Carolyn Malachi, Benjamin Walker, Ryan Raftery & More to Play Joe's Pub, 8/27-9/7

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its schedule for August 27-September 7, featuring MARY MILLBEN, MIKEY WAX / MY SILENT BRAVERY, DAVELL CRAWFORD, CAROLYN MALACHI, MIKE BARNETT, FIND THE FUNNY, DANCENOW JOE'S PUB FESTIVAL and more.

MARY MILLBEN
Thursday, August 28 at 7:00PM
$20 adv / $25 door

Oklahoma has been an incubator for birthing great singers, including Helen Hayes Award nominee Mary Millben, who is among the names of rising stars from the Heartland. A versatile soprano with family roots in gospel music, Millben's first stage was her church where she was known for her stunning vocal range. Thanks to the faith instilled by her determined single mother, it was only a matter of time before Mary would go from the hills of the South to the stages of the world. A University of Oklahoma alum, her life journey led her to the Nation's capital where she served as a White House intern and later Presidential Appointee to George W. Bush.

Millben was a featured soloist for President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama while also performing at notable venues like the Kennedy Center, the Copacabana and stages across Asia and Europe. Millben had humble beginnings in New York, working as a hostess at treasured NYC bistro Café Luxembourg. More recently, she performed at Westchester Broadway Theatre, a sold-out solo concert at The Cutting Room in 2013 and a debut at City Winery in June 2014.

Following two recent summer features in Washington, D.C. - a sold-out solo tribute to the late Marvin Hamlisch at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and a performance alongside Oprah Winfrey at the Lavern Chatman for Congress fundraiser, Millben is excited to return to New York in concert.

MIKEY WAX / MY SILENT BRAVERY
Thursday, August 28 at 9:30PM
$12 adv / $15 door

Mikey Wax has recently been recognized by both New Music Seminar and iHeart Radio as an "Artist On The Verge" and an "Artist To Watch," respectively. His fan base is continually growing online and in person at shows thanks to engaging audiences who connect with Wax's passion for music and life. In February, 2014, Wax signed with Toucan Cove / Universal Music Group, and hit the studio with producer and brother duo Scott and Ed Cash. His new full-length, self-titled label debut was released on June 10, 2014. The album quickly jumped into the iTunes top 100 pop chart, and the first single "You Lift Me Up" was featured by iTunes as "Ahead Of The Curve." The song has already garnered two million Spotify streams.

My Silent Bravery (MSB) is Matthew Wade. Billboard said, "My Silent Bravery plays like a major label signing, from its production savvy, eloquent lyrics, authoritative imaging, polished web site, a dedicated Northeast U.S. fan following (300 shows in three years), merchandising, and most important, a chockablock collection of winning songs. My Silent Bravery is destined to make major noise."

DAVELL CRAWFORD
Friday, August 29 at 7:30PM
$20

Davell Crawford brings equal exuberance to both modern and classic jazz, rhythm and blues, funk, blues, gospel, soul, pop, American folk and touches of country-western. As a keyboardist, vocalist, composer and arranger, the genius of Crawford arises from his ability to play and sing the music of his passion, soaking up the surrounding rhythms and harmonies that were his deep musical roots and nurtured his natural talent.

CAROLYN MALACHI
Friday, August 29 at 9:30PM
$22.50

Carolyn Malachi blends Jazz, Hip Hop, Spoken Word and lots of imagination into a style Giant Step calls "delicate, refreshing [and] smooth." The independent, Grammy-nominated artist counts Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), Radiohead and Sarah Vaughan among her greatest influences. Malachi promotes music education by supporting GRAMMY U initiatives. She champions global access to education with e-textbook provider Chegg and The School Fund. In 2013, the artist whom MTV calls "one of five R&B artists to obsess over" released a full-length album, GOLD. Between sessions and tour dates, she maintains a tech column in Black Enterprise magazine.

MIKE BARNETT
Tuesday, September 2 at 7:30PM
$14

Mike Barnett got his start as a fiddler with the great bluegrass pioneer Jesse McReynolds. He's been playing with Tony Trischka and Michael Daves since he was 17 years old, and has played with David Grisman as a member of his sextet for the last 4 years. He's played with the well renouned young grass/roots band the Deadly Gentlemen for last 7 years. He's releasing his solo project on compass records, featuring such artists as Tim O'Brien, Aoife O'Donovan, Noam Pikelny, Paul Kowert, Chris Eldridge, and others. The lineup at Joe's pub features Dominick Leslie (mandolin), Grant Gordy (guitar) Jared Engel (bass), Emma Beaton (vocals, lead singer from Joy Kills Sorrow), and Wes Corbett (banjo).

