Break out the rhinestones and herbal refreshment.
A gaggle of Brooklyn musicians are joining forces to stage a musical tribute to country music icons Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson at Cameo Gallery on Sept. 29.
“A lot of their music is timeless and they are inspirations to generations of musicians,” said show organizer and musician Dani Mari. “It is rewarding to see what all the different musicians’ perspectives are on the artists.”
More than 20 musicians will perform at the show. Each will play a cover of either a Patsy Cline or Willie Nelson song and then they will play one original.
Mari had originally planned to make the night just a Pasty Cline tribute featuring only women musicians, but she said her male musician friends complained, so she added the Willie Nelson element and invited her guy pals to perform — though gents are allowed to cover Cline, and ladies are allowed to cover Nelson. In fact, the show is titled “Crazy” after the Nelson-penned ballad that was a huge hit for Cline in 1961.
This is the first covers show that Mari has organized since she moved to Williamsburg a year ago. In her previous home of Philadelphia, she organized similar shows for Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, and also created an event called Cover Me Philly, where local musicians covered each others’ songs. The cover shows are as much about celebrating the artists in the event title as they are the musicians playing their songs, said Mari.
“The goal is to get exposure for all of the musicians and to get everyone together to play some music,” she said.
Mari allowed all of the participants to select which song they wanted to sing on a first-come, first-serve basis. For her part, she plans to perform Cline’s “Back in Baby’s Arms.”
Park Slope folk singer-songwriter Irene Molloy said she wanted to perform at the show because she likes to reinvent other people’s songs. She plans to sing Nelson’s “Always on My Mind.”
“I wanted to do something that I could play with in terms of emotion and timing,” said Molloy. “I like to take something really simple and emotional and do it in my own style.”
Crazy: A Tribute to Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson at Cameo Gallery [93 N. Sixth St. between Berry Street and Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, (718) 302–1180, www.cameony.com]. Sept. 29 at 7:30 pm. $5.
