First off, thanks to all who came out last thursday night to Housing Works and made the Live From Down Home debate party such a success.  While the debate may have been a little anti-climatic, seeing your smiling faces wasn’t!

This Friday we’ll be doing double duty in Cobble Hill.  We’ll be starting the night at the annual Big Brooklyn Pig Roast thrown by Earmfarm and Brooklyn Based at the best venue in the city by the Gowanus canal, The Yard.  There’s going to be, well, pig (yes please), a cash bar, and three great Brooklyn Bands (with the JSB closing out the band portion of the evening at 8:15).

THEN, we’ll pack up our gear, and head a few blocks away to Brooklyn’s brand new major rock club hotspot, The Bell House.  Put together by the same Brooklyn ownership that brought you Union Hall and Floyd’s, The Bell House aims to be THE place in Brooklyn to see great live music.  And after a trip there this weekend to see our good buddies Goes Cube punish the soundman with their crushing riffs, we’re really excited!  The Bell House is really quite something and still smells like freshly hewed wood!  We’ll be helping break the place in with a FREE impromptu gig…

OH and if that weren’t enough, we’ll be joined in this christening by rock of the Bell House by Sam’s other amazing big band of rogues THE XYZ AFFAIR.  That’s right, while the other 4 members of the JSB whine and stretch and fall asleep in the corner, exhausted from our Friday night double duty, Sam (stud that he is) will still be going strong doing TRIPLE DUTY.  Buy that man a drink!

Specs:
Big Brooklyn Pig Roast
Friday, October 10 at The Yard, 388-400 Carroll St.
Doors open at 6pm, $1 Sixpoints until 7pm, JSB perform @ 8:15pm.
Tickets include all food and are $32 advance, available here>> and $40 at the door
Cash Bar
Free for kids ages 10 and under

The JSB @ The BELL HOUSE
w/ XYZ AFFAIR!!!
149 7th Street in Brooklyn, NY.
FREE SHOW -  Time TBA

Because it’s hard to feel shame at a pig roast,
The JSB
www.thejonesstreetboys.com
www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys

Come join us this Thursday for an evening of Americana and American Politics.  As part of this Thursday’s monthly event, Live From Down Home, hosted by Housing Works Used Bookstore and your friendly neighborhood Jones Street Boys, we’ll be watching the Vice-Presidential debates live!  It’s a Debate Party!!!

The Jones Street Boys will perform at 8pm followed by a live big screen broadcast of the VP-Debates.  Then, hold on to your socks as the marvelous Junior League Band with Erik Lawrence will perform.

Specs:
THIS Thursday, 8pm
Housing Works Used Bookstore - 126 Crosby St.
FREE Show, Cash Bar - All Proceeds benefit Housing Works / AIDS Assistance

Because we want you to shout the chorus of Neville with us and then ponder the election,
The Jones Street Boys

www.thejonesstreetboys.com
www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys

Here’s hoping you’re unpacking your fall closet with relish like we are!  Come out this Thursday and show us your jackets and scarves and we’ll play you a song or 12.  We’ll be back in Brooklyn at Union Hall on a triple threat bill with out of towners Jim Bianco (LA, CA) and The Old Ceremony (NC).  The JSB take the stage at 7:30pm.  Tickets are $10 and can be purchased in advance here.

Specs:  Union Hall, 702 Union / 5th Ave., Park Slope, Brooklyn
7:30pm, JSB; $10 cover

Till Thursday,
The JSB

www.thejonesstreetboys.com
www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys

Americana at the Bookstore: LIVE FROM DOWN HOME with Michael Daves and

The Jones Street Boys

Housing Works Bookstore hosts a night of free music on Friday September 5, at 8pm. this month’s LIVE FROM DOWN HOME will feature Michael Daves and the The Jones Street Boys. Free admission, cheap drinks, and a guaranteed good time.

