WFPK 91.9 and Yum! Brands Foundation are presenting Jukebox the Ghost and Bobby Bare, Jr. Saturday December 18th at Headliners for their annual food-raiser. Dare to Care, whose mission is mission is to end hunger in our community, will be collecting canned goods and frozen turkeys at the door.
Jukebox the Ghost, which features pianist, singer, songwriter, and Louisvillian Ben Thornewill, played Louisville earlier this fall, but returns after months of headlining shows as well as playing as a support act for Guster and Barenaked Ladies. Thornewill is glad to come home but pleased with the last few months on the road. “It showed that the hard work was paying off. We had a spectacular sold out show in Chicago, and even in middle of nowhere towns there were still people which was really really encouraging.”
A good rapport with the popular Canadian band got them invited to the upcoming Ships and Dip 4, a cruise Barenaked Ladies sail each year. Thornewill calls the the Ladies “among the nicest people we’ve ever toured with – made even more special by the fact that they’re a big band, and they’ve been touring a long time and have every chance to be jaded and disengaged, but they were the opposite all of that, friendly and welcoming.” In fact, Thornewill joined them on stage for the song Alcohol.
There was no big to-do about how the event came to be. “We’ve been building a relationship with FPK; I think it was a sort of like 'Hey are you all interested in doing something, and we could play in Louisville,' and it was a good cause, and the holiday thing. It just sort of all came together.”
On the bill with Jukebox the Ghost will be Bobby Bare, Jr., who has also enjoyed plenty of airplay this year on WFPK this year with the release of his latest CD A Storm, A Tree, My Mother's Head. The son of country legend Bobby Bare (a member of the Old Dogs supergroup with Waylon Jennings, Jerry Reed, and Mel Tillis), the junior Bare grew up with George Jones and Tammy Wynette as his next door neighbors. But his sound is as much rock as it is country. Maybe his degree in psychology from the University of Tennessee helps with his funny and insightful, funny, and hurting lyrics.
Bare, a Nashville-native will be close to home, but for Thornewill, he will be home, spending time at his parents’ house. "It’s funny," Thornewill says, "I’ve been gone so much that after the holidays, I will have spent more time in Louisville than I was in my own home in Philadelphia since September." And what does the frontman for an up-and-coming indie band that has been featured on Late Show with David Letterman and World Café have planned for the holidays? Flag football in Seneca Park and a stroll down Bardstown Road.
Doors open at 8:00, and the show starts at 9:00. Tickets for this 18 and over show are only $10 and available at Etix.com, WFPK, and earX-tacy.
