>>THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR RADIO. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE STATION. WE ARE CONTROLLING TRANSMISSION.  SIT QUIETLY WITH YOUR RADIO TURNED TO 90.3 FM AND WE WILL CONTROL ALL THAT YOU SEE AND HEAR<<

We are very luck to have one of the finest community radio stations in the nation here in our hometown of Minneapolis! KFAI is a tremendous boon to our music scene here in the midwest.  We will be participating in the following progams thanks to the invitation of their respective intrepid hosts:

Thursday, November 20th, 10 am-Noon
The Dakota Dave Hull Show – Hosted by Dakota Dave Hull
**Will also DJ’ing a few choice cuts from Patty’s personal collection throughout the show!!

Sunday, November 23rd, 9am – 1oam
Century Song – Hosted by Dan Rein

Wednesday, November 26th, 4pm – 4:30pm
Harold’s House Party – Hosted by Harold Tremblay

We’ve done our best to list exactly the times that we will be on air, but, you really ought to just leave your radio tuned to KFAI for the next week waiting patiently for us to come on air.
KFAI
90.3 FM Minneapolis
106.7 FM St. Paul

Listen to the programs online (live or in the archives) at http://KFAI.ORG

We’re very proud to have one of nation’s finest purveyors of vintage vinyl here in our hometown of Minneapolis.  Hymie’s Vintage records is one of the most genuine music shopping experiences out there and they also happen to know a thing or two about good music.  Dave Hoenack, the proprietor, took some time out of his busy schedule to say a few things about our new release “The Mercury Blues”. Here’s, our personal highlight from this review: “So, to Muppet-ify Patty we’d describe him as divided somewhere between Gonzo the Great and Sam the Eagle.”  Be sure to stop in and check out the shop! In the meanwhile, you can read the whole review here: http://hymiesrecords.com/the-mercury-blues/

Patty and The Buttons are celebrating the release of their second album “The Mercury Blues” at the historic Heights Theater built in 1926.  The show will be an riotous vaudeville style presentation featuring Patty and The Buttons, a very special appearance by Davina (of The Vagabonds) with Zack Lozier, silent film shorts from “Musty Suffer”, the Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ and more!  Guests are highly encouraged to attend in 1920’s period attire and to leave their phones at home.  ALL attendees will also receive a FREE copy of Patty and The Buttons new album “The Mercury Blues”

Saturday November 29th, 2014
1pm FAMILY FRIENDLY matinee
12:30pm Doors

The Heights Theater
3951 Central Ave NE
Columbia Heights, MN

$20 General Admission
(Includes a complimentary physical copy of “The Mercury Blues”)
TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW:  http://pattyandthebuttons.brownpapertickets.com/

Preview tracks from our new disc “The Mercury Blues” on SoundCloud:

Davina Sowers (http://davinaandthevagabonds.com/)

Davina Sowers hit the Midwest scene in February 2005 and she hasn’t looked back since. It didn’t take her long after moving to Minnesota from Key West, FL to start making a name for herself. With great vocals and piano, she commands attention on stage and leaves everyone smiling. Davina has been performing since the age of 5, with the support of an extremely musical family. Sowers, a classically-trained pianist, has years of experience in piano performance. She and her band made a big splash at Duluth’s Bayfront Blues Festival in 2006 to2008, having the highest sales in CDs all three years. She has been called the “hardestworking blues woman in frigid Minnesota.” “Two things remain consistent in all her shows: her throaty, but cushiony voice, which has a sort of hardmattress comfort to it that’s part Bonnie Raitt, part Etta James and a little Amy Winehouse; and her band’s rollicking New Orleans flavor, driven home by dueling horn players and a bayouthick standup bass.” (CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER, Star Tribune) Davina has already shared the stage with Little Feat, Buddy Guy, Elvin Bishop, The Lamont Cranston Band, The Blues Brothers, Joe Bonamassa, Irma Thomas and James Hunter, among others, at venues such as House of Blues in Atlantic City, NJ and the Bayfront Blues Festival in Duluth, MN.

Musty Suffer (Silent Film Shorts)

Originally released in 1916, these silent film shorts feature the mishaps and misfortunes of tittle character “Musty Suffer”.  Played by Vaudeville star Harry Watson Jr., these pictures are some of the earliest examples of comedic film.  “Musty” finds himself in a number of bizarre, uncomfortable and downright surreal situations.  These films have been almost entirely forgotten in the archives of the library of congress, until now! They will be ably accompanied at the Heights by the Mighty WCCO Wurlitzer, played by Mr. Harvey Gustafson.