The Jones Street Boys will open the show and host the evening. Michael Daves will headline, followed by an open jam session for whoever brings an instrument. If you bring an instrument and you play it, you get $1 off drinks all night! Each month will feature special headlining acts followed by open bluegrass jams. All proceeds benefit Housing Works Inc

Michael Daves is “a dazzling guitarist and fearless singer at the heart of a burgeoning New York City bluegrass scene” (The New York Times). He hails from Atlanta, Georgia and currently lives in New York.  As well as performing solo, Michael has appeared in public with the likes of: Tony Trischka, Chris Thile, Rosanne Cash, Natalie MacMaster, and John Herald (of the Greenbrier Boys). Michael’s debut album, Live at the Rockwood is recordings of Michael performing bluegrass music at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York City.

The Jones Street Boys make American music that is both contemporary and classic in its scope - veterans of New York City’s roots music community, their debut album, Overcome, was released in October of 2007. They are currently recording a new album and were recently commissioned to compose and perform the music for a new play, Twelve Ophelias, which was performed this summer at Brooklyn’s historic McCarren Park Pool.  www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys - www.thejonesstreetboys.com.

“Listening to The Jones Street Boys is like running down a mountain on a switchback trail, the sound of surprise generating its own momentum.  There’s a punk glee inside the bluegrass craft — and a punk vehemence inside the bluegrass smile”

~Greil Marcus, author of Mystery Train and Lipstick Traces

“Charming, unusually graceful.”

~New York Times 

“The band’s ingratiating 2007 release, Overcome, applies the warmth of traditional music to tales of young, urban life in the modern age, coming across like 1995 Wilco with the sensibility of 2007 Wilco.” ~The Onion AV Club

GETTING THERE:

Housing Works Bookstore Café

126 Crosby Street (one block east of Broadway between Houston and Prince)

Subway: W, R to Prince; B, D, F, V to Broadway/Lafayette; 6 to Bleecker

General Information: (212) 334-3324

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe Fighting AIDS One Book At A Time

Housing Works Bookstore Café is an independent cultural center that offers patrons a unique opportunity to join the fight against AIDS and homelessness. Arts-based philanthropy in practice, we allow visitors to make a difference simply by buying or donating books; eating at our cafe; coming to concerts, readings, and special events; or volunteering for our staff.

We are a non-profit organization that relies entirely on donations to stock our store and volunteers to run it. All proceeds directly benefit our parent organization, Housing Works, Inc., the nation’s largest minority-controlled AIDS service provider. Housing Works provides housing, healthcare, job training, and advocacy for New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. As an activist organization, we are committed to implementing the systemic changes necessary to ensure that AIDS and public health policies are sound in concept and equitable in administration.

The curtain is upon us. We’ve had a great summer swimming through the theatre worlds of Hamlet and McCarren Park Pool. And after this Friday, we close it down and call it a memory. If you haven’t yet had a chance to see all the hard work that has gone into mounting 12 Ophelias and hear the score we’ve composed, this week is your last chance.

The final performances are this Wed, Thu, and Fri. You can also stick around and have a few drinks with the cast and crew on friday, as the JSB’ll perform immediately after Friday’s final show. Don’t miss it!

You can get tickets in advance here: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/2522

Doors/gates open at 7:50pm.

To the pool!
The JSB

www.thejonesstreetboys.com
www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys

If you haven’t had a chance yet to take a trip to McCarren Park Pool to see Woodshed Collective’s production of Twelve Ophelias this week we’ve got the perfect opportunity for you.  The Jones Street Boys will be performing a set of their own music after this Friday’s (8/8/08) performance.  There will be beer for sale, sunsets to absorb, theatre in the round, and of course your friendly neighborhood Jones Street Boys singing their hearts out.  And if that weren’t enough, afterwards we’ll be celebrating the birthday of our beloved singer/harmonica badass, Jon Hull.

You can get tickets in advance here:  https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/2522
Doors/gates open at 7:50pm.

Get thee to the pool,
The JSB

www.thejonesstreetboys.com
www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys

Hopefully you’ve heard a peep or two from us about this great theatre piece we’re involved with this summer at McCarren Park Pool - 12 Ophelias. We’re in the midst of press previews right now and we think we have a very entertaining show for you to enjoy.

