Upcoming Shows: Pezzettino Swings Through Iowa On Her Way East

Pezzettino at CSPS in Cedar Rapids, IA

The constant storm of activity that is Pezzettino is kicking off a tour this week that will take her through Minnesota and Iowa on her way west wrapping up at the end of February on the East Coast. This tour hits a lot of the same stops she made in October of last year, which is a smart move to build her fanbase in some of these cities. When she stopped in Cedar Rapids in October, she played a house show at my home. This was a new experience for me, and it was a lot of fun and she quickly made fans of everyone who attended. She also threatened to kidnap my dachshund, but I’m not going to hold that against her! She also performed a very cool show at CSPS opening for another singer-songwriter named Melissa Greener.

This time she’s playing some key stops in Iowa including an interview and performance at the main Java House location in Iowa City on Washington for Ben Kieffer’s Java Blend radio show on Iowa Public Radio which will air on Friday 2/19 and Saturday 2/20. She’s also performing at the very cool Vaudeville Mews venue in Des Moines and two coffee house shows– Roaster’s Coffee House in Hiawatha, IA (near Cedar Rapids) and Monk’s Kaffee Pub in Dubuque. Roaster’s, incidentally, is where I buy all of my coffee. They roast on site some of the best coffee I’ve ever had and includes Free Trade and Organic coffees.

She announced today via twitter, that all proceeds of teeshirt sales will be donated to benefit Haiti!

While you have your wallet out, I suggest you get the ultra-cool colored 7″ vinyl for “You Never Know” with hand-painted sleeves!!!

Click Here to visit her website, which is pretty much the launching point for all of her online shenanigans.

Tour Dates: (from MySpace)

Jan 27 2010  10:00P  Bedlam Theater  Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jan 28 2010  8:00P  Ed’s  Winona, Minnesota
Jan 29 2010  2:00P  Java Blend Iowa Public Radio  Iowa City, Iowa (Facebook Event)
Jan 29 2010  8:00P  Ames Progressive  Ames, Iowa
Jan 30 2010  8:00P  Vaudeville Mews  Des Moines, Iowa
Jan 31 2010  1:00P  Roaster’s Coffee House  Hiawatha, Iowa (Facebook Event)
Feb 1 2010  8:00P  Monks  Dubuque, Iowa
Feb 2 2010  8:00P  Elbo Room Lounge  Chicago, Illinois
Feb 3 2010  8:00P  Earth House  Indianapolis, Indiana
Feb 4 2010  8:00P  House Show  Bloomington, Indiana
Feb 5 2010  8:00P  House Show  South Bend, Indiana
Feb 6 2010  8:00P  Cole’s  Chicago, Illinois
Feb 11 2010  8:00P  High Noon Saloon opening for Gene  Ween Madison, Wisconsin
Feb 13 2010  8:00P  Arts Council  Racine, Wisconsin
Feb 19 2010  10:00P  Hank’s Saloon  Brooklyn, New York
Feb 22 2010  5:00P  Sonicbids Office  Boston, Massachusetts
Feb 24 2010  8:00P  Parkside Lounge  New York, New York
Feb 27 2010  10:00P  VoxPop Cafe  Brooklyn, New York

Upcoming Show: Anna Laube – Two Shows at The Java House, Iowa City 1/2/09

Photo by Akshay Sawhney (c) 2008

Photo by Akshay Sawhney (c) 2008

Anna Laube is a singer-songwriter in the folk-tinged Americana vein from San Francisco via Iowa City and Madison. She lists her influences on her MySpace Page as being Lucinda, Emmylou, Ani, and Joni Mitchell in addition to Iowa City artists Bo Ramsey and Dave Zollo. She certainly delivers all of this in her debut 2006 release Outta My Head. Anna’s lazy and seemingly effortless delivery floats beautifully over spare instrumentation placing the listener with the band on the couch in the various livingrooms in the Bay area where the album was recorded.

Anna is coming back to her childhood home of Iowa City to play two shows at the Downtown Iowa City Java House location (211 1/2 East Washington Street) on Friday, January 2nd in support of her upcoming album Pool All The Love * Pool All The Knowledge. The first show will be at Noon as part of the very cool “Java Blend” show with Ben Kieffer recorded live and aired later on Iowa Public Radio. It’s also usually video taped for airing on UITV. The second show on Friday is part of the Java House’s regular Friday Night Music series at 8 PM. Both shows are free to the public, and would be a great way to kick off the new year.

Anna sent me three tracks from Pool All The Love. And, based on those songs, and I would agree with her statement on her site that Pool All The Love picks up where Outta My Head left off. There is a song that I feel is a bit of a departure and that is the very percussive and slinky– almost ska “Hippie Boyfriend.” “Hippie Boyfriend” is funny and light song that I could see crowds of women singing along with at Anna’s shows! Anna graciously let me host “Hippie Boyfriend” here at playbsides, so download it!

Both shows Friday night are free, so if you’re in town, why not stop in? Unless I’m hung over or the weather is bad, I’m planning to hit a show.

Click Here to download “Hippie Boyfriend” from Anna Laube’s upcoming album Pool All The Love * Pool All The Knowledge

Click Here to visit Anna’s website

Click Here to visit Anna’s MySpace Page where you can listen to tracks from Outta My Head

Click Here to listen to other tracks from Outta My Head — Be sure to check out “Goodbye Blue Monday” — a personal favorite.