December went out cold, snowy, and windy, and January has come in the same way. Fortunately, Nancy Atlas and her band will bring musical heat to Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater for the 13th season with four Fireside Sessions, starting Saturday night at 8 with the special guests Gene Casey and Eugene Chrysler.
Ms. Atlas needs no introduction to East End audiences, nor does her band, which features Johnny Blood on electric guitar, Brett King on bass, Denny McDermott on drums, Joe Delia on keyboards, and Greg McMullen on pedal steel guitar. The group has opened for Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Buffett, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, among others.
In her own words, “A description of what I do would fall somewhere between part back-street poet and part David Lee Roth-wannabe. (High Eighties David Lee Roth thank you very much). I go deep, I sweat, I laugh, I howl, I purge, and I have an enormous amount of sweaty kooky fun at my shows.” It’s no wonder tickets to the series opener were selling fast as of press time.
Saturday’s show is billed by the theater as “a high-energy country and rockabilly revue.” Mr. Casey and his evolving band, the Lone Sharks, have shared the bill with such roots rock acts as Wanda Jackson, the Band, Bo Diddley, NRBQ, and the Ventures. A singer-songwriter-guitarist, Mr. Casey’s songs have been used on the soundtracks of television and feature films, including “The Killing Season” with Robert De Niro. In 2015, he received the Long Island Sound Award from the Long Island Music Hall of Fame “for contributions to the Island’s musical landscape.”
A bassist, Mr. Chrysler’s music takes its influence from rockabilly, blues, western swing, and honky-tonk. He grew up listening to Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Bob Wills, and Johnny Cash, and his recent CD, “Hillbilly Funpark,” includes 16 tracks written by him.
On Jan. 17, Ms. Atlas will be joined by Brian Mitchell for a night of New Orleans-inspired music. Mr. Mitchell, a keyboardist, has performed with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, B.B. King, Billy Preston, Little Feat, Dolly Parton, Rosanne Cash, Buster Poindexter, and Allen Toussaint, and has appeared on five Grammy Award-winning recordings, including three with Levon Helm. He was inducted into the New York Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.
Randi Fishenfeld, a fixture in the Fireside Sessions series for more than 10 years, will return on Jan. 24. A criminal lawyer turned electric-violin virtuoso and the series’ most requested guest performer, she has worked with Clarence Clemons, Bruce Springsteen, Nestor Torres, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers, and many others. Her repertoire includes Latin, metal, blues, rock, fusion, klezmer, and R&B, as well as classical. “When she goes into her patented Roma number onstage, she becomes possessed by the music,” said the Broward Palm Beach New Times. “She goes crazy, and the club crowds go crazy with her.”
The series will conclude on Jan. 31 with Jonny Rosch, another of Ms. Atlas’s recurring guest artists. Mr. Rosch has been performing and recording as a vocalist, keyboardist, harmonica player, guitarist, and songwriter for over 40 years. The lead singer and front man for the original Blues Brothers Band, he has recorded or performed with Bo Diddley, Lou Reed, Joan Jett, Billy Squier, Carly Simon, and Alice Cooper, and opened for Paul Simon, Joe Walsh, Johnny Winter, and many others.
All shows begin at 8 p.m. Tickets range in price from $44 to $56.