I’ve got to admit, we’re so used to banjo strings and beer cans as our backdrop that it has taken this bunch of lunkheaded musicians a few extra beats to get used to the greasepaint and set design of the theatrical world. But the band’s got the flow, the cast are outstanding actors and actresses, and the crew works overtime making sure everything is ready and running properly.

We eagerly await opening night!

Come join us this Friday, July 18th for the official opening of 12 Ophelias! To help mark the occasion, get to the Pool early, as we’ll be playing a set of JSB music before and after the performance. We’ll play 4 shows like this during the the summer run so mark your calendar for these JSB set dates: 7/18, 8/8, 8/16, 8/22. The play will start nightly around 8pm, but on these dates the JSB will start playing @ 7pm. Don’t be late or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will punish you mercilessly!

Because sometimes sleep is a rare gift,
The JSB
www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys
www.thejonesstreetboys.com

TOMORROW Tue, 6/17 - The JSB head back to Pianos to play an early set in support of Samantha Crane and the Midnight Shivers. We’ll be on at 9pm followed by Samantha and then Born at Sea. The Woes open the night.

Sun, 6/22 - We’ll be cleaning up the crumbles after Stinky Brklyn’s Cheese Eating Contest during the Smith Street Fair. The JSB will perform at 4pm. Come out and join the festival! (F/G Train to Bergen/Carroll in Brooklyn)

Thu, 6/26 - Live from Down Home! Join Housing Works Bookstore and The Jones Street Boys as we kick off a monthly celebration of roots music at the Bookstore. On Thursday, June 26, at 8pm the first LIVE FROM DOWN HOME will feature the indie folk singer Luke Temple. Free admission, cheap drinks, and a guaranteed good time. The Jones Street Boys will open the show and host the evening. Luke Temple will headline, followed by an open jam session for whoever brings an instrument. If you bring an instrument and you play it, you get $1 off drinks all night! Each month will feature special headlining acts followed by open bluegrass jam. All proceeds benefit Housing Works Inc.

Luke Temple released his first EP in 2004, on Mill Pond Records, and followed it up with his first full-length album, Hold a Match for a Gasoline World in 2005. In the fall of 2006 his song “Make Right with You” was featured in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. With indie rock kingpins Ben Gibbard and Sufjan Stevens now heralding his voice as one of the best in the business, Temple released his sophomore effort, the quirkily intimate Snowbeast, in 2007.

“Luke Temple has one of the most beautiful voices in pop music.” – Sufjan Stevens
“Mr. Temple isn’t part of any particular school — not even that all-purpose new songwriters’ catchall, freak-folk — and his private world is fascinating.” – Jon Pareles, New York Times

www.thejonesstreetboys.com
www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys

AND

TWELVE OPHELIAS IN MCCARREN PARK POOL!

WOODSHED COLLECTIVE PRESENTS
TWELVE OPHELIAS
WRITTEN BY CARIDAD SVICH AND DIRECTED BY TEDDY BERGMAN
FEATURING NEW MUSIC PLAYED LIVE BY THE JONES STREET BOYS

PRESENTED FREE TO THE PUBLIC
IN WILLIAMSBURG’S MCCARREN PARK POOL

PRODUCTION TO OPEN JULY 24, PERFORMANCES START JULY 11TH.
Tickets are free but they may be reserved by visiting:
Get Tickets Here!

The Brooklyn-based theatre company, Woodshed Collective (woodshedcollective.com), will present the premiere of Caridad Svich’s Twelve Ophelias, directed by Teddy Bergman, as a free event at McCarren Park Pool, one of the city’s best-loved concert and performance venues, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, beginning performances Friday, July 11, at 8pm and opening Thursday, July 24 at 8pm. The McCarren Park Pool is located on Lorimer Street at Bayard Street.

Twelve Ophelias centers on Hamlet’s Ophelia coming back to life, out of the water, to try to overcome her history and forge a new destiny for herself. She finds herself in an Appalachian Elsinore, Denmark by way of Deliverance—where Gertrude runs a brothel, Hamlet and Horatio slum it, and nothing is what it seems. In this squarely American and gritty interpretation of the Hamlet myth, Twelve Ophelias asks how it is possible to break old cycles and start afresh when the past so completely permeates your life.

