Tupelo Announces Four New Shows

Johnny Winter is among the new acts booked at the Londonderry music hall.

Marc Fortier, Patch Staff

Posted Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 8:14 pm ET

We have FOUR new Londonderry shows to announce this week!

February 15 TUPELO NIGHT OF COMEDY: The February comedy night features John Turco, Jody Sloane, and Graig Murphy. Still the best deal going for a great night of entertainment. Two yours of comedy for $18.

April 12 WILLY PORTER: Having toured with artists as diverse as Jeff Beck and Tori Amos, Porter capitalizes on his experience as a seasoned live performer on How To Rob A Bank. World-renowned guitarist Greg Koch had this to say about Porter’s new disc: “you get the same feeling listening to it as you do from one of his solo gigs---that you are in the presence of greatness---” Each song is a fresh crosspollination of styles, genres and musical forms. Frets Magazine called Porter"a genre-defying maverick. In addition, Porter finished recording an album in Denver with his side project, The Mealies, which includes members of the Carpe Diem String Quartet. In the spring of 2010 Willy joined up with the Carpe Diem String Quartet in their hometown of Columbus for a supposed one-time-only collaboration. What ended up happening is that they wowed audiences and realized they created something special. Those performances are now captured in part on "The Mealies - Live at BoMA." Seven of Willy's previously released songs have been beautifully rearranged with the quartet for a stunning new take on these fan favorites. "That's an exciting project," he said. "So there's a whole bunch of stuff, irons in the fire as it were."

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April 21 GRACE KELLY: When it comes to saxophonist /vocalist/composer/lyricist/arranger/educator Grace Kelly, people seem to be divided into two groups: those who marvel at her proficiency, creativity and ever-accelerating growth, and those who have yet to encounter the 20-year-old wunderkind. The ranks of the former category are growing by the day. Trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis was so impressed with Kelly’s three-night stand as guest of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra that he invited her to join the ensemble at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. as part of the President Obama Inauguration Celebration. Keith Lockhart invited Grace to be a special guest with the Boston Pops Orchestra when she was14 years old. Harry Connick, Jr. heard Kelly in a master class on a December afternoon and brought her on stage to sit in with his band that night. Since then, Kelly has been voted “Best Jazz Act” in Boston four consecutive years in the FNX/Phoenix Best Music Poll, and this past year voted “Best National Jazz Act” ,received the ASCAP Foundation’s Young Jazz Composers Award in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011 and won “Jazz Artist of the Year” at the Boston Music Awards in both 2008 and 2010. The 2009, 2010, and 2011 Downbeat Critics Poll added to her list naming her one of the "Alto Saxophone Rising Stars”, the youngest ever to be named so. Grace named Glamour Magazine’s “Top 10 College Women of 2011”

May 11 JOHNNY WINTER: For over 30 years, Johnny Winter has been a guitar hero without equal. Signing to Columbia records in 1969, Johnny immediately laid out the blueprint for his fresh take on classic blues a prime combination for the legions of fans just discovering the blues via the likes of Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. Constantly shifting between simple country blues in the vein of Robert Johnson, to all-out electric slide guitar blues-rock, - Johnny has always been one of the most respected singers and guitar players in rock and the clear link between British blues-rock and American Southern rock (a la the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd.)