Singer-songwriter Sarah Borges, a WNTI 91.9 favorite, is back by popular demand to rock the Centenary Stage on Saturday, July 21st at 8 p.m. Opening for Sarah Borges on the 21st will be the high-octane band, The Grip Weeds. Borges’ highly anticipated return to Hackettstown heats up the David and Carol Lackland Center’s Sitnik Theater as part of Centenary Stage Company’s summer concert series "Jammin’ in July."

Sarah Borges
Borges last appeared in Hackettstown when she opened for the Smithereens. Her music is a fun and funky eclectic mix of rock-and-roll, country twang, and everything in-between; it has been described as "walking that fine line between punk and country."

Borges has toured the United States extensively and has crossed the pond to play landmark venues such as the Cavern Club in Liverpool, England where the Beatles first got their start. Borges live shows are reported to be "the stuff of legend", with audience members dancing in the aisles, or singing along to the choruses -all regular occurrence at a Borges show. Borges herself has said "we always want people to dance. That’s the best way to get a show going."

Borges’ down-home roots highly influence her music. Her first studio album, Silver City, was named for her hometown of Taunton, Massachusetts, which has a rich history in silver mining and is located 40 miles south of Boston. She has been honored by the Boston Music Awards and has performed at the Americana Music Association conference. Borges’ discography includes Silver City, Diamonds in the Dark, The Stars Are Out, and her newest album Radio Sweetheart, produced by Steve Berlin, a longtime member of Los Lobos. Radio Sweetheart offers fans nine original songs and one cover of Lloyd Price’s "Heavy Dreams."

Watch Sarah Borges Video Clip!

For more information, see Sarah Borges’ official website.

Also see Sarah Borges Bio (below).

The Grip Weeds
Opening for Sarah Borges on the 21st will be the high-octane band, The Grip Weeds. Described as A touch of John Lennon, a bit of The Byrds, a dash of The Kinks, pinch of The Who, and a dollop of more muscular Zombies , "you get something quite original actually. And quite cool," says the E-Street Band’s legendary Steven Van Zandt.

The critically acclaimed Psychedelic Rock /Power Pop quartet consists of brothers Kurt and Rick Reil (on drums and guitar respectively), Kristin Pinell (guitar) and Dave DeSantis (bass), with all four singing, surrounded by their vintage equipment. The band is said to produce slices of perfect, radio-friendly guitar-pop, psychedelic enough to appeal to record junkies and Sixties-retro fans, but edgy enough to fit into a modern rock set. The Grip Weeds’ new CDs and DVDs, "Speed Of Live" and "Live Vibes" are available at www.gripweeds.com.
 
More About The Grip Weeds (below)

Jammin’ in July
Other upcoming Jammin’ in July events include the highly acclaimed Leiber and Stoller musical revue Smokey Joe’s Café July 26th through the 29th and the crowd-pleasing valentine to the Beatles ‘Beatlemania Now!’ on August 4th, both at 8 p.m.

Sarah Borges' Bio

SARAH BORGES - RADIO SWEETHEART

To watch Sarah Borges strut and howl onstage is to participate in rock 'n' roll communion, all glistening sweat and high kicks, soul-shaking and sassy antics. She's a modern-day retro spitfire, red lipstick curled in a smirk as she summons her six-string to conjure a host of fiery spirits, leaving a stunned and ecstatic audience in her wake.

This same raucous energy shoots through her fourth studio album, Radio Sweetheart, which is a statement of Borges' future as much as it is a reflection of her past. Funded entirely by fans, the new album is a sea change marking a split from both Sugar Hill Records (the label that released her two most recent albums) and her longtime band the Broken Singles, all set in motion by a road weariness bred from six years of constant touring and the home-is-where-the-heart-is lure of brand new motherhood.

Nesting in with her husband and infant son, Borges wrote from a fresh perspective, composing in relative solitude in contrast to those years spent on the road. Alone with guitar and pen, Borges unearthed demos written in her teens and fell back under the sonic spell of the Boston-bred indie rock luminaries-Morphine, Juliana Hatfield-that marked her musical coming-of-age in the '90s.