The production follows on the heels of the Public Theater’s presentation of Hamlet in Central Park, creating an inter-borough dialogue—Hamlet’s in the Park, Ophelia’s in the Pool. Twelve Ophelias features a live and local rock/roots/bluegrass band, The Jones Street Boys (www.thejonesstreetboys.com), performing new original music, and showcases a host of talented young performers and designers.

CAST: Ben Beckley, Kate Benson, Pepper Binkley, Dan Cozzens, Jocelyn Kuritsky, Preston Martin, and Grace McLean.

CREW: Nicola Bullock (Choreography), Gabe Evansohn (Set), Emily Fishbaine (Musical Directors), Jessica Pabst (Costumes), Adam Rihacek (Fight Choreography), Jerad Schomer (Lights), and Ellen Shadburn (Stage Manager).

The production also highlights the McCarren Park Pool itself as a fascinating part of our urban landscape by placing the performers and audience amidst an Appalachian shanty-town installed inside the empty pool.

McCarren Park Pool was the eighth of eleven giant pools built by the Works Progress Administration to open during the summer of 1936. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia attended the dedication on July 31, 1936. With an original capacity for 6800 swimmers, the pool served as the summertime social hub for Greenpoint and Williamsburg. The building’s vast scale and dramatic arches, designed by Aymar Embury II, typify the generous and heroic spirit of New Deal architecture. The pool was closed in 1984 and in recent years has become a popular venue for live performances.
Visit WOODSHED COLLECTIVE at www.woodshedcollective.com for more info about our company.

Caridad Svich is a playwright-songwriter-translator and editor of Cuban-Spanish-Argentine-Croatian descent. She is the recipient of New Dramatists’ 2007 Whitfield Cook Prize for New Writing for her play Lucinda Caval, and the 2003 National Latino Playwriting Award for Magnificent Waste. She’s also received a Harvard University Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Bunting fellowship, a TCG/Pew National Theatre Artist Grant, and has been short-listed twice for the PEN USA-West Award in Drama. In 2008: her free adaptation of Lope de Vega’s erotic comedy The Labyrinth of Desire premieres at Miracle Theatre/OR. In 2009: her adaptation of Allende’s The House of the Spirits premieres at Repertorio Espanol/NY and her new play Instructions for Breathing premieres at Passage Theatre/NJ. Other recent premieres include: The Tropic of X at artheater-Cologne (Germany), her play with alt-country songs Thrush at Salvage Vanguard Theatre/TX, and her US adaptation of the Serbian dark comedy Huddersfield as a TUTA production at Victory Gardens Theatre/IL, Iphigenia…a rave fable at 7 Stages/GA and Son of Semele/CA, translation of Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba at the Pearl Theatre/NY, and her multimedia collaboration The Booth Variations at 59 East 59th Street Theatre/NY and Edinburgh Fringe Festival/UK. She is alumna playwright of New Dramatists, contributing editor of TheatreForum, on the editorial board of Contemporary Theatre Review (Routledge/UK), affiliate artist of New Georges, and founder of the international theatre alliance and press NoPassport.

The Jones Street Boys make American music that is both contemporary and classic in its scope. Veterans of New York City’s roots music community, their debut album, Overcome, was released in October of 2007, which featured guest vocals from Jon Langford (Mekons/Waco Bros.) and received universally glowing reviews. They are currently recording a new album to be released in early 2009.

“There’s a punk glee inside the bluegrass craft–and a punk vehemence inside the bluegrass smile.” - Greil Marcus

“The Jones Street Boys, a country and bluegrass quintet from New York, play charming, unusually graceful acoustic music.” - The New York Times

www.thejonesstreetboys.com - www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys

Twelve Ophelias performs the following days at 8pm:

JULY: 11th, 12th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, 26th, 30th, and 31st.
AUGUST: 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 16th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd.

Performances take place at the McCarren Park Pool, Lorimer Street, at Bayard Street, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Tickets are free and may be reserved at www.theatermania.com.

