Diane Birch, Julie Klausner & More Set for Joe's Pub this Week

This week marks the return of Make Music New York, the free outdoor music festival celebrating the solstice and summer. Joe's Pub will host the Beck Song Reader Stage all day Friday outside our downtown home at Astor Place. More highlights this week include funny girl Julie Klausner's debut cabaret, Mother Falcon's collaboration with Raul Midon for Symphonic Sundays, the inimitable Bridget Everett and more. Read on for details on this week's performances.

DIANE BIRCH
June 17 at 9:30 PM - $15 Advance / $20 Door
Singer-songwriter Diane Birch took half her lifetime, and traveled across the globe, to get to America, where she literally found her voice and made her remarkable debut, Bible Belt. Though only in her mid-twenties, Birch likes to think of herself as an "old soul," and indeed there is a startling maturity in her singing and a veteran's self-assurance in her writing. Now working on her follow-up album, Speak A Little Louder, due out later this year, Birch mixes piano-playing virtuosity with easy-going soul, and she can strike an uplifting groove on even the most melancholy tune. Her work bears hints of Laura Nyro (when she was hanging out with LaBelle) and early 70's Karen Carpenter (when she was ruling the charts), while effortlessly incorporating New Orleans second-line rhythms, gospel fervor, doo-wop harmonies, country-blues guitar and classic AM radio-style melodies.

Julie Klausner: TOO GAY FOR BROOKLYN
An Evening Of Cabaret With Special Guests Ted Leo and Bridget Everett
June 18 & June 19 at 7:30 - $20 Advance / $25 Door
Join Julie Klausner, host of HOW WAS YOUR WEEK, Vulture.com correspondent, and author of I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR BAND, as she sings some goddamn songs in her first-ever cabaret show. Don't expect anything besides complete and utter magic on this very special evening of music and comedic banter. Featuring special guests and Musical Director Jon Spurney. Julie Klausner (julieklausner.com) is a comedy writer/performer, podcaster, and author. Her podcast, How Was Your Week, was recently called "one of the few essential podcasts" by the New York Times and was named one of the best 10 comedy podcasts of the moment by Rolling Stone and in GQ's Comedy Issue. Currently, Julie works as "Media Ambassador" for Vulture.com, for which she writes frequently, makes weekly videos for the site, and goes on TV on behalf of Vulture to discuss pop culture topics. She wrote a memoir called "I Don't Care About Your Band" and her new book, a YA Novel called "Art Girls Are Easy," comes out May 7 of this year. Special guests include Ted Leo (June 18) and Bridget Everett (June 19). "Listen to everything Julie Klausner says." -Amy Poehler

ELIZABETH ZIMAN & PAUL BRILL: LOVE RABBIT
June 18 at 9:30 - $12
Elizabeth Ziman and Paul Brill met sharing stages with their respective bands in 2010 and soon forged a successful writing partnership for film and television. Together the two have scored a number of award-winning feature films and television specials, ranging from documentaries to romantic comedies, program themes, and even a selection alongside such legends as Daft Punk and Animal Collective on a Fraggle Rock tribute compilation. Ziman and Brill will bring their compositions to life at Joe's Pub accompanied by The Ruby Blade Singers and The Kissing Cousins Quartet. The two will also perform favorite selections from their song catalogs and will welcome a number of special guest performances.

Bridget Everett
AND THE TENDER MOMENTS
With Special Guest Dave Hill
June 19 at 9:30 PM - $22 Advance / $25 Door
Bridget Everett is a singing tour de force known for her funny yet gut-wrenching, outrageous and unpredictable performances. With her band The Tender Moments, Bridget's played to sold out houses on both coasts and has been joined by guests ranging from Broadway icon Patti LuPone to Rock icon Flea. Bridget starred in the autobiographical musical "At Least It's Pink" co-written with Michael Patrick King (writer/director of "Sex In The City") and Kenny Mellman (Kiki and Herb)and created an evening of original music called "Bridget and Neal are F*cking and Adam Is Watching" with Neal Medlyn and Adam Horovitz (also her bassist/collaborator in The Tender Moments). Bridget's television credits include recurring appearances as "Shonda" in CBS's hit comedy "Two Broke Girls" and on Logo's "Jeffrey Cole Casserole." As a solo performer, Bridget's performed at Montreal's "Just For Laughs" Festival, HBO's Aspen United States Comedy Arts Festival, The Adelaide International Cabaret Festival in Adelaide, Australia, The San Francisco Sketchfest, and The New York Comedy Festival. Most recently, Bridget completed a run of U.S. dates supporting the great Amy Schumer. Bridget Everett And The Tender Moments will be releasing an album of original music this Fall. "Multiply the mouthy, flesh-jiggling early Bette Midler by one hundred, five her the super-plus-size figure and fashion sense of Divine, the John Waters Diva, and the manners of a Flintstone, and you've got a rough approximation of Bridget Everett..." -Stephen Holden/New York Times

LOSERS LOUNGE: TRIBUTE TO ABBA
June 20 at 7:00 PM
June 21 at 7:00 & 9:30 PM
June 22 at 6:30 & 9:00 PM - $25
The Losers Lounge is back with all of the incredible songs, great performances, irreverent antics and special guests that you can only find at The Losers Lounge. For one weekend only. Only at Joe's Pub. This weekend, celebrate the music of Swedish super groupABBA.

