SARATOGA SPRINGS — NE-YO this week announced his Champagne and Roses Tour 2023 with Robin Thicke and Mario as special guests, will go on a 15-city tour that includes a Sept. 14 date at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
NE-YO, R&B hitmaker, songwriter, actor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, has sold a cumulative 20+ million adjusted albums worldwide. His debut single, 2005’s “So Sick,” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since then, the Motown Records/Compound Entertainment recording artist has racked up a collection of hits including “Sexy Love,” “Closer,” “Because of You,” “Miss Independent,” and “Push Back” [feat. Bebe Rexha and Stefflon Don].
General on-sale Begins on Friday, June 16 at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster.com
SARATOGA SPRINGS— The 10th Annual Beekman Street Art Fair will take place 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday June 11.
The 2023 fair features artists tents, entertainment, culinary venues and street performers. Fairgoers will be able to get to and from the fair via a free shuttle bus running from the Saratoga Casino to Beekman and Grand Ave.
Beekman Street will be closed to traffic from Grand Ave. to West Circular St. for the family-friendly event.
This year 60 juried artisans will set up tents showcasing a diverse collection of artwork by accomplished New York State artists and makers, most from the Capital District. The Beekman Street Art Fair welcomes new, emerging artists and nationally known artists including Frankie Flores, Gary Zack, and Leonie Lacouette. Alongside painting, drawing and photography, the fair will feature fiber art, pottery, glass, woodwork, fashion, jewelry, and mixed media artwork.
The Entertainment Tent schedule for the day showcases a variety of local talent, and includes Saratoga Springs High School Fiddle Club, Ballston Spa Community Band, Swing Docs Big Band, and Gadget.
For more information and shuttle bus schedule visit www.ArtsonBeekman.org
Philippe Marcade performing with The Senders and Johnny Thunders, Valentine’s Day 1979 at Studio 10 in New York City. Original Photo and Image: Thomas Dimopoulos.
Philippe Marcade has left us.
With those five words, the social media page dedicated to the musician and author shared the somber news that Marcade, at the age of 68, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on June 5.
Gregarious and gracious, Marcade arrived in New York City in 1975, moved into the Chelsea Hotel and a year later co-founded the band The Senders. As lead singer, Marcade cut a striking figure at center stage, draped in a black leather jacket and fronting the shake, rattle and roll of the band’s sonic abundance of punk blues. It was the dawn of a new era in downtown New York.
He witnessed The Ramones playing their third-ever gig, caught early performances by Blondie (who would enlist Marcade’s native French language skills to script the verses the band would use in their rendition of the song “Denis, Denis”) and share a blossoming friendship, and often the stage, with Johnny Thunders.
“I felt that I had missed the Great 1960s, and all that was left were some little local bands and a very small local scene,” he said, during a conversation in 2019 for a story I was writing about him. “It never occurred to me that this was history in the making and that some of these bands would become huge.”
Playing with the Senders from 1976 through his final performances in 2017, he remembered: “Nothing beats the feeling of a good audience that’s right in front of you…We weren’t just there to play music; everyone in the audience had to go home soaked, messed up, worn out.”
His memoir, “Punk Avenue,” published in the U.S. in 2017 by Three Rooms Press, documents a life fully explored: being chased along the Boulevard Montparnasse by a barber from whom he’d snatched a mannequin’s wig, pursued through the Paris meatpacking district by beef-flinging butchers repelled by his long hair and hunted by holy men after venturing into the Forbidden Area of the Notre Dame. And that’s when he was just getting started.
Migrating to America, he explored his new landscape on a cross-country zag in a beat-up hippie van, sustained by all-you-can-eat restaurants, drive-in cinemas, and gas siphoned from other cars through plastic tubes. And of course, there was all that music – as noted in his memoir’s subtitle: “Inside the New York City Underground 1972-82.”
Marcade’s journey was laced with a yearning for discovery, a sense of joy and the natural ability of greeting life’s unexpected moments with great humor and often laugh-out-loud exchanges.
“You seem to be able to find the humor in all things, no matter how serious, and present them in a funny way,” I said to him, during that last conversation we shared.
“Yes indeed,” he responded, his words laced with the French undertones of his upbringing. “It was very funny, and I had a wonderful time!”
For more about the memoir, visit Northshire Bookstore at: https://www.northshire.com/book/9781941110492.
