Elaine Dame Announces Sip Residency & Matthew Shepard Foundation Benefit

New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Jazz vocalist and bandleader Elaine Dame will be holding down a Thursday night residency at SIP (aka Southport & Irving), 4000 N. Southport Ave in Chicago, throughout the month of April. The residency, which begins on Thursday, April 2 at 8PM CST, will be followed by a benefit for the Matthew Shepard Foundation on Sunday, May 3 (6-10PM CST), which Dame will host.

Elaine Dame has been on the Chicago music scene since 1996 and has been called "a gem in the city's vocal jazz scene" by Time Out Chicago. She gigs regularly at The Rainbow Room in New York City and has performed at the University of Chicago, the Chicago Cultural Center and will be performing at the 2015 Chicago Jazz Festival. Her latest CD, You're My Thrill, was released to critical acclaim in 2014 and features liner notes penned by Grammy award-winning writer and jazz critic Neil Tesser.

Dennis and Judy Shepard founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation in memory of their 21-year old son, Matthew, who was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime in Wyoming in October 1998. The Foundation seeks to "Replace Hate with Understanding, Compassion, & Acceptance" through its varied educational, outreach and, advocacy programs and by continuing to tell Matthew's story.