Roots Cafe: Mark Brine and Santa Claus

Mark Brine, Santa Claus and Geoffrey Himes will mix holiday songs and new material for the annual Roots Café Christmas Show at An die Musik Live

MARK BRINE grounds himself in the vintage, "pre-Hank" origins of American country music, and he's good enough at it to have won the talent show at the Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Festival in Meridian, Mississippi, in 1979. His proudest accomplishment, though, was the warm praise he received from Hank Snow, who got him a spot on the Grand Ole Opry to sing "New Blue Yodel," Brine's tribute to Rodgers. Finally fed up with the less savory aspects of Nashville, Brine moved to his wife's hometown of Parkville, Maryland, and began to grace our area with his down-home brand of country, folk and blues. His latest albums are “Rural Notes” and “My Christmas Song for You.” "I could listen to him sing all night long," Roy Acuff once said of Brine; “he does a good job that boy does." www.markbrine.com

SANTA CLAUS is the legendary pioneer of Arctic-rock, which swept the northern latitudes in the 1960s. Borrowing elements of Chet Baker's “cool jazz” and Jerry Butler's “Ice Man” soul, Claus crafted a “snowbilly” sound of pounding piano, jangly “sleigh bell” guitar and “bipolar” bass. His singles for Midnight Sun Records, such as “You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sled Dog,” “Great Balls of Snow” and “Don’t Step on My Blue Suede Mukluks,” were hits from Helsinki to Anchorage. His band, Santa and the Subordinate Clauses, put on famous live shows in matching red outfits lined with white fur and amplifiers painted in red-and-white candy-cane stripes. Claus himself would enter the stage in a sled pulled by four reindeer, jump from the sled onto the piano bench and begin every show with his signature tune, “I’m the Santa Claus of Love.” Claus has come out of retirement to make this special appearance at An Die Musik Live.

GEOFFREY HIMES: Though he is best known as a music critic for the Washington Post, American Songwriter, Nashville Scene, Jazz Times, No Depression, Paste and many more, Himes is also a longtime singer-songwriter who has co-written songs with Si Kahn, Fred Koller, Walter Egan, Sonia Rutstein, Billy Kemp, Stephen Wade, Jim Patton, Tony Denikos, Alan MacEwan, Ed Pettersen, James von Lenz, Andrew Grimm, Bob Kannenberg and others. His songs have been recorded by Kemp, the Kinsey Report, Denikos, Koller, Mojo Filter, Patton and others. For this show, he will be premiering his new song, “Santa, Elvis and Jesus.” http://www.facebook.com/RootsCafeBaltimore

Showtime: 3 pm ET/2 pm CT/1 pm MT/12 pm PT/8 pm GMT

In-person seats: $15/ $10 full-time students with valid ID
Attendees receive a link to the recording to view for one week.
Advance sales end 1 hr before showtime; tickets can be purchased at the door if any remain.

Streaming Cost is $12
The link will be revealed to live stream participants 15 minutes before the show
and will remain active tfor one week after the show.

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