The Lovestruck Balladeers / Matt Munisteri
Sat, 10 May 2025 (EDT)
08:00PM - 10:30PM
Jalopy Theatre
315 Columbia Street
Brooklyn, New York 11231
Doors 8pm, Show 8:30pm
$20 adv / $25 DOS
The Lovestruck Balladeers enchant audiences with their masterful performances and inspired repertoire of ragtime, jazz and beautiful songs from around the world. Born out of New York’s vibrant classic jazz and traditional music scene, The Lovestruck Balladeers formed during a series of recording sessions for Jalopy Records' 2018 release, Estrellas de Radio. Since their debut at The Brooklyn Folk Festival that same year, the versatile quintet has made a name for itself as a compelling act highlighting musical excellence, fresh arrangements, original songs and a tightly crafted stage show.
$20 adv / $25 DOS
The Lovestruck Balladeers enchant audiences with their masterful performances and inspired repertoire of ragtime, jazz and beautiful songs from around the world. Born out of New York’s vibrant classic jazz and traditional music scene, The Lovestruck Balladeers formed during a series of recording sessions for Jalopy Records' 2018 release, Estrellas de Radio. Since their debut at The Brooklyn Folk Festival that same year, the versatile quintet has made a name for itself as a compelling act highlighting musical excellence, fresh arrangements, original songs and a tightly crafted stage show.
The Lovestruck Balladeers are Jake Sanders, Dennis Lichtman, Sean Cronin and Dalton Ridenhour. Featuring special guest Mike Davis.
It’s a daunting task, this business of encapsulating Matt Munisteri’s musical self. As the sparkling guitarist on several chart-topping jazz CDs; a critically lauded songwriter and nimble lyricist; an urban banjo-warrior and a sometime session musician; a selfless and devoted sideman; a wry-yet-honest singer; an engaging and winning front-man; and an arranger whose ear-pulling re-inventions of well-traveled songs have contributed to Grammy winning CDs for artists such as Loudon Wainwright and Catherine Russell, Matt’s various dueling career paths might at first seem difficult to reconcile. Additionally you’d be hard-pressed to find another Brooklyn native who grew up playing bluegrass banjo since he was in the single digits; who has recorded with artists as divergent as consummate jazz balladeer “Little” Jimmy Scott and 1980’s avante-noise godfather Glenn Branca; who is regarded as a contemporary master of 1920’s and ’30’s jazz styles, and is an ardent student of American folk traditions, but counts among his regular creative cohorts several musicians associated with the New York Downtown music world. Yet ultimately Matt’s journey through 20th century American music yields a vision which feels intrinsically whole, with his own music always serving as one-of-a-kind reflection of a life immersed in all the far-flung variants of American Popular Song. Maybe it’s easier to say that whatever he’s currently up to, it will be a living reconciliation of rural and urban, long-gone and contemporary, individual experience and canonized scripture.
It’s a daunting task, this business of encapsulating Matt Munisteri’s musical self. As the sparkling guitarist on several chart-topping jazz CDs; a critically lauded songwriter and nimble lyricist; an urban banjo-warrior and a sometime session musician; a selfless and devoted sideman; a wry-yet-honest singer; an engaging and winning front-man; and an arranger whose ear-pulling re-inventions of well-traveled songs have contributed to Grammy winning CDs for artists such as Loudon Wainwright and Catherine Russell, Matt’s various dueling career paths might at first seem difficult to reconcile. Additionally you’d be hard-pressed to find another Brooklyn native who grew up playing bluegrass banjo since he was in the single digits; who has recorded with artists as divergent as consummate jazz balladeer “Little” Jimmy Scott and 1980’s avante-noise godfather Glenn Branca; who is regarded as a contemporary master of 1920’s and ’30’s jazz styles, and is an ardent student of American folk traditions, but counts among his regular creative cohorts several musicians associated with the New York Downtown music world. Yet ultimately Matt’s journey through 20th century American music yields a vision which feels intrinsically whole, with his own music always serving as one-of-a-kind reflection of a life immersed in all the far-flung variants of American Popular Song. Maybe it’s easier to say that whatever he’s currently up to, it will be a living reconciliation of rural and urban, long-gone and contemporary, individual experience and canonized scripture.