire Jim Campilongo, and Martha's husband Brad Albetta on bass. And speaking of family, the highlight of the evening was when Canadian folk singer Kate McGarrigle (i.e. Martha's mother) and Rufus (Martha's big brother) sang an encore with Martha. Ms. Wainwright ended the night with crowd favorite, "Stormy Weather." More pics below...

Continue reading "Martha Wainwright (& Rufus, Kate McGarrigle, Doveman, Jim Campilongo & Justin Bond) @ Highline Ballroom, NYC - pics"