Saturday, May 14th, 2011 7pm, The Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL 60625
Featuring
ELLIS
NICOLE REYNOLDS
JEFFREY ALTERGOTT
SISTER SPEAK (W/ SAMANTHA CATHCART)
LEVAN D HAWKINS
IAN WILSON
with MC's
AERIN TEDESCO
MARVIN ASTORGA
Now in its 11th year, Alt Q is a celebration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered experience through music and performance. Featuring an evening of music from national and local LGBT artists, the event's mission is to raise visibility and awareness of out performers among the general public and the LGBT community. A meet-the-artists reception will follow the event. A portion of the proceeds from ALT Q will be given to St. Leonard's High School of Chicago, a free, community-based alternative high school for formerly incarcerated men and women. http://www.slministries.org/mbc-education
Founded 50 years ago, the Old Town School of Folk Music teaches and celebrates music and cultural expressions rooted in the traditions of diverse American and global communities. The Gary and Laura Maurer Concert Hall is a world-renowned auditorium and a favorite among musicians everywhere.
www.oldtownschool.org
Performer Bios and weblinks:
ELLIS
Ellis may not be a household name, but once you've seen her perform you're not likely to forget her. A mix of folk artist, dharma teacher, and comedienne, her music is best described by the effect it has on her audience rather than a particular genre. Simply put, she leaves audiences better than she finds them, with softened edges & opened hearts. With compelling songwriting and engaging performances, Ellis is quietly amassing a loyal following of supporters across the country. A native of Texas, Ellis moved to Minneapolis at the age of 16, where she quickly built a local following that blossomed into a nationwide presence, with extensive touring and seven albums released in the last sixteen years. In addition to selling more than 35,000 copies of her CDs independently, Ellis has accrued a wealth of accomplishments including national songwriting honors and performances at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Sisters Folk Festival and the Rocky Mountain Folk Festival
www.ellis-music.com
NICOLE REYNOLDS
Nicole Reynolds has just released her fourth full studio record, "A Fine Set of Fools". Nicole was born into a family of Pittsburgh steelworkers. She wrote her first album "Wolves Won't Eat Us While Living in Philadelphia" in 2006. Her next three albums, "This Arduous Alchemy" (2007), "Unordinary Mine" (2008), and "A Fine Set of Fools" (2009), were all written while she lived and worked on a small organic sheep farm in western Pennsylvania. After being mostly migrant for the past few years, she is now building a house in New Jersey.
www.nicolereynoldsmusic.com
JEFFREY ALTERGOTT
Born and raised within earshot of the sprawling Chicago music scene, Jeffrey Altergott has been a player in its ranks for over 20 years, and continues to win over fans with his supple tenor, modern folk melodies, diverse influences and charming stage presence. For the past five years, Jeffrey has primarily sequestered himself in the hermitage of his recording studio, which he designed and built himself. During that time he released his fourth and fifth albums. 'Donʼt Be a Stranger' (2007) included the song "Thank You" - featured recently on the soundtrack of the award winning movie BearCity (2010). His current full-length release, 'Balloons' (2009) contains the Billboard World Song Contest winning track, "Donʼt Prove Me Right". Altergott has garnered high praise for his earlier works from the likes of WXRT-FM deejay Richard Milne as a "Local Anesthetic" capsule pick, the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Tribune and LinuxTag — which handpicked the title track for its first OpenSource music compilation CD, released in Europe. After performing only select regional concerts for most of his career, Jeffrey began touring nationally in the fall of 2010. Jeffreyʼs new single, "Unleashed", has just been released.
www.jeffreyaltergott.com
SISTER SPEAK
After several tours, singer/songwriters Samantha Cathcart & Sherri-Anne have teamed up to form Sister Speak. The two artists met in the Chicago music scene shortly after completing their own debut albums. They have since shared their music all over the continent, performing on Canada's global TV, at the NAMM Show, at festivals with artists such as the Wailers, and all over the USA & western Canada. Whether performing as a duo or backed by their astounding rhythm section, Sister Speak's powerful presence is inspiring and refreshing, combining mesmerizing vocals with elements of 'Acoustic-Rock, Blues & World.' Extensive touring and a new album for 2011 is in the works for Sister Speak.
www.sisterspeakmusic.com
LEVAN D HAWKINS
Levan D Hawkins is a performer, writer, poet, performance artist, and public speaker, and is working on becoming a better human being. He considers himself to be an artist whose observations are to be a bridge between races, religions, religious believers and non-believers and sexualities. He is working on his Maters in Fine Arts in creative writing at Antioch University.
He follows Jesus Christ, the radical, who preached forgiveness, understanding and unconditional love, and challenged narrow-minded religious law. He has known he was a same gender-loving man since he was eleven years old (imagine the stress), and has to mention that "in respect to other stressed-out eleven year olds".
http://www.myspace.com/levandhawkins
IAN WILSON
Ian Wilson is a keyboard-based loop artist from Chicago, filling the vacancy between singer-songwriter and band with piano-centric electronica and a lyricism both dark and humorous. In 2008, Ian released his debut studio recording,' The Crater' EP, a fusion of classically deviant piano and wry, good-natured brooding. 'The Crater' earned recommendations from the Windy City Times and EDGE Chicago, the nationally-featured Feast of Fun podcast, and a place on Outvoice.net's Top 10 LGBT Charts.
Following the release of 'The Crater', Ian spent two years with Canasta, an orchestral-pop sextet and one of Chicago's best-known bands. Always the social butterfly, Ian can often be seen in the local performing arts scene. Most recently he has appeared as a guest recording and performing artist for Chicago Tap Theater and in the pit band for Chicago Gay Men's Chorus, one of the city's largest community arts organizations. He teaches keyboards, voice, and songwriting at the Chicago School of Rock, the nation's premiere educational institution for the corruption of well-mannered and quiet children.
www.ianwilsonmusic.com
SCOTT FREE
Scott Free, the queer-rock singer/songwriter extraordinaire, is one of America's leading openly-gay male artists. His sometimes humorous, sometimes angry, always touching songs of queer life have gained him acclaim in both gay and straight media across the globe. In 2010, he was inducted into the City of Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame. He has twice been named Outmusician of the Year by the OUTMusic Awards - in 2005 and 2009. He also won Out Song of The Year in 2005 at the OMAs for his song 'Another Day of The Cruelty'. His music video 'Happy Again' was in the Top10 Videos of 2009 on LOGOs 'The Click List'. He has appeared on Black Entertainment Television, NPR's 'All Things Considered', and Canada's MuchMusic station. His CDs have received glowing reviews in The Advocate, OUT magazine, and numerous gay publications around the country. He was a featured artist in Unzipped magazine in 2005, and Bear Magazine in 2010. He received two Stonewall Society Pride in the Arts Awards in 2005 - Song of the Year and Producer of the Year - and was inducted into the Stonewall Society's GLBT Hall Of Fame in 2005. He won Outmusicin of the Year at the OMAs in 2009, and his latest album 'Pink Album (A Pop Opera)' was the #1 CD of 2009 at Outvoice.net . He started this ALT Q festival eleven years ago, and is the host and curator of the bimonthly 'Homolatte' , the longest running queer performance series in the country.
www.scottfree.net
