Danny Kean Up Next at Fireside Sessions with Nancy Atlas

The third time’s a charm for this winter’s hottest live-music series, as East End musician and perennial Dan’s Papers Best of the Best honoree Nancy Atlas returns to Bay Street Theatre on Friday, January 17, for the latest of her Fireside Sessions—a series of Friday-night concerts by The Nancy Atlas Project featuring a new, special guest musician every week.

Following the success of her first two guests—Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitar guru Andy Aledort—this Friday’s show will no doubt be rocking Sag Harbor as keyboardist Danny Kean joins Nancy and the band onstage.

We caught up with Nancy this week:

Last Friday you had Andy Aledort as your special guest. What was an extra special highlight of the night for you?
Our acoustic songs were actually the highlight for me, since Andy and I share a mutual love of Lucinda Williams. It was a special moment, as neither of us had ever played “Side of the Road” before that night. We actually decided to play it that morning, so we were both happy that we got through it without crying.

This Friday night, January 17, you have Danny Kean joining you. What gets your musical juices flowing when thinking about working with him?
Danny is an incredibly soulful player who always gets the crowd going. I truly can’t decide what I like more, his voice or his killer keyboard style. He is a lovely human being off stage, as well. It’s another treat to call him my friend.

Can you give us a sneak peek into what kind of music we’ll be treated to when Danny joins you?
Well, he leans toward R&B funk. That’s all I’m saying.

Are you enjoying working on songs you may not have performed before? Have you hit upon anything yet that you might add to your regular repertoire?
For sure. Each week we let the special guest choose the covers, and it has been a blast. Plus, we are learning their originals and they are playing our originals. As soon as each show is done, a new week begins. I feel like I’m back in college!

Next week, on January 24, you have electric violinist Randi Fishenfeld joining you. You’ve performed with Randi many times at the Stephen Talkhouse and Surf Lodge, and she’s on at least one of your CDs, so obviously there’s a great creative connection there. How did you first hook up with Randi?
Randi was the violinist for Clarence Clemons’ side band when he wasn’t touring with Bruce Springsteen. We had a mutual friend who thought it would be great to see us together. We hit it off instantly. We love to play together, and it’s fire-on-fire, if you will.