The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ

The current organ began its life in 1929 as the WCCO studio organ, back in the days when WCCO had studios located in the old Nicollet hotel at Washington and Hennepin Ave in downtown Minneapolis. It was then a 3 manual instrument with 12 ranks of pipes. Then in the 1960’s it was sold to a private collector and eventually purchased by the Land O Lakes Theatre Organ Society in 1998. Soon after, a deal was struck with the management of the Heights Theater to install the organ, thus making the Heights the first movie theater to have a functioning pipe organ since the Downtown Minneapolis Radio City Theater closed its doors in 1958. The organ currently has 16 sets of pipes (known as ranks) and also boasts a glockspiel, xylophone, chimes, piano, and marimba, as well as an assortment of rhythm percussions and original theater pipe organ sound effects such as train whistle, bell, birds, and so forth. The section which currently plays is housed in the former dressing room on the right side of the auditorium. The organ’s voices include Tuba, Trumpet, Post horn (the loudest stop) strings clarinet, and a variety of other organ voices to fill out the ensemble.

The Heights Theater

The Heights Theatre is located in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, a Northeast Minneapolis suburb. The theatre was originally constructed in 1926 by Gluek Brewery heir Arthur Gluek as a prohibition real estate venture. Built in the Beaux Arts style of the last century, the Heights Theatre building was a simple neighborhood movie house showcasing local talent in stage plays and “High Class Amateur Vaudeville Acts.” The Heights has survived at least three fires, one bombing and “The Big Blow of 1949” when a Fridley tornado twisted the tower sign. Today the theater has been restored to its original glory. A scarlet motorized Grande drape covers the proscenium stage and gilded grills conceal the organ’s pipework. Antique chandeliers are suspended from the ceiling restored with 2600 Egyptian lead crystals. Hand-painted reproduction Edison Mazda bulbs in four colors on separate circuits allow a multitude of effects from 152 lights above four hundred seats. An orchestra pit was discovered under the floor where the mighty Wurlitzer Theater Organ now rises for Friday and Saturday night concerts.

We’re very happy to have made a return appearance on the San Francisco based Traditional Jazz and Blues Podcast “Hey Mister Jesse”.  You can listen to episode #106 here: http://www.yehoodi.com/show/heymisterjesse  … There is discussion of the XXX Historic Smut disc as well as crowd funding in general.  Jesse does a great job, check it out!

Our pal Dave Hoenack over at Hymie’s vintage vinyl wrote a very illuminating post about naughty music in the last century or so.  Our “XXX” historic smut disc is discussed as well as many other notables from recorded music history.  If you have a mind for such things, I would encourage you to spend a moment getting the “good stuff” in your ears!

http://hymiesrecords.com/the-good-stuff/

We are very excited to be welcoming Richard Smith to Minneapolis on August 5th!  Richard is a world class fingerstyle guitarist whom performed and studied with the late Chet Atkins.  He will play a solo set and then join Patty and The Buttons for a set of hot jazz.  Mr. Smith is one of the finest musicians in the world today. You really won’t want to miss it!  

“The most amazing guy I know on the guitar. He can play anything I know, only better.” – Chet Atkins, CGP (music legend)

Tuesday August 5th, 2014
7-10pm / ALL AGES / $8

The Dakota Jazz Club

1010 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN
55403

(612) 332-1010

About Richard Smith (http://www.richardsmithmusic.com/)

From Bach to Beatles and barn-burners to ballads

Audiences delight, when world-renowned fingerstyle guitarist Richard Smith cuts loose

Having witnessed one of his live performances, fellow musicians and music lovers alike sing hymns of praise about world-renowned fingerstyle guitarist Richard Smith. With fretboard fireworks and lyrical endeavours he will melt your heart­strings, make your toes tapping and your jaws hanging open. Richard’s ever growing repertoire comprises a wide variety of music from classical Bach to Beatles pop. It includes Scott Joplin Rags just like Sousa marches, Chopin, Mozart and fiddle tunes. It ranges from jazz standards to Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed and to Django Rein­hardt gypsy swing, not to mention his intriguing originals. He delivers both, light­ning fast barn-burners and beautiful ballads, occasionally spiced with vocals.

His incredible stylistic wealth is founded in a lifelong love for music. Born in Be­ckenham, Kent, England in 1971, Richard started playing guitar at age 5 under the instruction of his father. Concentrating initially on the country picking of Chet At­kins and Merle Travis, young Richard digested everything he heard, learning even the most complicated of these tunes with ease, and confounding everyone with his dexterity. It seemed that not only did he possess amazing physical skill, but a photographic musical memory as well. Often, a single hearing was all it took to get a piece under his fingers, using all ten to play bass, rhythm and melody simultaneous­ly and creating a universe of sounds, while easily switching between thumbpicking and flatpicking like hardly anybody else.

