Upcoming Concerts

On Saturday, January 25th, Club Café will host the first of a semi-regular jazz night for the 2020 year. The theme for the inaugural concert is “A Celebration of Pittsburgh Jazz Contributions,” with select recordings performed live from the catalog of Art Blakey, Billy Strayhorn, Errol Garner, Henry Mancini, George Benson and more! All performing musicians are graduates or attendees of Pittsburgh-area universities, featuring guest vocalist, Kelsey Hillock. The house band for the evening will comprise of Brad Fritcher on trumpet, Ryan Salisbury on guitar, Pat Spallinger on bass, and Dan Leon on drums. Join us as we honor those who have contributed to the robust and longtime history of jazz in the city of Pittsburgh.

"We went through a pretty dramatic shift with this record," says Seratones frontwoman AJ Haynes. "The band lineup, the creative process, the sound: all of it changed in ways that really reflected our growth and evolution."

One listen to ‘Power,' Seratones' spectacular sophomore album, and it's clear just how much of an evolution has taken place. Produced by Cage The Elephant guitarist Brad Shultz, the record finds the Shreveport five-piece trading in the brash proto-punk of their critically acclaimed debut for a timeless brand of gritty soul, one that takes its cues from vintage Motown and Stax even as it flirts with modern synthesizers and experimental arrangements. Haynes' captivating voice remains front and center here, but her delivery this time around is more measured and self-assured than ever before, a beacon of confidence and clarity amidst a sea of social and political turmoil. Perhaps even more marked than the any sonic development on the record, though, is Haynes' lyrical turn, which points her gaze inwards for the first time as she grapples with race, gender, and justice, writing with an unfiltered honesty that at once exudes strength and vulnerability, hope and despair, beauty and pain.

"I learned to tap more into my own stories with these songs," says Haynes. "I came to recognize that I have this lineage and these inherited experiences that are beautiful and worthy of exploration. The more personal my writing got, the more deeply I was able to connect with people."

Seratones have been chasing those kinds of deep connections since 2016, when they first rocketed into the national spotlight with their breakout debut, ‘Get Gone.' Rolling Stone called the album a "fitful collision of punk, soul and jazz echoing out of a shed strewn with whiskey bottles," while Pitchfork praised the collection's "soulful grease and punky grit," and NPR hailed it as "lean and compact, with an impressive assortment of anthemic stompers." The music earned the band dates on the road with artists as varied as St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, The Dandy Warhols, and Drive-By Truckers, along with festival slots from Hangout to Newport Folk and invitations to perform on national television and at NPR's Tiny Desk.

THE SEA THE SEA is an Upstate New York based indie folk-pop duo featuring what Huffington Post calls, "Two of the loveliest male-female voices you might ever hear this or any other year." Paste Music / Daytrotter describes them as "defined by their infallible vocal harmonies and their unconventional song arrangements...a pop band only in their melodic infectiousness - otherwise they are at their best when subverting conventions." The Sea The Sea has been featured on Audiotree, Paste Studio Sessions, and NPR's Mountain Stage, as well as receiving praise from NPR (Heavy Rotation), American Songwriter, No Depression, Buzzfeed, Pitchfork, TED, and Parade. Their songs have earned features by Apple Music including "Best of the Week" and "A-List Singer/Songwriter," and have received over 15 million streams on Spotify to date.

Since emerging onto the music scene at age 18 as a member of the seminal rock band Green
on Red, Prophet has collaborated with everyone from Warren Zevon and Kelly Willis to Jim
Dickinson and Lucinda Williams among many others. In recent years, Prophet’s music has
been featured in several hit television series including HBO’s “True Blood,” Showtime’s
“Californication” and “Billions,” and FX’s “Sons of Anarchy.” He also co-wrote all the songs on
Alejandro Escovedo’s 2008 critically acclaimed album Real Animal.

Through his live performances with the Mission Express and solo, Prophet has developed a
reputation as an outstanding, entertaining live act and built a loyal fanbase from Albuquerque
to Stockholm. His live solo performances offer fans the opportunity to experience his songs
from a unique perspective.

