(HUDSON, N.Y.) – “The Cabinet of Wonders,” a musical and literary variety show based at New York City’s City Winery and hosted by author Wesley Stace, aka John Wesley Harding, will pay an upstate visit to Spotty Dog Books & Ale on Saturday, May 24, 2014, at 8pm. In addition to Stace reading from his new novel, Wonderkid, and performing a few songs, the event will feature authors David Grand and Emma Jane Tourtelot, singer-songwriter Amy Rigby, and a reading/sound performance by Karen Schoemer with Tyson Hauf, host of the Zooms radio program on WGXC 90.7 FM Hudson.

The Cabinet of Wonders began in spring 2009 in New York City at (Le) Poisson Rouge, before moving to City Winery. Over the years, it has featured guest appearances by Rosanne Cash, Graham Parker, Josh Ritter, Rick Moody, Colson Whitehead, Jonathan Ames, A.C. Newman, Rhett Miller, Steven Page, Eugene Mirman, David Gates, John Roderick, Jon Auer, Tanya Donelly, Martha Plimpton, Todd Barry, Steve Almond, and Stephen Elliott. The spring 2010 series featured, among others, Sarah Vowell, Sondre Lerche, Buffalo Tom, Janeane Garofalo, Robbie Fulks, Paul Muldoon. In 2012, Harding launched a weekly NPR version of the “Cabinet of Wonders.” Stace’s latest CD, Self-Titled, was released to wide acclaim in October 2013 by Yep Rock Records. He contributes frequently to the New York Times and lives in Philadelphia.

Stace’s new novel, Wonderkid, is set in a very familiar place for this acclaimed writer – the world of rock and roll. For more than twenty-five years, as singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding, Stace toured the world, appearing on rock’s biggest stages, releasing fifteen albums, and earning an international following.

Now, after three historical novels published alongside his musical career, Stace offers a fictional backstage pass to the world he knows so well. An ingenious tale of a rock band that suddenly finds success in the musical world – the children’s musical world – Wonderkid is a deliriously entertaining and surprisingly touching novel of the dangers of compromise, thwarted ambition, and fathers and sons. Told with tremendous humor and energy by an author who is as comfortable inside a rock club as he is inside a bookstore –Wonderkid is truly a behind the scenes rock and roll novel for the ages.

The Hudson version of the Cabinet of Wonders takes place on Bob Dylan’s 73^rd birthday. Wesley Stace adopted the name of a Bob Dylan song and album when he decided to call himself John Wesley Harding.

The Spotty Dog, 440 Warren St., Hudson N.Y. Ph: (518) 671 6006. There is no cover but donations for the performers will be accepted at the door.