A Very Balthrop Valentine's Day with special guest The Bandana Splits

Show Description

It's the sweet, sweet season of manufactured love. Well, the fine folks of Balthrop, Alabama list love as one of their top three exports (the other two being "obituaries" and "milk from the Whitehall Dairy")! To celebrate Cupid's big day, we've asked everyone in the band to come up with a new song or a favorite forgotten standard sure to melt the heart and pucker the lips of the one you've set your eye on. Town Drawer, Toxey Goodwater (Michael Arthur), will be accompanying the band on the big screen, drawing images of romance and heartache, a Valentine's Day musical Chalk Talk that will warm your cockles and bedazzle your eyes!


"Michael Arthur is one of the most talented young artists I've ever met. . . .He makes wonderful drawings."
-Al Hirschfeld

Michael Arthur is the archival artist of Joe's Pub, drawing the performers during their sets and sound-checks.  Michael uses no pencils and no rough drafts in his work; each drawing is a live reaction to the moment.

For the last couple of years, Michael has been resurrecting and reconceiving the Vaudeville Talk and Chalk, his drawing pad, hand and pen projected live behind musicians and dancers, creating a visual accompaniment and backdrop to the music. He has performed with the Indianapolis Symphony in Indiana and Buglisi Dance Theater at the Joyce Theater.

In 2006, Alabama-born songwriter-siblings Pascal and Lauren Balthrop moved to New York City to start a band and ended up founding a town. Balthrop, Alabama, population 11 or so, is their bustling folk rock township.
Musically, the band straddles the fine line between antebellum and antifolk, reconstructing indie pop with songs of love, dead people, and dead people in love. One fan described the town’s genre as “barnyard epic indie rock.” In 2007, they released their double-album debut, Your Big Plans and Our Little Town, on the nascent End Up label, followed by a series of EPs: the rebellious God Loves My Country and the companion records Subway Songs and Cowboy Songs. The town is doing its third national tour this summer. A full list of tour dates can be found on the band’s website.

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The Bandana Splits features indy-darling Dawn Landes along with Balthrop, Alabama's Annie Nero and Lauren Balthrop. Born out of the first first Very Balthrop Christmas show at Joe's Pub, the Bandana Splits aim to bring back the era of girl groups, cute lipstick and love at first sight. This is the Bandana Splits first New York appearance since completing their debut album, forthcoming in the spring.