Excellence in the Community

Joining Juana Ghani for this performance will be a plethora of Utah’s finest cirque performers and belly dancers, providing a fun-filled circus atmosphere that will include sword dancing, basket dancing, magic, juggling, belly dancing, stilt walkers, fire dancers, and other surprises. Featured dancers and performers are Amina, Alexandria,  Jennifer Payton, Mandi Johnson, Pretty Macabre, LaNae Surerus, Jenn Shamsa, Tammee Seal, Kevin James Seal, Chad Ashment, Heidi Lyn-Butterfly, Celeste Mcculley, and Ringmaster Elias Lefty Caress with a special appearance by Tabla Arabía.

Excellence in the Community featuring Juana Ghani will take place at the Gallivan Center located at 239 S. Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City on Thursday, August 21st. This family friendly event begins at 7:30pm and is free to the public.

Party time at Brewskis

Pizza, beer, friends, and great music.  Life just doesn't get much better than that!  And this past Saturday we were lucky enough to have just that.

photo by Todd Cole

We had such an amazingly fun time playing a show at Brewskis in Ogden with our good friends FOLK HOGAN.  We were surrounded the whole night be wonderful friends and fans who have become like family to us, and we met many more fabulous new friends that we are so looking forward to seeing at future shows.  "Mayhem" just doesn't even begin to describe the fun!

 

 FOLK HOGAN photo by Todd Cole

 

Juana Ghani photo by To E McKinley

Newsletter – Autumn 2012

Hello, Everybody!

Before I get into things, I want to say a big thank you to everybody who has signed up for our newsletter from Jango.com, reverbnation.com, our website at juanaghani.com and in person at our shows.  You are all so beautiful!  Thank you all so much!  And welcome to the family!

Now on to the good stuff!  It’s been an amazingly busy and wonderful summer for Juana Ghani.  We’ve played some fabulous events and venues and met some incredible people.  And we released our first full-length CD “Shall We Live Forever” in July.  We are so touched and feel so much love from all the wonderful people who have bought the CD and had such incredibly nice things to say about it.  

  

Along with the release of this CD, Brian published a book – “Kasojeni Bay” – at the same time.  

 

You can pick up both at any of our shows or buy them on the web from a multitude of online retailers including our own Juana Ghani store – http://juanaghani.com/shop.htm

Right on the heels of an amazing summer, we have an incredible autumn in the works.  In fact, it seems October will be the Month of Juana Ghani.  Here’s the schedule:

• Wednesday, September 26  -  Urban Lounge (241 S. 500 E.)  -  We have the mind-blowing opportunity to play with the world-renowned Bloodshot Records artist Firewater who are touring the United States for the first time in 4 years!  Firewater has been one of our biggest inspirations since day 1 and we are so excited for this show.
• Tuesday, October 2 -  Bar Deluxe (666 S. State)  -  We’ll be sharing the night with the darkly quirky Hellblinki who are coming to SLC all the way from Asheville, North Carolina.  This will be the perfect night to kick off your Hallowe’en season!
• Friday, October 5  -  Fat’s Grill (2182 S. Highland Dr.)  -  The entire night will be Juana Ghani!  And admission is FREE!  It doesn’t get much better.
• Saturday, October 13  -  Bar Deluxe (666 S. State)  -  Utah’s most exciting and mind-blowing Gypsy punk bands will be coming together for the very first time to bring you TRIFECTA!  We are teaming up with other local legends Hectic Hobo and FOLK HOGAN for a night of complete mayhem.  It will absolutely be a night to talk about for ages and ages to come!  You can buy advance tickets at http://www.folkhogan.com/the-shows/trifecta/ and a get a free song download from each band in the process!


