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New recording: 'More Holy Ground' featuring Alissa Stahler, John Guari  

On Tuesday, June 15, at Hard Luck Recording studios in Brooklyn, N.Y., we recorded a new version of the song More Holy Ground, featuring a great vocal by Alissa Stahler and a superb string arrangement by John Guari. Click on the podcast that accompanies this post to hear the recording. The song is the story of Robert Gould Shaw, the colonel of the first all-black regiment recruited in the Civil War. It didn't make it onto the album but it's a great addition to the live show, and to the roster at Joe's Cafe.

Joe's Cafe in top 70 on radio 

According to a survey made by a website called FOLKDJ-L, at www.folkradio.org, songs from 'Joe's Cafe' were among the top 70 most played songs on folk radio stations in the US for the month of May. The survey was taken from the playlists of 142 different Folk DJs. There has also been fairly regular play on stations in Germany, the UK, and New South Wales, Australia.

True stories ring truer in song at Joe's Cafe 

For immediate release:
May 20, 2010

Contact:
Rupert Wates
(206) 354-4122
bitemusiclimited@hotmail.com
www.bitemusiclimited.com

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- For this year's Minnesota Fringe Festival, Rupert Wates And Friends are bringing Joe's Cafe, a new musical revue of songs based on true stories, to the Minneapolis Theater Garage on August 5, 8, 9, 13 and 14, 2010.

The audience is invited to imagine that they are guests in an all-night cafe, where friends gather to share their stories. In this intimate environment, four consummate
performers deliver fifteen songs that retell the experience of ordinary American people.

In Dick And Delores (The Loving Kind) we hear of an interracial couple in the south in the 50's, who defied state law to marry. The Skies Of South Dakota unfolds the sad story of a young girl's struggle with religious and class prejudice. Days Of Mercy tells of the exodus of a poor family across America during the Dust Bowl Depression. There are tales of love and loss in the two world wars, and other stories of yesterday and today, each recast in song, each of them a piece in the mosaic that is the story of America itself.

Reviews of Joe's Cafe:
“Wates doesn't withhold his powers as a poet, tearing through the veneer of consensus reality to bring listeners the raw truth of the human condition. Joe's Cafe burrows deeply into heart and mind.” (Folk And Acoustic Music Exchange - Read full review.)

“Succeeds brilliantly in conveying the warm atmosphere of Joe's Cafe” (www.altcountryforum.nl)

Rupert Wates (author) is an award-winning singer-songwriter, born in the UK, based since 2007 in New York City.

“Truly gripping lyrics with great themes and troubling, witty messages” (Leith FM Radio Scotland)
“A new and unique songwriter-musician already in the front ranks by dint of timeless work” (Mark S. Tucker)

Performers
Rupert Wates: Guitar and Voice
Dave Turner: Piano and Voice
Stacey Lorin: Voice
Valorie Miller: Voice

Performance times
Thursday August 5: 10pm
Sunday August 8: 1pm
Monday August 9: 7pm
Friday August 13: 10pm
Saturday August 14: 8.30pm

Venue
Minneapolis Theater Garage
711 Franklin Avenue
Minneapolis MN 55405
For additional information visit http://www.sonicbids.com/joescafe

First review of Joe's Cafe 

I thought you might like to know that the first review of the album has appeared, in a Danish online paper. Go to altcountryforum.com to see the review. If your keyboard has a 'translate' function, click on it and you a rather garbled translation from the Danish will appear. It's a good review, anyway, and singles out some of the tracks for praise. The reviewer has also taken the trouble to download all the segments of the video made at the Metropolitan Room.