Carol Lipnik to Celebrate Album Release With Concert at Joe's Pub

Carol Lipnik - the spellbinding, wistfully-humorous singer and songwriter called an "ethereal vocal phenomenon" by The New York Times - will celebrate her upcoming album Goddess of Imperfection, with a special concert at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street, NYC) on Tuesday, April 5 at 7:00 PM. Tickets, which are $20, are available HERE. The album, available on her Mermaid Alley label, was released in streaming and digital platforms today, Friday, March 11.

The album will be performed in its entirety with music director Michael Visceglia (Suzanne Vega, John Cale, Bette Midler, Kinky Boots) on bass, Matt Beck (Matchbox Twenty) on guitars, and Mark Bonder on keyboards. Wielding her trademark tragicomic voice, Lipnik blends folk music, operatic flourish and art song with the classic nightclub tradition. The album was produced by Jacob Lawson, who also produced her previous album Almost Back to Normal. In June 2022, she will return to Joe's Pub to celebrate Blue Forest, her second album release of the year. Lipnik's April show is produced by TWEED TheaterWorks.

The dreamlike Goddess of Imperfection, pays tribute to the uncertain state of the world with new original songs that reach above the chaos and reflect back on our tangled, beast-ridden planet. The recording is largely the result of several potent musical collaborations. Two selections - including the haunting title song - Lipnik wrote with Tareke Ortiz, the composer and performer who serves as Artistic Director of the International Arts Summit in Cumbre Tajin, Mexico. They wrote together at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts' "Theater Residency" program, presented in conjunction with The Public Theater's Joe's Pub.

"A prominent theme of this album," Carol comments, "is the beauty of humility in the face of brutality and chaos. The song 'Goddess of Imperfection' is a tongue-in-cheek invocation, a pushing back against the pressure of perfection, which celebrates, invites, embraces the broken, the imperfect wielding it as a saving grace."

The songs she wrote with David Cale - the 2020 Obie Award-winning playwright, performer and songwriter - are equally evocative. "The Poacher," exploring the heavy burden of personal secrets and the cruelty of forbidden first love, lets Carol's gossamer voice float on a forebodingly tremulous arrangement. Their work on the lilting composition "A History of Kisses" has a spare, classical feel with a spiraling melody, invoking a melancholy and nostalgic rumination on love's enduring memory.

Another significant contribution to Goddess of Imperfection is Carol's frequent music director and pianist Matt Kanelos. This album features his composition "Nonviolent Man," a longtime cornerstone of her concert repertoire. She says, "This stunning song is an anthem, an almost unbearably vulnerable request, an entreaty for love and gentleness pushing back the stereotype of masculinity."

They collaborate on writing "Ride on the Light of the Moon," about searching for an escape from the chase for material desires. The incandescent song with a soaring melody explores one of Lipnik's recurring themes, how humanity interacts with the natural world. "I can always find epiphanies in nature. This song was written as a potential portal to enlightenment, an attempt to disappear into the exquisite emptiness of the night sky's eternal beauty."

The song "Love," a Sufi-like meditation on the many layers of attraction, features a swirling piano solo by Kanelos. This solo composition of Carol's concludes Goddess of Imperfection on an emotional but hopeful note.

Lipnik is acclaimed for her hauntingly beautiful multi-octave voice and enchanting performances of her own tenderly wry and wrenchingly honest songs. She has built a dedicated following through her popular weekly performance residency at the East Village boîte Pangea, in addition to performances at The Rose Theater at Lincoln Center, The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, The Abrons Arts Center, the Hudson Opera House, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, The Ancram Opera House, and The Spiegeltent at Bard. She is the winner of the BroadwayWorld Award for "Best Alternative Cabaret Show."

She has released six albums on her Mermaid Alley Music label. Her 2016 title, Almost Back to Normal, was funded by a grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation. She has collaborated with and composed music for performance artist John Kelly's The Escape Artist and these songs are included on his debut CD recording Beauty Kills Me. She composed the score Mythologies (with Scott Killian and Jacob Lawson) for the Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance Co. Carol is a three-time artist-in-residence at the Yaddo Art Colony in Saratoga Springs, NY. www.CarolLipnik.com.