The Top Hat is happy to welcome Joan Zen for a FREE live performance on Saturday, August 18, 2018.
About Joan Zen
Missoula based group, the Joan Zen sextet, combines Zen’s “powerful pipes” with an interesting combination of players including Eric Hutchins on guitar and trumpet, Milan House on keys, Branden Barker on bass, Brandon Zimmer on drums, and Jason Hicks, Zen’s husband, on saxophone and E.W.I. (electronic wind synth). The higher ground messages mix with soulful, funky, grooviness slip-sliding from bluesy to disco, from jazzy to reggae.
In 2017, the band released its 3rd studio 5-song EP entitled This Is the Fortunate Life featuring some local favorite players like Josh Farmer and Mandela Leola Van Eeden. Zen’s 2nd studio album released in 2007 features Huey Lewis on harmonica on The Usual Scene. Joan Zen was voted Best Musician by the Ravalli Republic Annual Readers Poll for the 10th time in the last 13 years from 2006-2014 and now, 2018.
Zen can be heard throughout the Northwest playing from concerts in the park to community events and fundraisers, clubs, private parties, and breweries. The group is currently working on its 4th studio recording which is in the writing phase, a 6-song EP due to be released in 2019.