(HUDSON, N.Y.) – A mini-festival of rockabilly music featuring regional stars The Lustre Kings and Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones takes place at Club Helsinki Hudson on Thursday, March 24, at 8pm. This date was originally featured to include Wanda Jackson, who had to withdraw from the evening for health reasons.

For several decades, the Capital District-based Mark Gamsjager and the Lustre Kings have been keeping the sound of early rockabilly alive, both in the region and across the U.S. and around the world. They bring an immediacy to the joyful music with a dark underbelly that has compelled performers like Wanda Jackson, the Queen of Rockabilly, as well as Bill Kirchen, Eddie Angel and Robert Gordon, to draft them into the service of rock ‘n’ roll revivalism.
Pointing out how they contextualize the music, capturing an entire era in proto-rock ‘n’ roll, local music critic Seth Rogovoy wrote, “The Lustre Kings dig deep into early rock and related styles, steering away from a greatest-hits oldies approach, preferring to connect the dots among such unlikely musical bedfellows as Conway Twitty, Peanuts Wilson, Link Wray and Duke Ellington (they even render a surf-guitar version of the Duke’s “Caravan”).”

Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones were named the “Best Up-And-Coming Band in 2015” by Hudson Valley Magazine, and nominated for “Best Rockabilly Female” at the 2016 Ameripolitan Music Awards. With the release of their fully crowdfunded debut album, “Luck Maker”, a music video for their single “Whiskey Pick” (official selection of the Woodstock Film Festival, and in WDST’s top 100 songs), and a relentless performance and touring schedule, it has proven to be an exciting time for Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones.

Born from a hybrid of Hope’s former rockabilly band, The Champtones, and international psychobilly act The Arkhams, the Ark-Tones hit the ground running in 2012. This fun-loving bunch packs the dance floor with their own original musical offerings in vintage style as well as re-workings of Rockabilly, rock ‘n’ roll, and R&B classics and standards.

For reservations in The Restaurant or in the club call 518.828.4800.