Richard first met his hero, the “Godfather” of fingerstyle guitar, Chet Atkins, when he was only eleven. Richard was invited by Chet to share the stage with him at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in front of an audience of 1,000. At first, the master ac­companied him, but later on he just listened in stunned silence while the child  played Chet’s own arrangements – perfectly. By the time Richard reached his early twenties, both Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed began to refer to him as their “Hero”.

It’s no surprise, that the hymns of praise subsequently never faded. Now residing in Nashville, Richard has toured the world as a solo artist, teaming up with his wife Julie Adams for a unique guitar and cello duo, performing with his brothers Rob and Sam as the Richard Smith Guitar Trio and with his swing band, The Hot Club of Nashville, featuring Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Pat Bergeson on guitar and Charlie Chadwick on bass. Fellow guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel prefers Richard Smith as one of his favourite duet partners. In 2001, Richard became the National Finger­style Guitar Champion in Winfield, Kansas. He was elected Thumbpicker of the Year in 2008 and inducted into the National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame in Kentucky in 2009. He is also a recipient of the Golden Thumbpick Award by the Association of Fingerstyle Guitarists in California.

Richard has been a mainstay at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention in Nashville since 1991, where he has played with many world renowned artists inclu­ding Nato Lima of Los Indios Tabajaras, sax legend Boots Randolph and John Jor­genson of Desert Rose Band and Elton John Band fame. He has also performed with other great musicians such as Marcel Dadi, Tommy Tedesco, Thom Bresh, Joe Pass, Biréli Lagrène, Bryan Sutton, Les Paul, Mark O’Connor, Sam Bush, Martin Taylor, Jorge Morel, Suzy Bogguss, Muriel Anderson, Guy Van Duser, Béla Fleck, Victor Wooten, Tony McManus and Buster B. Jones and shared the bill with a host of others, most notably Steve Morse, Albert Lee, Paco Peña, Barney Kessel, Da­vid Russell and Johnny Hiland.

Most of you are well acquainted with our Aster Cafe residency (almost) every Sunday.  We have a few special guests from out of town whom will be making whirlwind appearances with us on their way to and from points around the nation.  Please consider joining us to catch some truly amazing players in an intimate setting.  Call us crazy, but the shows will still be FREE.

JULY 27th: Sam Miltich (Guitar) Grand Rapids, MN
(http://www.sammiltich.com/)

AUGUST 10th: Tom McDermott (Piano) New Orleans, LA
(http://mcdermottmusic.com/)

Guitarist/Singer Jack Klatt is a vital member of the Minneapolis roots and traditional music scene.  Patty (of The Buttons) also shares instrumental abilities with him regularly as a sideman on washboard and accordion.  Both will come together to present an exciting evening of music at the Dakota on April 3rd, 2014. Many of Jack’s original songs draw from the same pool of pre-war influences that Patty and The Buttons do.  Klatt will perform solo as well as with the able Buttons backing him for a first time collaboration.

More about Jack Klatt:

Jack Klatt, native of Minnesota’s Mississippi river banks, has traveled far and wide through the highways and bi-ways of America, Europe and Canada with his guitar always near by. A self-taught musician and lyricist with eyes and ears wide open, always eager to soak up songs and stories. Klatt has sang in countless barrooms, cafes, living rooms, theaters and street corners all over the world, entertaining folks with his boisterous finger-picking style and whiskey worn voice, continuing the troubador tradition of folks like Utah Phillips, Blind Willie MacTell and Towns Van Zandt.

Thursday April 3rd, 2014
7-10pm / ALL AGES / $6

The Dakota Jazz Club

1010 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN
55403

(612) 332-1010

Virtuoso Pianist Tom McDermott from New Orleans, LA is returning to the Dakota Jazz Club Tuesday, January 28th.  He will also be bringing trumpet player Kevin Clark from the famed Dukes of Dixieland!  Tom and Kevin will be doing some playing as a duo as well as lending their talents to The Buttons for some heavy hitting traditional New Orleans selections.   Please come and support two world class musicians from the birthplace of jazz. 

Tom McDermott

“Mr. McDermott is not simply a follower of tradition or a repository of old tunes. He composes within his wide-ranging idiom with a knowledgeable feeling for his sources and a sense of humor.” -New York Times

Tuesday January 28th, 2013
7-10pm / ALL AGES / $7

The Dakota Jazz Club

1010 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN
55403

(612) 332-1010

More About Tom McDermott:

Tom McDermott is one of New Orleans’ premiere piano players and composers. He grew up in St. Louis, where he earned a Masters’ Degree in Music, wrote music journalism for the morning paper, and soaked up the sounds of ragtime and traditional jazz that flourished in the 1960s and 70s. In 1984, spurred by his love of James Booker, Professor Longhair and Dr. John, he moved to New Orleans, a trip enabled by a gig at the World’s Fair.