For more information about The Senders, go to: The Senders.bandcamp.com.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Hailing from the Great Plains of Lincoln, Nebraska, enchanting folk/americana trio, The Wildwoods will perform at Caffe Lena on Friday, June 16.
Comprised of husband-and-wife team Noah (guitar) and Chloe Gose (violin), as well as Andrew Vaggalis (bass), The Wildwoods draw inspiration from a wide range of influences including the styles of: Watchhouse, The Decemberists, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Peter, Paul, & Mary, Nickel Creek, Joni Mitchell, and Gregory Alan Isakov.
The Wildwoods released their debut album, Sweet Nostalgia, followed by a duo EP, Birdie & Goose, in 2017, and quickly established themselves as a creative, harmonious, and instrumental force in their local music scene. Since then, The Wildwoods have released two full-length records, Across A Midwest Sky (2019) and Foxfield Saint John (2023), as well as a handful of singles, Little Home (2020) and Like My Old Man (2021), and have supported touring acts such as Elephant Revival, Arts Fishing Club, The Accidentals, The Way Down Wanderers, and Jamie Wyatt.
Bonnie Raitt will be among the headliners of the 46th Annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The 46th Annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival will return for a full two-day and two-stage festival experience on Saturday, June 24 and Sunday, June 25 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
This year’s lineup features 21 musical groups, headlined by Bonnie Raitt, Pat Metheny, Angelique Kidjo, Tower of Power, and Chucho Valdes.
Additional appearances include: Snarky Puppy, Cory Wong, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Hiromi, Cindy Blackman Santana, Samara Joy, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Emmet Cohen.
“The 2023 jazz festival features ‘A-list’ artists from start to finish, on both stages, all weekend,” Danny Melnick, the festival producer and President of Absolutely Live Entertainment, said in a statement. “All of the amphitheater groups will perform longer sets and we’ve built in more time in between sets to allow the audience to go from stage to stage more easily. I couldn’t be more excited about what we’re planning.”
Bonnie Raitt will be making her return to the festival for the first time since 1988. Headlining on Saturday for its second festival appearance is the 19-piece mega-band Snarky Puppy.
Returning jazz icons include Pat Metheny; global music superstar Angelique Kidjo, called “Africa’s premier diva” and named one of the 100 most influential people in the world for 2021 by Time Magazine; R&B and funk group Tower of Power, who is celebrating its 55th anniversary, and Afro-Cuban jazz legend Chucho Valdes.
Highlighting the 11 festival debuts is jazz and funk guitarist Cory Wong, best known as a frequent guest rhythm guitarist for Vulfpeck as well as for his ebullient solo material; eight-piece psychedelia and funk fiery band St. Paul & The Broken Bones; jazz and rock drum dynamo Cindy Blackman Santana, who is the regular touring drummer for Carlos Santana and previously Lenny Kravitz, and “Silky-voiced rising jazz star” (New York Times) Samara Joy, fresh off of her 2023 Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best New Artist.
In addition to two non-stop days of music on two stages, fans can also enjoy a host of amenities including a fine arts and crafts fair, artist CD signings, and new and diverse food offerings. Guests are welcome to bring in their own food and beverages, as well as blankets, tents and lawn umbrellas. Parking for the event is free.
Performances will begin at 11 a.m. on the Charles R. Wood “Jazz Discovery” Stage and noon on the Amphitheater Stage on Saturday, June 24 and 11:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., respectively, on Sunday, June 25.
Author William Kennedy reading from his works at NYSWI event at Skidmore College. Kennedy will return to the series July 21. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The New York State Summer Writers Institute will offer evening readings by an extraordinary line-up of distinguished writers this June and July. Except where noted, the readings, which are free and welcome the public, will begin at 8 p.m. in Davis Auditorium, Palamountain Hall on the Skidmore College campus.
June 26: Poet Vijay Seshadri (Pulitzer Prize, 3 Sections) & Novelist Steve Stern (Guggenheim Fellow; The Village Idiot).
June 27: Novelist Garth Greenwell (What Belongs to You; Cleanness) & Poet Carl Dennis (Practical Gods).
June 28, 7 PM: Going to the Movies with Phillip Lopate (Screening of Rohmer’s “The Marquise of O” followed by discussion).
June 29: Novelist Claire Messud (The Woman Upstairs; The Emperor’s Children) & Memoirist Honor Moore (Our Revolution: A Mother and Daughter at Mid-Century).
June 30: Poet Gregory Pardlo (Pulitzer Prize, Digest) & Novelist and Memoirist Elizabeth Benedict (Rewriting Illness: A View of My Own).
