New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Missing Piece Group) The pre-order launches today for No Fools, No Fun, the debut album from Puss n Boots, a NYC-based band formed by
Sasha Dobson,
Norah Jones and Catherine Popper. The album, which includes five original songs and seven spirited cover tunes, will be released on July 15 by Blue Note Records. M Magazine named it the "must' record for the season, noting, "This summer's all-purpose soundtrack comes courtesy of Puss N Boots…[No Fools, No Fun] sounds as good at parties as it does in your headphones." A deluxe edition - available in physical and digital formats exclusively at Amazon - will include two bonus tracks: Puss n Boots' takes on "Cry Cry Cry," Johnny Cash's 1955 breakthrough hit, and the pop standard "In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town." Fans who pre-order No Fools, No Fun on either Amazon or iTunes will instantly receive a download of the track "Down By The River." You can stream Puss n Boots' rendition of the classic
Neil Young song here.
Puss n Boots will perform another track from the album, the Norah Jones-penned "Don't Know What It Means," on "The
Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on Wednesday, July 16. Other release-week activities include appearances on NPR's "World Café" and the syndicated radio show "Acoustic Café" plus a special album release show on July 15 at The Bell House.
In addition to the Brooklyn show, Puss n Boots will support No Fools, No Fun with an East Coast outing that kicks off on June 22 at the Clearwater Festival in Croton-On-Hudson, NY and includes a performance at the Newport Folk Festival (July 26). See below for itinerary. While No Fools, No Fun is Puss n Boots' first album, the trio has been playing live together since 2008. In addition to numerous headline shows, they have performed at the Bridge School Benefit, played stadiums with the
Beastie Boys on the "Get Out The Vote" tour and joined
Wilco onstage at Madison
Square Garden, singing background vocals on "Jesus, Etc.," a song that Puss n Boots interprets on No Fools, No Fun.
Puss n Boots - Upcoming Tour Dates
6/22 - Croton-On-Hudson, NY @ Clearwater Festival
7/12 - Greenfield, MA @ Green River Festival
7/13 - Maplewood, NJ @ Maplewoodstock
7/15 - Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House
7/17 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
7/18 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
7/22 - Hamden, CT @ The Ballroom at The Outer Space
7/24 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
7/26 - Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival
About
Sasha Dobson (vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, drums)
Sasha Dobson grew up in
Santa Cruz, CA. Her father Smith Dobson was one of the Bay Area's most influential and in-demand pianists, her mom a well-known singer and her brother an accomplished drummer. By the time she was 12,
Sasha was performing with the entire family at the Monterey Jazz Festival. She moved to Brooklyn at 17 and quickly assimilated into the NYC jazz scene, releasing 2005's The Darkling Thrush, recorded with The Chris Byars Octet, and
Modern Romance (2006). The latter, which won praise from TIME Magazine, was produced by
Jesse Harris. She began playing in dive bars with her friend Norah Jones, who invited
Sasha to join her on tour. Dobson's most recent album, Aquarius (2013), was recorded with guitarist/producer Joel Hamilton (Black Keys, Tom Waits, Sparklehorse) and hailed by MAGNET as "raw and compelling." She and her band performed at Farm Aid 2013 and Dobson opened for Willie
Nelson on a series of early 2014 dates.
About
Norah Jones (vocals, electric guitar, fiddle)
Norah Jones' self-described "moody little record," Come Away With Me (2002), introduced a singular new voice and grew into a global phenomenon, sweeping the 2003 GRAMMY Awards and going on to become the #10 best-selling album of the Soundscan era. Since then, Jones has released four more critically acclaimed and commercially successful solo albums—Feels Like Home (2004),
Not Too Late (2007), The Fall (2009) and
Little Broken Hearts (2012). The latter was produced and co-written by Danger Mouse, who had enlisted Jones for his acclaimed 2011 album ROME, a valentine to classic Italian film score music that also featured Jack White. Jones has also released two albums with her country collective The
Little Willies and teamed up with
Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong to record 2013's Foreverly. The 2010 compilation …Featuring
Norah Jones showed her to possess an incredibly versatile voice by collecting her collaborations with artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Outkast, Herbie Hancock, and Foo Fighters. Jones is currently producing the solo debut from Adriel Denae of Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons.
About Catherine Popper (vocals, bass, acoustic guitar)
North Carolina native Catherine Popper has performed and recorded with numerous artists including Hem, Levon Helm, Michael Stipe,
Karen Elson, Rhett Miller, Jim Campilongo,
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, Norah Jones, Mark Olson and Kevn Kinney. She played bass, double bass and sang backing vocals for
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals from 2004 - 2006, sharing writing credits on numerous songs. Popper joined
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals on tour in 2009 and for the band's self-titled fifth album, which debuted in the Top 20 of The Billboard 200 in 2010. In 2013, she appeared on Joseph Arthur's The Ballad of
Boogie Christ and Mike Doughty's Circles Super Bon Bon… Popper will appear on Jack White's 2014 release Lazaretto.