Live Music

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the music begins at 9pm in the Red Room
(unless noted)


Wed Nov 4 -
 Joe Pug
Songwriter Joe Pug has been getting some serious attention since last he played in Iowa City during Mission Creek, including a tour with none other than STEVE EARLE. Come check him out in the intimate setting of the Sanctuary while you still can! The day before his senior year as a playwright student at the University of North Carolina, Joe Pug sat down for a cup of coffee and had the clearest thought of his life: I am profoundly unhappy here. Then came the second clearest. Pug packed up his belongings and drove the longest route possible to Chicago. Working as a carpenter by day, the 23 year-old Pug spent nights playing the guitar he hadn’t picked up since his teenage years. Using ideas originally slated for a play he was writing called “Austin Fish,” Pug began creating the sublime lyrical masterpiece that would become the Nation of Heat EP. The songs were recorded fast and fervently at a Chicago studio where a friend snuck him in to late night slots other musicians had canceled. He was short on money, but his bare-boned sincerity didn’t require much more than a microphone and it dripped off of each note he sang. In May of 2008, Pug played the first headlining slot of his young career to a sold out crowd at Chicago’s storied Schubas Tavern. Two weeks later he released the Nation of Heat EP, which has garnered near-universal critical acclaim and established him as one of the most respected songwriters of his generation. Pug has since played shows with Steve Earle, M. Ward, , Susan Tedeschi, and Robert Randolph and  Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and the Newport Folk Festival in Summer 2009. 
http://www.joepugmusic.com
“In Pug’s hard plucking, exaggerated choruses, and lyrical vignettes you can draw a pretty straight line from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan to Johnny Cash to Bruce Springsteen to Steve Earle to Josh Ritter. Like all of them, Pug is a populist at heart, a singer who can’t help but talk about all of us when he sings about himself and can’t help but sing about himself when he’s talking about all of us……”Hymn 101″ is full of lines that will fill you with both heartbreak and euphoria. It’s good to be reminded that that’s why we listen to music in the first place.”

Thurs Nov 12
Jam Session
with Nate Basinger

Sat Nov 14 - singer/songwriter
 Ben Schmidt
Visionary lyricist and outstanding acoustic finger-style guitar wizard, Ben Schmidt has released two self-produced Cd's; "Write it down" 2002, and "While you were Sleeping" 2005 His war...m, versatile voice, alternately sweet and dark, colors compositions from ballads to blues. Called "an extraordinary talent" and "the total package" by music critic Jim Musser (No Depression), Ben is influenced by a vast range of musicians and musical genres, most prominently folk and Mississippi delta blues.
http://www.myspace.com/benschmidtmusic

Monday Nov 16
from Brooklyn,NY
The Woes

"stark, soulful, genuine" - music.for-robots.com

" a mélange of blues, alt-country, funeral dirge & ragtime." - www.stylusmagazine.com

"A soft, rolling acid trip into soul, jazz, americana, and bayou funk" - villagebroadsheet.com

" I suddenly find myself longing to be down in New Orleans with some hush puppies and cheap liqour in hand..." - www.crowndozen.com

Saturday November 21
Slewgrass


Thurs December 3
from Minneapolis
Jana Nyberg Trio


Wed December 9
UI Writers Workshop
Talk Art

Sat  December 12
Blue Midnight