Zoe FitzGerald Carter, The Familiar Strangers, Conspiracy of Beards

Sweetwater Music Hall

Doors 6:30pm / Show 7:30pm
$20 Admission
All ages

Bay Area singer/songwriter Zoe FitzGerald Carter is happy to announce that her new album, Before the Machine, hit the airwaves on June 7, 2024. Showcasing Zoe’s vivid, literary sense of language and a stellar cast of top Bay Area musicans, Before the Machine was recorded and mixed at Fantasy Studio in Berkeley, CA, and produced by former Fantasy director, Jeffrey Wood.

Inspired by memories of a pre-smart phone world, the title track explores how technology, and specifically smart phones, has irrevocably altered our experience of time. From the achingly intimate beauty of Angel Bus to the sultry rocker Magic Bus, to the Tom Waits-eque evocation of New York City on Let’s Just Stay Friends, the wide-ranging 9-track LP weaves a rich and confident fabric of folk, country, rock, blues and jazz.

The Familiar Strangers is a six piece electric band playing dance and listening music based in the American roots music styles of Western swing, classic country, country and blues based rock and more! Imagine John Hiatt gets in a car with Chuck Berry and they pick up a hitch hiking Dolly Parton! It’s kinda like that!

San Francisco’s Conspiracy of Beards is a 30 member male choir that performs dynamic, original, a cappella arrangements of the poetic songs of Leonard Cohen.

Well dressed in suits, ties, and the occasional fedora, the choir brings an energized live choral music experience out of churches and tabernacles and into the taverns, art houses, and theaters of the Bay Area and beyond. Transforming Cohen’s lyrics and simple melodies into complex 4- and 5-part harmonies, and with a wide variety of small ensemble and full choir pieces, Conspiracy of Beards achieves a sound that is both robust and tender. Drawing on influences ranging from jazz and gospel to barbershop and doo-wop, the unique arrangements that choir members create capture all of the emotion and humor of Leonard Cohen’s original music and inspire audiences to ponder common human experiences like romance, heartbreak, politics, sex, longing, and spirituality.