Nancy Atlas Fireside Sessions Return to Bay Street in 2018

Who holds your world aloft? Could it be…Nancy Atlas? She’s baaack…and carrying the East End’s hottest concert series with her.

Atlas is returning her Fireside Sessions to Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater first thing in the new year, and the Dan’s Best of the Best Hall of Famer is looking forward to this fifth season of “magic and mayhem,” as she calls it, that has made the Fireside Sessions wintertime’s can’t-miss event since it launched in 2014.

This year, the intimate concert series—once again presented by Dan’s Papers—will premiere on Saturday, January 6, and continue through Saturday, January 27. As has become the stuff of legend among the sell-out crowds who have packed the theater for the past four winters, Atlas has a number of surprises ready to light up the stage every show.

Blending the talents of her legendary band, The Nancy Atlas Project, with weekly special guest musicians—in the past these show-stoppers have ranged from Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith to saxophonist Arno Hecht, violin sensation Randi Fishenfeld to bluesman Jonny Rosch—Atlas has created a unique musical experience that has audiences raving and has helped the “End End Run” performer explore something new in her music as well.

“It was such a wonderful gift to share with the East End community and I loved seeing everyone each week,” she says, making particular note of how much she enjoys “getting a chance to jam with world-class musicians who also happen to be my friends on a weekly basis in the dead of winter.”

“I have these amazing people in my life who are just as good as any über famous person out there,” Atlas goes on. “Yet for many reasons, my guests are often sidemen to the greats or just keeping up the good fight. What a gift to put the spotlight on them and let them shine. The absolute most wonderful part of the Fireside Sessions at Bay Street shows is that they are a total love fest each week between the guest and the audience. I’m just in between, greasing the wheels to make it all spin.”

Concert-goers will probably be lucky enough to hear one of Atlas’s newest songs, “The Tale of Johnny Load,” inspired by the real-life events of John Aldridge, whose inspiring story of survival is captured in the book he co-wrote with Anthony Sosinski, A Speck in the Sea. Speaking of which, for those worried about how the Harvey Weinstein debacle might affect the production of the film, worry not. Atlas announced during a concert in October that the film rights were sold by the Weinstein Company some time ago and that production is expected to get underway as anticipated.

Fireside Sessions with Nancy Atlas are every Saturday night in January at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. Tickets are $25 and are available now for purchase at baystreet.org.