Tony "DJ Espo" Esposito honed his DJ skills originally in Washington, D.C.'s bar & nightclub scene of the 1990's. After 10 years spinning in Washington, DC, Tony left for Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2000. Soaking up a lot of sunshine and too much beach culture, Tony laid roots in Raleigh, NC.

With a clever mixture of rock ‘n' roll, rhythm ‘n' blues, classic hip hop, garage rock, instrumentals, outlaw country and pop hits, Tony focuses on inciting what's known as “controlled chaos”.“I grew tired of the same old music years ago”, says Tony. “What you hear pounding from the sound system at my shows is vintage familiar and new hits combined with songs you may not have heard before or in this setting.”

Tony enjoys Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest in New Orleans, St. Patrick's Day in Boston, Washington, D.C.'s Leprechaun Stomp, any day in Key West, Florida and any college campus that will party with a guy over 30. Tony is managing partner and tour manager for The Fastest Bartender contest (FastestBartender.com) and is available for hire.

Please be our guest Saturday, June13th 2009 as we bring you our The McShaws . The McShaws is the husband and wife singing team of David and Elvin McShaw.   They minister in song and word.  This anointed duo was founded in the fall of 2000.  
The McShaws have traveled America spreading God's message through song. They have opened for various gospel artists such as Rev. Timothy Wright, Evangelist Dorothy Norwood, Luther Barnes, the Williams Brothers, The Texas Boys, Lee Williams, Tommy Ellison and other Gospel greats.  David McShaw has traveled the gospel circuit singing and recording with Rev. Timothy Wright's Concert Choir, Pastor John P. Kee, The O Neal Twins and Sister Mattie Moss
Clark.  Elvin McShaw remembers, as a child, always having a melody in her heart. She has minister in London, England and Germany during various tours. Some of the McShaws accomplishments include cameo appearance on the live recording of Gerald Hinton and the New Redeemers at the Christian Faith Center as well as on the video "Praise Him" by Tony Terry. They have also performed on
Mr. Hinton's Anniversary Concert Cruise in the Bahamas.  The McShaws were named Duo of the Year of 2004 at the Gospel Announcer's Guild Prestige Awards Ceremony.  They received the Golden Note Award 2005 Duo of the Year from the National Gospel Council and were awarded the America Artist Gospel Award,
2004.  The McShaws were also featured in TCP Magazine in 2005, and they are the recipients of the 2008 Newsome Award for Independent Artist. Their most resent accomplishment is a music video, which can be viewed on UTube and My Space.
David and Elvin's latest project is entitled "GLORIFY".  Their anointed singing will lift your heart with songs from this celebrated project like:  "I Know He Can", and classic like "My Soul is Anchored in the Lord" and "Waiting for my Child to Come Home".  On "GLORIFY", the McShaws anointing makes a difference as they have been referred to as "The modern day CONSOLERS". Their newest maxi single will
stir the hearts of couples with songs like; Through It All, and You Make Me Feel Brand New.  
God's mighty call for Evangelism continues to be their focus as they are both Ordained Ministers.  They host a Radio Show, and can be heard Monday-Friday At 1:00 pm on The Speak Life Broadcast.  In addition, their music is heard around the world on Internet Radio.
They have come this far only by God's Grace.  This dynamic duo will certainly bless your soul as they GLORIFY God.  As they minister, God will bless, and cause their territory to enlarge, and cause their music to soar across the nation and the world. . This is what makes the experience at The Hat Lounge simply outstanding. So bring out the kids, bring your friends and be thrilled with the best local events you have ever experienced.

