Photo Coverage: Joshua Stackhouse Celebrates Canada Day at Feinstein's/54Below

What's a songwriter to do when the United States is about to celebrate Independence Day and you have a trunk full of Canadian themed songs and a handful of Canadian singers & musicians from the Broadway and Cabaret/Nightclub scene?

If you're talented songwriter Joshua Stackhouse you book July 1st at Feinstein's/54 Below to celebrate our friends above the 49th parallel for "Canada Day with Joshua Stackhouse"!
The show starts as Josh introduces himself with "Hi, I'm From Canada" a song that cleverly starts the laughs by playing on the theme of our overly nice neighbors up north. He even gets the audience singing along right away.

The theme continues with such Stackhouse originals as "Vancouver, Here I Come", "Hockey Girl", "Canada Is Pretty", a lumberjack themed "Manly Man's Lament", and a detour south for a somewhat belligerent, but tongue in cheek, "Proudly American".

Joshua Stackhouse is a current participant in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and has had his music performed worldwide including here in NYC at Birdland Jazz Club, Don't Tell Mama, and Feinstein's/54 Below show room.

His music is always cleverly worded and backed by a catchy musical theater meets pop meets rockabilly beat - expertly played by his bi-national Canadian/American Band....Brian Shaw (reeds), Hidayat Honari (guitar), Will Hack (bass), Scott Still (drums), and Stackhouse himself on piano.

His Broadway and Cabaret world singers were (in order of appearance) Lauren Diaz Morgan, Jacqui Serois, Katherine Winter, Amy Rivard, Cory Jeacoma, Cassie Nadeau, Brian Charles Rooney, Kathryn Allison, Jordan Bell, and Dana Schaaf.

Dana Schaaf should get special mention, not only did he sing one of the evening's funnier songs towards evening's end, but he made his first "appearance" 20 minutes in (after hiding for 90) as the rudely funny hand puppet "Justin Beaver".
The clever comic dialogue between songs and playful thematic characters (even a Canadian Trivia game) elevated this evening beyond basic song revue and into a loving and fun way to celebrate Canada's 152nd Anniversary and talented Josh Stackhouse's music.

Feinstein's/54 Below is located at 254 W/ 54th Street in NYC, NY.

Photo Credit: Kevin Alvey