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Live-band Karaoke Coming to Bushwick BBQ Bar

By Anton K. Nilsson | October 15, 2015 7:54am
 The monthly live karaoke events will be focused mostly on country music.
The monthly live karaoke events will be focused mostly on country music.
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The Shop

BUSHWICK — Bushwick country fans with dreams of the spotlight, now is your chance.

The Starr Street barbecue spot The Shop, which opened in the spring, will begin hosting monthly karaoke events with a live band.

Starting Nov. 5, and the first Thursday of every month, the seasoned country band The Y'all Stars will perform selections from its 300-song strong repertoire.

The members of the Y'all Stars began playing together 10 years ago, and have played at clubs in all five boroughs, frontman Boo Reiners said.

"Plain old karaoke bars get static after a while, but with a live band you never know what could happen," Reiners said.

"What we do is, we usually give the person who comes up to sing a free shot. Whiskey or tequila or whatever. I'll kind of huddle up with them and decide what key works the best," Reiners said. 

Transposing songs into the appropriate key and figuring out arrangements on the spot are some of the challenges of performing live karaoke, Reiners said.

"A lot of the stuff we do off the top of our heads. Sometimes you'll have a gal who'll pick a song that's made famous by a male singer. They're not going to be able to sing that song in the original key," Reiners said.

As for the available song choices, The Y'all Stars play "a lot of Hank, Loretta, Dolly, Johnny," Reiners said. "We might do a Beatles tune, we might do a Doors number. We try to include whoever is in the room. We try to accommodate the prevailing taste of whoever's there."

The Shop manager Krystal Kay Cortez, who hails from Texas, said the goal of the karaoke night is to bring "a bit of the South to Brooklyn."

"If you think of country, you might think of boring and slow songs. But live karaoke brings a bit of life to it. We're trying to bring that rowdiness back," Cortez said.

The live karaoke events will run from 9 p.m. to midnight and will feature special deals on drinks. There is no cover charge.