Azul Barrientos & Friends at the San Antonio Botanical Garden

LIVE in the Garden: Azul Barrientos & Friends. Photo: San Antonio Botanical Garden

In harmony with the San Antonio Botanical Garden’s exciting new Frida Kahlo Oasis exhibition, celebrate Mexican culture and the icon herself through an exclusive concert series. On select Tuesdays, beginning in July on Frida’s birthday, the Botanical Garden invites you to enjoy an intimate evening featuring live performances on the lawn by San Antonio’s beloved singer/songwriter Azul Barrientos accompanied by fellow musicians, featuring different musical guests each concert. (San Antonio Botanical Garden, 2021)

Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets and there will be a variety of food and beverages available for purchase.

Live in the Garden: Azul Barrientos & Friends
Tuesday July 6, August 3, September 7 and October 5
6:30p.m. to 8:30p.m.
$25 ($22.50 for members)

Buy tickets to all four concerts and receive a 15% discount. Must be purchased before July 6 and cannot be combined with the member discount.

San Antonio Museum of Art announces new acquisitions by Texas-based artists

Jenelle Esparza, Continent. Photo: Jenelle Esparza, used with permission.

The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) announced yesterday that it has acquired eight artworks by seven San Antonio-based artists, including Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Jenelle Esparza, Joe Harjo, Jon Lee, Ethel Shipton, Chris Sauter, and Liz Ward. The acquisitions are part of the Museum’s Initiative to Acquire Art by Contemporary San Antonio Artists, which was developed to enhance the Museum’s commitment to support the city’s visual artists by acquiring works for its collection. The artists were chosen with the support of an Advisory Committee comprised of San Antonio-based visual artists, professors, collectors, arts leaders, and Museum staff and Trustees, who have also made recommendations for additional artists whose work could be purchased in the future. The Committee was Co-Chaired by SAMA Trustees Katherine Moore McAllen, PhD, and Dacia Napier, MD. All of the artworks, which include textiles, painting, photography, prints, and sculpture, mark first entries by the artists to SAMA’s collection. The new acquisitions are scheduled to go on view at the Museum in late fall, with more details about the presentation to follow. (San Antonio Museum of Art, 2021)

Over the past several years, as part of its vision to diversify its collection and best represent its community, SAMA has placed a particular emphasis on acquiring works by artists from San Antonio as well as from across Texas. Recent acquisition announcements have included works by Texas-based artists Ana Fernandez, Kirk Hayes, Earlie Hudnall Jr., Michael Menchaca, Marcelyn McNeil, Daniel Rios Rodriguez, and Liz Trosper. In 2020, SAMA also presented Texas Women: A New History of Abstract Art, which focused on women artists from across the state that have and continue to contribute to the development of abstract art—a subject that previously had not been explored in depth. Artist Liz Ward, whose acquisition was announced today, was among the artists featured in the exhibition.

More details on each of the artist and artworks below:

Jennifer Ling Datchuk (American, born 1980)
Enter the Dragon, 2020
Porcelain, ceramic decals from Jingdezhen, China, wood, gold mirrors
65 × 16 × 5 in. (165.1 × 40.6 × 12.7 cm)
San Antonio Museum of Art, Purchased with The Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund and funds provided by Dr. Katherine Moore McAllen, Dr. Dacia Napier, Edward E. (Sonny) Collins III, and The Sheerin Family, 2021.2

Trained as a ceramicist, Jennifer Ling Datchuk’s practice is grounded in explorations of identity, beauty, and femininity—drawing from her own experience as an Asian American woman. Utilizing found and handmade ceramics and porcelain motifs in her sculptures, installations, performances, and photographs, Datchuk calls attention to both historic and contemporary cultural appropriation, while also blurring the boundaries between craft and fine art. Datchuk was named 2021 Texas State Three-Dimensional Artist by the Texas State Legislature.

Jenelle Esparza (American, born 1985)
Continent, 2017
72 × 100 in. (182.9 × 254 cm)
Handmade quilt, recycled fabric and clothing, embroidered blocks, batting, cotton blends
San Antonio Museum of Art, Gift of Zoe A. Diaz, 2021.8

Jenelle Esparza’s multidisciplinary practice examines the connections between agriculture, gender, race, and bodily experience. Through photography, textiles, and installations, Esparza uncovers the history of cotton farming in South Texas and its principally Mexican American labor force.

Joe Harjo (Muscogee Creek, born 1973)
The Only Certain Way: Faith, 2019
24 Pendleton beach towels, 24 custom memorial flag cases
78 × 104 × 4 in. (198.1 × 264.2 × 10.2 cm)
San Antonio Museum of Art, Purchased with The Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund and funds provided by Dr. Katherine Moore McAllen, Dr. Dacia Napier, Edward E. (Sonny) Collins III, and The Sheerin Family, 2021.3

Joe Harjo is a multidisciplinary artist from the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma. His practice redresses the historic erasure of Native American art, culture, and people. Through photography, sculpture, performance, and installation, Harjo explores Native American identity, debunks stereotypes and myths surrounding Indigenous People, and asserts the vibrant, contemporary presence of Native communities.

Jon Lee (American, born South Korea, 1968)
O1701, 2017 and O1702, 2017
Woodcut
17 × 12 in. (43.2 × 30.5 cm), each
San Antonio Museum of Art, Purchased with The Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund and funds provided by Dr. Katherine Moore McAllen, Dr. Dacia Napier, Edward E. (Sonny) Collins III, and The Sheerin Family, 2021.4.1-2

Jon Lee’s woodcuts explore the poetic subtleties of color and line, reinventing traditional printmaking processes and materials. Born in Seoul, he draws on his native Korea’s rich and long history of printmaking, which includes the implementation of moveable type predating Gutenberg’s fifteenth-century printing press. For over ten years, his practice has focused on a traditional Japanese woodcut technique called mokuhanga that he honed during residencies at the Mokuhanga Innovation Lab in Japan, where O1701 and O1702 were printed.

Chris Sauter (American, born 1971)
Shape of the Universe, Kandariya Mahadeva, 2013
Cut acrylic mounted photography, Sintra
60 × 30 in. (152.4 × 76.2 cm)
San Antonio Museum of Art, Purchased with The Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund and funds provided by Dr. Katherine Moore McAllen, Dr. Dacia Napier, Edward E. (Sonny) Collins III, and The Sheerin Family, 2021.5

Chris Sauter is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores connections between biology and culture, science and religion, the personal and the universal, and the past and the present. He often deconstructs materials in order to reconstruct them in new ways that challenge viewers’ perceptions.

Ethel Shipton (American, born 1963)
The Valley – RGV, 2021
Archival digital prints on Hahnemühle German Etching Matte paper
Series of 6 prints, Edition 1/8
24 × 36 in. (61 × 91.4 cm), each
San Antonio Museum of Art, Purchased with The Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund and funds provided by Dr. Katherine Moore McAllen, Dr. Dacia Napier, Edward E. (Sonny) Collins III, and The Sheerin Family, 2021.6.a-f

Ethel Shipton is a conceptual artist, who works across painting, installation, printmaking, photography, and text. She grew up in Laredo, TX, and her experience of a fluid US-Mexico border informs her practice, which focuses in particular on place, space, language, time, and movement. Her focus on signage observed along Texas roadways is an ongoing body of photo-based works on paper that began in 2014.

Liz Ward (American, born 1959)
Ghosts of the Old Mississippi: Dismal Swamp/Northern Lights, 2015
Watercolor, gesso, silverpoint, pastel, and collage on paper
71 5/8 × 31 7/8 in. (181.9 × 81 cm)
San Antonio Museum of Art, Purchased with The Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund and funds provided by Dr. Katherine Moore McAllen, Dr. Dacia Napier, Edward E. (Sonny) Collins III, and The Sheerin Family, 2021.7

Liz Ward’s practice—which includes paintings, drawings, and prints—is informed by natural history and our current environmental crisis. Ghosts of the Old Mississippi, a series of fifteen large-scale drawings, is based on maps of the ancient courses of the Mississippi River and reflects on society’s relationship to the environment.

The San Antonio Museum of Art serves as a forum to explore and connect with art that spans the world’s geographies, artistic periods, genres, and cultures. Its collection contains nearly 30,000 works representing 5,000 years of history. Housed in the historic Lone Star Brewery on the Museum Reach of San Antonio’s River Walk, the San Antonio Museum of Art is committed to promoting the rich cultural heritage and life of the city. The Museum hosts hundreds of events and public programs each year, including concerts, performances, tours, lectures, symposia, and interactive experiences. As an active civic leader, the Museum is dedicated to enriching the cultural life of the city and the region, and to supporting its creative community.

Celebrate Fourth of July at Taco Cabana with Sonoran Hot Dogs

Taco Cabana celebrates Independence Day with all new Sonoran Hot Dogs and special beer bundles. Photo: Taco Cabana, used with permission.

Starting Friday July 2, 2021, celebrate Independence Day all weekend long at Taco Cabana with two all-new Sonoran Hot Dogs while supplies last. TC fans can choose from Ground Beef or Bacon Sonoran Hot Dogs available a la carte for $2.99 at all participating Texas locations. Guests ages 21+ can purchase a hot dog and beer bundle, including a Sonoran hot dog + choice of domestic beer for $4.99 or a Sonoran hot dog + choice of premium beer for $5.49. (Taco Cabana, 2021)

This summer, TC continues to be the home of the $2 margarita. TC fans can enjoy their choice of eight margarita flavors, including Lime, Strawberry, Mango, Strawberry Mango, Mangonada, Blue Curacao, Watermelon, and Dragonfruit all day every day for just $2. The Pickle margarita is available at select Taco Cabanas for $2. Guests have the option to add chamoy at no additional cost. TC guests may also purchase gallon margaritas of Lime, Strawberry, and Mango for $34.99 or Blue Curacao for $36.99.

All menu items, including $2 margaritas and beer bundles, can be ordered online at TacoCabana.com or via the MYTC! App for convenient curbside pick-up. TC drive-throughs are open for food and alcohol purchases and Taco Cabana dining rooms and patios are open for on-site dining as well. Members of the MYTC! Loyalty Program also earn reward points for each alcoholic beverage purchase.

Taco Cabana, a subsidiary of Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FRGI), was founded in 1978. The brand specializes in fresh Tex-Mex-inspired food including enchiladas, quesadillas, flautas, tacos, house-made flour tortillas and tortilla chips as well a selection of made-from-scratch salsas and sauces. Restaurants feature open-display cooking, a selection of beer and tequila margaritas, patio dining, drive-throughs, curbside pick-up, delivery and catering. As of June 1, 2021, Taco Cabana operates 142 company-owned restaurants in Texas.

Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc., owns, operates and franchises Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana® restaurant brands. The brands specialize in the operation of fast casual/quick service restaurants that offer distinct and unique flavors with broad appeal at a compelling value. The brands feature fresh-made cooking, drive-thru service and catering.

Photo: Taco Cabana, used with permission.

Paul Thorn’s new album ‘Never Too Late To Call’

Paul Thorn grooves on new album out August 6 via Thirty Tigers. “Here We Go” is the first single out. Photo: google

Paul Thorn has created an innovative and impressive career, pleasing crowds with his muscular brand of roots music—bluesy, rocking and thoroughly Southern American, yet also speaking universal truths. Among those who value originality, inspiration, eccentricity and character—as well as talent that hovers somewhere on the outskirts of genius, the story of Paul Thorn is already familiar. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, raised among the same spirits (and some of the actual people) who nurtured the young Elvis generations before, Paul Thorn has rambled down back roads and jumped out of airplanes, worked for years in a furniture factory, battled four-time world champion boxer Roberto Duran on national television, performed on stages with Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Sting, and John Prine among many others, and made some of the most emotionally restless yet fully accessible music of our time. He has appeared on major television shows, received numerous National Public Radio features and charted multiple times on the Billboard Top 100 and Americana Radio Charts. (Paul Thorn, 2021)

Fans were recently treated to the first taste of music from Never Too Late To Call, “Here We Go.” Fans can hear “Here We Go” and pre-order or pre-save Never Too Late To Call ahead of its August 6 release right here.

Never Too Late To Call opens with a song called “Two Tears Of Joy,” a slow-burn ode to life that finds Thorn naming all that he is thankful for without once coming across as cheesy or overly earnest. “It sounds a little corny to say this but I’m a 56-year-old man who has had a really blessed life,” says Thorn about the inspiration behind the tune. “I’m really grateful and thankful for everything I have and for the people I’ve met. ‘Two Tears of Joy’ is another way of simply saying I’m grateful.” A few tracks later, Thorn and his wife Heather singing a duet called “Breaking Up For Good Again.” “If you’re in any kind of long-time relationship you’ll know there will be bumps in the road and sometimes you won’t get along,” says Thorn. The song is beautifully fingerpicked and sung to perfection by the husband and wife duo who have been together long enough to know the song’s ideas well. “We’ve lived this song and had our moments,” they say. Towards the end of Never Too Late To Call listeners are treated to a pair of groovy numbers in “You Mess Around & Get A Buzz” and “Holy Hottie Toddy.” The former a cautionary tale and the latter a call to love everybody inclusively; both feel comfortable—in classic Thorn fashion—but represent the full spectrum of what this new, thoughtfully mature album has to offer.

On Never Too Late To Call, we find a mellower Paul Thorn. The wit and the – at times – humorous commentary on life’s existential questions are in evidence, but here there is a peace about his life’s journey. Or, to put it in his words, “I’ve been such a lucky boy. I’m crying two tears of joy.”

Never Too Late To Call track list:
Two Tears Of Joy
It’s Never Too Late To Call
Sapalo
Breaking Up For Good Again
What I Could Do
Here We Go
Apple Pie Moonshine
Sapphire Dream
You Mess Around & Get A Buzz
Goodbye Is The Last Word
Holy Hottie Toddy

Paul Thorn: It’s Never Too Late To Call
2021-08-06T12:58:00

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‘On Your Feet!’ opens Friday at the Woodlawn Theatre

‘On Your Feet!’ will run from June 25 – July 18 at the Woodlawn Theatre. Photo: Woodlawn Theatre

Opening this Friday June 25 is the Woodlawn Theatre’s performance of ‘On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan.’ This production will run until Sunday July 18, 2021. Tickets to the musical production that was on hold for over a year are now selling fast. Do not miss this opportunity to return to live theater with a show that will have you dancing in the aisles. Performances are on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3p.m. There will be no show on July 4. There will be a special 7p.m. performance on Thursday, July 15. Due to COVID-19 seating restrictions, all tickets are general admission and must be purchased in advance, online only. Seating is on a first come, first served basis. The Woodlawn Theatre Box Office is currently not conducting in-person or phone purchases. (Woodlawn Theatre, 2021)

‘On Your Feet!’ is the story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan, two people who believed in their talent, their music and each other, and became an international sensation. Universally crowd-pleasing and uplifting, ‘On Your Feet!’ is a celebration of greatest hits that will have audiences dancing in the aisles. Featuring the songs “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” “1-2-3,” “Live For Loving You,” “Conga,” and many more, ‘On Your Feet’ is a portrait of a legendary artist that reveals fierce determination and visionary creativity matched with the exhilarating energy of the Miami Sound Machine. Sponsored by KONO 101.1.

Director: Christopher Rodriguez
Choreographer: Carla Sankey
Music Director: Jaime Ramirez
Assistant Choreographer: Jimmi Nelson-Reid

Cast:
Gloria Estefan: Jillian Sainz
Emilio Estefan: Miguel Ochoa
Gloria Fajardo: Melissa Gonzalez
Consuelo: Rita Duggan
Jose Fajardo/Ensemble: Michael Rodriguez
Rebecca Fajardo/Ensemble: Madeline Gutierrez
Young Gloria: Ella Sofia Gonzalez
Young Emilio/Nayib: Gavino Garcia/Ricardo Martinez

Special Community Nights:
ASL Appreciation Night – Friday July 9
Pride Appreciation Night – Saturday July 3

During the run of ‘On Your Feet!’, Woodlawn Theatre is partnering with Girls Inc. SA and will be collecting in-kind donations on their behalf. Donation list includes crayons, pencil colors, washable markers (thick/thin), blunt scissors, construction paper, paint brushes, acrylic paint, glue sticks, white glue, watercolor paper, watercolor paints, glitter, pom poms, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and construction paper.

Everyone over the age of two should wear a mask and practice social distancing while at the theater, including skipping a seat in between parties. Full COVID-19 policies available HERE.

New retail concept Rancho Diaz to open at Pearl this August

Local favorite gift shop Feliz Modern announces new retail concept. Photo: Laura Alexandra, used with permission.

Pearl is excited to announce the addition of a new retail concept opening in August 2021, Rancho Diaz. Created by Feliz Modern owners, Ginger and Mario Diaz, Rancho Diaz is a high-end eclectic edit of vintage and modern pieces that nod to a desert modern aesthetic for foodies and home decor enthusiasts. The shop will feature a rotating curation of products and designs that will appeal to locals and tourists alike. (Rancho Diaz, 2021)

The Diaz’ latest endeavor combines their design backgrounds with their love for all things Mexico and Texas, with a definite nod to the flavor of their beloved hometown. Rancho Diaz will encompass 1,600 square feet of retail space and will feature small batch vintage finds mixed with newer replicas, including home decor, kitchenware, textiles, table linens, personal handmade accessories, gifts, plants, local art, and more. Rancho Diaz will be a one-stop shop for decor, special kitchen products, at-home entertaining, and dinner parties.

Patrons can expect a shop that feels like home, featuring warm woods and with one foot planted in San Antonio and the other in markets around Mexico and the world. The shop will also feature guest pop-ups that will rotate and highlight different makers and foodie-inspired finds throughout the year.

Owners Ginger and Mario Diaz started Feliz Modern in 2017 as a brick and mortar shop in San Antonio. Feliz Modern quickly became a local favorite for bringing local art to a wider audience, opening Feliz Modern POP at Pearl in 2019. The couple’s new concept, Rancho Diaz, will be located in the Pearl at 303 Pearl Pkwy, Suite 101, San Antonio, TX 78215, in the space formerly occupied by Leighelena. An exact opening date will be announced soon. For more information, visit Rancho Diaz online and follow along on social media

“Rancho Diaz is based on what Mario and I have in our 1930’s home, and what we dream about putting into a desert modern home someday… The style is West without being Western, with a heavy dose of our favorite handmade pieces from Mexico and around the world. Mario is a huge foodie and home chef, and we are excited about adding that aspect to this shop since it’s located in such a food-centric place like the Pearl.” – Rancho Diaz Co-Owner Ginger Diaz.

Pearl, located north of downtown San Antonio, provides a unique experience as a top culinary and cultural destination. The mixed-use space features retail, dining, picturesque green spaces, paseos riverside amphitheater, and the third campus of The Culinary Institute of America. As a former brewery operating from 1883 to 2001, Pearl reflects a vivid past while embracing the future with environmentally sustainable buildings mixed with historic architecture.

