Hot Club of Cowtown

Tickets are $22 in advance, $27 day of show (including all service charges). Tickets are also available by phone through Hold My Ticket at 505-886-1251. 21 and over unless accompanied by parent or legal guardian. Limited seating available.

The Cooperage is a full service restaurant/nightclub specializing in steak & seafood, with a large salad bar, good desserts and a full bar. 

Since its beginnings in the late 1990s, the Hot Club of Cowtown's [website | Amazon.com] star has continued to rise as its reputation for jaw-dropping virtuosity and unforgettable live shows has become the band's global brand. Lauded for its "down-home melodies and exuberant improvisation" (The Times, London), the Hot Club has always woven a combination of seemingly disparate styles together to its own magical effect, setting up camp "at that crossroads where country meets jazz and chases the blues away" (The Independent), remaining "conscious always that above all else, the music is for dancing and an old-fashioned good time" (New York Times).

Along with the Hot Club's dedicated cult following worldwide—they have toured for the U.S. State Department as musical ambassadors to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Algeria, the Republic of Georgia and the Sultanate of Oman—certain titans of the industry have also taken notice. Bob Dylan, with whom the band has toured, is a continuing inspiration. Career highlights have included the Glastonbury Festival, appearances on "Later With Jools Holland," the Cambridge Folk Festival, Mountain Stage, and Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

In 1994 in New York City, Elana James placed an ad in the music section of the Village Voice looking to join a band, and Whit Smith answered it. Since then, the music these two have made has always been a secret brew of energy, joie de vivre, and a respect for tradition that is often imitated but never equaled. By 1997, after founding a much larger Western swing orchestra in NYC, Elana and Whit pared back down to their essential elements and the duo that began as "Whit & Elana" grew—with the addition of a bass player and a lot of optimism and naïveté—into Hot Club of Cowtown. The trio moved to Austin, Texas, and released its first album, Swingin' Stampede, in 1998. Tall Tales (1999) and Dev'lish Mary (2000) soon followed, but it wasn't until 2001 that the band's lineup solidified with the arrival of bassist Jake Erwin, who cemented Hot Club's larger-than-life, earth-shaking rhythmic foundation.