John Dee Holeman

"His playing and singing have that special feel like they're pouring out as natural as breathing.  He's such a genuine bluesman that I want to touch him and hope it rubs off on me." -Harvey Arnold, Music Maker guitarist
Born: April 4, 1929, Hillsborough, North Carolina
Repertoire Summary: Piedmont Blues
Albums: Bull Durham Blues, John Dee Holeman with the Waifs, John Dee with Taj Mahal and You Got to Lose, You Can't Win All the Time
More about John Dee:
One of Music Maker's most renowned and respected artists, John Dee Holeman spent the first six years of his life in the town of Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina, barely a mile from MM's present office. A gentlemanly, gracious man, he speaks in a lilting, soft-spoken manner.
"I was born in 1929," he says. "My father was Willy Holeman and my mother was born Annie Obie near Roxboro, North Carolina. Her daddy moved to Hillsborough and ran a flour mill. James Obie was my uncle; there are still Obies in Hillsborough. I lived on the Sam Latta place at first- he was the High Sheriff. There were three sisters and one brother. My parents are planted in the cemetery of Obie's Chapel Church in Person County."  "In about 1935 we moved to a 100 acre farm on Gray Road in Northern Orange County. We would walk four miles to the store at Timberlake to get us some candy. We could play on Saturday or Sunday. You know, fix a swing in a tree, swing in a tire and things like that. One time I took a fender off a Model T Ford, got on a bank, put water on the bank, and slid right down to the bottom!  I completed the fourth grade, then stopped; we weren't compelled to attend then. I cut short my education because Daddy needed me to farm. I had to do what my Daddy said. I missed my education, but I've made a living so far."
John Dee has made a living and then some. He has performed at the National Folk Festival, at Carnegie Hall, and has made overseas tours. In 1988, he was awarded the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is proud of a certificate signed and given to him by then-President Reagan. His skill as a guitarist, singer, and buckdancer have carried him far beyond his small-town and country roots. It was his skill as a guitarist that first set him apart.
When John Dee was 14 he bought a brand new Sears Silvertone guitar for $15. "I thought I had something!" he says. His uncle and cousin taught him a few chords. "I listened to 78's like 'Step It Up and Go' by Blind Boy Fuller, the Grand Ole Opry, and heard others play at pig-picking parties. I was good for catching on. My guitar kept me company when I tended to tobacco in the barn so I wouldn't go to sleep. You had to control the tobacco as it cured-you ran one heat to get the green out, then another to dry it out for cigarettes."
He moved to Durham in 1954 in reaction to farming's financial shortcomings. "The government took over the farming and gave you an allotment of how much you could raise. Before that we raised as much as we could handle. If you went over the allotment at harvest time, they'd make you cut it down. In 1954 I got $200 for my portion of tobacco for the whole year."  "I went to the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company for work. You could get a three-room 'shotgun' house for $6 a week. I also operated heavy equipment, like hauling dirt."
In recent years John Dee has been a regular artist at Music Maker's summer Warehouse Concerts series in Durham, held onsite at the West Village development on the site of the old L&M factories and warehouses. Organized in partnership with the City of Durham Parks and Recreation Department, the concerts are produced among West Village condos and stores where John Dee and his L&M co-workers used to produce cigarettes for the world. After his move to Durham, he played with musicians who learned first-hand from such bluesmen as Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, and Reverend Gary Davis, who played for rent parties and outside the bustling cigarette factories.
Although John Dee played his guitar for private functions while engaged in his regular day jobs, it wasn't until folklorist Glen Hinson asked him to play for the Bicentennial Festival in Durham that his music career took off. "He said there would be 500 or 5,000 people. I told him, 'I can't face that many people- I'm not that good.' He said to do the same thing that I do at my house or at a pig-picking, to do what I know. He just about begged me. I went out there and everybody like to have a good time. It made me feel real good."
Since then, John Dee has been "just about all over- Thailand, Honolulu, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Turkey, Canada and six weeks in Africa. I met B.B. King and Chuck Berry and played with Joe and Odell Thompson (from Mebane, N.C.) in Boston." He also met Lighnin' Hopkins, who originally recorded a song in John Dee's repertoire, "Give Me Back My Wig (Let Your Doggone Head Go Bald)." Some of his foreign trips were sponsored by the U.S. State Department.  In addition to caring for his late wife Janet when she became ill for several years, John Dee managed to keep a regular schedule of foreign and local gigs with partners such as harp player Billy Stevens and the late piano player Fris Holloway. More recently he has recorded on the Music Maker label, backed by well-known players such as Taj Mahal and Cool John Ferguson. In 2008 Zeke Hutchens produced John Dee's most recent CD, "You Got To Lose, You Can't Win All The Time."
When John Dee turned 80 in 2009, his many friends surprised him with the gift of a new electric guitar, which made his Piedmont blues sound as fresh as ever. His rapport with younger players is reflected in the comments of fellow MM artist Harvey Arnold, who has played bass and guitar with John Dee.
"His playing and singing have that special feel like they're pouring out as natural as breathing, "says Arnold. "He's such a genuine bluesman that I want to touch him and hope it rubs off on me." Whether he's playing and singing a ragtime like Fuller's "Come On Down To My House", a traditional blues like "John Henry", or a city blues like Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man", John Dee Holeman is the real deal, a much-loved performer and man.
-Written by Peter Kramer
Call us at 919-286-4287

Ernie Donadelle: electric bass Originally from New York City, New York, Ernie became interested in music at a very early age, about 2 or 3 years of age, when he learned how to opperate the record player. At about the age of 7 his great grandmother taught him a song on the piano and that's when he was hooked. Wanting to play drums he joined the Cadet Corps at his school, St Helena's in the Bronx, in the fourth grade. His mother bought him his first bass when he was 15 for Christmas and has been playing bass ever since. Ernie attended Berklee College of Music in the late '70's which led to touring the east coast, Canada, Aruba, Curacao, Key West. Later he moved to Los Angeles and played on the club scene for about nine years before traveling to Asia to tour for five years with two bands, Luna and Straight From The Heart playing 5 star hotels in Bangkok, Osaka, the Hard Rocks in Manila and Hong Kong and The Fashion Cafe in Jakarta and finishing up in La Manga Spain. After the bands' break-up Ernie moved from L.A. to Raleigh N.C. and has been busy with many different projects including playing with The Stanley Baird Group, Cindy Bradley, Gordon James and has preformed with Alexander O'Neal and recorded with Richard "Dimples" Fields. He is currenty working on his first cd of original music.

Tony Thompson: piano, organ, keyboards, writer.  Tony plays in a number of bands and for a number of artists, most recently, The Stanley Baird Group, Cindy Bradley and Tom Browne (among others) TV placement of his original music include a recent episode of Fringe. He is currently writing and producing a compact disc of smooth jazz originals itended for distribution on internet music sites. His music is frequenty aired on public radio where he has also been interviewed following publication of his CDs. National Public Radio host George Olsen comducted a 10 minute interview with Tony following the release of "Forever Charmed" CD (available from CDBaby.com)  The story aired on Morning Edition and was led to the news press. Tony released "I Know" showcasing his trio featuring Motown veteran Chuck Leonard on drums and music promoter, Ken Weigand, on bass. This CD can also be heard on CDBaby.com. Contents of this cd feature music of Miles Davis and some very soulful jazz standards. The title song is an original composition of Tony's. Tony has been in the music business for a long time playing, teaching and tuning pianos for many concerts for artists including Kool and the Gang, The Commodores. Tony's favorite activities include writing music, sailing, biking and yoga.

The Crossover Blues Band is one of the Triangle's hottest new bands! 
Anchored in the tradition of Texas & Chicago Blues, they roll like a freight-train into rip-roarin, hi-energy, classic blues jams emulating the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn, ZZ top & Al Collins.  Right when you think you got em' figured out, they slide right into an Arthetha Franklin tune & a neck-snappin' Rock-a-billy piece from the Stray Cats. 
Two smokin' lead guitar players, delta-blues harp, fat organ, several vocalists & a slammin' rhythm section...one of the best band's I've seen live! 
If you're lucky, they just might drop a tune or two unplugged conjuring an intimate energy more 

common on a street corner in Memphis in the 40's. For more information please contact us at 919-286-4287 or click on the flyer above and check out their website.