8:00pm doors • 9:00pm show • $15 Tickets on Eventbrite
Happy Again isn’t exactly happy. But the delightfully deadpan new album from roots mainstays Bill and the Belles is full of life, humor, and tongue-in-cheek explorations of love and loss. Happy Again marks a new chapter for the group by featuring all original music penned by founding member Kris Truelsen. Over eleven tracks the group shows their knack for saying sad things with a bit of a smirk, and tucked amongst the grief and jubilation are some jingle-worthy oddballs for which the band is well known. The raw songcraft along with the deft production touch of Teddy Thompson gives Happy Again an emotional punch that deepens with each listen. Bill and the Belles is Truelsen on guitar, fiddler Kalia Yeagle, bassist Andrew Small, and banjo/banjo-uke player Aidan VanSuetendael. They revel in the in-between: deeply engaged with the stringband tradition and eager to stretch those influences to contemporary settings. Happy Again is the latest chapter of that ongoing story: what happens when a stringband from East Tennessee lays down a session at Motown. It’s a welcome evolution that feels familiar and timeless
Keith Grimes and Esther Haynes Duo: Keith and Esther will play a variety of acoustic material not too loudly. Keith is a veteran guitarist/soloist and Esther plays rhythm guitar and sings some swing and roots material.
Esther Haynes is an early jazz and American roots singer and rhythm guitarist based in the Washington, DC area. Her third album, Moon Country (2013), featuring Keith Grimes on guitar and other noted DC-area musicians, received a Washington Area Music Award (Wammie) in 2013. Her debut CD entitled Esther Haynes (2001), received a Wammie nomination, and her second release entitled Approach Note (2004) garnered favorable online reviews. She has also received 12 Wammie awards for big band/swing and jazz vocals.
Esther studied professional music and voice at Berklee College of Music, graduating summa cum laude in 1989. Among her vocal instructors have been Mili Bermejo, Maggie Scott, Bob Stoloff, Sharon Brown and the late jazz singer Pam Bricker, who also performed in the DC area.