Directions to McCarren Park Pool

FROM THE BEDFORD AVENUE L TRAIN STATION:
Take the L train to the Bedford Avenue stop in Brooklyn. Walk north on Bedford to Lorimer Street, take a right on Lorimer, the Main Arch of the pool is on the left on Lorimer St. between Driggs & Bayard Ave.

FROM THE METROPOLITAN G TRAIN STATION AND THE LORIMER L TRAIN STATION:
Take the G or L train to Metropolitan Avenue or Lorimer, respectively. Walk out of the station and cross Metropolitan on Union. Walk up Union under BQE overpass until you reach Roebling. Make a right, walk one block to Lorimer.

FROM THE NASSAU AVENUE G TRAIN STATION:
Take the G to Nassau Avenue. Walk South two blocks to Lorimer Street and take a left on Lorimer Street. Walk 1 1/2 long blocks and McCarren Park Pool will be on your left.

DRIVING DIRECTION FROM MANHATTAN:
Take the Williamburg Bridge and get off at the very first exit, immediately upon crossing the bridge. Take a left onto Havemeyer Street. It dead ends into Metropolitan, where you take a right. Go under the BQE and take a left on Union. Drive several blocks and McCarren Park Pool will be on you right.

PRAISE FOR WOODSHED COLLECTIVE

NEVER THE SINNER

“Never the Sinner, just ended a crisp revival by the Woodshed Collective … director Gabriel Hainer Evansohn kept the action moving nicely … backed by a strong supporting cast and by Carl Faber’s excellent lighting, Teddy Bergman made a sympathetic Leopold.”
- Next Magazine

“Woodshed Collective’s version of the shocking story of killers Leopold and Loeb is enthralling…Never the Sinner is a powerful evening.”
- Duncan Pflaster, HX Magazine

“Woodshed Collective, in its production of John Logan’s Never the Sinner, transform(s) its audience into the jury that never was – from the stage plan, to the program, fashioned as a Chicago newspaper, (they) draw the audience into the fanatical fervor that surrounded the case.
- Backstage

“The Woodshed Collective’s revival of Never the Sinner reenacts the media frenzy the trial aroused … from every angle — even the production’s playbill is in a clever newspaper format. The four leads turn in first-rate performances. Bergman and Squibb actualize the complex relationship between Leopold and Loeb with terrific chemistry. … Never the Sinner successfully places its audience directly in the middle of this 1924 media circus.”
- Showbusiness Weekly

BLOOD WEDDING

“Woodshed Collective brilliantly executes this story of two families who become trapped in an unbreakable cycle off murder and revenge. Blood Wedding is a beautifully produced and…well acted evening of theater.”
-Show Business Weekly

Everything about Woodshed Collective’s new revival of Blood Wedding, Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetic tragedy, is striking…there’s eye catching imagery aplenty here. They know how to compose arresting, impressive stage pictures.”
–nytheatre.com

“There are many things to like in Woodshed’s production, not the least of which is Lillian Groag’s limpid new translation, which – especially in this ensemble’s naturalistic performance – lends a refreshing immediacy to Lorca’s prose.”
-Village Voice

“[Blood Wedding’s] climax is particularly breathtaking. The scene looks like a painting, and says more in a moment about the violence and hopelessness of the times…than pages of words.”
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May, while it’s kept us away from the public eye, has been a busy month for the JSB.  We’ve been sifting and sorting, weighing ingredients, kneading and pulling, and cautiously feeding Danny to see if our experiments work (he’ll eat just about anything)!  We’ve been doing some great homecooking, perfecting a number of recipes we can’t wait to tell you about! We’re planning a big summer to share with you!!

But we’ll save those tales for another date.

And we know:  hiding away like that in our kitchens.  We’ve neglected you!

But no more: we’re back on the scene (insert James Brown reference here), and ready to tear up the Mercury Lounge stage this Sunday, 6/1.  Come on out and get a wee supermarket sampler of what we’ve been cooking up for your pleasure…

Specs:
Sunday 6/1 - 7pm
The Mercury Lounge - 217 E. Houston
$10 advance tickets / $12 at the door

Because one should never eat more than one can lift,

The Jones Street Boys

www.thejonesstreetboys.com
www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys