Last month, the Joyce marketing department meet with Kate Weare to brainstorm about ways to publicize her upcoming engagement on our stage. In particular, Kate seemed quite excited about her collaboration with The Crooked Jades, purveyors of old-time music. She talked about the band and its music with such passion that I had to experience this band myself. A casual visit to the band’s website, led me to videos of performances on YouTube, which lead too many hours on iTunes, which lead to two weeks of me annoying everyone on my commute with toe-tapping and head-bobbing to The Crooked Jades’ music on my ipod.

On her blog, Kate describes the music like this:
“In old time music, the devastating words of a narrator can be coupled with sweet, upbeat banjo picking, or a distant, mournful slide guitar can anchor a song about faith and transcendence. These story-songs brilliantly layer elements of human experience, with its contradictions and mixed emotions, into a legacy of craft that is utterly authentic. You forget about how carefully constructed and refined these songs have been, over generations of singers and musicians. And when they’re played aloud you sink right into the experience of the music like it just happened. That’s good story telling.”

The Crooked Jades perform live for the Kate Weare Company dancers in the world premiere of Bright Land at The Joyce Theater on August 10, 12 and 14.