Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles at Joe's Pub on a Wednesday night in NYC...

Southington, CT to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in two hours. Not too shabby, glad I decided to leave before noon. G-Man and I decided to go immediately into Manhattan for the afternoon. Chatted with Binky hanging out front of the Public Theatre a few hours before the show before we strolled around, grabbed some jambalaya 'n brews over on St. Mark's and then settled in at the Bleeker Street Bar to watch the Yankees take care of the D'Backs before heading back to Joe's Pub for the 9:30 show (there were three separate-admission shows that night- 7:30/9:30/11:30). Great venue, great show featuring some of the new material. Picked up a few cd's from the "grittily brilliant" (see review below) Ms. Borges post-concert.

AMG gives Diamonds in the Dark very nice review (4 stars):

Review by Rick Anderson The Sugar Hill label made its name releasing top-notch bluegrass and folk records, but it has also carved a nifty little niche for itself in the roots rock genre, putting out the occasional gem of tightly crafted, often country-tinged pop music by the likes of Don Dixon and James McMurtry. Its latest acquisition is the grittily brilliant Boston-based singer/songwriter Sarah Borges, whose second album (and first for Sugar Hill) pulls in influences as diverse as X, Dolly Parton, Wanda Jackson, 1960s bubblegum pop, and the entire state of Texas. The album's opening track is a brilliantly rollicking piece of modern rockabilly, and is quickly followed by a relatively obscure X cover ("Come Back to Me"), which is itself followed by a hand-clapping, finger-snapping love ditty by Greg Cartwright titled "Stop and Think It Over." Elsewhere she delivers a rather standard-issue country weeper (for which she really doesn't have quite the right kind of voice), a sharp and nasty roadhouse blues ("Open Up Your Back Door"), the briskly rocking "Diablito," and a tender and spooky arrangement of Tom Waits' "Blind Love." Very, very nice.

Interesting note: Greg Cartwright's Stop And Think It Over, covered on Diamonds In the Dark, is also covered on Mary Weiss' new album, Dangerous Game.


Joe's Pub at the Public Theatre on Lafayette


Joey Ramone Place near the old CBGB site.