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Join us in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts for a performance by guitarist Julian Lage and drummer Dave King.

Tickets: $20
Doors at 7 pm | Show at 7:30 pm

Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation, Julian Lage has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via impeccable technique, free association, and a spirit of infinite possibility.

Though only 31, the New York-based musician boasts a long, prolific resume that includes collaborations with Gary Burton, John Zorn, Nels Cline, Chris Eldridge, Fred Hersch, David Grisman, Béla Fleck, and Charles Lloyd.

Love Hurts , which marks his first album to feature drummer Dave King (The Bad Plus), sees the GRAMMY-nominated guitarist exploring the American song catalog from a truly unique vantage point, performing music written by a range of audacious and original artists, from Roy Orbison to Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Giuffre to Peter Ivers.

Love Hurts finds Lage searching through the unfettered artistic freedom of the late 1960s and 1970s, the ambitious energy and lack of restrictions placed upon artists of all genres providing a guiding light for the sessions. “The covers on this record are like when you move into a new apartment; the last thing you do is hang your pictures on the wall,” Lage says. “Those pictures define your aesthetic in a way. So the tunes we chose kind of define the aesthetic I love but hadn’t put on a record yet.”

The impetus for Lage to delve deeper into his own improvisational influences was initially catalyzed by a series of 2018 live dates that saw him and bassist Jorge Roeder joined by Dave King, composer and drummer extraordinaire with The Bad Plus.

“Dave was like the most beautiful curveball being thrown in,” Lage says. “He’s one of the greatest improvising forces and artistic visionaries. We became close friends over the last couple of years. We played some shows together and I thought, this is really heavy. He brings something out in Jorge and I that is native to the music we grew up playing but doesn’t always get prompted in this particular way. I thought, this is someone who can do it all. He can light that fire as a player and he can help us formulate a strong collective vision.”