Town & Country, the brainchild of singer/frontman Rob Shapiro and songwriter/producer Brian Woodbury will bring its expansive Americana to the M Bar for an album release show on Thursday, June 28, 2012.  Says Shapiro, “We think country music belongs to the whole of the country, not just one region or one politics.” Woodbury adds, “We’re inspired by the great storytellers of [Nashville’s] Music Row, but we come at it from a more left coast perspective.”  Town and Country’s set will begin at 10:00pm.  They will be joined by the illustrious songwriter (and KPFK “The Music Never Stops” host) Mr. Smolin (9:00pm) and Gwendolyn (11:00pm) and her new-fangled country band, another left-field Americana combo.  M Bar is located at 1253 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90038 (323-856-0036; www.mbaronline.com).  Admission is $5.  For more information please visit www.TownandCountryBand.com.

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Photo credit: Johanna Shapiro

Town & Country (T&C), the brainchild of singer/frontman Rob Shapiro and songwriter/producer Brian Woodbury, challenges the idea that country music must adhere to a particular ideology.

The first single on their upcoming self-titled collection takes on the subject of marriage, including gay marriage.  “Everybody Wants to Say I Do,” which Shapiro and Woodbury wrote together, addresses the hot-button topic not as agit-prop but in the country story-telling tradition, appealing to the universality of “I will love you for the rest of my life.” To hear this, and a few more songs from their forthcoming album please visit www.townandcountryband.com. Read the rest of this entry »