This show is sold out!
Listen to us on WFMT May 20 on the Midnight Special Anniversary.

 

Saturday, April 29
630 (reception) 7 PM show
In Old Chicago: Stories & Songs of a Beloved City
Concert and Cocktails
Rare Nest Gallery
3433 N Kedvale
Chicago, Il 60641
PH 708-616-8671
Information: keith@rarenestgallery.com
$35 includes cocktails, Patron level $50
Reserve a place here. Admission includes pre-concert cocktails.

 

This showcase presentation – part memoir, part concert – features songs from the front parlor to the music hall sung in Jamie’s lush, signature style. In stories, poetry​,​ and vintage photographs, she shares a rich history of her feisty, adventurous Irish American ancestors who were a vital part of Chicago’s cultural and political landscape
in the early 1900s as a great city came of age.

The evening begins with a reception. Reservations required.

Old Chicago, researched, written and performed by Jamie with several actors, celebrates the culture of Chicago during the Arts Revival of pre-WWI Chicago and into the 20s, highlighting family history, local lore of Chicago neighborhoods and the role of the immigrant worker in the early 1900s.  Integral to the piece is the role that radio played in her career, and a bit of lore from and about aural historian and folk hero Studs Terkel (Jamie’s friend), the truest voice of a by-gone era.

This show is sold out!
Listen to us on WFMT May 20 on the Midnight Special Anniversary.

In Old Chicago embodies the vocal tradition of Jamie’s ancestry in lush interpretation of songs; from the front parlor to chamber concert repertoire; from vaudeville and music hall stages. Songs showcase Jamie’s signature soprano in songbird-style ballads, romantic standards, sultry ballads, parlor songs, Americana ballads, and Irish songs. There are also songs written for her by late musical partner, esteemed songwriter Michael P. Smith.

Listen to Jamie sing Annie Laurie

Songs include
Love’s Sweet Song, And the Band Played On, I Wish Someone Would Take Me Dancing (by Michael P. Smith), When You Were Sweet Sixteen, Blue River ala Sophie Tucker, Eye on the Sparrow ala Mahalia Jackson, Hey, Kid (for Leo Segedin, by Michael P. Smith), Annie Laurie, traditional Irish songs, and Jamie’s signature song She Would Sing the Kerry Dances.

CHARACTERS
Jamie’s ancestors were feisty activists, writers and artists. Published memoirs, and poetry from
Edward (Tex) O’Reilly, Irwin St. John (Friar Tuck) Tucker, Ellen (Nell) O’Reilly Tucker, Mame
O’Reilly and Dorothy O’Reilly provide a substantial part of the text in the program. They all
wrote for newspapers — from the Inter-Ocean to the Chicago Tribune — for over 100 years.

---

ABOUT
Jamie O’Reilly
A Voice for the Soul of the City
Singer, Speaker, Salonnière, Writer, Producer
A contributor to Chicago’s cultural landscape for over 40 years, Jamie O’Reilly has forged a
vibrant artistic path integrating music, history, literature and community. Many titles in the arts
nomenclature can be assigned to Jamie. It is her love of singing, an expansive creative spirit, and
a fiercely held belief in the value of the artist in community that fuel her active and vibrant
world.

With her distinctive lilting voice and broad vocal range, and classical training (a graduate of
DePaul University School of Music), Jamie approaches folk music with the passion of a theater
artist and the attention of an art song interpreter. Her programs include songs reminiscent of
by-gone eras, traditional, and original work in the singer/songwriter genre. Vocal selections
range from romantic standards from the 1920s – 40s, to sultry gypsy ballads and celtic
folksongs, to parlor songs and Americana ballads. She is accompanied by the finest musicians on
guitars, piano and more.

As a theater and music producer, Jamie is known for the powerful productions she brings to the
stage, and the projects she brings to the recording studio, among these are Pasiones: Songs of
the Spanish Civil War, and the award-winning Hello Dali: From the Sublime to the Surreal, a
box office hit during the 2001 Victory Gardens Theater’s Tony-Award winning season. Other
celebrated programs include Songs of the Kerry Madwoman, which sets the poetry of Patricia
Monaghan. The Gift of the Magi, performed with WGN Radio Host Rick Kogan, and heard on
WFMT’s Folkstage, has been a highlight.