Tom has been quite busy the last 25 years. For much of the 1990s he was a Duke of Dixieland, which took him to Europe, Asia, South America and all over the States (including Carnegie Hall); he recorded several albums with the Dukes, including a tribute to Jelly Roll Morton with the great Danny Barker.

In 1995, after arranging a tune for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band album “Jelly,” he co-founded the modern brass band the New Orleans Nightcrawlers. Tom has written for the theater (the Obie-award-winning off-Broadway show, “Nita and Zita”), appeared in bit roles in the movies and TV (“He Said She Said” and the HBO series “Treme,” and had his music used frequently on NPR. A group he co-led with clarinetist Evan Christopher, the Danza Quartet, appeared on NPR’s New Year’s Eve show, “Toast of the Nation,” on 2008-2009. He has recorded 10 albums, and 75 original tunes as a bandleader.

Sam Miltich and Dean Harrington are two world class Gypsy Jazz guitar players from the state of Minnesota.  Patty and The Buttons will be hosting a night of Gypsy Jazz at the Dakota Jazz Club on December 8th as part of their “Patty and The Buttons” presents series.  Guitarists Miltich and Harrington have never appeared together in public before, expect many nods to Django Rheinhardt as well as plenty of virtuosic guitar licks!

Sunday December 8th, 2013

7-10pm / ALL AGES / FREE

The Dakota Jazz Club

1010 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN
55403

(612) 332-1010

 Sam Miltich

Sam Miltich is a jazz guitarist born and raised in the woods of northern Minnesota. He is a musician by profession and plays regularly in the Upper Midwest as a soloist and with his bands the Sam Miltich Trio and The Clearwater Hot Club.  At a screening of Woody Allen’s movie “Sweet and Lowdown,” Sam heard the music of the late gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt for the first time. The combination of acoustic instruments, driving rhythm, and the swing feel sounded like a melding of his favorite genres of music into one. Sam decided to dedicate himself to the study of gypsy jazz. By the time he was eighteen he was touring with the Robin Nolan Trio in the U.S. and Europe. He would later join the Hot Club of San Francisco for two years before starting his own band, the Clearwater Hot Club. In addition to promoting his bands, Sam is always seeking out new musical connections. His recent musical collaborators have included mandolin virtuoso Peter Ostroushko, legendary Twin Cities saxophonist Dave Karr, jazz and classical guitarist Joan Griffith, and Dutch jazz violinist Tim Kliphuis.

 Dean Harrington

 Dean Harrington has been a performing musician and guitar teacher in the Twin Cities area for the last twenty years. He started as a classical musician, completing a Bachelor of Music degree in classical guitar performance from the University of Minnesota, studying with classical guitarist and composer Jeffrey Van. He performs regularly in the Twin Cities area with his bands Mill City Hot Club and Dean Harrington Trio. Dean has performed locally with several other bands including: Twin Cities Hot Club, Patty and the Buttons, Gypsy Mania, Café Accordion Orchestra, The Southside Aces, Connie Evingson, Rhonda Laurie, Tony Sandler, Sidewalk Cafe, Nikki and the Ruemates, Papa John and the Hot Club of East Lake Street, Men with Hollowbodies, and more.

On Sunday, November 10th we will be featuring our good friends Maud Hixson (voice) and Rick Carlson (piano) as part of our “Patty and The Buttons Present” series at the Dakota Jazz Club.  The two will play a set of their intimate duet material, as well as some wildly eclectic collaborations with Patty and The Buttons. You may have seen Rick playing piano with us as of late drawing inspiration from greats like Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and Count Basie.  Maud is a masterful interpreter of the American songbook.  Her 2013 release, “Don’t Let A Good Thing Get Away” was the first album devoted to the music of Broadway composer Michael Leonard. Recorded in New York City, it features arrangements by pianist Tex Arnold as well as bassist Steve LaSpina, cornetist Warren Vaché, and guitarist Gene Bertoncini.  Please come join us for a unique evening of music, you’ll want to be there!

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 10th, 2013

7-10pm / ALL AGES / FREE

The Dakota Jazz Club
1010 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN
55403

(612) 332-1010

Folks, be sure to mark your calendars for THURSDAY nights down at Republic Seven Corners.  We’ll be playing there once a month in a rotation that includes many other awesome twin cities traditional music acts like The Cactus Blossoms, Corpse Reviver, Jack Klatt, Dreamland Faces as well as special presentations by Hymie’s Vintage Records!  We will be there the following THURSDAYS starting at 9pm:

10/24

11/28

12/26

NO COVER/ALL AGES

Republic Seven Corners
221 Cedar Ave
Minneapolis, MN
55454
(612) 338-6146