July 3: Memoirist Phillip Lopate (Portrait Inside My Head: Essays) & Poet Campbell McGrath (Nouns & Verbs: New and Selected Poems).
July 4: Novelist and Memoirist Mary Gordon (Pearl; Payback) & Poet Rosanna Warren (So Forth: Poems).
July 5: Poet Katha Pollitt (Learning to Drive and Other Life Stories) Panel with Mary Gordon, Robert Boyers and Writers Institute Students: The Writer & The Culture of Censorship.
July 6: Novelist Mary Gaitskill (The Mare; Veronica) & Novelist Calvin Baker (A More Perfect Reunion: Race, Integration, and The Future of America).
July 7: Poetry & Jazz²: An Evening with former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and Grammy Award-winning musicians Todd Coolman (bass) & Bill Cunliffe (piano) at Caffe Lena.
July 10: Fictionist Amy Hempel (Sing to It: New Stories) & Poet Chase Twichell (Things as It Is).
July 11: Novelist Binnie Kirshenbaum (Rabbits for Food) & Poet Peg Boyers (To Forget Venice; Hard Bread; Honey With Tobacco).
July 12, 7 PM: Going to the Movies: Screening of “TAR” followed by discussion with Poet Peg Boyers (To Forget Venice; Hard Bread; Honey With Tobacco) & Robert Boyers.
July 13: American linguist John McWhorter (Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America) & Author Thomas Chatterton Williams (contributing writer The Atlantic; Self-Portrait in Black and White) in A Conversation on “Writing About Race.”
July 14: Novelist Rick Moody (The Ice Storm; Hotels of North America) & Novelist Adam Braver (November 22, 1963; Rejoice the Head of Paul McCartney ) at Caffe Lena.
July 17: Fictionist Francine Prose (The Vixen) & Novelist-memoirist Danzy Senna (Caucasia; Where Did You Sleep Last Night).
July 18: Novelist Joyce Carol Oates (Zombie; Blonde; The (Other) You: Stories) & Poet April Bernard (The World Behind the World: Poems).
July 19: Remembering Novelist Russell Banks (Foregone; Affliction; The Lost Memory of Skin) with Joyce Carol Oates, Nicholas Delbanco (It is Enough; What Remains), Tom Healy (Getting Great in the Door: The Ultimate Guide for Fraternity Recruitment; What the Right Hand Knows), Adam Braver and Robert Boyers, Payne Room, Tang Museum, Skidmore College.
July 20: Novelist-Memoirist Jamaica Kincaid (Among Flowers; Autobiography Of My Mother; Lucy) and Poet Henri Cole (Blizzard: Poems; Nothing To Declare).
July 21: Pulitzer Prize-winning Novelist William Kennedy (Very Old Bones; Legs; Ironweed) & Friends.
For 36 summers, the New York State Summer Writers Institute has offered aspiring students the opportunity to learn from a distinguished faculty of award-winning authors led by director Robert Boyers. Originally an offshoot of the New York State Writers Institute created by Albany native and Pulitzer Prizewinning author William Kennedy, the program has become widely known for its small classes offering individualized attention in a supportive environment.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Guns N’ Roses this week the band Dirty Honey will be their special guests when they arrive at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Friday, Sept. 1.
Ahead of the kickoff of the international dates of their 2023 Global Tour, Guns N’ Roses revealed the artists that will support the tour’s North American leg, including Superstar Carrie Underwood, The Pretenders, Alice In Chains, The Warning, and Dirty Honey.
Guns N’ Roses return to the road on a massive 2023 World Tour produced by Live Nation, headlining stadiums, festivals, and arenas throughout the summer and fall. The powerhouse rock band launches their jaunt on June 5 in Tel Aviv, Israel at Park Hayarkon and will continue across Europe through July 22, wrapping in Athens, Greece.
The band will continue onto North America in August and will visit historic venues across the country such as Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. The tour concludes in Vancouver, BC in mid-October.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) presents two events this weekend – Friday, June 2 and Sunday, June 4 – that support this season’s classical music residencies and youth educational programming throughout the community.
The inaugural Summer SPACtacular fundraiser 5 – 11 p.m. on June 2 includes culinary tastings, cocktails, fireworks, and a dance party on the amphitheater stage.
