Zony Mash Beer Project and Third Coast Entertainment will present Pride Fest on Saturday, June 25, from 3 to 9 p.m. The celebration will include live music, food vendors, a creators market and free mobile testing for HIV.
Admission to Pride Fest is on a donate-what-you-can basis and proceeds of sales for a special release Zony Mash Pride Pop will benefit the LGBT Community Center of New Orleans.
Participating music acts will include the following:
Mia Borders & Jesse Morrow | A native of New Orleans, singer-songwriter Mia Borders has great vocals and compelling songwriting. Her album Quarter-Life Crisis was produced by Anders Osborne and described by OffBeat as “a record of great music and great intensity.” Her recent album, Good Side of Bad, is “well-steeped in classic soul.” She is joined by bassist Jesse Morrow.
Lilli Lewis | Classically trained singer-songwriter Lilli Lewis describes her music as follows: “If Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Odetta Holmes had had a baby, and that baby had had a baby, and that baby had had another baby…. well that baby would probably be me.” Her latest album, Americana, features country and folk-style songs along with spirituals and splashes of funk and rhythm and blues.
J. Rees | J. Rees is the queer southern swamp bard, here to sing the stories. The the charismatic non-binary artist embraces the role of the bard, weaving emotions into songs with ease. Backing Rees onstage these days is a three to six-piece hybrid group, composed of members of another Hammond band, Incubators.
Ever More Nest | Rooted in southern musical traditions and infused with confessional ’90s-era angst, the music of Ever More Nest can likewise lull and rock you right off a front porch. Ever More Nest’s dynamic, homegrown voice—hugged by lush, church-pew harmonies—is complemented by ghostly, effusive guitars, spirited mandolin and banjo, mournful fiddle, and a rhythm section steady as a country train. The follow-up album to its celebrated 2018 debut, The Place That You Call Home, is forthcoming later this year.
Jamie Lynn Vessels | Jamie Lynn Vessels creates original New Orleans roots rock for the wanderers, the dreamers, the fighters—those who live on the same off-the-beaten path that Vessels has been following all her life. The singer, songwriter, and guitarist has developed a name for herself with a distinctive voice and an unabashed honesty that can create a community out of a room full of strangers. Her new album, If I’m Being Honest, promises to cast that same spell, armed with bluesy, hard-hitting guitar riffs and lyrics that don’t shy away from the hard and hopeful experiences that make us human.
Loose Cattle | Michael Cerveris and Kimberly Kaye met across a microphone in 2008. Their relationship began as a professional one that turned romantic, then musical, then friendly after they split. The kind of unflinching honesty that made those relationship changes possible is woven into the fabric of their music. “It was hard times. And because therapy was damned expensive, we thought if we spent more time singing in the living room, there’d be less time for fighting,” says Kaye. Their shared affection for the musical and emotional rough and tumble of Johnny Cash’s duets with June Carter Cash, crossed with X’s John Doe and Exene, gave Loose Cattle its aesthetic.
Zony Mash Beer Project is located at 3940 Thalia Street. For more information about Pride Fest, visit here.
