FREE Concert: Denise La Grassa Returns to Phyllis' Musical Inn on 5/27

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar 

Denise La Grassa 

Brings Her Soulful Blues to

Wicker Park’s Phyllis’ Musical Inn on

Friday, May 27, 8:30 p.m. 

Also Chronicling 2022 with “North of 40” Film

Critically acclaimed Chicagoland singer, songwriter and keyboardist Denise La Grassa will perform soulful blues originals and choice covers with bandmates John Kregor (guitar), Steve Manns (bass), and John Sergel (drums).

La Grassa is also documenting her 2022 dream of returning to Europe to perform with her new band and bluesy sound that will culminate with the film “North of 40.”

Videos for La Grassa’s latest songs, including the anthemic, soulful “Wide Eyes Wide High,” and the rocking blues “Amen to Happiness” are available at DeniseLaGrassa.com/epk. 

WHEN/           Friday, May 27, 2022, 8:30 p.m. 

WHERE/         Phyllis’ Musical Inn, 1800 W. Division, Chicago, IL, 60622

TICKETS:       FREE, 773-486-9862

Denise La Grassa’s blend of blues, soul, and R&B and sophisticated yet melodic songwriting has been compared favorably with The Tedeschi-Trucks Band. She cites inspiration from R.L Burnside, Aretha Franklin, The Allman Brothers, Mavis Staples, Otis Redding, and Charlie Parker. La Grassa first played Europe in the 1990s, making stops in Scotland and Germany to support her original one-woman musical “Bite.”  

La Grassa released her first live CD Rockin’ in the Castle Theater in September 2019 to join her 2016 bluesy coming out The Blues Ain’t A Color, and the critically acclaimed April Dreams. 

KUDOS:

Robert Rodi, Newcity, said, “She’s certainly got improvisatory chops; but she’s also sufficiently a woman of her time to pull in influences as diverse as funk and folk. And her compelling contralto owes more to Grace Slick than Sarah Vaughan.” 

Jim DeRogatis, Chicago Sun-Times, said, “An impressive but never showy range, a self-assured conversational delivery that brings to mind a jazzier Aimee Mann.” 

Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune, said, “Poet-Preacher-Polemicist … brilliantly unconventional …  singular triumph.”

John Ziegler, Duluth News-Tribune, said “A serendipitous pop flavor … sultry voice and pithy compositional abilities.” 

John Kregor received a B.A. in composition at the University of Texas, and is a prized member of Chicago's jazz community. He has played in groups led by Jim Gailloreto, Rob Clearfield, Matt Ulery, and currently plays with Patricia Barber every Monday at the Green Mill when Barber is not touring the U.S. and Europe. Kregor also played on Barber’s critically acclaimed 2013 Blue Note Records album Smash.    

MAGGIE ROSE at THE VIC THEATRE MARCH 27 SUPPORTING CHRISTONE "KINGFISH" INGRAM

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar 

Tonight I'll be out to shoot a photo feature on Maggie Rose and Christone "Kingfish" Ingram.  I'm eager to catch them both live. Check back soon for my full review.

Maggie Rose is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter who dreamed up her own unbridled collision of rock n’roll, soul, folk, funk, and R&B for her third studio album. Have a Seat was produced by Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes and came to life at the iconic FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL.  

“Rose is doing her part to make the world a better place.” 

- People

 

“A vocalist who is finally having her moment.”

- Rolling Stone Country

“It’s not just that the new music is more textured and complex, or that her vocals soar with greater authority, which they do, it is really about Maggie Rose having found her own lane, her own groove.”

  - Forbes

 

“An artist at the top of her craft.”

- Garden & Gun

  

“A marvelously entertaining 33-year-old mover-and-shaker

for female empowerment and DIY ingenuity.” 

- PopMatters

Have A Seat found Rose approaching her music with more confidence and clarity of vision than ever, ultimately sharing a selection of songs both timeless and urgent and appropriately named one of the "Best Albums of 2021" by both Rolling Stone and American Songwriter while NPR’s World Cafe called Rose “a multi-genre powerhouse...A must see act,” and Garden & Gun hailed her “an artist at the top of her craft.”

“Soul-rendering.” 

- American Songwriter 

 

“A multi-genre powerhouse...A must see act” 

- NPR’s World Cafe

After years of honing her chops and making her name as a force-of-nature vocalist, Rose’s live experiences include opening for Heart and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and touring as direct support for Kelly Clarkson. She has made festival appearances at Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Fest and Austin City Limits, and has taken the stage at The Grand Ole Opry over 80 times.

“On her third album, “Have a Seat,” the Nashville-based songwriter Maggie Rose seeks reconciliation and balance” 

- New York Times

PopMatters called Rose “a marvelously entertaining mover-and-shaker for female empowerment and DIY ingenuity.” Like any great soul singer, Rose beautifully captures the tensions of the current moment, gently presenting her pensive social commentary while providing a much-needed reprieve from the everyday chaos.

“I am claiming a seat I believe is rightfully mine, and I want others to do the same.”

 - Maggie Rose

Check out her work at maggierosemusic.com

TONIGHT: Nick Waterhouse at Lincoln Hall 21+ #ChiILPicksList

Chi, IL Live Shows On Our Radar

ChiIL Live Shows ChiILPicksList

Tonight we'll be shooting stills at the Nick Waterhouse concert at Lincoln Hall. Highly recommended. We catch his fantastic live shows every time he comes through Chicago, and have also shot 2 of his concerts before. Check out some of our past coverage and photo filled features here. 



TONIGHT:

Nick Waterhouse

PEP

$15.00

$18 Doors

Friday, September 19 2014

10:00 PM | 21+

Nick Waterhouse’s art springs from a simple idea: everybody wants to be somebody else. One of his heroes, Van Morrison, got his start covering Bobby Bland, whose own musical idol was Nat “King” Cole. In Waterhouse’s view, emulation is a journey; you never truly succeed, but as the singer, guitarist and songwriter puts it, “You become something on the way there.”

Nick was born in 1986 and grew up in Huntington Beach, a place known predominantly for its tanning salons, commercial surf culture, and UFC fighters. In his early teens, he established his musical sensibilities in the midst of the burgeoning Southern California DIY scene (Burger Records, Ty Segall, McHugh’s Distillery studio), through which he refined his own idiosyncratic perspective on the spirit of American Rhythm & Blues and Rock & Roll.

Waterhouse started performing as a teenager. “It was really motivated by fear,” he recalls. “I’m kind of an introvert, so it was an uncomfortable situation. It was a way to force a crisis.” The young artist experienced an exhilaration he’d never felt before, and hasn’t found anywhere else since. “It’s a feeling of heightened awareness that goes beyond pleasure,” Waterhouse explains. “It has something to do with seeing ahead in time and behind in time all at once. You don’t just get the immediate reward; you get the potential that rewards you the same way.” Check out his main site here and catch him LIVE if you can. Click here for current tour dates.