Englert Theatre Announces Additional Fall Events, Tix On Sale 8/12

Adding more to their lineup of events - including Janis Ian, Judy Collins, Steve Earle, and The MiLes Davis Experience - the Englert Theatre is happy to announce three additional shows for the Fall Season.

In anticipation of the upcoming political season, Mad Magazine's senior editor Joe Raiola wages comedy against the status quo in his one-man show American Heretic on September 23. On October 22 Iowa City welcomes back Iowa City Jazz Festival 2009 veterans Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Finally, one of American folk music's most prolific singer/songwriters and Iowa's own, Greg Brown returns to the Englert November 18. These new events bring additional diversity to the fall calendar.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public Friday, August 12 at noon. Friends of the Englert may purchase pre-sale tickets starting at noon on Monday, August 8.

Joe Raiola
Performing his one-man show American Heretic
Friday, September 23 at 8:00pm
Tickets: $15 Students / $20 General Public

Joe Raiola (senior editor of Mad Magazine) is a comedic and satiric force. Since joining the Theatre Within Workshop in New York as a young comedian in 1979, he has had a flourishing career as a solo performer, comedy writer, producer, director and speaker on first amendment issues. He continues to tour the country in his acclaimed solo show, The Joy of Censorship, which he has performed at countless colleges, regional theaters, public libraries and professional conferences in over 40 states. Raiola previously toured extensively in Almost Obscene, his comic rant on religion and censorship which generated rave reviews from coast to coast and inspired critical comparisons to his comedy hero, George Carlin. His new show American Heretic covers some of the first amendment ground addressed in Joy of Censorship, but the show has a much broader focus. It includes a wealth of material on religion and American culture: politics, sports, and commercial

Raiola is suspicious of anyone who recites pledges, wears a flag pin, celebrates Columbus Day, or is over the age of 14 and still buys firecrackers. While deeply grateful to have been born in the United States, as opposed to say, Sudan, he does not from suffer the psychotic delusion that America is exceptional, nor is he a practitioner of the dangerous religion that many people believe the nation was founded upon. Raiola has never been a member of a political party or church group, spoken out in favor of "God and country," or considered himself or been "a patriot".

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Saturday, October 22 at 8:00pm
Tickets: $18 Advanced Sales / $20 Day of Show

Since the release of their Grammy - nominated 2010 debut album, Backatown,Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue have grown creatively while winning hordes of new fans performing nonstop on five continents. Their new album, For True, offers substantive proof of their explosive growth, further refining the Signature Sound Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews has dubbed Supafunkrock.

"There was excitement from everywhere," says Andrews (now 25) of the experience on the road and how it fed into the creation of For True. "We did over 200 shows in the last year and a half, and every night we allowed the music to take us over. The whole band was getting better on their instruments. We were at a different level, which made us excited to get back in the studio and see what we can do. Musically and creatively, we wanted to shoot for some different things."

The band - MIke Ballard on bass, Pete Murano on guitar, Joey Peebles on drums, Dwayne Williams on percussion, Dan Oestreicher on baritone sax and Tim McFatter on tenor sax - stirs together old-school New Orleans jazz, funk and soul, laced with hard-rock power chords and hip-hop beats, and they've added some tangy new ingredients on For True as they keep pushing the envelope, exploring new musical territory.

Greg Brown
Friday, November 18 at 8:00pm
Tickets: $25 Reserved Seating / $45 Golden Circle (first three rows)

One of American folk music's most prolific and profound singer/songwriters of the past three decades, Greg Brown has earned respect from his peers and a far-flung, passionately-devoted fan-base via a burnished, intimate baritone, a seemingly effortless gift for swinging, organic melody and--perhaps most of all--a humble, unvarnished poetic grace that can imbue even the most mundane, everyday human endeavors and emotions with quiet dignity, startling insight and gently twisted humor.

Freak Flag (the Iowa native's 24th studio album and first on Yep Roc) was recorded--for the most part--in Memphis, Tennessee's time-tested rock'n'soul incubator Ardent Studios with the artist's longtime sidekick/guitarist Bo Ramsey producing; it features nine Brown originals plus a gorgeous pair of cuts 'borrowed' from his mega-talented family--wife Iris Dement's "Let the Mystery Be" and daughter Pieta Brown's "Remember the Sun."

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