BENJAMIN WALKER'S FIND THE FUNNY
Tuesday, September 2 at 9:30PM
$10

Benjamin Walker, the critically acclaimed star of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and the 20th Century Fox Film, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter presents and performs in his original show Find The Funny. A night dedicated to providing performance opportunities to new and innovative comics, writers, musicians, and performers, Find The Funny is a monthly show that began downtown and has moved from venue to venue as it expanded and matured.

DANCENOW JOE'S PUB FESTIVAL
Wednesday, September 3 - Saturday, September 6 at 7:00PM
$15 adv / $20 door

DANCENOW is pleased to announce the lineup for the 2014 DANCENOW Joe's Pub Festival. This eclectic showcase will feature performances by forty choreographers and their companies over four evenings from September 3 to 6, with an encore performance on September 13. The 2014 lineup of artists and companies features fan favorites, including festival veterans and returning artists, alongside today's rising stars and festival newcomers. A testing ground for the development of new work, the DANCENOW Joe's Pub Festival centers around a unique challenge for artists: to create a clear and complete artistic statement of five minutes or less for the specifics of the stage at Joe's Pub. Each night, audiences select the work of one artist as their 'challenge winner' to receive a weeklong creative residency at DANCENOW Silo on Kirkland Farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. DANCENOW's producers and advisors will select one additional artist whose work overall best meets the DANCENOW Challenge to receive a $1,500 development stipend and a weeklong creative residency at DANCENOW Silo on Kirkland Farm. The top ten audience favorites, including the five challenge winners, will be featured in the Encore program on September 13.

BLACK SEA HOTEL
With Luminescent Orchestrii Trio, Main Squeeze Orchestra Sextet & Hydra
Wednesday, September 3 at 9:30PM
$15 adv / $20 door

Affectionately dubbed the "punk rock version of Le Mystre des Voix Bulgares" (NY Music Daily), Black Sea Hotel "performs with a refined emotion that hits with the magnetic pull of rock-bound sirens" (Paul Schomer, NPR). The powerhouse Balkan a cappella singers are known for their outrageous vocal sonorities, yet can move audiences to tears with their lyricism. This tenderness and wildness flow from age-old songs meant to chronicle and seduce, to flirt and to calm. Joining Black Sea Hotel on Wednesday, September 3rd, are the jagged-gentle fiddlers of the 'gypsy tango klezmer punk' band Luminescent Orchestrii Trio (teamed up with Kyle Sanna), the accordion wielding babes of Main Squeeze Orchestra Sextet, and the white-wearing, tongue-speaking vocal trio Hydra. This will be a night of fierce musical power with shape-shifting sounds ranging from punk to baroque, trance to folk, ancient to avant-garde.

ECHOES OF ETTA
Thursday, September 4 at 9:30PM
$30

MRM Productions is very proud to present the multi-award winning Echoes of Etta, featuring William Blake and Michael Thomas Murray. Echoes of Etta continues their residency, performing every other month through the end of 2014. Having just been awarded the prestigious MAC Award for "2014 Show of the Year" Blake (lead/co-creator) and Murray (music director/arranger/co-creator) and the entire Echoes team are back to deliver this energetic, no-holds-barred performance that is sure to move you out of your seat. Blake, the Echoes band and back up vocalists The Peaches excel with stellar musicality led by Murray's rockin' authentic period arrangements with a contemporary twist. Blake delivers palpable life to these long-loved classic songs in this musical testimonial to the legend who bridged the gap between Rock 'n' Roll and Rhythm and Blues. Fans can expect to hear many of their favorite Etta James tunes such as, A Sunday Kind of Love, At Last, Tell Mama, You Can Leave Your Hat On, I'd Rather Go Blind, Something's Got A Hold On Me and Purple Rain, just to name a few.

ALEXANDER BLAQQSTAR
Friday, September 5 at 9:30PM
$20

Yankee-born country boy Alexander BlaqqStar is celebrating his first solo project, The Human Condition, set for release in Fall 2014. BlaqqStar has been performing in charity events, cabarets and wedding across the city and has decided to bring his Gospel-infused vocals to his brand of R&B and Hip-hop music. Blended with unique storytelling and special guests, hometown heroes I.C. Will and Son of Sin, this performance dares to elevate your consciousness as well as get your butts moving.

