(Upcoming Show) Pieta Brown and Friends Present This Land Is Your Music at The Mill Restaurant 4/14/2012

Ms. Pieta Brown is bringing her “artist in residence” show called “This Land Is Your Music” back to The Mill Restaurant in Iowa City on April 14th, 2012. In a similar fashion to the last two the show will feature Pieta as the headliner with other artists with local ties opening and a gallery exhibit.

This year, the event has been condensed into one show–  but it is a powerhouse bill shared with The Pines and is a weekend show. Pieta’s set will be with a backing band that she is calling The Sawdust Boys– which is what she called her backing band for her recent tour of Australia. The Sawdust Boys are JT Bates and Michael Rossetto, who are conveniently also part of The Pines. I’m sure we’ll see Bo Ramsey as part of one or both band’s sets. Bo stopped by somewhat unannounced for the recent Pines show at CSPS and brought the house down with an unexpected solo song!

In the past Pieta has used these shows as a way to work out new material in a live setting– The Mill is a long-standing familial venue for the Ramsey’s and Brown’s and their associated friends. The audience for Pieta’s shows are by far some of the warmest and welcoming I’ve seen and impromptu sit-ins by friends and family are par for the course.

The gallery exhibit will feature pieces from Pieta’s private collection, including works from Greg Brown, Chris Carman, Constie and Zoe Brown, Mei-Ling Shaw Williams, Benson Ramsey, Sandy Dyas, and Cortnie Widen.

As with the previous This Land Is Your Music shows, this show is a benefit for Iowa Public Radio, and The Friends of Hickory Hill Park. Show is at 8PM on Saturday, April 14th with doors at 7PM. Tickets are $12.

Visit the Mill Restaurant webpage for details and how to order tickets.

Read my reviews and see pictures of the three 2009 This Land is Your Music shows. 11/5/09  11/12/09 11/19/09

Read my review and see pictures of one of the two 2010 This Land is Your Music shows. 12/4/2010

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last shows:

Pieta Brown at This Land is Your Music II at The Mill on 12-4-2010

Pieta Brown

Pieta Brown

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