(Town of Nelson, NY – May 2013) The 2nd Annual Skunk Funk, featuring a music festival with artist workshops, food, and more will be held Saturday May 25 at the Nelson Odeon, 4035 Nelson Road.
Workshops will be held at noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Music starts at 3 p.m.
The line-up features performances by (in order of appearance) Cleo Heck, Rabbit in the Rye, Jack Grace Band, and Miss Tess and the Talkbacks…plus there will be workshops, and food and drinks from Empire Brewing, Gypsy Girl Wood-Fired Pizza and Shepard’s Links.
Miss Tess and the Talkbacks
Miss Tess is a New York City based songwriter and performing musician, who tours regularly with her band, as “Miss Tess & The Talkbacks”. In addition to Tess’s tasty licks and prowess on her 1940s archtop guitar, the current lineup includes Will Graefe on guitar, Larry Cook on upright bass, and Matt Meyer on drums. Inspired by styles of vintage swing, blues, country, and early rock-n-roll Miss Tess draws comparisons to artists such as Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Peggy Lee, and Chuck Berry, but maintains a style all of her own.
Jack Grace Band
Jack Grace is a singer, songwriter and guitarist hailing from Brooklyn. Simple enough, unless you happen to happen to work in the music business. The entertainment world loves a label: character actor, avant garde painter, fill-in-the-blank musician. Jack writes for himself and plays for others. Simple. His band rocks too hard to be country. It always has. And the band members come from all walks of life: jazz, rock, country and, well, other. Bassist, vocalist and wife Daria (Melomane, Pre-war Ponies) keeps the rhythm going with the rotating drummers, Russ Meissner, Jason “J-Bird” Bowman and Bruce Martin (Tom Tom Club). The size of the Jack Grace band differs with their tour schedule. They will performing as a trio for this date but don’t let that fool you.
Rabbit in the Rye
Rabbit in the Rye is a collection of bittersweet fables and genuine storytelling. Allegory and honesty. Carefully crafted as if at a moment’s notice it could break. Deliberately fragile and traditionally progressive. Stark movement and all-enveloping fantastic realism. Poeticism. Romanticism. Rapturous walls of sound, yet sweet and somber waltzes. The creation and breaking of tension, dynamic and linear in composition. Joseph Mettler on guitar and harmonica, Alexander Lavon on bass, and Brendan O’Connor on percussion and mandolin.
Cleo Heck
Cleo Heck performs contemporary rock and country tunes from such artists as Adele, The Band Perry, and Gavon DeGraw to Lady Antebellum, Sugarland and Little Big Town.The band is made up of local musicians Tim Murray, Laine Gilmore, Sondra Whalen, Pat Avery, and Hal Appleby.
For ticket information, visit www.nelsonodeon.com.
Upcoming shows:
May 25: 2nd Annual Skunk Funk featuring Cleo Heck, Rabbit in the Rye, Miss Tess and the Talkbacks, Jack Grace Band…plus artist workshops, Empire Brewing, Gypsy Girl Wood-Fired Pizza, and Shepard’s Links
July 19: Jeffrey Foucault & Cold Satellite
July 25: New Country Rehab