RYAN RAFTERY IS THE MOST POWERFUL WOMAN IN FASHION
Fridays, September 5 at 11:30PM & September 12 at 12Midnight
$20

Anna Wintour has sat at the top of a $300 billion industry for twenty-six years. Her power and influence cannot be denied. But when she places a reality star and a certain rapper on the cover of her magazine, the backlash is harsh and for the first time, her credibility is called into question. Through popular music and an astounding measure of creative license, "demented Rat Packer for the millennium" Ryan Raftery returns to Joe's Pub to tell the story of a fateful day in the life of the most powerful woman in fashion. Raftery debuted the show on August 11 to a sold out audience including Wintour's daughter, Bee Shaffer. These encore performances take place during New York Fashion Week.

SWEET PIE, AKA PAUL WINER
Saturday, September 6 at 9:30PM
$20

Sweet Pie, aka Paul Winer, is the baron of bare-assed boogie woogie and blues. Variety says his act of improv storytelling combined with risqué and hilarious songs "has to be seen to be believed," mostly because this piano man wears little more than a top hat and loin cloth. A true cabaret performer, who declares that "freedom is compromised with lack of use," Pie made a name for himself in the 60s, 70s and 80s touring the country, performing for more than a million people at iconic venues such as CBGB and the Gaslight Au Go Go. Pie returns to NYC and Joe's Pub after a 30-year hiatus.

Joining Pie for this performance will be longtime harmonica player Will Peroni. Sweet Pie was arrested and brought to court 68 times for performing the way he does, winning every case on 1st amendment grounds. In his most high profile case, the ACLU came to his defense in Vermont federal court. Now at 70 years of age, Sweet Pie resides in Quartzsite, Arizona, an RV pop-up town where he owns an operates Reader's Oasis Books. He is known there as "The Naked Bookseller."

KIAH VICTORIA
Saturday, September 6 at 11:30PM
$14

Blending intimate vocal performance with the obscure synthetic textures of alt-R&B producer Toulouse, Kiah Victoria emerges from the great city of New York. Having garnered the attention of NYC's Broadway stages (starring in The Lion King as young Nala at age ten), MTV, and now the world renowned Tisch School of Performing Arts, the powerhouse songstress is steadily building on her young career. After singing her way into a feature in JAY Z's "Picasso Baby", Kiah released her second EP Gravitate which is now available for your enjoyment on Spotify and iTunes.

LURAY / THE HABIT
Sunday, September 7 at 7:00PM
$12

Luray is the indie-banjo group, conceived by Shannon Carey. With production help from brother Sean Carey (of S. Carey and Bon Iver), Luray releases their debut album, The Wilder, on August 27, 2013. They have toured extensively since that time, which resulted in LIVE from the Wilder Tour, a compilation of live recordings captured by sound engineers across the country. These live recordings capture the juxtaposition Luray creates live with overlapping banjo, vibes, mbira (thumb piano), upright bass, electric guitar and ambient vocals, and underneath, the sincerity and honest connection that spontaneously occurs in the best live music moments.

"The Habit members bow to the altars of various music idols ranging from a punk and indie-rock backdrop to channeling The Carter Family, Roy Acuff and other mountain storytellers. The Habit never make a song feel like it is moving too fast; they are masters of indie detached cool in their delivery as it plays out over foot-to-the-floor grooves; mountain music heading down from the hills, and heading for the city with no brakes." - The Alternate Root

ERIMAJ
Sunday, September 7 at 9:30PM
$14

From the abstract mind of world-renowned drummer/producer Jamire Williams, ERIMAJ is a progressive new band stirring up the scene. Spearheaded by the collaborative writing style of Williams and Corey King, the New York Times describes their sound as "...properly new, part of something larger, and still unnamed." Now with a transcending live experience, the core touring cast features dynamic guitarist Matthew Stevens along with bassist Vicente Archer. With an experimental attitude towards the art form ERIMAJ is focused on breaking down the genre walls while still capturing the hearts of the true listener. With their album Conflict Of A Man debuting at #1 on iTunes Jazz Top Chart in 2012, the unit has proven it is a force to keep your eye on.