This is Keith Munslow, host of the Empire Revue. We're gearing up to bring you a little holiday cheer, and the *LAST REVUE* for the year! Join us, won't ya?
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7th @ 8pm $8
Guest Beatniks: *Local musician/songwriter/actor Chris Rosenquest *Shiny-bright rising star Madeline Trainor
AND . . . *Dave Howard (lead singer from Roomful of Blues) *Burlesque with the ever-dazzling Bettysioux Tailor *Revue favorite Jacob Haller *Guitar slinger Eric Fontana *Groove-a-licious tunes from the Bistro Beat
PLUS your favorite funnybone fondlers: The Sparkling Beatniks & musical ambassadors Superchief Trio!
Can you believe that back in the day a show like ours would have had its own digs? That's cool, no problem. We like the little stage we haunt, one evening a month, at AS220, and we love it when you pack the house! But you know what we miss? We miss the good old FTP.
We had, for four short years from 1935-1939 a NATIONAL THEATRE in this great country of ours and it was called The Federal Theatre Project, part of the New Deal, approved by one of our favorite Presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The FTP gave hope to the hopeless, as the country struggled to climb out of the pit of the Great Depression. Headed by Hallie Flanagan, The Federal Theatre Project pulled actors, directors, stage hands, set and costume designers, writers SHOW FOLKS out the bread lines and put us all back to work! Even a brash young man named Orson Welles got his big break, stateside, with his direction of Voodoo Macbeth which featured an all-black cast! REVOLUNTIONARY!!
The FTP was disbanded in 1939. The deal was apparently too new-- the FTP was labeled, "Communist." Welcome to the dawn of the Red Scare. . .
Today, lots of artists like us who make our own work, cobble together a living just short of Piracy. And we live to have the kind of fun we muster up at the Empire Revue-- we're grateful for your patronage. For two years we've been sweatin' and dancin' and singin' and foolin' around, for your amusement, and ours! Thanks to the generous folks at AS220 for giving us a home, and thanks to EMPIRE LOAN for their unwavering sponsorship.
We're living in a different kind of great depression, now-- if you know a patron of the vaudeville arts who'd like to become one of our intrepid sponsors, come on up at the end of the show and let Keith Munslow know!
The Empire Revue House Band is none other than Superchief Trio (with special guest, Tom Ferraro)! If you're a regular at the show, then you know how sizzlin' hot this band can get when things are really cooking. What's that? How'd the band get started? Glad you asked! Here's a little something about Superchief Trio:
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Superchief Trio features a unique combination of two-fisted piano, red hot trombone, powerful vocals and frenzied percussion antics, all rolled up into one small package. Swing, New Orleans R&B, jump blues, boogie-woogie - it's all in there. And with a repertoire of tasty original tunes and carefully selected covers by Professor Longhair, Huey Smith, Smiley Lewis, Wee Willie Wayne and a raft of others, this group is the ultimate dance-party band.
Pianist Keith Munslow met trombonist Pam Murray at Providence arts incubator AS220, where they performed together in the Smoking Jackets and the Neo 90s Dance Band. Keith and drummer Johnny Cote played together in the Big Nazo band, and soon Johnny became the drummer for the Neo 90s. Having cut their teeth on rough-and-tumble dance blues with the Smoking Jackets, Keith and Pam began playing gigs at a dim and smoky basement bar (now defunct) called The East Bay Regatta Club. Owing to safety in numbers, Johnny Cote was recruited, and Superchief Trio was born. The casual nature of the place and its heckling denizens encouraged recklessness and experimentation with new songs, new arrangements and inspired a higher level of daredevil musical abandon. Emerging from this subterranean honky-tonk, Superchief Trio continues the tradition of good-time music and barrelhouse hijinks.
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But one song is never enough with this band. Why not go to one of their gigs? Check out Superchief Trio later this month:
Saturday, June, 14 2008 at The Cambridge River Festival along the banks of the Charles River, Cambridge, Massachusetts Friday June 20, 2008 at Lucky's in Foster 143 Danielson Pike RI 02825 8:30- 12:30
And of course, at the Empire Revue, JULY 6th! @ 8pm (we're @ Perishable Theatre next month . . .)
