Memoir, Music & Cocktails at Roy’s
Double Musical Literary Header at Roy with 2 Performances
Join us at Roy for a singular Saturday night that weaves together memoir, music journalism, live performance, and the kind of honest conversation about creative life that you won't find anywhere else.
Two landmark panels — one tracing the wild origins of the magazine that changed American culture, the other mapping the long, winding road of three artists who refused to quit — are bookended by live performances from two remarkable musicians.
4:00 PM — The Long Way
Panel | 4:00 – 5:00 PM
The road is long — if we're lucky — and making art isn't always easy. Three artists who have each written memoirs sit down to map the long arc of a creative life. Singer/songwriter and memoirist Amy Rigby (Girl to City, Girl to Country) and British pop legend Wreckless Eric (Whole Wide World, A Dysfunctional Success) come together for a wide-ranging, deeply honest conversation about risk, identity, reinvention, and the coming-of-age moments that shape who we become — as artists and as human beings.
If you prefer, you can buy individual tickets to The Long Way, here.
5:15 PM — A Brand New Beat: The Wild Rise of Rolling Stone
Panel | 5:15 – 6:15 PM
What does it take to change the way a country thinks about music, culture, and journalism all at once? Following the publication of Brand New Beat: The Wild Rise of Rolling Stone Magazine, author and journalist Peter Richardson leads a lively, essential conversation about the scrappy, visionary, and often chaotic early days of the magazine that rewrote the rules — and what that era of fearless, gonzo storytelling means for music journalism today.
You can purchase individual tickets to A Brand New Beat here.
6:30 PM — Amy Rigby
Live Performance | 6:30 – 7:15 PM
One of America's most enduring underground artists takes the stage. Raised in Pittsburgh and schooled in late '70s lower Manhattan — where she drummed in a no-wave band, formed the pre-Americana outfit Last Roundup, and launched a solo career with the cult classic Diary of a Mod Housewife — Amy Rigby has spent four decades writing songs that are equal parts heartbreak and wit, punk spirit and country soul. Called "one of America's greatest songwriters" by the Nashville Scene and praised by Thurston Moore and Steve Earle, she is also the author of two memoirs, Girl to City and Girl to Country. Tonight she plays live — and it's going to be something.
7:30 PM — Charlie Millard
Live Performance | 7:30 – 8:15 PM
From Michigan's northern lower, Charlie Millard — keys, organ, and Rhodes bass, joined by guitarist Jercat Millard and percussionist Will Harris — closes out the evening with what audiences have called "small movies for the ears." Their Indie-Roll sound is warm, cinematic, and impossible to categorize in the best possible way. The perfect way to end a night built around stories and songs.