JOHN FULLBRIGHT
With Sam Doores + Riley Downing
June 20 at 9:30 PM - $15
Oklahoma has proved fertile ground for songwriting over the years. From Albert Brumley and Woody Guthrie through Leon Russell and Jimmy Webb, Oklahoma has produced songwriters that pursued their singular vision and left the music world enriched, and often changed, by their contributions. Although it would be careless to suggest that an artist just releasing their debut album warrants a place in that group, John Fullbright's From The Ground Up has some of the greats thinking that the 23-year-old might just have a place in that conversation someday soon. Fullbright traverses an emotional and musical terrain that is extremely broad, showing equal acuity with tender ballads and songs that make you want to drive faster with your window rolled down. In "Me Wanting You," he shows a Haggard-like smoldering directness, with lyrics so simple and unambiguous, that the intended target cannot escape from their impact. Fullbright played many of the instruments on the album, and enlisted musicians such as Terry "Buffalo" Ware and Andrew Hardin added guitar, while Fats Kaplin played violin and steel guitar. Other musicians on the album are Giovanni Carnuccio III (drums), John Knudson (organ), Jess Klein (background vocals) and Ryan Engleman (guitar). Special guests this evening include Sam Doores and Riley Downing.

MAKE MUSIC NEW YORK: BECK SONG READER STAGE
June 21 at 11:30 AM- FREE
Joe's Pub at The Public is proud to announce the Beck Song Reader Stage during Make Music New York, the annual festival of free concerts in public spaces throughout all five boroughs, June 21 from 11am - 7pm. The Beck Song Reader Stage will be hosted by Joe's Pub outdoors at its downtown home at Astor Place and feature the music of Beck Hansen's groundbreaking 2012 album the Song Reader. The album consists of 20 songs published as sheet music by McSweeney's. No recorded version of the album exists-in order to hear the songs, they must be performed live. The Joe's Pub artists performing the Song Reader are romping anti-folk collective The Fall Café All Stars (featuring members of Balthrop, Alabama), the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music's jazz improv groupGreat Time, talented student ensemble The Lazy Flies, bass virtuoso Robert Lundberg, 18-piece orchestral outfit Mother Falcon, acclaimed Theremin player and composer Rob Schwimmer and Brooklyn indie band The Universal Thump. Make Music New York is now in its seventh year. Joe's Pub has participated in the festival since 2010. For more information on Make Music New York or the Beck Song Reader Stage at Joe's Pub, visit: http://makemusicny.org/

SYMPHONIC SUNDAYS WITH MOTHER FALCON
FEATURING SPECIAL GUEST Raul Midon
June 23 at 7:00 AM - $15
This June Joe's Pub at The Public will kick off Symphonic Sundays, a new series that pairs established artists with the 18-piece orchestral pop outfit MOTHER FALCON. The series caps off with Mother Falcon's epic tribute to Radiohead's seminal album OK Computer played in its entirety. On June 23 Raul Midón will step up to the microphone backed by Mother Falcon to unleash his silky, soulful tenor and dazzling percussive guitar. Midón uses a syncopated, flamenco, and jazz-infused style in which bass, harmony, and melodic lines emanate from the fretboard. His signature improvisational mouth horn technique, in which he creates a bebop "trumpet" solo entirely with his lips, has earned him applause from audiences worldwide. It's a virtuosic performance, and one that reveals what has made Midón such an exciting artist to watch over the past few years. Mother Falcon are still coming down from a six-performance run at this year's SXSW, where they were cited as one of Bob Boilen's "15 Essential Moments From SXSW 2013" , and Stephen Thompson tapped them as his "favorite young band of the festival's opening night" on NPR's "All Things Considered".

TORI SCOTT: WHAT'S PRIDE GOT TO DO WITH IT
June 23 at 9:30 PM - $15
Written by Tori Scott and Adam Hetrick. Musical Direction by Jesse Kissel. Directed by Seth Sklar-Heyn. Belter and bad decision expert Tori Scott, a Garland for the Grindr era, returns to Joe's Pub for another evening of brassy songs and slurred autobiographical stories. Celebrate gay pride with the cabaret icon whose jaw-dropping vocals and standard-dropping stories will celebrate everything those queens at Stonewall fought for: freedom, equality, and a fabulous version of "The Trolley Song." If you missed her four previous packed shows at the Pub, all is forgiven; just get a ticket, get a drink, and let Tori belt your troubles away. Like the rash you picked up during last year's Pride, Tori's back...and she's not going anywhere!