The sixth annual Adirondack Trust Company Festival of Young Artists starts at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 4 and celebrates the collaborative creativity of more than 700 of the Capital Region’s brightest young dancers, musicians, singers, poets, and visual artists with pop-up performances, fine art displays, food stands, poetry slams, games & activities, and free ice cream provided by Stewart’s Shops. Featuring two different ticketing options including a “Party Pass” and an “All-Access Pass,” attendees will experience SPAC with tastings, libations and entertainment throughout the SPAC campus. Guests who purchase a “Party Pass” will enjoy live music by Saratoga Springs native Jes Hudak, tastings from local eateries, distilleries and breweries, and a whiskey and cigar lounge – culminating in a fireworks display and a DJ dance party on the amphitheater stage.
In addition to the “Party Pass” offerings, the “All-Access Pass” also includes a reception with craft cocktails and live jazz on the amphitheater stage, followed by an intimate “Summerscape Supper” featuring three courses that celebrate spring’s culinary bounty with wine pairings. Event is for ages 21+.
Do Re Mi: (clockwise starting top left) Natalya Palmer as Louisa, Vincent Connell as Kurt, Chase Cowell as Friedrich, Eilley Kalik as Brigitta, Bella Lawrence as Liesl, Isabelle Franco as Maria, Saiorse Gorman as Gretl, and Gwen Matthews as Marta. Photo by Dawn Oesch.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — For two weekends, starting on Friday, June 9, Home Made Theater will present the classic musical, The Sound of Music, music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, and book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.
The beloved musical tells the uplifting story of Maria, a young postulant who brings joy and music into the lives of the von Trapp family as their governess. Set against the backdrop of World War II, The Sound of Music is a tale of resilience, courage, and love that has captured the hearts of audiences for generations.
The Director of The Sound of Music is Dawn Oesch, who has previously directed the Home Made Theater productions of Mamma Mia!, Young Frankenstein, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, just to name a few.
On Saturday, June 10 at 2 p.m. Sam von Trapp, the grandson of Georg and Maria von Trapp, will be in attendance and will speak about his family history after the performance. He grew up on the grounds of the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT. Along with his father, Johannes, von Trapp oversees brewery operations at von Trapp Brewing, and assists with guest relations, public relations, and marketing for all areas of the Trapp Family Lodge. Mr. von Trapp will attend the performance with his wife and two sons.
The performance at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 17. will be a special “sensory friendly” performance. This performance will be designed to make theater accessible to patrons who may be prone to sensory overstimulation, including those on the autism spectrum.
Performances the first weekend are Friday, June 9 at 7 p.m., Saturday, June 10 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday, June 11 at 2 p.m.
The second weekend will begin with a performance on Thursday, June 15 at 7 p.m. The rest of the weekend will include performances on Friday, June 16 at 7 p.m., Saturday, June 17 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and Sunday, June 18 at 2 p.m.
All performances are at the Pitney Meadows Community Farm at 223 West Ave. in Saratoga Springs. Tickets are $20 and are available on Home Made Theater’s website, www.homemadetheater.org, or by calling 518-587-4427 during regular business hours.
Richard Russo, author of Somebody’s Fool, will be featured in interview and Q&A session in Saratoga Springs in August.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo will return to Saratoga Springs for a special event celebrating the release of his new novel Somebody’s Fool, the third and final novel in his beloved North Bath Trilogy.
The event will take place 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 3 at the Spa Little Theater, and is presented in partnership with the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s Literary Arts@SPAC initiative and WAMC/Northeast Public Radio.
Russo will be interviewed on stage by Joe Donahue of WAMC, and recorded for subsequent broadcast on Donahue’s The Book Show. The conversation will be followed by a question-and-answer session, and a book signing.
In Somebody’s Fool, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls returns to upstate New York, and to the characters that captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of readers in his beloved best sellers Nobody’s Fool and Everybody’s Fool. Infused with all the wry humor and shrewd observations that Russo is known for, Somebody’s Fool is another classic from a modern master.
Russo is the author of nine novels, most recently Chances Are…, Everybody’s Fool and That Old Cape Magic; two collections of stories; and the memoir Elsewhere. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which, like Nobody’s Fool, won multiple awards for its screen adaptation, and in 2023 his novel Straight Man was adapted into the television series Lucky Hank. In 2017, he received France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine. Originally from Gloversville, NY, he now lives in Portland, ME.
Tickets are required for this event and space is limited. Tickets, and can be purchased at northshire.com/upcoming-events. For more information on this or other Northshire events, call 518-682-4200 or visit northshire.com.