Chuck Prophet is the best damn songwriter in all of roots rock and I'll stand on Alejandro Escovedo's coffee table
in John Murry's flip-flops and say that.
- Peter Blackstock, No Depression

Prophet does an impressive job of blurring the lines that separate blues, country and roots-rock.
- NPR

In his own good-humored, ramshackle way, Prophet earns his last name.
- Anthony DeCurtis

Trampled by Turtles are from Duluth, Minnesota, where frontman Dave Simonett initially formed the group as a side project in 2003. At the time, Simonett had lost most of his music gear, thanks to a group of enterprising car thieves who'd ransacked his vehicle while he played a show with his previous band. Left with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, he began piecing together a new band, this time taking inspiration from bluegrass, folk, and other genres that didn't rely on amplification. Simonett hadn't played any bluegrass music before, and he filled his lineup with other newcomers to the genre, including fiddler Ryan Young (who'd previously played drums in a speed metal act) and bassist Tim Saxhaug. Along with mandolinist Erik Berry and banjo player Dave Carroll, the group began carving out a fast, frenetic sound that owed as much to rock & roll as bluegrass.

Trampled by Turtles released their first record, Songs from a Ghost Town, in 2004. In a genre steeped in tradition, the album stood out for its contemporary sound, essentially bridging the gap between the bandmates' background in rock music and their new acoustic leanings. Blue Sky and the Devil (2005) and Trouble (2007) explored a similar sound, but it wasn't until 2008 and the band's fourth release, Duluth, that Trampled by Turtles received recognition by the bluegrass community. Duluth peaked at number eight on the Billboard bluegrass chart and paved the way for a number of festival appearances. When Palomino arrived in 2010, it was met with an even greater response, debuting at the top of the bluegrass chart and remaining in the Top Ten for more than a year. Two years later, their crossover appeal landed them at number 32 on the Billboard 200 pop charts upon the release of their sixth album, Stars and Satellites. In addition to major bluegrass and folk festivals, they began showing up at Coachella, Bumbershoot, and Lollapalooza. The official concert album, Live at First Avenue, followed in 2013, recorded at Minnesota's most famous venue. A year later, the band returned with the darker-toned Wild Animals, which bettered its studio predecessor on the album charts, reaching number 29. Trampled released their latest album Life Is Good On The Open Road in 2018.

Wayne Hancock
“Wayne Hancock has more Hank Sr. in him than either I or Hank Williams Jr. He is the real deal.” – Hank III

“Hancock, who tosses out a roots mix of old country, roadhouse blues, western dance swing, boogie bop, and straight-up rockabilly, takes what was once old and makes it seem like it’s always been and always will be.”—allmusic.com

“The country music scene could do with a lot more characters like Wayne, who push the music’s limits while staying truer to its roots than any well-known names associated with the genre today.” – Slug Magazine

Since his stunning debut, Thunderstorms and Neon Signs in 1995, Wayne “The Train” Hancock has been the undisputed king of Juke Joint Swing–that alchemist’s dream of honky-tonk, western swing, blues, Texas rockabilly and big band. Always an anomaly among his country music peers, Wayne’s uncompromising interpretation of the music he loves is in fact what defines him: steeped in traditional but never “retro;” bare bones but bone shaking; hardcore but with a swing. Like the comfortable crackle of a Wurlitzer 45 jukebox, Wayne is the embodiment of genuine, house rocking, hillbilly boogie.

Wayne makes music fit for any road house anywhere. With his unmistakable voice, The Train’s reckless honky-tonk can move the dead. If you see him live (and he is ALWAYS touring), you’ll surely work up some sweat stains on that snazzy Rayon shirt you’re wearing. If you buy his records, you’ll be rolling up your carpets, spreading sawdust on the hardwood, and dancing until the downstairs neighbors are banging their brooms on the ceiling. Call him a throwback if you want, Wayne just wants to ENTERTAIN you, and what’s wrong with that?

Wayne’s disdain for the slick swill that passes for real deal country is well known. Like he’s fond of saying: “Man, I’m like a stab wound in the fabric of country music in Nashville. See that bloodstain slowly spreading? That’s me.”

Little known fact: Wayne is the only Bloodshot artist to have had their CD taken aboard a space shuttle flight.

“For me, it all comes down to timing.”