• Saturday, October 20  -  Crone’s Hollow (2470 S. Main St.)  -  Our only “family friendly” show of the month.  This night will be a Gypsy Masquerade, so make sure you come in full costume!
• Saturday, October 27  -  Bar Deluxe (666 S. State)  -  We are super excited to play this year’s Witches Ball at Bar Deluxe.  This is the spookiest, sexiest costume party of the year!  This year’s theme:  White Magic and Black Lace.

Beginning in November, we will be working on brand new material with some brand new members of our Juana Ghani family!  It’s a very exciting time, indeed, for all of us and we can’t wait for the grand unveiling.  

Have a wonderful autumn!  Come to a show!  And absolutely come up and say hello to us!

JUANA GHANI


PS - Not signed up to our mailing list, yet?  You can do so here:

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Thanks!  And we love you!

JG

"Shall We Live Forever" official release date!

We are thrilled to announce that our first full-length CD "Shall We Live Forever" will be officially released tomorrow, June 20th.  We hope you'll join us at the CD release party on July 13th at the Underground Gypsy Cabaret at Bar Deluxe in Salt Lake City.

http://juanaghani.com/music.htm

And to go along with the CD, there's a book!  That's right.  Brian wrote a book called "Kasojeni Bay" that is the perfect companion to this CD.  It ties many of the songs together into a beautiful tale of self-discovery and passion and features several beautiful works by some of our favorite artists and photographers.

Bring On the Holidays with Juana Ghani!

Sastipe!

The early tentative breaths of winter are whispering sotto voce along the Wasatch Front of the Rocky Mountains.  The dramatic monochrome of early morning snows glisten against the storm gray skies, tempting us to remain inside by the fire, wrapped in a warm blanket and sipping hot cocoa as we look ahead to all the wonderfully exciting happenings to come in the near future.

We have begun recording our debut CD for a hopeful spring/summer release.  The percussion on this is, as Tony says, “epic!”  We are really very excited to share it with you all!  

We also have some very exciting shows coming up over the next couple months, everything from dive bar mayhem to supporting high class Grammy award winners to an international music festival.  Pull out your calendars and take note!

December 3  --  We’ll be playing at The Woodshed (60 East 800 South) in Salt Lake City along with good friends Tabla Arabia and new friends FOLK HOGAN.  The scuttlebutt around town is that this show is going to be the one people will be talking about for quite some time … once the hangovers are gone.  

December 12  --  We are incredibly excited to be opening for the Grammy award winning band The Klezmatics at the State Room (638 S. State St.) in Salt Lake City.  Klezmer and underground Gypsy edge!  This is going to be an amazingly fun night!

December 18  --  It’s a private party.  We’d love to tell you about it, but we’re sworn to secrecy.

January 13  --  The Underground Gypsy Cabaret is returning to Bar Deluxe (666 S. State St.) in Salt Lake City!  The night will feature Juana Ghani, underground jazz band Haywire Outfit and the Gypsy vagabond Americana of Hectic Hobo along with a wild assortment of dancers, aerialists, and macabre magicians.  It’s a perfect way to celebrate Friday the 13^th.  And it’s Leisl’s birthday to boot!

January 15  --  Juana Ghani has been invited to play at the Orion Independent Music Festival!  We will be playing with David Hayes at Molly Bloom’s (1680 Ute Blvd.) in Park City.  We are so very honored be a part of this prestigious international festival.

In other news, the song “In My Thoughts You Were Mine” (lyrics by Jason Crannell, music by Brian and Leisl Bonell, performed by Brian and Leisl Bonell of Juana Ghani) is featured at the end of the independent film, Christina’s Kiss.  

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving here on Thursday.  There’s a bit of controversy over this holiday (there seems to be controversy over every holiday these days) as people polarize and politicize the events that lie behind its creation.  We won’t get into any of that here, as we choose to focus instead on celebrating any opportunity to gather together with friends and family and to give thanks for all the wonderfulness that fills our lives.  With that in mind, here are a few of the things we are thankful for:

Nick  -  I am thankful for unusual instruments, the key of 'C', and my families, both my band family and my actual family, for their love and support.

