10th Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party Celebrating America's Culinary And Music Traditions

Danny Meyer's Union Square Events, Blue Smoke and Jazz Standard are proud to present the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, June 9 & 10, 2012. This unforgettable weekend of great barbecue, music, and festivities is presented by Southern Living and is one of NYC's largest and most beloved outdoor events, attracting people from near and far to celebrate America's authentic culinary and musical traditions.

In addition to award-winning `cue from 17 of the countries' top pitmasters, the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party features live artist performances on stage in Madison Square Park- all free and open to the public. This year's programming ranges from raw soul to rockabilly, with a lineup headlined by the free-wheeling, good-natured and raucous eclecticism of Southern Culture on the Skids on Saturday and the legendary rock and roll songwriter Alejandro Escovedo on Sunday. The performances also include Jon Langford, JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound, Southern Culture on the Skids, and The Revelations featuring Tre Williams

Saturday, June 9
1:00 p.m. - JON LANGFORD

A founding member of legendary UK band The Mekons, singer/songwriter/guitarist Jon Langford has been incorporating folk and country music into rock since the mid-Eighties. In addition to his ongoing role in The Mekons, he's released albums with other bands such as the Waco Brothers and the country covers group known as the Pine Valley Cosmonauts. Somehow, Langford has found the time and energy to record five solo albums including All the Fame of Lofty Deeds (2004, later the basis for a stage adaptation by Chicago's House Theatre) and Old Devils (2010). To avoid any downtime whatsoever, Jon has appeared as a guest performer on albums by The Old 97s, Chip Taylor, Rosie Flores, and Alejandro Escovedo, among other musical friends.

Jon Langford is also a prolific and respected visual artist, internationally known for his striking portraits of such country music icons as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. His multimedia music/spoken-word/video presentation, "The Executioner's Last Songs," premiered in 2005 and has since been performed in several other cities.

2:45 p.m. - JC BROOKS & THE UPTOWN SOUND

What does today's true soul music look like? It looks like JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound. The voice of JC Brooks, rife with heart and heartache, erupts over the coiled-spring rhythm and star-time charisma of guitarist Billy Bungeroth, drummer Kevin Marks, keyboardist Andy Rosenstein, and bassist Ben Taylor. A 21st century soul band rallying against our disaffected and disengaged era, The Uptown Sound connects with its listeners the old-fashioned way - by whipping them into a frenzy, with honest appeal and unbridled enthusiasm.

"Brooks plays the Otis Redding/James Brown soul shouter role with abandon, leading the band and engaging the crowd in call-and-response routines...Yet even as he sings about wanting to be a 'Motown star' ("Berry"), Brooks is clearly living in the present. Your average soul shouter does not cover Wilco ("I Am Trying to Break Your Heart") or throw bits of Luscious Jackson ("Naked Eye") or human beat-boxing into his repartee." - St. Louis Riverfront Times, 12.10.2011

4:30 p.m. - SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS

Ever since they burst out of Chapel Hill, NC in 198, Southern Culture On The Skids have embodied a musical and cultural vision of the South that's a little bit kitschy, a whole lotta raucous, and a guaranteed good time. Guitarist/vocalist Rick Miller, drummer Dave Hartman, and bassist/singer/heartbreaker Mary Huff continue to cook up their unique hybrid of surf, R&B, rockabilly, and swamp pop on a nightly basis, driving fans into ecstatic, sweat-drenched paroxysms of joy. <