That’s how Tony Lucca summarizes the career milestones that led him to Nashville — and on the brink of his most important album yet.

As a teenager, his time as a “Mouseketeer” on the infamous Mickey Mouse Club came when he was mature enough to understand what the exposure meant for his young career — and more importantly, what it didn’t mean.

In the early 2000s, Lucca found himself at the epicenter of the burgeoning Hotel Café singer-songwriter movement in Los Angeles. A scene that eventually helped craft his critically lauded 2006 album Canyon Songs, which came during not only a creative peak, but after he had built a steady following both as a headlining artist and tour support for his fellow Disney alumni Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez in NSYNC.

In 2012, Lucca burned up The Voice stage, making it all the way to the finals on the back of his electric performances, each time performing as if he had “nothing to lose” — thanks to more than a decade of development and an already passionate fan base. Oh, and Lucca’s season still ranks as the most-watched season of the show by total audience size.

But as monumental as those moments may seem, it was his 2013 move to Nashville that may be the greatest stroke of good timing. Just as many of Lucca’s contemporaries were moving to Nashville to cash in “not on country, but on the community,” as he says, Lucca felt poised for a change. One that included elevating his own songwriting — a personal challenge that is as admirable as it is eyebrow raising to those already familiar with Lucca’s stalwart catalog.

“Truth be told, all roads lead to Nashville,” Lucca sings on his new single, aptly titled “Nashville,” in homage to the town. “You can come and go there as you please. Ain’t nobody waiting on the next big thing to come along if it ain’t a song that brings them to their knees.”

Lucca has spent his fair share of time exploring the country’s greatest music scenes. From his hometown Motown mecca of Detroit, to the hills of Hollywood, to the borough of Brooklyn. Each has made its impact on Lucca, but none quite like Nashville.

“In Nashville when you visit, people say, ‘Anything I can do for you, just let me know,’” Lucca says. “And then you move here and you realize those arms really are wide open and those people aren’t full of shit. They really do want you to be part of the community here.”

Lucca’s admiration and respect for Nashville’s songwriting community, it turns out, was mutual. He quickly found his calendar consumed with co-writes from old and new friends alike. Those include tour-mate turned co-writer and “Nashville treasure” Gabe Dixon, as well as the Grammy-nominated Billy Montana (“Sage wisdom — bit of a mentor,” Lucca says of Montana).

Lucca brought his same workman-like mentality to songwriting in his new hometown, writing “daily and diligently.” He eventually developed a songwriter residency at Midtown venue The Local, all the while touring the country.

Over those formative years at the beginning of Lucca’s Act II, the songwriter again found himself falling in love with the purity of it all. “It was restorative for me on the creative side,” Lucca says. “It was also educational as I really tuned into the creative community and Nashville rhythm.”

Throughout that process, Lucca began “salting away” the songs that really reached out and grabbed him. “Those songs that make me sit in an empty room with an acoustic guitar and go, ‘Yeah, I’d be playing this song right now even if nobody were listening,’” Lucca says.

There’s one song in particular so arresting it became the cornerstone for all the work to come after it. “I wrote something that reminded me I still have something sufficient to say, something that still matters to me — and that was the song ‘Everything’s Changing,’” Lucca says. The emotive, dynamic song became a live show stunner and the catalyst for Lucca’s forthcoming 2019 LP.

After following a long-winding path that led him to Nashville, Lucca spent years honing his craft. In the process, he found the songs that “started to feel like my expression — how I want to channel my creative energy,” as he says. “It took my whole career to get to the point where I just went into the studio and, as Ray Charles said, ‘Make it do what it’s gonna do.’”

The combination of meticulously crafting songs and freewheeling in the studio led to a record that is ready to announce Lucca as a force not just for his vocals, but also for his voice. Talk about good timing.

Sam is a musical artist located in Pittsburgh, PA. His music has been described by himself and his mom as thought-provoking, yet catchy and easy to listen to.

