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Ken Weinstein
weinstein@bighassle.com
2126191360
Michael Eisele
mike@bighassle.com
646-963-2260 Ext 260
Musician, Performer, Songwriter, Arranger, Music Producer, Music Supervisor, TV Producer, Actor, Director, Broadway Producer, TV and Film Composer, and Live Event Producer, International DJ, Activist, Historian, Teacher, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and recognized internationally as one of the world’s foremost authorities on both Contemporary and Traditional Rock and Roll.
“He’s not the only one, nor the oldest, nor the richest. But Little Stevie Van Zandt might currently be the planet’s most charismatic, dedicated and visible crusader scrapping to preserve the dirty purity of Rock ‘n Roll.” – BruceSpringsteen.net
“I know it sounds a bit silly but I do believe Rock and Roll can change the world. It’s about bands, and that for me suggests brotherhood, family, friendship, and community” – Stevie Van Zandt
The last time McCartney and Van Zandt performed together in the UK was during Bruce Springsteen’s set at Hard Rock Calling in 2012, where the power was unexpectedly shut off due to the council’s curfew. Saying he wanted to “finish some unfinished business,” Van Zandt invited McCartney onto the stage for “I Saw Her Standing There.”
WATCH THE PERFORMANCE HERE
All You Need Is Love
LITTLE STEVEN AND THE DISCIPLES OF SOUL UNVEIL LANDMARK TOUR
TO BENEFIT THE ROCK AND ROLL FOREVER FOUNDATION’S TEACHROCK
DATES MARK FIRST-EVER ROCK TOUR DEVOTED TO BRINGING MUSIC CURRICULUM
“A keen student of rock and roll, this was Van Zandt offering up a master class of all the different aspects of the music he loves. Soul, funk, doo-wop – even reggae – all formed part of the set. If Phil Spector had broadened his horizons further, this would be the end product. It was a massive, multi-layered, sensory experience, which tugged at the heartstrings one moment and left you grinning from ear to ear at the next. If you could put it on prescription, the world would be a much happier place!”
–Lancashire Telegraph
(New York, NY) Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul have unveiled plans for a landmark live tour benefitting TeachRock, the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation’s national initiative to bring music curriculum into middle and high schools across the country. The dates – which mark the first-ever rock tour specifically geared to address this crucial societal need – begin April 29 at New Brunswick, NJ’s historic State Theatre and then continues through all of May, breaking for Stevie’s induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame on May 6, alongside Meryl Streep, Debbie Harry, The Four Seasons, among others. Additional dates will be revealed soon. Tickets for all announced dates will go on sale this Friday, March 2nd. All proceeds from the upcoming tour will go to TeachRock. For complete details and ticket availability, please visit littlesteven.com.
“Music will forever be humanity’s most effective and consistent source of inspiration and motivation,” says Little Steven, “and, we have learned, music turns out to be our most solid common ground for establishing communication between teachers and students which is where education begins.”
LITTLE STEVEN AND THE DISCIPLES OF SOUL: TEACHROCK TOUR 2018
APRIL
29 – New Brunswick, NJ – State Theatre
MAY
1 – Ridgefield, CT – Ridgefield Playhouse
2 – New York, NY – Playstation Theatre
4 – Albany, NY – The Palace
5 – Morristown, NJ – Mayo Performing Arts Center
ADDITIONAL DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED
The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation is a 501(c)(3) established by Steven Van Zandt. TeachRock is the Foundation’s national middle and high school curriculum initiative. Created to address the challenges of an environment in which schools face cuts to arts funding, TeachRock brings rich, multimedia educational materials to teachers and students everywhere at no cost. TeachRock’s groundbreaking lesson plan collections and resources help teachers engage students by connecting the history of popular music to classroom work across the disciplines. From social studies and language arts to geography, media studies, science, general music, and more, TeachRock offers engaging and meaningful arts integration material for every classroom. TeachRock is endorsed by the New Jersey School Boards Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, the National Association for Music Education and the National Council for Geographic Education, with partners including Scholastic Inc., HBO, PBS, Reelin’ in the Years, ABC News, Rock’s Backpages, New York University’s Steinhardt School, and the Grammy Museum. For lesson plans and additional information, please visit teachrock.org.
Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul made their long-awaited live return at London’s BluesFest in 2016. Since then, the band has traversed the globe, with multiple dates in America, England, Scotland, Germany, The Netherlands and Spain, highlighted not only by Paul McCartney sitting in to perform “I Saw Her Standing There” in London, but also by a lunchtime show performance at Liverpool’s Cavern Club.
The Soulfire Tour marked the acclaimed release of Little Steven’s sensational new solo album, SOULFIRE, available now via Wicked Cool/Big Machine/UMe. The album is available as CD, digital download, and 180-gram black vinyl, the latter presented as a double LP housed in a gatefold sleeve with the music on Sides 1-3 and a unique etching of Little Steven on Side 4.
SOULFIRE is Stevie Van Zandt’s first solo album in close to two decades and without question his purest and most uniquely personal artistic statement thus far. The album sees the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer revisiting songs that span the length of his career as artist, performer, producer, arranger, and songwriter, focusing directly on the hugely influential “soul horns-meet-rock ‘n’ roll guitars” approach he first pioneered on Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ classic first three albums.
SOULFIRE quickly drew rapturous applause from fans and critics alike, with Rolling Stone declaring, “Rock’s ultimate sideman reclaims the Jersey Shore sound he helped invent.” “Cynicism, irony and cultivated hip detachment have taken their toll on rock ‘n’ roll,” raved USA Today. “With SOULFIRE, Van Zandt aims to blow all that out and lead listeners back to its more passionate essence.” “It’s hard to imagine a more joyous and revelatory contemporary blue-eyed soul recording,” enthused American Songwriter. “The appropriately titled SOULFIRE is a tough, tight and clearly inspired project as well as a most welcome return from the musical shadows for Steven Van Zandt.” SOULFIRE “hearkens back to Van Zandt’s classic first solo album of gritty, greasy, horn-accented ’60s-style rock and soul,” noted Billboard, while Paste proclaimed, “Rockier than Motown or the Sound of Philadelphia, this a joyous invitation to live and love.”
Little Steven Van Zandt is of course known around the world for his utterly personal songwriting and an ambitious adventurousness that has fueled much of his creative output these past two decades. In addition to his ongoing role as a touring and recording member of The E Street Band, he has also expanded his artistic parameters to include landmark work as an actor on The Sopranos and Lilyhammer as well as host, historian, and rock ‘n’ roll advocate on Sirius XM’s one-and-only “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” (not to mention creator of Sirius XM’s long-running “Outlaw Country” format). Van Zandt has also expanding his musical boundaries to include composing the score for all three seasons of Lilyhammer and additional work as producer and songwriter, lending his distinctive craft to records from an array of international garage rockers.
For more, please visit:
facebook.com/LittleStevenVanZandt
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Press contacts:
Ken Weinstein
Michael Eisele
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Jo Lopez