The Quarter Note Bar & Grill always does its part to keep Sunnyvale’s music scene popping, but this week the club has something truly special. Playing there on Friday, April 25 is the Paula Boggs Band, a Seattle ensemble that has been blending jazz and Americana since 2010. The sound has been described as “soulgrass,” and singer/lead songwriter Boggs has been credited with “rewriting the bluegrass story from a black perspective,” according to AmericanaUK.
The band’s fourth studio album, “Janus,” was produced and engineered by Grammy-winning Tucker Martine, and features Carolina Chocolate Drops co-founder Dom Flemons. A standout on the 2022 release—which Boggs recorded with Chocolate Drops cofounder Don Flemons—is “King Brewster,” a song about her enslaved ancestor and his experiences after the Civil War and the postbellum era. More recently came the release of Paula Boggs Band Live at Sweetwater Music Hall. A fifth studio album, produced and mixed by Martine, is coming in 2025.
Prior to forming her band, Boggs served eight years as an officer in the United States Army. She’s also worked as a federal prosecutor, a vice president at Dell, and in 2013 Barack Obama appointed her to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Is there anything this dynamo can’t do? $15. Apr 26, 8pm. Quarter Note Bar & Grill, 1214 Apollo Way, Sunnyvale, 408.732.2110.