Rave Ami are the loudest rock ‘n roll band in Pittsburgh. The power trio of guitarist/vocalist Joe Praksti, bassist Pat O’Toole, and drummer/vocalist Evan Meindl play a room-rattling push-pit of haggard grunge, beer-stained power-pop, and fuzz-drunk indie-rock. Their 2018 sophomore album, cheekily titled "All Great Bands Break Up" (produced by Adam Meisterhans of Rozwell Kid), is rife with sticky melodies, tasteful harmonies, virtuosic drumming patterns, and subtly brilliant basslines. From the fanged hooks of “I Don’t Wanna Talk About It (IDWTAI)” and “Hate Yr Guts” to the intense psych-rock climaxes of “Boone” and “Romantic Panic,” the band managed to capture the excitement of a basement show on record. And then they did it again on their explosive 2019 single, “Or Alike.”

With that being said, the only real way to experience Rave Ami in all of their glory is to catch them live. Through their tireless domination of the Pittsburgh DIY circuit, and by touring frequently throughout the East Coast/Midwest, the three members have developed an otherworldly creative chemistry that’s simply unmatched in the concert setting. All of their sets begin with a casual round of stage shots and end with Meindl knocking his cymbals over while Praksti kneels beneath his amp, feedback screaming through a room full of ringing ears. And every moment in between is just as reckless, freeing, joyful, celebratory, and downright exciting to witness—in basements, bars, and small clubs alike.

However, despite their undeniable presence and their preternatural tightness as a unit, Rave Ami radiate a friendly, inviting warmth both on and off the stage. Yes, they’re carrying the torch for rock’s feral forebearers by turning every set into a raucous party. But they’ve left all traces of macho bravado in the dust, translating the genre’s freewheeling lifestyle through the sort of genuine kindness and respect that’s needed today, more than ever, in the world they navigate. And they manage to kick utter ass while doing it.

-Eli Enis, 10/16/2019

Contemporary singer-songwriter and Cabinet of Wonders impresario Stace pays tribute to the legendary songwriter John Wesley Harding.

Throughout the '90s and ‘00s, which included his tenures at Sire, Rhino and Hollywood records, John Wesley Harding regularly toured in a duo format with noted mandolin, accordion and keyboard player, Robert Lloyd. This was at the very dawn of Unplugged, before even house concerts. Once described as The Metallica of McCabes, the duo’s performances were acknowledged to be the high watermark of contemporary live performance (in venues that held about one hundred people).

Wesley Stace (Yep Roc) has coaxed Lloyd out of retirement to pay tribute to the legendary songbook of John Wesley Harding. All Harding’s favourites will be represented and painstakingly recreated, from Modern Rock staple The Person You Are to 120 Minutes Video of the Week The Devil In Me; via Kill The Messenger and The Truth, memorably performed on the Tonight Show, to Scared of Guns, recently amended and released on Appleseed Records’ anniversary collection.

Since Stace’s critically lauded debut "Self-Titled" in 2013, he has played many of Harding’s songs live, but here he’s happy to let his own songwriting take a backseat to the master’s: “I feel an extraordinary kinship with these songs. It’s as if I wrote them." Harding himself has endorsed this tribute: “I am deeply honored, and glad to be as far away as possible.”

For nearly two decades he's been the "J Roddy Walston" of the "and the Business".

Now he's just him, and a whole rack of songs... and a moving truck full of synths, pianos, tape machines and sequencers. After quitting the music industry in december of 2019 he's back and some would say backer than ever. Ready to play all your favorite songs in completely unfamiliar ways, and all his new songs in the only way he knows how, J Roddy Walston is out to meet himself again, and do it in front of other people. Join him as he shares a single dose of strangeness.

Ask him how he knew it was time to record a new studio album and Clarence Greenwood, the trailblazing artist and producer better known as Citizen Cope, has a simple answer: “It was time.”

Cope has built an entire career on trusting his gut and following his muse, and if his new album, ‘Heroin & Helicopters,’ is any indication, his instincts are sharper now than ever before. As technically innovative as it is emotionally resonant, the record arrives at a uniquely challenging moment in modern American culture, when profound political polarization and social divisions seem to grow deeper by the day. Rather than dwell on our differences, though, Cope tunes in to what unites us here, drawing on everything from Chuck Brown and The Beatles to Randy Newman and Bill Withers, aiming his unique brand of urban‑folk inwards to reflect on the personal journeys we all undertake to embrace ourselves despite our flaws.

