New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Chris Seleski will be hosting a 'hootenanny' Wednesday nights at Kenny's Castaways (157 Bleecker St.) in New York City from ten pm till close with no cover charge at the door. Must be twenty-one or older to enter.
The 'invite mic/jam' will begin on May 19th and is tentatively scheduled to go through June 9th or longer. Hootenannies are rumored to have started just a few doors down in Greenwich Village, during the 'folk era' of music, at the historic Bitter End, but Kenny's Castaways is no slouch itself. Known as the 'House that Rock Built,' The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Aerosmith, Liam Clancy, Yoko Ono, Rod Stewart, Blues Traveler, and the Ramones are all part of Kenny's Castaways history.
Bruce Springsteen played his first New York show at Kenny's. DeeDee and Joey Ramone are rumored to have first met in Kenny's Castaways in the 70's during a New York Dolls concert.
The hootenanny will create an atmosphere where both known and unknown talent can come up on stage to play and learn from each other. The show will be acoustically driven by Chris Seleski and his band who are recording and promoting Chris's debut acoustically driven album Late Nights, Empty Rooms. Qualified artists will be encouraged to come up and play their original material for the audience throughout the night. Cover songs will be allowed, but will be encouraged to have an original twist put upon them.
'If I wanted to listen to hear Oasis play 'Wonderwall,' then I'll put on their album, if I want to hear an interesting cover of 'Wonderwall,' I'll put on Ryan Adams, or Cat Power, or even Jay-Z,' Seleski said, 'I justed to create an atmosphere where all the interesting singer / songwriters who hang out on Bleecker St. could hang out and be creative and inspired. The time is right in the village to bring original music back to the forefront of shows instead of becoming human jukeboxes who have to sneak in an original song in between covers to have them heard. There is a lot of talent around that needs to be heard.'
Numerous sightings of various artists have been reported on Bleecker St. recently and Chris, a regular on the block, is said to have spoken to all of them from Joss Stone, to John Popper (frontman of Blues Traveler), to Steven Van Zandt (of Springsteen's E-Street Band and the Sopranos), to Delmar Brown (of Sting). 'There may be some big surprises on Wednesday nights at Kenny's Castaways. I think the audience and the musicians are going to be very pleased.' Seleski said.
