More than 50 Dallas women comprise The Women's Choir of Dallas. They are now accepting new members.

So, you aspire to be on the big stage with fellow talented vocalists, but you missed the Broadway/American Idol boat. Here’s a chance to live the dream without leaving Dallas, abandoning your family or quitting your day job.

Open rehearsals for The Women’s Chorus of Dallas will take place Mondays, Feb. 14 and Feb 21 at 7 p.m. During the rehearsals/audition you can meet the 50 or so existing choir members and learn more about what they do, such as singing classical and popular music for large audiences — this year they have performances planned at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center plus a special concert at the Texas Discovery Gardens. Many of the upcoming season’s shows benefit charities including National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, Resource Center of Dallas, Hope’s Door domestic violence shelter, and many others.

You don’t need prior experience or the ability to read music in order to make the cut, but you do need to be willing to attend all practices, held Mondays during the regular season from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. at the Sammons Center for the Arts, 3630 Harry Hines.

To sign up for one of the open rehearsals, contact the TWCD office at 214.520.7828 twcdoffice@twcd.org.

A roundup of this month’s best neighborhood events.

The historic Texas Theatre has a new manager and they are ending the old year, and starting the new year, with a bang (or at least, a 1930s version).  The theatre is hosting a New Year’s Eve party with 1930′s theme and revelers are encouraged to dress to the nines (maybe a tuxedo-ed Great Gatsby?).  Doors will open at 7:00 – the show will get started sometime around 8:30, with the following:

NEIL HAMBURGER
SINGAPORE SLINGERS
DJ WILD IN THE STREETS
and just added…
The RUBY REVUE doing classic cabaret Burlesque!

Tickets are available on-line at the website shown below.

Aviation Cinemas is now operating the Texas Theatre and this party is only one of many events, including a family-friendly Nutcracker ballet tomorrow evening, over the holiday season at the theatre.  Check out all the events at www.thetexastheatre.com.  Hopefully, this new operator will succeed in bringing life back to the Texas Theatre.

This week’s Music Monday features Trey Johnson, the subject of an Advocate Q&A last year. Johnson’s new album “Where the East Ends” contains an eclectic musical mix featuring band members James Driscoll, Rich Martin and Don Cento, plus appearances from a number of their contemporaries. Two faves,  “Salt of the Earth and “Rain”, are on the podcast; you can hear the rest if the album here.

Celebrated chef Dean Fearing is known for his culinary art, but he’s got a little side project — it’s The Barbwires, known for their country-rock stylings. The Barbwires’ latest album is Bliss and Blisters, which has been called sophisticated … with echoes of Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles, and the Grateful Dead.

LISTEN HERE: 9.7 Music Monday

It’s Monday and that means local music on Advocate Radio. Today we have some good stuff:

I have a song off the new record from Jackopierce, whose Cary Pierce is the subject of the Advocate’s “Conversation Piece” in the East Dallas and Lake Highlands September editions. Pierce will be teaching choir this semester at St. John’s Episcopal.

During our interview, Pierce introduced us to a couple of students he met while teaching a songwriting class at Booker T. Washington High School. He’s producing an album for one of them, Tiger Darrow. You can listen to her single, “Only a Year”, on today’s podcast, and another former student Joshua Golberg’s first release, “Fly”.

Finally, I’ve got an cool country ditty from Chris Knight, not a local, but he’s playing at the Granada Aug. 28, so have a listen, and if you like, getcha tickets here.

If you have a song for Music Monday at the Advocate, send the track to chughes@advocatemag.com.

8.22 Music Monday

LISTEN HERE: 8.22 Music Monday

This week’s local music podcast features:

The BAcksliders with “Damaged Goods”, Charming Gardeners with “Mission to Mars”, Morning Elephant‘s “Stubborn One” and Electro Magnetics with “I know Better”. This week’s music is all based on the recommendations of The Advocate‘s Facebook fan — thanks for your input!

LISTEN HERE: Music Monday 7.26

Every few weeks, we ask a Question of the Month on our Facebook Page. The best answers get published in the magazine’s “On Advocatemag.com …” section.

This month we asked: Who are your favorite local bands/musicians? And there were no shortage of answers.

Below, a sneak peek of the responses (and some we didn’t have room to publish), along with links so you can listen to some of Dallas’ best  grooves. And, by all means, if you’ve got a suggestion or two of your own, leave it below in the comments.

Rock on!

The Happy Bullets

The Lupners

The Backsliders

Chris Holt

RTB2

Electro-Magnetics (or this link)

Charming Gardeners

Oliver’s Army (an Elvis Costello tribute band)

Morning Elephant

Monte Montgomery

Lovie

Camille Cortinas

Cas Haley

Telegraph Canyon (or this link)

Slobberbone (or this link)

The King Bucks (or this link)

Polyphonic Spree (or this link)

Binary Sunrise

Nervous Curtains

Slider Pines (or this link)

Salim Nourallah (or this link)

Macon Greyson (or this link)

The Big Guns (or this link)

Deep Snapper (or this link)

Mount Righteous (or this link)

The Happy Bullets, whose band members include Oak Cliff neighbors Jason and Andrea Roberts, had an album-release party at Good Records on Greenville Avenue Thursday for their new record, "Hydropanic at the Natatorium". All these years, I never knew their producer, Lindsay Graham, is my neighbor. Graham, just like Dallas musician Salim Nourallah, owns a "backyard guest house turned into a recording studio".

It certainly is a guilty pleasure watching grown up man in suits go bonkers and dance around like five year olds. This is exactly what Council members Dwaine Caraway, Jerry Allen and Tennell Atkins did while hosting a drum line face-off in front of City Hall. Bands from Lake Highlands, Skyline, Adamson and Townview put on quite a show to bring attention to the March for Respect, a walk through the West End on March 27 to show support for Texans with developmental disabilities.