Leisl  -  I’m so thankful for my family, my friends, my band, my music … and coffee.  And a good wooden spoon.  And cannoli.   I LOVE cannoli! 

Bryan  -  I'm thankful for music, for a job that keeps me off the street, for friends who put up with me in spite of my astounding stupidity.  Thank you.

Byron  -  I am thankful for friends, family and MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC! :)

Tony  -  Thankful for love and the accordion.

Brian  -  I am thankful for boomy drums and A minor, ‘cause it doesn't hurt my thumb. Mostly all my wonderful friends who make such wonderful music together!

Jason  -  I'm thankful for my really fast right foot, and thankful for the friends who think of me when they don't have room in their house for really cool gear. :)

Happy holidays and much love to you all!

Budmo!

Juana Ghani

The Month of Juana Ghani Begins!

Fasten your seat belts - here we go!

June is going to be a jam packed month of Juana Ghani goodness.  Are you ready?  Pull out your calendars and start marking these dates:

Friday, June 3 - The Underground Cabaret returns with Juana Ghani and La Dècollatage, complete with belly dancers, burlesque, fire dancers, pole dancers, and more!

 

Saturday, June 4 - Baktalo Drom at Utah Arts Alliance - Juana Ghani and some amazing belly dancing and the grand debut of the wonderful new THE WICKED!  

 

Sunday, June 5 - Juana Ghani will hit the International Stage at the Utah Pride Festival at 4:00 p.m.  This is guaranteed to an amazing afternoon!

 

And that's all just this weekend!  The party just keeps going all month long!

Saturday, June 11 - Juana Ghani will be playing on the Acoustic Stage at the Ogden Arts Festival at 7:00 p.m.

 

Saturday, June 18th is a private party.  If you're a part of that, it's going to fun, Fun, FUN!

And on Saturday, June 25th, Juana Ghani will be bringing the party to the City-County steps for the Utah Arts Festival at 8:00 p.m.

Of course, we'll have some of our EPs (set your own price for these) and our very special 2 fl. oz. shot glasses ($5 each) with us, if you'd like to buy some.  They make great gifts, too.  Jus' sayin'.

 

And if that's not enough Juana Ghani good times for you, you can always log in to Utah Musicians Radio where you can hear our music played everyday! 

So ... here we go!  BUDMO! Hey!

Photos are posted!

Photos from the Liquid Joe's show in December and last week's Night of the Casbah are on the website now!  Click HERE and enjoy!

It's a party!

You know it's a great party when days later you're still riding the high from all the fun you had.  That's how we're still feeling after this past weekend's show at "Night of the Casbah".  By the end of the night that line between audience and performer had been successfully erased and we were joined on stage by an army of drummers and so many belly dancers that it was near impossible to count them all.  Everybody was shimmying and singing and having a fabulous time!  (There'll be photos of the hoopla on our website within the next day or two.)

Look for us next at a fundraiser for a local musician who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.  Sending Love: A Benefit for Mike Sheffield will be held Saturday, February 19th from 9pm til 12:30am at the Utah Arts Alliance located at 2191 South 300 West, suite 18 in Salt Lake City.  We will be joined there by the incomparable Filthy McWhiskey and a plethora of beautiful belly dancers, burlesque dancers, pole dancers, henna artists, tarot readers, and so much more!  It is recommended that those attending be at least 18 years old. Admission is $15 at the door with a discount to $5 for each ticket after you've purchased 2.                  

Now on to our recommendations!

Little Heads - Wearable art created by our very own Leisl.  Each piece is handcrafted and one-of-kind.  Guaranteed to turn heads!

Katzenjammer - Four of the hottest, most energetic, incredibly talented and imaginative musical ladies around!  Check out "A Bar in Amsterdam" - I completely run out of breath just listening to it.

Nutella - Hazelnut goodness in a spread!


Let the party continue!  Opa!