The Crooked Jades will be playing a short California/Nevada tour focusing on their critically acclaimed latest release “Shining Darkness” August 7-16happily reuniting Jeff Kazor with band co-founder Lisa Berman as lead female vocalist after getting the sad news that visa problems will prevent Leah Abramson from entering the US from Canada. We look forward to some magic moments, some revisiting of Kazor/Berman harmonies from their back catalog, some reinterpretation of a few Shining Darkness arrangements featuring double slide and/or double banjo (wow!) and the usual theatrical presentation, dancing, mystery and frivolity. Come to a show or more than one, tell your friends, write to your senator about the draconian border issues between the US and Canada for old-time musicians, but above all continue to travel the crooked path!

Shining Darkness glowingly reviewed by fRoots editor Ian Anderson: 

“’Americana’ seems to be pretty much off the boil and resting, worn as a flag of
convenience by too many chancers and exhausted by fringe rockers
whose connection to the roots was as thin as their originality. The
Crooked Jades are something else though. Grounded in tradition, old-
time string band music and mountain blues but with open horizons that
take them, subtly, to other parts of the planet, they have a haunting
spookiness, an organic pulse, and most importantly a clear
vision…Instrument ally they're truly inspiring, getting original
textures out of conventional stringband instruments and mixing them
with (in this context) oddities like bass ukulele, harmonium, mbira,
cello and Vietnamese jaw harp and bau zither. Vocally, they have that
lonesome white blues sound which has its ancestry in Dock Boggs and
the Carters but again they take it somewhere else…a consistently startling and addictive album.”

http://www.rambles. net/crook_ shin08.html
Link to interesting take on history of band

http://www.crookedj ades.com/ store.html (go here to listen to songs from all the Crooked Jades albums)
http://www.myspace. com/crookedjades

San Francisco-based leader, founder and song-writer Jeff Kazor (guitar, lead vocals) will be joined by Lisa Berman (slide, harmonium, banjo, jaw harp, guitar, female vocals), Boston bass player Charlie Rose of Asylum Street Spankers/South Austin Jug Band, Rose Sinclair of Heart Beats fame (banjo, slide) and Portland native Sophie Vitells (fiddle).

FRI 7 AUG 2009
7 PM
THE MARTIN HOTEL
RAILROAD & MELARKEY STREETS
WINNEMUCCA NV 89445
775 623-3197 http://www.gbae.org

SAT 8 AUG 2009                                                                                                                
7:30 PM                                                                                       
ARCATA VETERANS HALL MONTHLY BARN DANCE                                                         
1425 J ST                                             
ARCATA CA 95521                                   
707 822-5394/www. humboldtfolklife .org
$7

SUN 9 AUG 2009                                                                                                              
8 PM (7:30 doors)                                                                                             
ARCATA THEATRE LOUNGE                                                              
1036 G ST                                                       
ARCATA CA 95521                                    
707 822-1220/www. arcatatheater. com                                              
$8 adv./$10 door 

TUE 11 AUG 2009                                                                                                                
9 PM (8 PM doors)                                                                                       
CAFÉ DU NORD                                                      
2170 MARKET ST.                                          
SAN FRANCISCO CA 94114                                  
415 861-5016/www. cafedunord. com
$12
with Lady A & Her Heel Draggers 

THU 13 AUGUST 2009                                                                                                               
9 PM  (8 PM DOORS)                                                                                      
THE CREPE PLACE                                                           
1134 SOQUEL AVE                                                
SANTA CRUZ CA 95062                                       
831 429-6994/www. thecrepeplace. com
$10 adv/$12 door 

FRI 14 AUG 2009                                                                                                                
8 PM                                                                                       
THE GRAND ANNEX                                                           
434 W. SIXTH ST                                                
SAN PEDRO CA 90731                                      
310 833-4813/www. thegrandvision. org
$15

SAT 15 AUG 2009                                                                                                              
8 PM                                                                                             
THE FRET HOUSE                                                               
309 N. CITRUS AVE                                                        
COVINA CA 91723                                      
626 339-7020/www. frethouse. com                                               
$15

SUN 16 AUG 2009
3 PM
LIVERMORE PUBLIC LIBRARY
FRIENDS, AUTHORS AND ARTS SERIES
1188 S. LIVERMORE AVENUE
LIVERMORE CA 94550
http://www.livermore. lib.ca.us/ 
Free