New music from Metal Assault Records: Solar Haze

Solar Haze’s The Solar Age will be out July 16, 2021. Photo: google

Southern California’s heavy rock / metal trio Solar Haze will release their mind altering EP The Solar Age on July 16, 2021 via Metal Assault Records. Pre-orders for The Solar Age began on June 18 and the band released their official music video for the single and EP lead off track, “The Solar Age.” In celebration of their forthcoming release, Solar Haze will perform at “Blunt Force Trauma Fest,” a virtual mini festival experience presented by Ebony Jeanette PR & Metal Assault Records streaming July 16 via YouTube. More details about the virtual festival are available online. (Solar Haze, 2021)

Solar Haze is:
Guitar/Vocals/Bass Guitar: Stephen Falla
Guitar: Ross Cowan
Drums/Percussion: Ryan Michael Falla

The end is near, The Solar Age is here. Metal Assault Records will release the eagerly awaited EP The Solar Age from Southern California heavy rock / metal group Solar Haze on July 16, 2021. The three-track, 18-minute EP was produced by Eddie Vasquez (of San Diego based band Tzimani) and includes violent sequences that may induce frequent night-terrors and sudden mood swings which can cause bouts of severe irritability or thoughts of violence. Do not be alarmed if you receive frequent home visitations from mysterious individuals in black, phone calls from numbers with no area codes, or voices in your head that seem to be of foreign origin. These are common side effects that come with indulging in The Solar Age.

The Solar Age track listing:

  1. The Solar Age (4:57)
  2. Fortress Will Fall (3:50)
  3. Terror of the Deep (9:00)
Solar Haze – The Solar Age
2021-07-16T15:12:00

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New book release: ‘The Killing Hills’ by Chris Offutt

‘The Killing Hills’ is the new thriller by Chris Offutt. Photo: amazon

Chris Offutt is the author of the short-story collections “Kentucky Straight” and “Out of the Woods,” the novel “The Good Brother,” and three memoirs: “The Same River Twice,” “No Heroes,” and “My Father, the Pornographer.” His work has appeared in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays, among many other places. He has written screenplays for Weeds, True Blood, and Treme, and has received fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim foundations. His new book “The Killing Hills” is a compelling, propulsive thriller in which a suspicious death exposes the loyalties and rivalries of a deep-rooted and fiercely private community in the Kentucky backwoods. (amazon, 2021)

Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an Army CID agent, is home on a leave that is almost done. His wife is about to give birth, but they are not getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder case, and local politicians are pushing for city police or the FBI to take the case. Are they convinced she cannot  handle it, or is there something else at work? She calls on Mick who, with his homicide investigation experience and familiarity with the terrain, is well-suited to staying under the radar. As he delves into the investigation, he dodges his commanding officer’s increasingly urgent calls while attempting to head off further murders. And he needs to talk to his wife. “The Killing Hills” is a novel of betrayal―sexual, personal, within and between the clans that populate the hollers―and the way it so often shades into violence. Chris Offutt has delivered a dark, witty, and absolutely compelling novel of murder and honor, with an investigator-hero unlike any in fiction.

Suzanne Santo to release Yard Sale on August 27

Suzanne Santo’s sophomore release features Gary Clark, Jr and Shakey Graves and blends Americana, Southern-gothic soul, and forward-thinking rock and roll. The first single “Bad Beast” is out now. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Yard Sale, the sophomore solo album from the now Austin, TX-based Suzanne Santo, is the musical equivalent of a homeowner’s purging of old possessions in order to clear up some much-needed room. Releasing August 27 via Soundly Music, the album marks the moment where Santo makes peace with her past and embraces a better, bolder present. A tireless creator, Santo has built her sound in the grey area between Americana, Southern-gothic soul, and forward-thinking rock & roll. It is a sound that nods to her past—a childhood spent in the Rust Belt which is also where she learned to love a yard sale; a decade logged as a member of the L.A.-based duo HoneyHoney; the acclaimed solo album, Ruby Red, of which Paste called “shameless, self-aware dialogue that opens the door for conversation that leads to real healing;” and the world tour that took her from Greece to Glastonbury as a member of Hozier’s band—while still exploring new territory. With Yard Sale, Santo boldly moves forward, staking her claim once again as an Americana innovator. It is an album inspired by the past, written by an artist who is only interested in the here-and-now. And for Suzanne Santo, the here-and-now sounds pretty good. The album’s first single “Bad Beast” is available everywhere today, listen here. Fans can pre-order or pre-save by clicking here. (Suzanne Santo, 2021)

Yard Sale finds Santo in transition, physically and emotionally. She began writing the album while touring the globe with Hozier—a gig that utilized her strengths not only as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, but also as a road warrior. Some songs were written between Hozier rehearsals, with Santo holing up in a farmhouse on the rural Irish coast, while others were finished during bus rides, backstage writing sessions, and hotel stays. Grateful for the experience but eager to return to her solo career, she finished her run with Hozier, joining the band for one final gig at Glastonbury before flying home to Los Angeles. Within three days, she was back in the studio, working with producer John Spiker on what was to become Yard Sale.

