Hudson RiverStage brings today’s brightest emerging artists, as well as established favorites to the Hudson River waterfront. These free outdoor summer concerts are staged in a festival setting at the expansive Pier 97 and will feature some of New York City’s favorite comfort food!
These artists represent the past, present and future of the genre. This is fun, funky music that will keep you movin’ and shakin’ all day long!
Ten years have passed since “the UK’s greatest soul singer” (MOJO), James Hunter burst onto the scene with his U.S. debut People Gonna Talk (GO/Rounder 2006), topping the Billboard Blues chart, earning a Grammy-nomination, and attracting universal acclaim from critics and his fans—including Van Morrison, Sharon Jones, and Allen Toussaint. Over the last decade, he’s toured extensively around the world on the club, theatre, and festival circuits, steadily growing a dedicated audience comprised of hardened gig-goers, old-school baby boomers, and young hipsters alike. Hunter’s reputation as a soul powerhouse, heralded for his talents both as a live performer and perhaps even more so as a songwriter, is cemented in his “tight, taut compositions” “rooted in American soul music without being bound to it.” Hunter’s acclaimed fourth album, Hold On! marks his debut on Daptone Records, America’s premier soul imprint, and Hunter’s second collaboration with famed producer Gabriel Roth aka Bosco Mann.
First impressions matter, especially on a debut album. Fortunately, it only takes Margo Price about 28 seconds to convince you that you’re hearing the arrival of a singular new talent. “Hands of Time,” the opener on Midwest Farmer’s Daughter (Third Man Records), is an invitation, a mission statement and a starkly poetic summary of the 32-year old singer’s life, all in one knockout, self-penned punch. Easing in over a groove of sidestick, bass and atmospheric guitar, Price sings, “When I rolled out of town on the unpaved road, I was fifty-seven dollars from bein’ broke . . .” It has the feel of the first line of a great novel or opening scene in a classic film. Her voice has that alluring mix of vulnerability and resilience that was once the province of Loretta and Dolly. It is a tour-de-force performance that is vivid, deeply moving and all true.
Brooklyn-based producer, composer, pianist, DJ and live musician Taylor McFerrin is equally influenced by the legends of 60s/70s Soul, the kings of the Modern Beat Generation, Golden Era hip hop, free form jazz and electronic music. Taylor’s ability to create and evolve musically by drawing inspiration from all corners of his life translates into music of exceptional honesty and emotional directness, deep sophistication and effortless style.
Jonathan Toubin, New York Night Train’s conductor and soul proprietor has gone where no rock and/or soul vinyl DJ has before. Creatively cutting together raw, wild, and uncommon original 45rpm sides by unsung artists for today’s dance floor, Toubin and his party machine’s slow steady nightly work has built a unique space in contemporary culture and influenced scores of DJs and parties everywhere. 2016 finds Jonathan Toubin touring the world and completing his next four compilation LPs.
MORE ACTS TO BE ANNOUNCED