A wonderful night of music, featuring The Nouveaux Honkies, Joe Asselin and Mary Jo Curry! (July 31 / 8pm / $12)
This is a special seated Dinner Show in Uncommon Ground’s intimate listening room. Sapce is limited! Reserve seats in advance online or by phone: 773 929 3680
In mid 2014, Rebecca Dawkins and Tim O’Donnell, of The Nouveaux Honkies, hoisted anchor and set sail in their rebuilt RV. The journey started in South Florida and took them as far west as the Rockies, as far north as the Great Lakes, as far east as Cape Cod, and returned south for the winter. It’s been somewhere around 150 thousand miles, 600 shows, and at least one million smiles that has influenced The Nouveaux Honkies and their Loud In Here CD release in March of 2018. The New Year will also see TNH with a permanent residence in Knoxville, TN. O’Donnell says, “We based out of Tennessee the last two summers and fell in love with the Smokies. Knoxville will be a wonderful spring through fall hub for traveling and we also love this little city.” Their 2015 release, “Blues For Country,” masterfully blended styles. Their new release, “Loud In Here,” is a continuance of that same concept, respecting the greats and creating their own gumbo, which reveals a highway of influences.
Joe Asselin is a musician based out of Champaign, IL. He is a multi instrumentalist that performs all spectrums of music, which allows him to experiment with different aspects of styles as well as add his own flavor of music in each endeavor. He performs as a solo acoustic artist, fronts his band Joe Asselin and The Moonlight Ramblers, and is a hired instrumentalist for country artist John David Daily, blues artist Mary Jo Curry, Kilborn Alley Blues Band, and Americana act The Barnyard Revival.
Throughout the past 20 years, Joe has performed throughout the country and has had international success with his previous bands Kilborn Alley Blues Band 2000-2009 as their harmonica player and The Sugar Prophets 2010-2015 as their lead and rhythm guitarist. Asselin still performs with the Kilborn Alley boys when they are in need of his services, which now include slide guitar, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and harmonica.
As a solo acoustic artist, Joe has released one acoustic album called Blue Genes, which reached #21 on the iTunes chart the day of its release in April 2016. He is currently concentrating on writing originals influenced by classic country blues.
You don’t find the blues; the blues finds you. This statement couldn’t be more signified in the life of Mary Jo Curry. Curry, a professional musical theater performer by trade, discovered the blues in full in 2011 when she was asked to lead a local blues band in Springfield, Illinois. Since then, the blues have carried her to stages all over the Midwest, allowing her to work with many well-known artists. One such artist, award-winning guitarist James Armstrong, produced her eponymous first release that hit #1 on the Classic Blues chart for Roots Music Report for 3 weeks in 2016. The album also spawned 3 Top 10 singles on the Classic Blues Singles chart, getting airplay on every major blues outlet around the globe. Curry hopes to continue the momentum in 2017 with several featured spots at blues festivals coast to coast and the release of her sophomore follow-up in 2018.
