Posted on May 16, 2015 at 8:53 pm

For some of these SubCulture concerts, I start off with a Big Idea (like doing a two-piano concert with Tom Kitt), but I didn’t have a particularly Big Idea for this month’s concert, just some wonderful singers I love making music with.

Shoshana Bean is almost never in New York, so I grabbed the opportunity to get her to SubCulture now before her UK tour or her starring role in Beaches in Chicago this summer. I’ve been singing with Shoshana for years now, and there has never been a time when she hasn’t blown me away with her talent – it’s not just the singing (which is unbelievable) but the empathy and the humanity with which she invests every note.

Christopher Jackson had this tiny window between the time Hamilton closed at the Public and the time it opens on Broadway this summer, after which I’ll never get to see him again because he’ll be such a Big Macher, so I grabbed him fast. There isn’t a more soulful singer in New York than Christopher Jackson, y’all.

And I love Morgan Karr, who I really only met because he submitted a song to my Karaoke Competition and knocked me out, so I invited him to come sing with us at 54 Below two years ago. Now he’s riding high on the success of a new single, and he was in New York for a hot minute, so I dragged him on stage and had him sing the most upsetting song in the world, which he did with such grace and beauty.

Last night was also a night to sing the blues to celebrate the glorious achievement of B.B. King, who passed on earlier this week. To that end, Gary Sieger delivered some magnificent solos while Shoshana tried to resist throwing her shoes at him.

Every one of these concerts at SubCulture has been a surprise and a privilege. Can’t wait for the next one on June 8!

Shoshana: All Things In Time (JRB in Concert)
Shoshana: And I Will Follow (Songs of Jason Robert Brown)
Chris: When I’m Gone (The Bridges of Madison County)
JRB: It All Fades Away (The Bridges of Madison County)
Morgan: King of the World (Songs for a New World)
JRB: Long Long Road (Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes)
Shoshana: Letting You Go (Songs of Jason Robert Brown)
Chris et al: Who Is He And What Is He (cover of Bill Withers’s song)
Chris: Over (Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes)
Morgan: Twenty-Six Names
Shoshana: Another Life (The Bridges of Madison County)
JRB: Wait ‘Til You See What’s Next
JRB: Melinda

Jason Robert Brown: piano, vocals
Gary Sieger: electric and acoustic guitars
Justin Goldner: electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin
Randy Landau: acoustic bass
Jamie Eblen: drums and percussion