A 24-Decade History of Popular Music

TAYLOR MAC'S A 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC

Backing Vocals / Martha Hutchinson / Tiny Tim / Martian

Taylor Mac is a MacArthur Fellow, playwright, and uses the pronoun “judy.” Judy’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music was an epic 24-hour long concert in which I was a backing vocalist (as well as performing some minor roles, like one of the “three little maids from school” in a Martian adaptation of the Mikado called “The Marskado”). Each hour of the concert featured popular songs from each decade of The United States of America’s history, starting in 1776 and ending in 2016. The show has been performed in many iterations, sometimes in 3-hour chunks, sometimes 6, but only once in a 24-hour marathon performance, at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn in October of 2016. At that performance, I performed for 15 of the 24-hours, with some breaks, and many costume changes.

 

I also had the privilege of performing versions of the show at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, as well as at the Melbourne Festival in Australia.

 

Below you can see one of my many backing vocalist lqqks, as well as a clip of me singing a duet with Taylor in an early version of the piece at Joe’s Pub.

 

PRESS:

 

backing vocalists

Performing with fellow backing vocalists Maria-Christina Oliveras, Crystal Lucas-Perry, and Heather Christian.

Performing "The Parting Glass" with Taylor Mac in an early version of A 24-Decade History of Popular Music at Joe's Pub in 2013.