Punk legend John Doe (X, Knitters) is also that guy in Road House!

JOHN DOE

Saturday, January 29 – 8pm.  $30

Stoltz Listening Room

Box Office: 410.822.7299

www.avalontheatre.com

www.theejohndoe.com

Infinitely cool, John Doe, the front man for LA bands, X and The Knitters, launched the west coast punk scene even while rejecting its dependence on power chords. Music fans, particularly of the punk rock variety, love Doe for this.

And they should. The man took a subset of a musical genre, and altered it to his liking. That's so punk!

And while we also admire the man's contributions to rock history, we also love the fact that he had a role in what was perhaps the best bad movie the planet has ever seen.

John Doe was in Road House.

The musician and actor performs in what should be a sold-out performance in the SLR on Saturday evening, January 29^th at 8pm. Call the Box Office asap if you're intrigued. 410.822.7299 will get you there...or go online at avalontheatre.com and pay the obligatory ticketmaster handling fees.

Doe writes lyrics with a message that would make Woody Guthrie proud and songs with meaty melodies that would make Johnny Cash want to sing along. His solo work has pleased fans and critics alike, especially with his most recent album, A Year in the Wilderness -  a resonate, more mature collection of songs with a biting broodiness that updates, but never dilutes, his legendary early work.

Says Doe about Wilderness, “Sometimes it sounded like a Replacements', then a Velvet Underground record, then Blonde On Blonde...twelve-strings, six-strings, electrics, upright bass, big kick drums, pianos, organs, slides, floating & screaming voices. These may be the darkest moments recounted but you have to look inside to hear that, and in there is some of what happens during a year in the wilderness.”

Expect a little bit of wild in the Stoltz this Saturday evening, as fans of this co-founding father of west coast punk will surely be cheering and swaying in their seats to some both heated and cerebral acoustic sincerity.

And, if we're really lucky, Doe will try to skim the bar and make off with an extra $150. As big fans of the man, it would be an honor. Just as long as he doesn't bring Brad Wesley into the mix;)

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The rock "star" who just kept getting better: The curious case of Alejandro Escovedo

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO & THE SENSITIVE BOYS
Tuesday, January 25 - 8pm.  $30
Avalon Theatre - Easton, MD
Box Office: 410.822.7299
www.avalontheatre.com
www.alejandroescovedo.com

There are aging rock stars whose best days are behind them, and then there's the curious case of Alejandro Escovedo.

Escovedo's rise has been gradual; a steady incline rather than a quick ascendance. His tireless touring and dogged determination to place one album after another has taken him through many musical scenes, remaining the same persona within each, of an artist who doesn’t settle for the easy way out. And his music shows no sign of mellowing, either. With the exception of Bruce Springsteen, who guests on Escovedo's new album, Street Songs of Love, few guys hovering around age 60 still rock this hard.

Rolling Stone's David Fricke went as far as to include Escovedo's latest release in his annual "Fricke's Picks: Best of..." list.

Alejandro Escovedo has had one of the more varied careers in music. In the late-’70s, Escovedo was a member of the San Francisco punk band the Nuns, followed by several excellent, under-the-radar solo records, and a near-fatal battle with Hepatitis C. But now, finally, his latest release showcases a stronger Escovedo, looking and sounding like a man who has fought to achieve his current position and has no intention of relinquishing it.

Escovedo opened for friends Los Lonely Boys at the Avalon during the fall of 2009, putting on a performance that had the near capacity crowd begging for more. His performance with his band The Sensitive Boys takes place on Tuesday, Jan. 25th at 8pm. Tickets are still available via the Avalon Box Office.

“You just do your good work, and people care,” Alejandro says of his heavy touring and recording habits. “I always believed, when I was a kid, that if you just worked hard, you would find fulfillment. I think I got a lot of that from my father, and my brothers. A working musician is all I ever wanted to be. Hard work, to stay true to what you want to do, and then eventually someone would notice for that very reason.”

Born in San Antonio in 1951, he was one of twelve kids. Many of his siblings are also musicians (his niece is Sheila E., while two brothers have played with Santana), as was his father. In 1957 the family moved from Texas, where he’d heard the beginnings of rock, country, and some blues. When they arrived in California, he was exposed to a wealth of surf music, Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, and much more.

But it was in Austin, where he returned in the mid-1980s, that Alejandro found a musical geography that matched his own eclectic sense of musical possibility. “It was this place that was completely open. The community really supported the musicians. It was small enough that you knew everybody there. You could see Townes Van Zandt walking around, or go to some beer garden and hear Billy Joe Shaver, or catch the Vaughan brothers playing every night at some place."

A large part of the credit for the collaborative feel of 'Street Songs’ must go to the Sensitive Boys, Alejandro’s core band. “I love my band,” he says. “Without them, I’d feel very alone.” Hector Munoz has been his drummer for twenty three years, while David Pulkingham has played guitar with Escovedo for the past seven years (he also played all the keyboards on the new album). “We had fourteen songs tracked in the first four days; we were just ripping through them, totally in the zone." Thus became Street Songs of Love.

Lawyers CAN Be Funny - Comedy at the Stoltz, 1.20.11

COMEDY at the STOLTZ featuring PHIL MAUSE

Thursday, January 20 - 8pm.  $20

Stoltz Listening Room – Avalon Theatre

Box Office: 410.822.7299

www.avalontheatre.com

www.philmause.com

A lawyer AND a comic? Yes, that unique combination is what’s in store for audience members during the Avalon’s next installment of Comedy at the Stoltz, Thursday, January 20 at 8pm.

Phil Mause had a dysfunctional childhood and adolescence. His parents couldn't afford to buy him a laptop, or cell phone. Their only investment in his future was a nuclear fall-out shelter where the family hid for hours after every air raid siren. It was while huddling and shivering here that Phil began to develop that unique combination of determination, egomania, and schizophrenia that is essential to a career in standup comedy.

Unfortunately, it was only after 43 years of failure that the bit finally began to "click" as Phil reached his 60's. In recent months, his senior citizen bit has finally begun to resonate with audiences as truly believable.

Phil Mause was born in Brooklyn in 1944, grew up in Long Beach, New York, attended Harvard Law School, and is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of a national law firm. He has been doing standup comedy since 2004 and appears frequently in New York and Washington, having appeared at venues such as The Broadway Comedy Club, The New York Improv, DC Improv, and The Baltimore Comedy Factory.

It should be noted that Phil also has two grown children who have aggressively supported his efforts to break into the New York comedy scene - largely because they live in Washington and are embarrassed by his continued presence in the District of Columbia;)

As always, the Stoltz doors open at 7pm for drinks and DJ Groundhog, who will spin music before and after the show. Tickets are $20 and available at the Avalon Box Office (410.822.7299), as well as online at avalontheatre.com.

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