To realize this musical shift, Borges turned to Steve Berlin, an admirer and longtime member of Los Lobos, to produce the new album. Recorded in a week at Boston's Woolly Mammoth studio, Radio Sweetheart is nine originals (plus a cover of Lloyd Price's "Heavy Dreams") all imbued with lessons learned from a decade of rock and roll, countless miles spent on the road, and the range of emotions surrounding the dissolution of a band and the growth of a family.

In essence, the new album is just another step in the continual evolution of Sarah Borges. Like most kids, she grew up surrounded by her parents' record collection, a mix of Bob Dylan and classic rock, Joni Mitchell and Gene Autry, which she supplemented with her self-proclaimed "drama geek" affectation for Rodgers and Hammerstein and the guitar- and fuzz-driven spoils of '90s alt rock.

Borges played in her own fledgling indie rock bands in her teens and early 20's before taking a detour into the newly emerging genre of Americana. "I felt like I had spent all of this time trying to couch everything in metaphor, and when I started writing Americana songs I could finally say it plain."

Those years spent playing in black box rock clubs and rented VFW halls informed Borges's style, and she soon found a believer in producer Paul Q. Kolderie (Hole, Radiohead, Uncle Tupelo), who offered to record some demos, which in turn drew the attention of Texas's Blue Corn Music at the annual South by Southwest music festival. The label released her debut full-length Silver City in 2005, which launched her onto the Americana world's radar, kicking off a whirlwind of touring where Borges and her band opened for greats like Dave Alvin and Alejandro Escovedo.
Borges' second outing, Diamonds in the Dark, was released on indie label Sugar Hill in 2007, yet another deal garnered on the merits of a South by Southwest performance. With Kolderie once again at the production helm and her touring band-the Broken Singles-jumping back into the fray, the resulting album again earned Borges a wide array of critical acclaim.

It was around this time that Borges began to resurrect those rock 'n' roll roots you hear on Radio Sweetheart-first in her live show, which more often than not found her straddling her guitar atop a table or surrounded by half the audience on stage, and then on her following album, The Stars Are Out, which was released in 2009 on Sugar Hill. While retaining the honesty of songwriting and sense of tradition that permeated her earlier releases, Borges bid adieu to the confines of Americana with free-spirited abandon and an almost punk-influenced grit and growl, a six-string salute from a woman who continues to defy classification and push musical boundaries at every turn.

More About The Grip Weeds

"Bursting with terrific songs."
         - USA Today
 
"Their music-a swirling, '60s-era melange of pop, psychedelia and
straight rock-evinces a more robust set of influences."
                      - Entertainment Today
 
"We like to mix it up in Jersey and The Grip Weeds are a great example. A touch of John Lennon, a bit of The Byrds, A dash of The Kinks, pinch of The Who, and a dallop of more muscular Zombies and you get something quite original actually. And quite cool."
            - Little Steven

"Sparkling, insanely catchy psyche-pop": The Grip Weeds are a critically acclaimed Psychedelic Rock /Power Pop quartet consisting of brothers Kurt and Rick Reil (on drums and guitar respectively), Kristin Pinell (guitar) and Michael Kelly (bass). Surrounded by their vintage equipment, this talented four-piece band records slices of perfect, radio-friendly guitar-pop, psychedelic enough to appeal to record junkies and Sixties-retro fans, but edgy enough to fit into a modern rock set.

Restoring belief in guitar rock, guitarists Kristin Pinell and Rick Reil turn in career-defining performances, while drummer Kurt Reil's controlled chaos is the perfect foil for Michael Kelly's aggressive yet melodic bass work. The other major weapon in The Grip Weeds utility belt is their vocal harmonies. Whether the band is belting out intergalactic rock ('Speed Of Life'), a lilting west coast groove ('Be Here Now') or a folk ballad that fuses the Peter Green and Lindsey Buckingham eras of Fleetwood Mac ('Mistress Forest'), the vocal harmonies add an emotional depth to the already warm tones and catchy hooks. Whether it's the brutal Garage Rock of 'Don't You Believe It', the Manchester Beat tale of a bridge jumper 'Mr. X', or acoustic guitar/flute instrumental 'Love In Transition', the band deftly jumps from style to style without losing their identity or giving the listener whiplash. The Grip Weeds have also reinvented the Todd Rundgren classic 'Hello It's Me'. While the original is a much-loved 1970s classic, The Grip Weeds replace the song's slicker elements with Nuggets-style grit.