“I think we’re all on a mission to find some inner peace,” he reflects. “We’re all going towards this collective consciousness, and even though it’s dark right now, I believe we’re going to reach that place together. Peace and harmony and understanding, that’s how you combat the darkness, and that’s what this record is all about.”

While ‘Heroin & Helicopters’ feels particularly timely, the record’s themes have been fixtures of Cope’s music since the release of his self‑titled debut in 2002. That album was the culmination of years of pursuing his passion. Cope got his musical start in DC before moving to Brooklyn, where he wrote songs while supporting himself on the streets, buying and selling concert and sporting tickets with a cast of characters outside arenas and stadiums. His music spread from fan‑to‑fan via word of mouth, and over the course of time his songs have become the soundtrack of his fans lives.

The success of Cope’s music has always been a slow burn, rather than a flash in the pan. His single “Let The Drummer Kick” eventually went Platinum without any support from commercial radio. The Washington Post has hailed him as “DC’s finest export since Marvin Gaye,” while Rolling Stone raved that his “uncommon chords and harmonies combine delicate dissonance with unexpected flashes of beauty.” In 2004, Cope followed up his self‑titled debut with ‘The Clarence Greenwood Recordings,’ an album Vibe praised as “flawless throughout,” gushing that Cope “makes music that feeds your soul…this is one of those CDs you hear at a friend’s house and rush out to buy.” The collection was largely ignored by mainstream media and never charted, yet the grassroots swell of support kept sales rolling year after year, to the tune of 700,000 copies, and opened the doors to film and television syncs with tracks appearing in Entourage, Sons of Anarchy, Alpha Dog, and more. Songs from the record would go on to be covered by everyone from Carlos Santana and Sheryl Crow to Richie Havens and Rhymefest, and in the years that followed, Cope has headlined all 50 states and shared stages with superstars like Eric Clapton. He cracked the Billboard 200 for the first time with 2006’s ‘Every Waking Moment,’ and then launched his own label to release 2010’s ‘The Rainwater LP’ and 2012’s ‘One Lovely Day,’ his highest charting album to date.

As Cope’s career grew, his style of urban‑folk never settled into any particular genre in an industry fixated on arbitrary distinctions like radio formats. “I can understand why it didn’t go into the cookie‑cutter. The music and my life were influenced by growing up in very distinct but different American cultures.” Born in Memphis, spending summer months with his great aunt and uncle in a small west Texas town, while being primarily raised in Washington, DC, Cope grew up equally influenced by the production techniques of George Martin, Dr. Dre and Willie Mitchell while listening to everything from Willie Nelson, to John Lennon, Bob Marley, Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest. Artistic boundaries meant nothing.

The 2011 birth of his daughter proved to be an ideal moment to step away from it all and reevaluate what mattered most, both as a songwriter and a man. “It was really important for me to be there with my daughter as she grew up,” says Cope. “I took these past several years off of recording mostly just to spend time with her. People say it’s not rocket science making records, but there really is a science to making a piece of art that’s going to touch people emotionally and have an impact on their lives, and if you’re not feeling it, you can’t fake it.”

Cope’s time away from music was also a moment to deal with reflecting and addressing the turmoil he faced surrounding the death of his estranged biological father, who had been physically abusive before abandoning his responsibilities decades earlier. “He was sick and I was able to have a sit down with him before he died,” Cope told Lance Armstrong in a poignant conversation for The Forward Podcast. “I had a lot of fear surrounding my father, and when I saw him, I realized I wasn’t scared of him as a person. He was just a flawed individual and I saw him in a whole different light. I didn’t want to go through life having this anger or hatred, and I don’t even know what forgiveness is in that realm, but maybe it’s a little bit of forgiving yourself and giving love to yourself.”

That kind of self‑reflection is at the heart of ‘Heroin & Helicopters,’ which actually draws its title from a warning Santana shared with Cope one night backstage at The Fillmore. “Stay away from the two H’s, Heroin and Helicopters” he said, because they all too often prove fatal for musicians and celebrities. The message resonated with Cope, who saw parallels with a broader culture fixated on shortcuts over self‑improvement, on mass production over quality, on greed over empathy.

