The Very Best of NYC Music

Isle of Klezbos, Nervous but Excited, Out Music Awards

Isle of Klezbos is returning to the Brooklyn Museum’s amazing First Saturdays series Nov 6. The playful lesbian Klezmer band is the grand  finale at this evening of varied art and performance inspired by the art of Fred Tomaselli, whose work in now on display.  Isle of Klezbos has toured from Vienna to Vancouver with its soulful and fun-loving all-female Klezmer act, and has appeared in  broadcasts from PBS to CNN to the soundtrack of Showtime’s The L Word.

The Michigan-based “pleasantly aggressive” folk duo Nervous but Excited describe themselves as a unique harmony built upon two songwriters singing hand-crafted stories with seven instruments, vaguely choreographed dancing and a glockenspiel. Their live show will bounce you through a variety of emotions. You might cry, you’ll definitely laugh and they hope you’ll leave feeling that your heart has grown just a little larger. Austin-based artist BettySoo opens the show Nov 11 at the Stonewall Inn.

Composer Jacob Cooper gives pop star Britney Spears the extra push she needs to enter the fictional realm, imagining an ultimate twist in her well-known saga: a new downswing has triggered her to stage a final concert, and her ex-lover Justin Timberlake rushes to her side to express his undying love and try to win her back. What happens when Britney re-encounters Timberlake in her darkest hour? Check out Timberbrit, at the Incubator Arts Project Nov 18-20, to find out.

The “longest running nightclub act on Broadway,” Terese Genecco and Her Little Big Band,  headline The Iridium on the last Tuesday of every month. OUTmusic, MAC and Bistro Award-winning vocalist/bandleader (and San Francisco’s Entertainer of the Year), Genecco fronts an eight-piece band that swings their way through the Great American Songbook at breakneck speed with a take-no-prisoners approach. Genecco’s guest will be singer Klea Blackhurst. Genecco also performs Dec 28.

Join BETTY Dec 5 for a seasonal celebration of wine, women and song at City Winery. After a year of touring Europe, the harmony-heavy rock/pop band returns to Manhattan for a hometown holiday show of musical favorites and titillating treats. For 20 years, BETTY has played all over the world, using their bewitching sound to entertain and to promote activist causes they passionately support. They are showstoppers: uncommonly talented, unconventionally sexy and incredibly fun.

A mixture of pre-rock electric country blues, folk and less frantic rock n’ roll, Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs’ music brings to mind a bourbon- soaked honky-tonk bar, evenings on a dusty front porch with your faithful hound, cracked hearts and foot stomping good times. Holly creates a world that’s warm hearted, true to its roots and not swayed by fads and fashions. Get an earful Dec 10 at the Knitting Factory.


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