In 2009, James Keogh was a promising player in Australia’s Victorian Football League. He also played music, and, taking an alias from a Peter Carey novel he was reading, put himself into rotation in the Melbourne open mic scene as Vance Joy. He released his indie debut EP, God Loves You When You’re Dancing, in March 2013, and by the end of the year, Joy had topped global charts with the catchy, unavoidable hit, “Riptide,” signed a five-album deal with Atlantic Records and caught the ear of Taylor Swift, who put him on her 1989 tour.
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January Exhibitions
Friday 1/30/26 through Tuesday 3/20/26 Ruffin Gallery at the University of Virginia presents its annual Ruffin Distinguished Artist-in-Residence exhibition “We Dream of Life,” a collaboration reflecting friendship, shared dreams, and explorations of the natural world by New Mexico-based artist Paula Wilson and California-based artist iris yirei hu. Within a monumental installation incorporating painting, collage, and […]
Michael Clem at The Front Porch 1/9
Local music luminary Michael Clem performs new tracks from his latest release, 60¢ A Gallon. Between February and October 2025, Clem went to work at Carriage Lane Studios with producer Rusty Speidel, laying down a dozen new tunes that run the gamut of Clem’s Americana facility and featuring Paul Bell, Adrian Duke, Laurie MacAllister, Jen […]
‘The Fifth Step’ at The Paramount Theater 1/8
Experience critically acclaimed British performances with National Theatre Live in HD’s presentation of The Fifth Step. Olivier Award-winner Jack Lowden (“Slow Horses,” Dunkirk) and Emmy- and BAFTA-winner Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, “The Responder”) star in the subversively funny play by David Ireland, directed by Finn den Hertog. In a story built around recovery from alcoholism, […]