“We’re living in an addicted society,” says Cope, “and not just addicted to drugs or alcohol or substances. We’re addicted to conflict and fame and social media. We’re addicted to getting what we want without working for it, without paying the price.”

‘Heroin & Helicopters opens with “Duck Confit,” a slow‑burning and arresting spoken‑word meditation that finds Cope looking in as much as he looks out, channeling the uneasy feeling that comes with recognizing your own role in perpetuating the very same social constructs you wish to change. “Where crimes of humanity are concealed and condoned / By self preservation and biblical prophecy...Where you know deep down inside / That something’s not right / Like a man killing the mother of his son / Cleaning his shotgun” he says over a simmering organ punctuated with 808 kicks. The track plays out like an overheard prayer, spiritual in its intimacy, and it sets the stage beautifully for a record unafraid to push boundaries and ask uncomfortable questions, questions that transcend any political party or movement and cut to the heart of what it means to be human.

“People try to politicize my music sometimes, but I don’t write political records,” Cope says definitively. “My music has always been built around consciousness.”

The first single “Justice” challenges our very notion of the concept, wondering if we’ve ever even seen what true righteousness looks like in this world. “The River” castigates and identifies a system built to devalue our lives… “They’ll take you down to the river / Leave you down by the river / They’ll shoot you down by the river / Leave you to drown by the river.” The heavy drum and piano‑laden swing of “Sally Walks” is clothed in the story of a lover who’s swallowed whole by addiction, but it’s not clear if Sally is the lover or the substance itself. Though it would be easy to despair in the face of it all, ‘Heroin & Helicopters’ insists on defiance, on standing up to power and resisting the force of the invisible hands that seem to guide our every move. “Yella” could almost be a country song, with Cope singing over acoustic guitar and a drum shuffle played by Abe Laboreal, Jr. With lyrics touching on the migration of people from small towns to big cities, Cope uses the analogy of a little league baseball player striking out, ultimately realizing that strength and redemption are gained through struggle, loss and failure. “And the baseball rolls slowly off the pitcher’s mound / As I stood in the batter’s box once they struck me out / I showed a sign a weakness and I swung my bat / And the fire that once burned yella turned to ash”

“Government / counterfeit / dollar bill / you worship it,” Cope sings on “War,” an infectious track produced by XZ, who worked closely with him in the studio. The song is a perfect distillation of Cope’s brand of wordplay and lyricism, where war not only represents a battlefield, but also alludes to an individual’s self‑inflicted inner turmoil, moving between the mandated laws of religion and society, and how we reconcile choices within the human psyche.

“Essentially, I’m trying to connect an emotion and lyrics and wrap them up in heavy drums,” he explains. “The music isn’t hip hop, it isn’t reggae, it isn’t pop, and it isn’t rock and roll. It doesn’t necessarily have a home, genre‑wise, but it lives in all of those places, it pays respect to all those places.”

Respect is ultimately what it all comes down to for Cope: respect for the art, respect for each other, respect for ourselves, respect for our instincts. At the end of the day, we all want the same things, and no matter how much the culture conditions us to believe that peace and happiness can be bought and sold, there’s no price tag because they come from within. Change, growth, and satisfaction require patience, work, and love. Seven years in the making, ‘Heroin & Helicopters’ is proof of that.

Makeshift Comedy brings you a night of amazing improv and unscripted fun. Come for dinner and stay for the laughs with taco and drink specials. It’s a show that has never been seen before and will never be seen again. 

Kevin Spears and Joseph Callahan, Buffalo and Pittsburgh natives, respectively, have been creating, producing and curating music both separately and jointly for some time now. From early ages, the duo taught themselves in the ways of various musical instruments while eventually switching to electronic production as well.
Combining both, ESH the duo puts on a dual show of real and electronic instruments to cultivate both old and new, and classical and modern.

Storytime with Uncle Creepy is the official podcast of UFC Flyweight contender Ian McCall. Every week you can expect the unexpected as Ian welcomes his friends from every walk of life. From fighters to celebrities to Playboy Centerfolds and porn starletts, Storytime with Uncle Creepy's Ian McCall will never fail to entertain. “Storytime” is not your everyday podcast. So, grab a beverage, get comfortable, and get ready for a story!