Upon returning home, Los Angeles became stale for Santo as the city is inclined to do. A partner breakup paired with the hiatus of HoneyHoney left her feeling lonely in her own home—sparking the cosmic relocation to Austin, TX—a city whose fingerprints are all over Yard Sale, thanks to appearances by hometown heroes like Gary Clark Jr. and Shakey Graves. Thus the metaphorical album title of Yard Sale became literal with a cross country move and the emotional unpacking and shedding that happens when life in a new city, with a new love, beckons.

The album presents Santo at the very top of her game musically, writing her own string arrangements and singing each song in an agile, acrobatic voice—perhaps in part due to the cathartic making-of process and what that has meant for her professionally and personally. At times she bridges the gap between indie-rock and neo-soul. On other tracks, she mixes gospel influences with a deconstructed R&B beat. Fans will hear layers of spacey, atmospheric electric guitar and Shakey Graves on a rainy-day ballad driven forward by a metronomic drum pattern, and Gary Clark punctuating with fiery fretwork.

Of the album as a whole, Santo says, “I’m into the emotional concept of what a yard sale really is. This record is about the things I’ve left behind and the things I’ve held onto. I was broken up with while writing the record. I fell in love again while writing the record. And I learned to fearlessly follow my gut, in all places of my life, while making this record.”

Yard Sale track listing:
Over and Over Again
Mercy
Gold Rush
Save For Love
Bad Beast
Since I Had Your Love
Afraid Of Heights
Fall For That
Common Sense
To No End
Idiot
Island

On tour:
July 5-6 – The RIDE Festival – Telluride, CO
August 26 – Album release show @ Antone’s – Austin, TX
September 8 – Mercury Lounge – New York, NY
November 5 – Space Ballroom – Hamden, CT*
November 6 – Big Night Live – Boston, MA*
November 7 – Colony – Woodstock, NY
November 10 – Southern – Charlottesville, VA*
November 11 – Black Cat – Washington, DC*
November 12 – Otto Bar – Baltimore, MD*
November 13 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA*
November 14 – Grog Shop – Cleveland Heights, OH*
November 16 – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL*
*with Murder By Death

Suzanne Santo – Bad Beast
2021-08-27T10:46:00

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Celebrate Father’s Day at JL Bar Ranch, Resort & Spa

JL Bar Ranch, Resort & Spa in Sonora, Tx. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Need some last minute Father’s Day gift ideas? Show Dad some love this Father’s Day and treat him to a weekend at the stunning, 13,000-acre JL Bar Ranch, Resort & Spa in Sonora Texas. (JL Bar Ranch, Resort & Spa, 2021)

Families can celebrate Dad with a gourmet brunch from JL Bar’s expert culinary team on Sunday, June 20, with two exclusive seatings between 10a.m. – 2p.m. (locals and day visitors can book, too). For $39.95 and $12.95 for children, guests and locals will be treated to a special menu of signatures dishes including Brisket Eggs Benedict, Southern Style Chicken Fried Steak, and Chef Carved Mesquite Smoked Rack of Pork. There will be two reservations on The Ranch from 10a.m. – 11:30a.m. and 12:30p.m. – 2p.m. with limited seating for both.  

For those lucky enough to stay for the weekend, there is an activity for every type of Father. From a full equestrian program featuring horseback riding and a horse psychology experience to off-road ATV adventures, a putting/chipping Green, and clay and skeet shooting, families will be able to make many memorable moments at JL Bar Ranch, Resort & Spa.