St. Joe’s Choir Show: Saturday, May 2

My 41st birthday is May 1, and truth be told, I’m not all that big on birthdays.

I don’t like making a fuss over some pre-determined date on the calendar, and then trying to engineer a place and people and mood for maximum fun. And the presents… they make me feel kinda funny.

I like regular days that turn into something awesome just because… like a really great workout and impromptu breakfast with friends, or a trip to the coffee shop that morphs into a 4-hour conversation about life, love, and other great ideas.

Last year, for the big 4-0, I tried to celebrate like a normal person: vacation, fuss, etc., etc., and it was kind of a disaster. So this year, I’m keeping it low key.

A rock show with St. Joe’s Choir?! That’s a damn fine way to celebrate a bday.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, our friend and guitar player Rob recently opened Once Over Coffee Bar with his beautiful wife Jenee. They’re throwing a big ol’ grand opening thinger on the afternoon of Saturday, May 2, and St. Joe’s Choir is playing. WOOT!

St. Joe’s is fronted by my ridiculously cool husband Dave. On drums, we’ve got the sweetest thumper on the planet: our pal Coco. The low end is held down by Sergio, who also plays guitar and reads music and is/looks like a total badass. The coffee man Rob brings rock & roll fire to his lead guitar. And I play the keys, sing backup, and whack the cowbell.

My keyboard is named Stella II: The Reckoning. The original Stella belongs to my good friend Peter of Peter Elliott and the Sellouts. He loaned me his Stella when I first joined his band, and when it became clear that playing in rock bands was just as much fun as I’d imagined it would be, I got a Stella of my own.

She looks like this:

St. Joe’s Choir is a rock-pop-americana kinda thing. Dave loves Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits and Tom Petty. Rob and I like the punk rock and the rockabilly; Coco loves it all. Our sound is a melding of all those influences around Dave’s kickass songs about loving, lying, cheating, stealing, and doing the right thing.

These are a few of my favorite tunes. They were recorded live in Studio 1-A at KUT and remixed by some friends.

Boxcar
Happy Birthday, Mrs. K
Two Lanes of Blacktop

I’ll share more details about the show as I get ’em. I hope you can come out and see us. I’m not all that keen on presents with bows, but having my favorite people in the audience of a show would be a totally kickass 41st bday gift.