Nashville, TN. (Greg Garing Official Website) - Greg Garing, King of Nashville's Lower Broad Honky Tonk revival and the twangmaster who brought gen-u-wine country music to New York City's rollicking Alphabet City Opry, announces the launch of the Greg Garing's
Music City Circus. Along with Garing for this three-ring carnival ride will be top Americana artists such as rockabilly filly Rosie Flores and the prodigiously talented prodigy Chris Scruggs, as well as occasional burlesque gals, jug band, cloggers, and comedians. The tour will also feature other musicians outside of the Nashville mainstream selected by Garing for their artistic integrity.
"I learned from the real deals," says Garing about his stints with mentors Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin, "and now its time to take my show of real deal Nashville artists on the road." Since America is a big top filled with unsung talent, each stop of the tour will include a talent search where local bands are invited to step right up and bring their demo to the show for submission. Winners will receive a one-way ticket to Nashville for a big-time showcase presented by Garing's Music City Circus crew.
Along with BR549, Greg Garing rejuvenated the historic downtown Nashville known as Lower Broad in the mid-1990s. He helped return Tootsie's Orchid Lounge to the level of country cool it experienced as the back alley watering hole for the Grand Ole. Record labels began to approach him, but the last thing he wanted was to be known as "the next Hank Williams." The growing commercial interest gave him the sense that he couldn't be creative if tied to old forms, so he put his guitar away and moved north.
Garing moved to New York City in the late 1990s and found the city completely void of hardcore country music. He took up shop at an unnamed bar on the Lower East Side (the venue was soon dubbed 9C thanks to its address - 9th Street and Avenue C) and gathered local like-minded musicians to create the Alphabet City Opry. Each Monday night, crowds squeezed into 9C to hear music that was "closer to ghost of Nashville than to anything you can find there now," the New York Times declared. The scene garnered praise from publications such as Billboard and the New York Times, and soon New York hipsters such as Moby and David Byrne began to show up. Even with all the publicity, the club still couldn't make ends meet and was forced to close down. Now Garing's Music City Circus is hitting to road to feed the hardcore country scene around the U.S.
Confirmed dates:
Oct. 26th and Nov. 30th - St. Louis, MO at Fredericks Music Lounge
Nov. 9th - Knoxville, TN - Preservation Club
Nov. 13 - New York City - Sin-e
Nov. 15th - New York City - Slipper Room CMA After-Party
Nov. 16th - Vienna, VA - Jammin' Java
Dec. 1st - Kansas City - Knuckleheads
Dec. 3rd - Asheville, NC - Jack of the Wood
